Thomas Rabe:Four generations of friendship

He Yan

L ondon plane trees extended their branches like arms to embrace a delicate building with red tiles and sloping roofs. In front stands a bronze bust figure gazing into the distance with a dignified expression. On the marble pedestal is inscribed a German name： John H.D. Rabe.

The address is 1 Xiaofenqiao Alley， Guangzhou Road， Gulou District， Nanjing， Jiangsu province， site of the John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall. On the morning of May 1， 2009， Thomas Rabe， together with his wife Elisabeta， visited this place， a place where his grandfather， John Rabe， had once lived. Dressed in black suit and a yellow tie， the younger man gazed at his grandfather’s statue affectionately. It was his third visit to Nanjing.

Reminiscence about the past

Thomas brought with him the original volume of the collected diaries of his grandfather. He pointed out some details： “This is the list of the 602 refugees with the fingerprint of each of them on it. This list was a part of a letter saying thank you to the owner of Siemens company Mr. Geheimrat Carl Friedrich von Siemens in Berlin， sended January 6th， 1938.”

He turned pages of the diary slowly and explained： “I brought two volumes of my grandfather’s diaries from the John Rabe Center of Communication in Heidelberg， Germany， to present them before his statue. I believe this will fulfill his wish.”

John Rabe was born in Hamburg， Germany， on Nov 23， 1882. His father， who was a captain， died early， when Rabe was still a child. Rabe worked as an apprentice and then as an assistant at trading companies after graduation from middle school and worked for a British company in Africa later.

In 1908， Rabe came to China and married his girlfriend， Dora， the next year in Shanghai. They lived in China for 30 years with their daughter， Margret， their son， Otto， and their granddaughter Ursula. At first， he worked in Beijing for a German company. In 1911， he changed to work at the office of Siemens in Beijing. From 1931， he served as Siemens business representative in its office in Nanjing responsible for the business of Siemens in all China. The headquarter of Siemens for Asia was based in Shanghai.

In 1937， Japan launched an allout war of aggression against China. At the end of November that year， just before the Japanese army broke through the defense line of Nanjing， Rabe and more than 20 other foreigners who had stayed in the city established the Nanjing Safety Zone. He served as chairman of the International Committee of the Nanjing Safety Zone. During the Nanjing Massacre committed by the Japanese army， they saved nearly 250，000 Chinese lives in the safety zone， which covered 3.86 square kilometers.

On Dec 12， 1937， the day Nanjing fell， Rabe wrote that night in his diary that “huge fire lit the entire sky. Some people pounded at the two doors at the courtyard gate. Women and children pleaded with us to let them in. I couldn’t ignore their imploring voice so that I opened the doors to let them all in.” In this way， he sheltered more than 600 refugees in his own yard. Another 650 refugees found shelter in the John Rabe house， garden and the German school behind （name：“Siemens center” for refugees）.

Rabe recorded atrocities committed by the Japanese invaders in his diary day by day until he was ordered to return to Germany in 1938. In December 1996， his granddaughter Ursula Reinhardt made The Diaries of John Rabe public in New York， causing a sensation immediately. The diaries were recognized as important historic materials， the most voluminous and complete and having the most research value among all the testimonial materials provided by Chinese and foreign witnesses to the Nanjing Massacre.

Thomas brought two volumes of the diaries which recorded the details of the massacre. In his diary on Jan 29， 1937， Rabe wrote that John Magee found two girls， one age 4 and the other 8， whose 11 family members had been slaughtered. They stayed beside their mother’s body in a room for 14 days until they were rescued by their neighbors. The older sister kept herself and her little sister alive with a small amount of rice they found in the house.

The 8-year-old， Xia Shuqin， is now aged over 80. Thomas held her hand with excitement in front of his grandfather’s statue and said “I’m so glad to see you in good condition！ My grandfather would be very pleased to see you so well now！”

Xia sank into memory：

“Mr. Rabe liked me very much，”she said. “Before he returned to Germany in 1938， he came to see me and my uncle on a rainy and snowy day. He cuddled me closely with his overcoat around me， ignoring the lice on my head. He said that he would like to bring me back to Germany with him. My uncle didn’t agree because my sister had already been sent to an orphanage， leaving me the only family member by his side. All the others had been killed in the massacre.

“It has been so hard for me to live until now. However， the Japanese have tried to deny the facts.”

Xia wiped away her tears with trembling hands. The three scars left by a Japanese bayonet could still be seen on her body. On Feb 5， 2009， she won the case in the final judgment in Japan after nine years of litigation in which she charged the Japanese right wing with infringement of right of reparation. She planned to go to Japan herself to receive her compensation. Thomas was gratified to hear that and said， “That is what the Japanese ought to do. The Germans made reparations to Jewish people years ago.”

