On This Day in History: November 22

John Rabe, the "good" Nazi

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Punch Nazis. Punch all the fucking Nazis until your fucking hand breaks, then kick them. Except not this guy. His name was John Rabe, and when Japan was committing genocide against China in World War II, he helped save a quarter million people.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: November 22, 1937--

John Rabe was a fucking Nazi; he was the leader of the Nazi Party in Nanjing and remained a staunch supporter of Nazism through the war and we’re not forgiving that, because fuck Nazis. But he didn’t spend much time in Germany before the war. Born in Hamburg in 1882, by the time he was in his early 20s he was on his way to Africa and then China, arriving in Shanghai in 1908. He began working for the Chinese branch of Siemens, a Munich-based industrial manufacturing company, in 1911. Twenty years later he was transferred to Nanjing, a city with a significant presence of westerners.

In 1937, when Japan invaded China, all but 22 westerners fled the city. Rabe was one of those who remained. On November 22, 1937, with Japan on the verge of unleashing unspeakable horrors on the city, Rabe worked with other foreign nationals to create the Nanjing Safety Zone Committee to protect refugees from being tortured, raped, and murdered by the advancing Japanese.

The fucked-up thing is, being a goddamn Nazi contributed to Rabe being an effective leader. He was elected to lead the committee because Germany had a pact with the Japanese to fight communism, which basically made them allies. He created a noncombat zone in Nanjing, bordered with white flags and red cross symbols, that was only two-and-a-half square miles, cramming 250,000 people into it as the fight for the city raged outside the zone. Rabe was motivated because the country had been his home for decades; his children and grandchildren were born there, and he loved the people.

At great risk to his own life, Rabe frequently left the safety zone in his car to patrol the city in an effort to save others, often using his authority as a high-ranking Nazi to stop the raping of Chinese civilians. He said his only defense against armed Japanese soldiers was his swastika armband. The soldiers respected and even feared the Nazi symbol. Other westerners who helped create the safety zone were vehemently opposed to Nazism, yet they revered John Rabe, referring to him as a “splendid man” with a “tremendous heart.” Approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians were murdered during the Nanjing Massacre, but Rabe helped save almost as many. Afterward, Rabe returned to Berlin and tried to let Hitler know of the atrocities, but was told by the Gestapo to shut the fuck up.

After the war Rabe struggled to find work due to his past as a fucking Nazi. He and his family lived in poverty on the edge of starvation. When the citizens of Nanjing learned of his plight, they raised funds to support the family, with the mayor of Nanjing traveling to Berlin himself to deliver a massive care package.

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