“It is in this country where I spent my best time of youth, where my children and grandchildren were born, and where my career was accomplished. I have been enjoying the hospitality of the people of China all along.”
——John Rabe
The July 7 Incident in 1937, a battle between the Chinese and Japanese invading troops at Lugouqiao, broke out and shocked the whole world.
The Battle of Shanghai began on August 13. From August 15 on, the Japanese airplanes went on bombing the city of Nanjing incessantly.
On November 12, Shanghai, the Paris in the East, was captured by the Japanese after fierce combat.
The capital was in danger! A fierce battle in the ancient city of Nanjing was inevitable.
On July 7, 1937, Lugouqiao Incident happened, and a full-scale Japanese invasion of China began to unfold
Establishment of the Nanjing Safety Zone
At 5 p.m. on November 22, 1937, to reduce the harm of war to the Chinese civilians, following a precedent of a refugee zone set up in Nanshi District of Shanghai, the International Committee held a meeting for establishing Nanjing Safety Zone at 3 Pingcang Lane.
3 Pingcang Lane（ The Pearl S. Buck Memorial House on the campus of Nanjing University）
Pearl S. Buck（taken after she won the Nobel Prize）
The site of the former headquarters of the Nanjing International Safety Zone at No.5 Ninghai Road
The committee elected John Rabe as Chairman, Professor Smythe from the University of Nanking as Secretary. On November 28, Mr. Fitch is officially named the director and Dr. Han Liwu the Chinese co-director.
John Rabe, Chairman of the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone
Hang Liwu, Chairman of the board of Trustees of the University of Nanking
The seal reads: The International Committee for Nanjing Refugee Zone
A group photo of John Rabe with some international committee members of the Safety Zone in Nanjing, from left to right: Forster, Mills, Rabe, Smythe, Sperling, Fitch
Name list of the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone and the Nanjing Committee of the International Red Cross
Photo of Rabe with some members of the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone and the International Red Cross in front of the headquarters of the Safety Zone, from left to right: A.Zial, R.R.Hatz, John H.D.Rabe, John G. Magee, Cola Podshivoloff
On November 25, as Chairman of the International Committee, Rabe wrote a letter to Adolf Hitler, attempting to win him over to support the Nanjing Safety Zone.
John Rabe’s letter to Adolf Hitler
Rabe and other committee members afterwards managed to inform the Japanese military authorities in Shanghai of the Nanjing Safety Zone with a map of its location, and requested them not to assault the Zone. The map was later found to be carried by the Japanese soldiers who entered Nanjing.
Reply of the Japanese military authorities concerning the International Committee's request
Sketch Map of the Safety Zone
East Side: bordered along Zhongshan Road, from Xinjiekou to Shanxi Road
North Side: from Shanxi Road to Xikang Road
West Side: from Xikang Road to the intersection of Shanghai Road and Hanzhong Road
South Side: beginning from the intersection of Hanzhong Road and Shanghai Road ending in the starting point of Xinjiekou
On December 1, Ma Chaojun, Mayor of Nanjing, transferred in effect the administration of the Nanjing Safety Zone to the Committee. He handed over to the Committee 30,000 sacks of rice, 10,000 sacks of flour, and some deposit slips for salt, and promised to allocate 100,000 yuan in Fiat Currency (the currency under the Nationalist Government) and 450 policemen. John Rabe became “Executive Mayor of Nanjing”.
Ma Chaojun, Mayor of Nanjing before the fall of the city in 1937
The International Safety Zone then was in charge of the following aspects: Safeguarding the Security in the Safety Zone; Refugee Placement; Food Supply; Establishment of Sanitary Facilities; Hospital Emergency; Police Management.
Safeguarding the Security
To ensure the security of the Safety Zone, Rabe and others decided to set up roadblocks and security lines at all the entrances and exits of the Safety Zone. Policemen wearing safety zone armbands stood sentry at each post with pistols in hands, examining everyone who wanted to enter the zone and guarding the border of the Safety.
Symbol of the Safety Zone: A Red Cross within a Red Circle
Rabe and his friends created a miracle under such circumstances. Covering one eighth of the entire city, the Safety Zone was the only oasis that escaped from fires or arson attacks by the Japanese troops. Thanks solely to the effective protection from the International Safety Committee, buildings and streets inside the Safety Zone remained intact in wanton bombings by the Japanese military, including the University of Nanking, Nanking Women’s College of Arts and Sciences, Gulou Hospital and hundreds of private western-styled houses along Ninghai Road and Yihe Road. As historical heritage, their value cannot be measured monetarily.
College of Science of the University of Nanking survived the Japanese arson in December, 1937
Dormitory buildings in Nanking Women’s College survived the Japanese arson in December, 1937
The Embassy of the U. S. A. in the Safety Zone survived the Japanese arson in December, 1937
After the fall of Nanjing, nearly 300,000 refugees gathered in the Safety Zone. A few disarmed Chinese soldiers also entered the Safety Zone to seek refuge. Some high-ranking officials of the Kuomintang Army received special care from the International Committee for the Safety Zone. All the refugee camps were overcrowded to its utmost capacity.
High-ranking officials of the Kuomintang army received
help in the Safety Zone
Refugees flooding into the Safety Zone (Photo 1)
Refugees flooding into the Safety Zone (Photo 2)
Refugees flooding into the Safety Zone (Photo 3)
To optimize the function of the refugee camps, the International Committee for Nanjing Safety Zone stipulated Regulations in the Refugee Zone, and distributed flyers of Message to the People of Nanjing, calling on people to take refuge in the Safety Zone.
Message to the People of Nanjing
Regulations in the Refugee Zone
Food Supply
To ensure the survival of the poverty-stricken refugees, the International Committee opened three porridge stalls providing free porridge twice a day for two months. When part of the refugees returned to their former living places, the International Committee extended their relief work, setting up temporary refugee camps within the Safety Zone, taking in peasants from the suburbs, ensuring daily food supply and also helping them in dis infections and epidemic prevention.
Refugees were standing in lines for relief cash outside the headquarters of the International Committee for the Safety Zone
Taking Sanitary Measures
In order to prevent the outbreak of plagues, the International Committee bought from Shanghai and shipped into Nanjing a lot of goods such as beans, cod-liver oil and medicines against diphtheria and other diseases. Meanwhile, special toilets were built, and garbage and excrements were also timely cleared. These measures were highly effective in preventing epidemics.
Women refugees in the Safety Zone did washing, disinfections and thorough cleaning when the weather turned warmer so as to prevent plague
Gulou Hospital, a Christian hospital headed by Malin, a Canadian missionary, was used by the International Committee to take in and treat a great number of patients and Nanjing civilians who were wounded by the Japanese army.
Gulou Hospital, located within the Safety Zone, took in and treated many Nanjing civilians who were wounded by the Japanese army
The doctors and nurses of Gulou Hospital were cleaning and wrapping up the wounds for the wounded Nanjing civilians
Wilson was treating a fourteen-year-old child whose right leg was wounded by the Japanese army
China was Rabe’s second hometown. As he himself said, “It is in this country where I spent my best time of youth, where my children and grandchildren were born, and where my career was accomplished. I have been enjoying the hospitality of the people of China all along.” Even though the German embassy had advised Rabe to leave Nanjing for many times, he made the decision to stay behind regardless of the changing circumstances after a mental and spiritual struggle over the matter.
John Rabe’s letter to the German Consulate General in Shanghai, requesting to stay behind