Li Jun， 85， and his wife Ding Zhenglan， 80， held Thomas’s hands tightly on meeting him， and kept saying thanks. Li pointed at the lawn beside the residence and said， “I was only 13 years old back then. Together with my family， we hid here and lived in shacks temporarily set up with reed mats in the yard of Mr. Rabe. Right here！”

Li still remembered the kindhearted German gentleman. “He was a kind-looking tall man， bald and wearing glasses. He was always here and there in the yard. Sometimes， he came to comfort the refugees and told us not to be afraid because he would try his best to protect us.”

In Li’s memory， no refugee in the yard was injured by the Japanese army during the month he lived there. Even when they almost ran out of food， each got some watery porridge once a day. So every time Rabe appeared， the refugees knelt on the ground with heartfelt gratitude and called Rabe“a living Bodhisattva”. In his diaries， Rabe wrote that he was saddened to see these Chinese people kneeling in the dirt and worshiping him as if he were a god.

On Jan 31， 1938， more than 600 refugees surrounded Rabe and presented him with a Chinese New Year’s greeting card with words written in red ink on a white package， and his Chinese name： “We wish Mr. Rabe a prosperous New Year！” Rabe recounted in his diary： “When I walked out from the sparks of the firecrackers， all the servants and staff lined up in a grand formation and kowtowed to me which is a common etiquette during the New Year celebration.” The greeting card is now exhibited in the John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall.

“I am a doctor， not a historian，”Thomas said. “In the name of my family， I will submit these historic materials to historians both in China and Japan for research. Understanding and recognizing historical facts is the precondition for forgiveness and also the basis for future peace.” He left a note in the hall’s memorial book. It said： “Saving a life is equally important as saving the whole world.”

Deeper understanding about grandpa

Born on Jan 18， 1951， Thomas is now a medical professor emeritus at Heidelberg University working previously at the University Women`s hospital and past President of the German Society of Gynecological Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine.

“It’s a pity that my grandpa passed away the year before my birth. I knew him from my father， who often told us about his youth and my grandpa’s experience，” Thomas said.

Thomas’s father， Otto Rabe， was born in Beijing in 1917 and returned to Germany at age 14 to continue his schooling. Thereafter he studied medicine at the University of Munich and Heidelberg University. As a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology， he choose to work as a general practitioner in Gaggenau and Ottenau， two small country towns in the South of Germany in the black forest.

In the preface to the book John Rabe， Thomas wrote： “In our childhood， my father shared with us his thrilling experience in China. When he talked about the sandstorms in Gobi， the termites in the coastal huts near Peitaho or how the local people hunted snakes， we were fascinated. As to the good deeds done by my grandpa， I didn’t know them until I graduated from high school. I inquired many times about the contents of the diaries， which were kept in wooden boxes in the storeroom of Gaggenau， where my father lived and worked as a general practitioner.

“Our parents didn’t want the children to see the outrageous photos of the war. … It was not until I went to college to major in medicine that I opened the diaries written by my grandpa in Nanjing. I began by reading excerpts of the diaries and was seized by terror about the world of fights and death and the possibility of another war.

“My grandpa chose to stay in Nanjing when the Japanese attacked the city. He spared no effort to help his Chinese friends. I believe he experienced strong emotional shock and a sense of fear.”

On Aug 13， 1937， the battle of Shanghai broke out. Later on Japanese planes launched airstrikes on Nanjing now and then. At that time， Mr and Mrs Rabe were on vacation in Peitaho— bathing beaches in northern China. When Rabe came back to Nanjing in September， the war had become whitehot and the invasion of the Japanese had escalated to all-out bombings.

“Should I escape from here？”Rabe wrote in diary， “Can I and should I escape now？ I don’t think so！ I believe anyone who has the experience of holding one quivering child in each hand and squats in a bomb shelter during airstrikes for several hours would share the same feelings with me.”

Thomas commented： “My grandfather is a typical businessman from Hamburg who is decent， confident， plain and modest. As a Christian， he believed in good human nature. His sense of humor can be found between the lines of his diaries even when in desperate conditions.”

On Oct 17， 1937， Rabe wrote in his diary：

“If the sky falls down， there is no doubt that all sparrows are doomed to die； if a bomb happens to fall on a crow （the word “rabe” means “crow”in German）， there will only be a dead crow who will not caw anymore. Even then， I believe nothing will stop the Yangtze River from flowing as freely as usual.

“So I pray in the morning and evening like this： Dear God， please protect my family and my humor and leave the trivial concerns to my own care.”

