Chapter 19 Chapter 5 Rabe and his "Nanjing Safety Zone"

Knowing Mr. Rabe, we can go backward in time— In 1945, when the Soviet Red Army occupied the home of fascism - Hitler's seat in Berlin, Germany, it imposed the most severe punishment and purge on all German Nazis.Someone reported to the Soviet Red Army: John Rabe was also a Nazi.So Mr. Rabe, who was still working as an ordinary clerk at Siemens Berlin at this time, was arrested by the Red Army. Interrogation is rigorous.The purpose of the trial was to liquidate all the crimes and remnants of the Nazis represented by Hitler, but Rabe had a better fate than any Nazi—he was acquitted. The reason given by the Soviet Red Army is: you are a German citizen who made special contributions to the anti-fascist struggle, and you protected tens of thousands of civilians in Nanjing, China under the brutal Japanese fascist rule.

Rabe thus regained a job opportunity that was rarely available to the average German. In 1945, Berlin under the occupation of the Soviet Red Army and the Allied Forces was in ruins, and there was hardly a decent house to be seen.As an enterprise that manufactured war tools for the Nazis, Siemens was no exception to be the target of cleansing and revenge by the Red Army and Allied soldiers.However, in order to give the same suffering German people a chance and possibility of survival, the Red Army and the Allied Forces still retained this "hundred-year-old shop".In this way, some workers and citizens who did not participate in the Nazi war were left in their jobs. Rabe may be the only German who had a "Nazi" status but regained his job. Siemens retained his job with great enthusiasm .

Siemens is located in the northwestern district of Berlin, which was taken over by the British military government at the time.Germany’s reconstruction work was extremely heavy, and Germans who could be reused were not very easy to find for the Soviet Red Army and the Allied Forces. People like Rabe became one of the few Germans that the British were more assured of. Hired as lead translator.But because of a particularly difficult problem encountered in the process of rebuilding Germany, that is, who is the most dangerous person, great confusion has also arisen in Germany, because post-war Germans have completely abandoned any desires related to war. Therefore, both Nazis and Hitlerites must be cleaned and punished. All government departments and important enterprises must not have people with Nazi ideology and backgrounds to work, let alone important jobs.So there were differences of opinion, and Rabe was finally fired by the British.

Out of respect and care for Rabe, he received early retirement from the company, but he can still do some odd jobs for Siemens.According to people who are familiar with Rabe, Rabe’s life after returning to Germany was very difficult. The six members of his family had no income, just like the 200,000 refugees he was in charge of in Nanjing. Forced.For this reason, the Chinese side tried to help this "living Bodhisattva", but the distant water cannot save the near fire, and Rabe's mood and life in his later years were extremely bad. Under multiple pressures such as bad mood and difficult life, Rabe suddenly suffered a stroke one day, and finally died.Even so, Rabe passed away in a dignified manner. Compared with the fate of other Germans before and after the war, he was not bad, and finally closed his eyes with dignity-Germans are very particular about this.

Rabe returned to Berlin, the headquarters of Siemens, in April 1938.For more than ten years, he has been living in Berlin, but life is not easy.There are two reasons: one is that he was repeatedly persecuted by the Hitler government for exposing the atrocities committed by Japanese fascists in Nanjing; The double suffering of hardship and psychological depression. Rabe is a German with duality in belief and behavior.He did not betray his country, or even his national idealism. He also maintained his independence as a German to the country under the leadership of the Nazi Party. The double squeeze inside and the depressing mood caused him to lose the last support on his body-he died of a stroke.

On February 23, 1938, Siemens, headquartered in Berlin, was under heavy pressure from the Nazi government, and Rabe was forced to leave Nanjing. Rabe had experienced the whole process of the Nanjing Massacre in the past three months.These three months or so were the most outstanding, greatest, and most shining experience in his life. He has also become a good friend and international peace-loving person that the Chinese people will always miss. In the days of Nanjing, Rabe was a saint, and we Chinese people called him "Living Bodhisattva".But Rabe was, after all, a German.German character does not allow him to completely betray his nation and beliefs.As a human being, Rabe's kindness, justice and love made him a great figure in a foreign country where tens of thousands of people went to pay pilgrimage to his memorial statue (in front of the house on the campus of Nanjing University where Rabe lived). As a German, he has the psychological and belief defects brought about by the German society, political culture and nation at that time-but it cannot be simply regarded as a problem of his personal political quality and personality, but this is precisely the problem. It is the main factor leading to his tragic fate in his later years.

