John Rabe

About the Author

John Rabe (1882–1950) was a German businessman and Nazi Party member who served as the head of the Siemens presence in Nanking during the 1937 Japanese invasion of China. A key figure in the establishment of the Nanking Safety Zone, he and other Western expatriates provided shelter and aid to hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians amidst the brutal atrocities that claimed over 200,000 lives. His firsthand diaries, meticulously documenting the horrors he witnessed, offer an invaluable historical record of one of the darkest chapters of World War II. After the war, Rabe faced denazification proceedings in Germany but was exonerated, later receiving recognition from the Chinese government for his humanitarian efforts. His writings remain a poignant testament to ordinary individuals' capacity for extraordinary courage in the face of inhumanity.