This kind of courage against all odds touched Thomas very much.

On the night of Dec 12 1937， aheinous massacre began after Nanjing fell. About 300，000 Chinese were slaughtered within 50 days， which means five people killed every minute. Even the refugees hiding in the International Safety Zone were not immune from the slaughter. In Rabe’s diaries， he recorded in detail over 400 atrocities by the Japanese army he saw or heard about from Sept 7， 1937， to Feb 26， 1938. He kept more than 60 documents of protest and negotiation， and over 100 photos of Japanese atrocities.

“For those several months in a row， my grandpa slept little and was tortured by diabetes every day. He almost ran out of insulin，” Thomas said. He added that despite this， his grandpa was still engaged in rescuing Chinese refugees.

To stop further atrocities by the Japanese army， Rabe and other international friends shuttled from one massacre site to another to record the details for use in reports to the American， British and German embassies in China and to protest and negotiate with the Japanese.

The Japanese embassy in China once forced Rabe to leave China for Germany. Rabe said， “If I lived in Japan for 30 years and got well treated by its people， there would be no doubt I would never leave the Japanese people if they were in a situation as dangerous as this in China.”

In 1938， Rabe was awarded the Blue Order of Collar of Brilliant Jade by the government of the Republic of China.

Rabe once said， “History can be forgiven but not forgotten.” On Jan 5， 1950， Rabe died of a stroke. He left 10 books about the Nanjing Massacre which comprises 2，460 pages among his papers and other books. According to the wish of John Rabe the diaries and all other books and historical documents were inherited by John Rabe’s son， Otto and later to Thomas Rabe.

Thomas noted： “In 1995， Chinese American writer Iris Chang searched for as many materials as possible for her book The Rape of Nanking. During the process， she found relevant documents at Yale University about my grandpa’s deeds. However， these materials were not very detailed. Therefore， she inquired through every possible channel and connected with Ursula Reinhardt [granddaughter of John Rabe]， and learned from her about the wartime diaries.”

Urged by Iris Chang， Ursula Reinhardt visited America at the invitation of Shao Tzuping， president of the Alliance in Memory of Victims of the Nanjing Massacre in New York and made The Diaries of John Rabe public in New York on Dec 12， 1996.

Twenty years later， on April 6， 2016， Thomas donated the original of The Diaries of Rabe to the National Archives Administration of China. In December 2017， a photocopy edition of the book was published. Thomas said that his grandpa’s books consisted of 24 volumes， with three of them lost during the war. Ten of the 21 remaining volumes recorded the Nanjing Massacre. History is objective. We need to face it squarely and understand. The historical facts cannot be altered by anyone.

Engagement in humanitarianism

Thomas had always expected to visit China with his father. However， the plan was not fulfilled until the summer of 2001 because of financial problems at first and then the health condition of his father. In 2001， Thomas finally made it to China with his mother， Else， after his father’s death.

“We specially visited Nanjing and contacted the person in charge of managing the former residence. When we heard that the residence might be demolished， we went to the CEO of Siemens to discuss whether we could keep it from demolition. Also， I wrote open letters to several organizations to express my wish to keep and renovate the residence. We are honored to have Nanjing University， the German consulate in Shanghai and Siemens and Bosch-Siemens Haushaltsger？te carry out the repair work.”

In 2003， the President of Germany， Johannes Rau， visited Nanjing and asked Siemens to financially support the restoration of Rabe’s former residence. On Oct 31， 2006， at the opening ceremony of the John Rabe and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall， Thomas Rabe laid flowers at his grandpa’s statue and said： “This residence will serve as a bridge of German-Chinese friendship to help people understand and remember historical facts and avoid conflict.”

Thomas and his family now live in Heidelberg， Germany， a historic city located in the mountainous Odenwald region near the Necker River. Thomas bought his neighbor’s courtyard —more than 1，000 square meters， and developed it as the John Rabe Center of Communication. On August 13， 2005， the opening ceremony of the center was hosted by H.E. Erwin Wickert， former German ambassador to China.

“My grandpa set me a good example with his humanitarian contributions，” Thomas wrote. “Under his influence， my family has been devoted to facilitating mutual understanding among people all over the world. I established an apartment for international students with a small museum inside. In the yard， there is my grandpa’s statue. All of these are parts of the first John Rabe Center of Communication. After that， we established John Rabe Centers of Communication in four other countries， including Germany， China （one in Nanjing and another in Beijing）， Romania （two centers） and Spain.