Rabe is indeed a "Nazi" party member, but history has told us: not all "Nazi" party members must be bad people. He did not understand the essence of the policies he implemented. As an overseas employee of Siemens, he adhered to the belief of "serving the country" with the rigorous and somewhat rigid national consciousness of the Germans. Bei joined the National Socialist Party (which later evolved into the Nazi Party) in Nanjing in 1934 without knowing domestic politics or who Hitler really was. This year, Rabe, who has been working in China for more than 20 years, responded to and cooperated with the policy of establishing a good relationship between the German government and the Chinese government (in fact, the relationship between Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government and the German government at that time has always been unusual, as mentioned above As mentioned, even before and after the Nanjing Massacre, the military advisers around Chiang Kai-shek were basically German soldiers, and the heavy weapons and sophisticated weapons of the Chinese army that fought against the Japanese army were basically sold to China by the Germans). The head of the Chinese capital, he founded a German school in Nanjing, which is mainly a place for the children of Germans in Nanjing and other parts of China to study.As the chairman of the German school in China, Rabe must obtain the approval of the domestic authorities and the ruling party—Hitler’s National Socialist Party—to run a school overseas, so that it is possible to apply for teaching funding from the government.

Rabe joined the Nazi Party under such circumstances. The full name of the "National Socialist Party" is the National Socialist Workers Party. For Rabe, who has worked overseas for a long time and has little understanding of the domestic situation, it is a working-class political party, and Rabe has also seen many deeds. Hitler's speech by the leader of the party, such an upright German completely believed in his subjective judgment: the National Socialist Party represented the interests of the working class, and the leader Hitler was a "good guy."Rabe's membership in the party and his belief in the Nazi party were like this, simple and direct.Ms. Chrysler, a French historian, in her research on "Nazism in China", confirmed that people like Rabe did not join the Nazi organization when they were far away from their homeland because of their true belief and admiration for Hitler.According to Ms. Kreisler's investigation, in China at that time, almost every school council run by Germans had a member of the National Socialist Party exercising leadership on behalf of the German National Socialist Party.The expert therefore believes: "It is difficult for a German diplomat, journalist or representative of a state enterprise abroad not to join the National Socialist Workers Party."

It should be admitted that Mr. Rabe attaches great importance to his status as a member of the National Socialist Workers Party, and has a conscious awareness of how to maintain the image of the "party".As he wrote in his diary on September 21, 1937: "In my subconscious mind, there is one most important, not important, but natural reason for me, so I insist on staying here. I am a member of the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany, and I have a position, and even served as the deputy head of a regional group for a short time." From these words, it can be seen that Rabe values ​​his membership as a party member, and he also has his inner existence A kind of self-consciousness that must safeguard the "party's honor".

The sad thing is that although Rabe is a member of the "Nazi", he actually doesn't know his own party, let alone Hitler's true face. Rabe spent 30 years in China in his life, during which he returned to China twice, but the time was very short.In fact, it is not clear at all about the domestic situation and what the National Socialist Workers Party and Hitler were like. From the beginning of Rabe's joining the "Nazi" party to the last moment of his life, he showed his understanding and naive belief in this party that he didn't really understand.Rabe, who was far away in the east, only obtained his understanding of the internal affairs of his own country and the party he joined by relying on sporadic articles and news in English newspapers and periodicals transferred from Shanghai to Nanjing.Most of the contents of these articles and news were things that Hitler deceived the German people when he came to power. Of course, such things also deceived overseas Germans like Rabe.From the bottom of his heart, Rabe had a particularly naive attitude towards the party he joined and Hitler, which can be seen from his diary——

