Rabe's diary was written in Nanjing, but its discovery was overseas, and Rabe's "resurrection" was also overseas. It is precisely because of the rediscovery of this diary that the Nanjing Massacre, a historical event, has returned to the vision of the international community and become an important part of the history of World War II.
Nowadays, Rabe's diary is closely linked with the names of two China people: Zhang Chunru and Shao Ziping. They found that the story of Rabe's diary was well known, but the inside story behind the "discovery" was rarely disclosed. A few days ago, Shao Ziping opened the door of memory and told the reporter of Express. ...
This is how Rabe's Diary was discovered.
Shao Ziping, an American Chinese social activist, worked in the United Nations in new york to commemorate the former president of the Nanjing Massacre Victims' Federation. 1On February 20th, 995, he received a letter from Zhang Chunru, an American Chinese woman writer, saying that she would come to new york to collect historical materials about the Nanjing Massacre, hoping to get his help. "Before that, I had learned from a friend on the west coast that a young girl was interested in doing this research and wanted to write a book on the theme of the Nanjing Massacre. Several colleagues in our Federation are old, and it is certainly a good thing to have new forces to join! I will reply to her immediately and welcome her. " Later, Zhang Chunru stayed at Shao Ziping's home for two or three weeks in new york. Shao Ziping also lent her his car and drove to the library of Yale University Theological Seminary, which takes more than two hours a day to check the information.
Iris Chang
In their daily life, discussing the Nanjing Massacre is an important topic for them, and Zhang Chunru also tells Shao Ziping from time to time about his achievements in collecting historical materials. Since 1980s, Shao Ziping and his colleagues from Nanjing Massacre Victims' Federation began to collect relevant historical materials. Perhaps because he had studied in Germany, Shao Ziping paid special attention to German historical materials. "At that time, I already knew Rabe, chairman of the International Committee of Nanjing Safe Zone, from the historical materials that have been discovered in the United States. He is German. I've been trying to find him and his descendants. For this reason, I also went to Germany specially, but I didn't get anything because I was in a hurry. "
In an exchange, Shao Ziping mentioned Rabe to Zhang Chunru. "I told her that this person is worth studying and you can try to find it." Zhang Chunru is a very serious and rigorous person. She carefully searched the historical materials in the library of Yale Theological Seminary and found records about john rabe, but unfortunately, these records are not comprehensive and systematic. With her own sensitivity, she felt that this was indeed a very key figure, so she tried her best to find Rabe.
"She is persistent and resourceful." Shao Ziping said that Zhang Chunru sent many letters through various channels, and as a result, everything paid off. One of the letters got a response from Germany and finally contacted Ms. Reinhardt, Rabe's granddaughter who lives in Berlin.
"When she told me that she had found Rabe, I was particularly surprised and asked her what information she had found. Zhang Chunru said that Reinhardt sent her some information, but she didn't know German, so it was difficult to judge their value. " Subsequently, Zhang Chunru sent these materials to Shao Ziping who knew German.
In the letter sent, there is a piece of information written by Rabe himself, which tells about his experience of being detained by the Secret Service after returning to China. There is such a sentence in the letter, "Please see my diary for details about this matter ..." "It turns out that he still has a diary!" Shao Ziping was very excited about this discovery. He called Zhang Chunru soon, but Zhang Chunru said that Reinhardt didn't send her this diary. "I will continue to contact her and look for it!"
Since then, one of the important tasks of Zhang Chunru and Shao Ziping is to pursue the diary that Rabe said in his letter.
Shao Ziping used the advantage of knowing German to communicate with Reinhardt by telephone. The other party said that Rabe did leave a diary. "She didn't want to talk about the contents of the diary at first. I finally got her to tell me more, and learned that the whole diary has more than 2000 pages, which is collected in the home of her uncle and Rabe's son in southern Germany. And what was written in the diary, she only replied that she had read a small part and dared not look down any more ... "
"Later, I asked her if I could look at the start date of the diary."
Reinhardt did not refuse this: "From September 1937 to April 1938."
"Isn't this the period of Nanjing Massacre?"
Shao Ziping is more aware of the weight of this diary and has strengthened his confidence in finding it.
However, Rabe's family's concerns about publishing diaries are understandable. "The first concern is Rabe's Nazi identity at that time, although it was excusable at that time; The second reason is that Germany and Japan were allies during World War II and had a moral relationship. The third is that his descendants clearly know the importance of this diary. Once published, it will be a sensational' bomb', and it is difficult for them to accurately predict the consequences. "
Despite all kinds of obstacles, Shao Ziping and Zhang Chunru did not give up. Shao Ziping also "launched" some friends with "identity" in Germany, and personally came to ask Reinhardt to make the diary public from the perspective of history and future. Reinhardt later agreed to send a diary to Shao Ziping to do some research. Shao Ziping, who got the copies, immediately sent them to Harvard University and Columbia University, two scholars who studied the history of the Republic of China and Japan respectively, and asked them to evaluate the value of these diaries. "When these scholars saw these diaries, they were all surprised: they had never seen so many records, and their importance and angle were very special. Encourage us to continue looking for them! "
For this goal, Shao Ziping continued to work hard and did Reinhardt's ideological work through various methods. Gradually, Reinhardt was moved, especially when he heard that some right-wingers in Japan now denied the history of the Nanjing Massacre. She couldn't sit still any longer, and then set off for her uncle's house in the south to persuade him to open his diary.