On April 2， 2009， the film John Rabe， co-produced by China and Germany， was publicly released in Germany and won four categories of Lola Awards. Later， on April 28， its debut on Asian screens was made at Beijing New Century Cinema. During the news conference that afternoon， Thomas showed the originals of Rabe’s diaries and awarded the Japanese actor of the film， Kagawa Teruyuki， the first John Rabe Award. He applauded Teruyuki for his courage as a Japanese actor to play the role in the film and shoulder the responsibility to reflect on history. On April 30 2009， at the film’s debut in Nanjing， Thomas proposed that Nanjing and Hiroshima could become friendship cities with each other. He expressed his belief that mutual understanding and friendship is the key to peaceful coexistence and cooperation.

Five years later， in August 2014， Thomas visited the Nanjing Archives Bureau to check the five volumes of original documents that recorded how Nanjing people funded Rabe and his family after World War II. He recalled： “My grandpa made several reports about the Nanjing Massacre after returning to Berlin in 1938. Also， he wrote a report to Adolf Hitler， but what happened next surprised him immensely.”

Several days after sending this report， he was arrested by the German Gestapo and interrogated for several hours. His diaries， and the film footage shot by John Magee， were also taken away by the Gestapo. He was released two days later， after Carl Friedrich von Siemens vouched for him on condition that he would not make any reports or publish his diaries； he received back his diaries but not the film footage shot by John Magee.

Rabe founded a German school near where he lived in Nanjing in 1934. To obtain funding from the German government， he joined the Nazi Party without any official function – only as a simple member of this party. However， since he stayed in China for a long time， he knew little about the true nature of Nazis. After the end of the war in 1945， the allied forces hunted for all Nazi Party members. Rabe was arrested and interrogated. He was soon mired in protracted deNazification litigation， which cost most of his savings and wore him out. The whole family squeezed themselves into a small house， tortured by hunger and cold. It wasn’t until much later that the court of review of the Nazi-purge tribunal set by the allied forces ruled that Rabe was not a Nazi member .

Thomas said： “Grandpa was seriously ill after the war. He had to sell the antiques and housewares he brought from China in exchange for some potatoes to feed the family. The heavy labor to disassemble and load the equipment of Siemens factories for Russians knocked him out. He finally got some meager income when he was rehired by Siemens at the end of 1947.”

In 1948， when news about Rabe’s plight spread to China， the people of Nanjing raised $2，000 for him， which was a big sum of money at the time. As food was hardly available in Berlin， the money was used to buy food in Switzerland， which was then sent to Berlin； also food parcels were sent from the US by the wife of one American missionary staying with my grandfather in Nanjing. “We are so grateful for those who helped my grandpa out of difficulties，” Thomas said.

Rabe died in 1950 and was buried in Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church Cemetery， which was in a western suburb of Berlin. In 1985， the lease on his tomb expired. The old tombstone of Rabe was transferred to the Memorial Hall of the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders in May 1997 and kept there permanently.

At the request of Thomas， the Nanjing municipal government renewed the lease and renovated the tomb. The renovation was completed in December 2013.

In March 2015， Thomas was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Nanjing. Later， in September that year， he and his wife were invited to China for grand celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese people’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the world’s anti-fascist war. He was awarded a medal in commemoration of this anniversary by President Xi Jinping. In December 2017， on National Memorial Day for Nanjing Massacre Victims， he was received again by President Xi.

Thomas said： “China is a responsible country that values peace and regards peace as the foundation of development. It’s beyond my comprehension that some Japanese denied history despite ample evidence. We Germans got one most precious lesson from the war that we need to live peacefully with people in other countries， reflect on the wrongs committed in the past and make apologies to avoid a new war.

Promoting Sino-German people-topeople friendship

Thomas has been working at the University Women`s Hospital as part of the School of Medicine at Heidelberg University in Germany for almost 40 years until 2015 and has served as the President of the German Society of Gynecological Endocrinology and Reproductive Medicine for around 15 years. During five years of cooperation with the World Health Organization， he was in charge of giving advice and guidance on women’s health.

Thomas said his friend Alfred O. Mueck talked with him many times about cooperation with Professor Ruan Xiangyan’s team at Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital of the Capital Medical University.. Thomas had exchanges with medical hospitals in Nanjing， Wuhan， Shanghai and Beijing during his first visit to China in 2001. He said he had a strong feeling that more advanced international technology was needed in the field of Gynecological Endocrinology in China. With Mueck’s recommendation， he joined Ruan’s team without hesitation and shared abundant medical materials.

Mueck was professor of endocrinology at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and president of the German Menopause Society. He was a friend of Thomas for 30 years. Also， he tutored Ruan when she studied in Germany. Ruan rose to become director of the department of Gynecological Endocrinology at Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital.