This is the verse written in.Like all Germans, Rabe was full of revolutionary passion, and he had a lofty sense of sanctity for being a member of the "advanced element" of the working class - a member of the National Socialist Workers Party.It was also this "sublime sense of sanctity" that made him fail to realize the essence of the Nazis after all.Therefore, after exposing the atrocities committed by the Japanese aggressors in China, Rabe himself could not figure out what was going on. First, before returning to China, Rabe held his first press conference in Shanghai.At this reception, Rabe publicized the atrocities committed by the Japanese army after the occupation of Nanjing for the first time in public, in the form of what he saw and heard.This played an irreplaceable role in letting the world know the true colors of the Japanese invaders at that time. Rabe always believed that this was the contribution he had to make as a "conscientious and responsible" member of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany.In fact, Rabe’s trip to Shanghai to expose the atrocities committed by the Japanese invaders was also appreciated by the then German ambassador to China.Rabe was not complacent about other people's praise. From his diary, it can be seen that he is a very simple, honest, humble and pure German: Now, sitting comfortably and warmly (like a worm between tree and bark) in Shanghai, I feel a lot like "the braggart after the victorious troops entered Berlin".Everyone believed me to be a hero, which was embarrassing.Because I don't see anything heroic in me or in me.There is a beautiful poem that comes to my mind over and over again whenever someone sings the hymn.This poem is about a boy from Hamburg who saves the life of a drowning companion.In the evening, the father of the rescued man went to visit him (he was already lying on the bed) and thanked him for saving his son's life. He said, "Saved life? Well, it's nothing!" Unhappily turned over and went to sleep again. His friends almost unanimously believed that Rabe was a "plain man, as long as he could be a decent hamburger businessman, he was content." "His helpfulness, humility, sense and good humor. The latter, especially in difficult times, he always found a way to bring himself to come to terms with others. He was never condescending, but easygoing." Of course, Rabe, like other Germans, "although humble, sometimes shows a little vanity, such as wearing a tuxedo, wearing various medals on his chest, and posing in front of the camera of a famous Berlin photographer" .The person who commented on Rabe in this way was Rabe's German friend Erwin Wickert. "Simple and honest, benevolent towards others, rigorous and enthusiastic in work, full of strong sympathy", Rabe, as a typical German, was unanimously appreciated and trusted by his friends.Victor said: "Rabe has lived in China for nearly 30 years, and his hometown is not so much Germany as China. He belongs to the legendary old China hand, who speaks pure English, but does not speak English. Speak Chinese, but use pidgin English when dealing with Chinese people.” Yang pidgin is a place name in Shanghai, where there are foreign concessions in China.Rabe "thinks with the Chinese way of thinking, understands the Chinese, and appreciates and loves the Chinese."This also provided important spiritual support for Rabe to stand up and protect Chinese citizens when the Japanese army brutally treated them. In fact, Rabe, a German who has been abroad for a long time, doesn’t know much about his country at all, and the little impression he had was purely some kind of illusory idealism in his heart.Based on this, at the beginning of 1938, Rabe, who had just experienced the rare atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanjing, wished to let the world know about the crimes committed by Japanese fascists.And this also doomed him to completely break with Hitler's Germany, which is also fascist, from gradually losing admiration and fantasies. Rabe naively thought that his good deeds and righteous deeds in Nanjing, China would allow him to receive the same treatment in Germany.He must be wrong. Not so at first, though.Because Germany and Hitler in 1938 still maintained many illusions, and the relationship with China was still in a state of "semi-passionate love".Readers should also be aware of a point in time: German fascism was still relatively hidden at this time, and it became the axis of fascism with Japan and Italy in 1940, more than two years later.Hitler at this stage not only deceived simple and simple Germans like Rabe, but also experienced politicians such as Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill. Therefore, it is not objective and unfair to conclude that Rabe has a "Nazi" blood in his bones from the fact that he has a sense of trust in Hitler. On April 15, 1938, after nearly a month of sea journey, Rabe and his wife returned to the capital of their country - Berlin. There is no doubt that Rabe at this time is already a hero recognized by the whole world except Japan. The propaganda in the newspapers and the several reports he held in Shanghai and Hong Kong to publicly expose the bloody atrocities committed by the Japanese army in Nanjing will be shocking. The international community, and his righteous deeds in Nanjing have also been widely praised by peace-loving people all over the world. When he left China, the Chinese government awarded him a jade medal with a blue, white and red ribbon.He was also awarded the Order of Merit of the Red Cross by the German Foreign Office. After returning to Germany, Rabe was busy making reports everywhere, introducing and exposing the truth of what happened in his "Nanjing Safety Zone" during the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese army.These reports have aroused great repercussions from the German government and the public, and even the German military is very interested. On May 25, Rabe was invited to give a report to the Ministry of Defense, and the response was still very good.The German soldiers were most interested in the film brought back by Rabe, which was taken by his friend Mr. John Magee, which showed Japanese soldiers committing violence in Nanjing. Rabe later understood that the soldiers of his country had secretly regarded the Japanese fascist army as their own. "role model". Soon, Rabe received a message from the head of the "Nazi" party's regional party department: You can no longer make reports everywhere. "Why?" Rabe was puzzled. "Your content affects our relationship with Japan." He was told like this. Rabe fell silent and began to suffer. "You should let the Führer know about your experience and these precious video materials. This is also your responsibility." Someone suggested to Rabe at this time. "Indeed, I should have done this." Rabe felt that it was his mission to report to the "head of state" the truth of what was happening in China when he returned to Germany at this time.In the following time, after making full preparations, he sent the manuscript of his usual report to Hitler on June 8, 1938, and attached a letter: However, things backfired.Just as Rabe was looking forward to the good news from the "Führer", one day some Gestapo officers came to his home and told him, "You are under arrest!" Two Gestapo officers searched his home and took away six of Rabe's diaries and John Magee's film material. At the police station, Rabe was questioned for hours. "Am I guilty?" Rabe was very angry. "From now on, you must keep silent, you are not allowed to make reports, you are not allowed to publish books, and if you do not violate the discipline and responsibilities of party members, we will release you immediately. Can you guarantee it, sir?" The Gestapo asked, looking into his eyes. Rabe was silent for a moment, then nodded. In this way, he was released and returned home. Four months later, the diary he had seized was returned to him, and the film materials that Magee gave to Rabe were permanently detained (this set of extremely precious film materials about the Nanjing Massacre was discovered after the war and became a proof One of the strong evidences of Japanese military crimes).From then on, until the liberation of Berlin, he lived an unfree life under the surveillance of his own "Nazi" party. The Chinese people far away in Nanjing and the friends of the Nanjing Safety Zone International Committee expected him to return to Jinling City. Hope was completely dashed. Until his death, Rabe never left his unfamiliar motherland.