The world media rushed to report "Rabe"
199665438+February 12, at the Intercontinental Hotel in new york, USA, the Nanjing Massacre Victims Association of new york rented a hall for 600 dollars to hold a press conference for the publication of Rabe Diary, which attracted mainstream media from all over the world to cover it. At the meeting, the diary of Rabe, which has been dusty for more than half a century, caused a sensation, and a news war was also launched among major media. "* * *" made a "condition" with Shao Ziping and the joint meeting early: "This diary must be published exclusively!" After "consultation" between the two sides, The Times agreed that the Federation could hold a press conference the day before the diary was published to let the media and people in more countries know about the diary.
At the press conference that day, Reinhardt published his grandfather's diary in front of the media all over the world-a permanent historical witness. "In order to increase the news of the press conference and the credibility of Rabe's diary, we specially sent Reinhart and her husband from Germany to new york."
At the meeting, Shao Ziping said in introducing the bumpy discovery of Rabe Diary, first of all, I would like to thank Zhang Chunru. Without Zhang Chunru, we wouldn't have found Reinhardt so quickly, and we wouldn't have known that Rabe had a diary handed down from generation to generation. It was also at this press conference that the world media learned for the first time that China woman writer Zhang Chunru was writing a book about the Nanjing Massacre, which attracted the attention of the press before it was published. Because of the discovery of Rabe's diary, Zhang Chunru also delayed the publication of the book-she wanted to write a diary about Rabe and him in the book!
"Nanjing Massacre" returned to the international community.
Rabe's diary provided by Reinhardt consists of eight volumes, from1September 937 to1April 938 when he returned to Berlin. Rabe described in detail his work of protecting refugees in Nanjing International Security Zone, and even as a witness of Japanese invasion of China, he recorded all kinds of atrocities of Japanese dehumanization. In his diary, he recorded more than 500 tragedies in detail. Such a complete and systematic record of the Nanjing Massacre is not found in historical materials at present. As an ally of Japan, there is no doubt that a German citizen keeps a private diary.
When talking about the significance of discovering Rabe's Diary, Shao Ziping added a little emotion: "We have been collecting and publishing historical materials of the Nanjing Massacre before, but unfortunately it has not caused enough response. It is Rabe's diary that makes the historical event of Nanjing Massacre by Japanese invaders, which has been almost forgotten since the end of World War II, re-enter the international stage for the first time. Its discovery and the publication of Zhang Chunru's book "Nanjing Atrocities" made the Nanjing Massacre enter the mainstream western society with unprecedented attention. "
Attachment: Part of Rabe's diary.
John rabe.
65438+February 65438+April: We didn't know the damage until we drove through the city. This car will run over the body every 100 meter. Those are the bodies of civilians. I checked, the bullet was shot from behind, and it is likely that the people were killed from behind when they fled.
12 16: Drive to Xiaguan to survey the power plant. There are bodies everywhere on Zhongshan North Road ... In front of the city gate, there are piles of bodies ... People are killing people everywhere, and some of them were carried out in the military camp in front of the Ministry of National Defense. The machine gun kept ringing.
65438+February 22nd: When cleaning up the safety zone, we found that many civilians were shot dead in the pond. There were 30 bodies in one pond, most of them had their hands tied, and some people had stones hanging around their necks.
65438+February 24th: I went to the basement where the corpse was placed ... An ordinary man's eyes were burnt ... his whole head was burnt ... Japanese soldiers poured gasoline on his head.
65438+February 25th: The Japanese ordered that every refugee must register in person and finish it within 10 days ... 200,000 people! What are we doing? A whole group of strong young men have been dragged out, and their fate is either slavery or death. A large group of young women were dragged out because a large military brothel was to be built.
1 938 65438+1October1:A beautiful woman's mother ran towards me, fell on her knees and kept crying, begging me to save her. I walked into a room and saw a Japanese soldier lying naked on a girl whose voice was hoarse from crying. I immediately stopped the dirty Japanese army and shouted at him in any language that people could understand. He ran away without saying "Happy New Year". When I ran away, I was covered in * * * and only had a pair of pants in my hand.
65438+1October 3: I'm afraid that 2,000 China soldiers who laid down their weapons after the fall of the city were assassinated by the Japanese army, which is very cruel and absolutely in violation of international law; About 2000 civilians were killed in the siege.
65438+10.6: krogh saw about 3,000 bodies in the main canal near Hanzhong Gate, all of which were killed by machine guns or other methods.