Germany
has recuperated, cinematographically speaking, another good Nazi, the
2nd one. After Claus Schenk von Stauffenberg, the Swabian military, who
made an attempt against Hitler, in July of 1944, now comes John Rabe,
the Schindler of Nanking. Rabe was an executive of Siemens, with 27
years residence in China, and affiliated to the Nazi party. In 1937, he
saved dozens of thousands of people from the barbaric atrocities during 6
weeks by the Japanese army in the ancient capital of China.
Like von Stauffenberg, Rabe formed part of the same national force trying to salvage anything presentable amongst the ruins of the disastrous modern history of Germany. But, unlike the aristocratic officer portrayed by the American actor Tom Cruise, in Operation Valkiria, that of Rabe is a German film, written, directed and starred by Germans. The director is Florian Galleberger who also wrote the script, and starred by Ulrich Tukur and Daniel Bruhl (Salvador, Good bye, Lennin). Same as the one with Tom Cruise, the film John Rabe with Galleberger serves to let people know about an unsung hero not known to the general public.The film was shown in Germany lreceived German Cinematic Award doted with almost 3 million Euros. and 4 Lola, local equivalent to the Oscar of Hollywood.
John Rabe was born in Hamburg in 1882, and moved to China in 1909. He belonged to that small sector of expatriated westerners to whom China, then a country still viewing foreigners with contempt, had looked upon with respect, despite the ruling colonial racism. Rabe was respectful and attentive to the Chinese and this attitude was reciprocated.
On the eve of the entry by the Japanese into Nanking, the twenty something westerners who had not fled the city decided to improvise an international security zone of 4 square meters, in which had sheltered 200,000 Chinese. Rabe, who decided to stay in the city in solidarity with the local people, won't listen to the directives of Siemens nor the advice of his own embassy, was elected chief leader of this zone. His companions, amongst them Americans, reckoned that his condition of being German and member of the Nazi party would enforce their project fronting the Japanese.
Japan and Germany were then united by the anti-komintern pact, but in practice, the soldiers entered and killed also in the international zone, whose legality Rabe and his fellow companions defended with danger for their own integrity. As Rabe entered in his diary, the only thing seen in Nanking of that tragic December was ' the barbarity of the Japanese soldiers.' raping even old women and burning live and piercing through baby's bodies with their bayonets.
In his own ingenuity, the good Nazi sent telegrams to Hitler, asking protection for the Chinese of the city. This dogged determination he maintained even after he returned to Germany in 1938, where he tried to divulge the enormity of the salvage happenings. He gave conference in Berlin about the massacre in Nanking, and showed photos, until the Gestapo arrested him for interfering with the external politics. An executive of Siemens managed to get him free and sent him to Afghanistan.
He survived the war, but was arrested again in Berlin, first by the Russians, later by the British, because of his past as member of the Nazi party in Nanking. In 1946 he was declared not involved in perpetrating some of the atrocities he was allegedly accused of. Remembering how the Chinese in Nanking considered him as a kind of 'living Buddha', he wrote in his diary with sarcasm: 'living Buddha in Nanking and an outcast here; this have you vaccinated against all nostalgic of your own native country.'
Sunken in poverty with his family, Rabe received in the 40's packages of food sent by the nationalist Chinese government. He died in 1950, poor and forgotten, in Berlin and in ruins. Half a century later, a plague was erected in Nanking in remembrance of his selfless heroic deeds.
Now the moive.
Current Mood: 
Accomplished
Accomplished
Amused