At an international conference， Mueck told Ruan about a gynecological endocrinology expert named Thomas Rabe， whose grandfather saved numerous Chinese people during the Nanjing Massacre. Ruan watched the movie John Rabe when she returned to China and was moved to tears.

In September 2013， Ruan invited Thomas via Mueck for an International Symposium on Menopause and Gynecological Endocrinology hosted by Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. She also arranged a seminar for Thomas to tell stories about his family in China， which greatly touched the hundreds of experts present and received warm applause. In 2014， he was appointed visiting professor in “Obstetrics and Gynecology” at Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital. In September 2015， he began his service as vice-president of the Sino-German Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Ruan said： “Professor Rabe， Professor Mueck and I co-edited three books. We also carried out lots of international cooperation projects， including founding the Sino-German Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Under this framework， they helped our hospital establish the first ovarian tissue cryobank in April 2012.

“On Sept 9， 2016， we succeeded in transplantation of cryopreserved ovarian tissue， an unprecedented m o v e i n C h i n a . L a t e r， w e established the International Fertility Protection Center， the first Center of Interdisciplinary Endometriosis in Asia certified by Europe and teaching consultation mechanisms for intractable diseases. With these efforts， China has moved its studies forward in gynecological endocrinology and menopause by 10 to 20 years to reach the international level. Therefore， Thomas Rabe won the Chinese Government Friendship Award in August 2018. As a Chinese doctor， I really appreciate the contributions made by Rabe’s family to my country.”

Thomas has served as a reviewer for many international academic journals. The number of books he compiled exceeds 40， some with translations in 10 languages. With his help， Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital has introduced 19 new medical projects from abroad. For future cooperation， he said with confidence， “I plan to cooperate with Beijing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital to establish a database of Chinese and foreign publications on gynecological endocrinology and reproductive medicine （a “Virtual Academy of Women`s Health”）. In addition， we’d like to set up a workshop to evaluate the risks of Western medicine in treating Chinese female patients.”

At the end of September 2019， Thomas visited Beijing by invitation to attend celebrations marking the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On the morning of Sept 2， 2019， the opening ceremony of the Beijing John Rabe Center of Communication was held at Beijing Union University. It was the sixth John Rabe Center of Communication to be established globally.

On Sept 3， an exhibition to recast 30 years of John Rabe’s deeds in China opened at the Museum of the Chinese People’s War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. Later， in a themed lecture， Thomas awarded the fourth John Rabe Award to Professor Liang Yi of Beijing Union University to honor her contributions to establishing the Beijing John Rabe Center of Communication and advancing humanitarianism in China.

Liang said： “In November 2003， when I was a senior visiting scholar at Heidelberg University， I lived in an apartment in Thomas’s house in Heidelberg and paid two visits to the Heidelberg John Rabe Center of Communication. I found the handwritten original by Rabe about his 17 years of living and working in Beijing. I wrote and published articles about it for Historical Archives.

“After five years’ hard work sorting and translating Rabe’s manuscripts， I published in April 2009 five volumes of his writings recording his life and work in Beijing. The book was titled Beijing in My Eyes. After that， I was invited to introduce Rabe’s deeds to the Chinese people every year， especially his relations with Beijing’s history and culture.

Thomas was appointed a visiting professor for “Moderne Chinese History” by the Beijing Union University. On Jan 20， 2021， Thomas Rabe delivered a video speech during an online conference of the academic committee of the Beijing John Rabe Center of Communication.

“I am cooperating with my Chinese friends in preparing a new book of over 650 pages telling stories of my grandpa at different stages. From 2020-2021， Professor Ruan Xiangyan， who was also a member of the academic committee， led over 20 doctors from her hospital to translate Thomas’s book John Rabe from English into Chinese.

The book will be published this year by the publishing company as part of the China Publishing Group to better spread humanitarian spirit of John Rabe.” Thereafter a German， English and Spanish edition will follow.

Thomas said he will never forget the gifts of anti-pandemic materials he received from agencies in Beijing， Nanjing and other places in China after the outbreak of COVID-19. He once contacted H.E. Wu Ken， the Chinese ambassador to Germany， to ask for a medicine produced in China. The staff of the embassy acted immediately and transported large amounts of anti-pandemic materials， including a specific antiviral medicine， to Heidelberg， which satisfied the urgent need of his family and Heidelberg in their fight against the pandemic. Thomas felt again that the Chinese people are always ready to help when their friends are in need.

Thomas noted that the Rabes have had close ties with China for four generations.

“My son Maximillian is now a college student majoring in business economics，” he said. “As the youngest generation of our family， he is trying to learn Chinese. He will carry forward the respected cause of his great-grandfather.”