Moving into No.1 Xiaofenqiao

In the summer of 1932, Rabe signed an agreement with Xie Jiasheng, Dean of the Agronomy School of the University of Nanking. The agreement specified that the university would build and rent Rabe a house, according to his requirements that it could be used both as his home and office. The house was in western style, attached with a garden, and was situated at No. 1, Xiaofenqiao, Guangzhou Rd.

John Rabe’s house in Nanjing

Here was his home as well as his office, with the signboard of Siemens China Co. on the gate. Rabe was very much contented with the life here and he loved this city very much.

 The Nanjing Office of Siemens at No.1 Xiaofenqiao

Rabe’s daughter often brought her lovely daughter, Ursula, to visit grandparents in Nanjing. Little Ursula always delighted John Rabe, and the house would be filled with laughter.

The Rabe family in front of their house at No.1 Xiaofenqiao

The studio picture of John Rabe and his wife on their silver anniversary on October, 1934 in Nanjing

The Founding of German School

In 1934, John Rabe established a German school in Nanjing for the children of the German employees of the Nanjing office of Siemens China Co. The school was located in the garden of his house inside a row of one-storey houses at Xiao Taoyuan with about 20 German children. John Rabe served as the chairman of the school board of trustees. The school adopted appointive employment system to recruit teachers, and the fund was provided by the German government.

The German school (the one-storey house on the left of the main building)

John Rabe delivering a speech as the principal of the German school

Outdoor activities of students and teachers in the yard of the German school

The Refuge at Siemens China Co.

In August, 1937, the Japanese airplanes began to bomb Nanjing. Hearing the news, John Rabe hurried home from his summer vacation at Bei Daihe, a seaside resort place in Hebei province. He himself designed an air-raid shelter in his yard, and then led people to reinforce and improve it after it was completed in the same month.

John Rabe with Han Xianglin looking at the Japanese airplanes in an air raid

John Rabe at the entrance of the air-raid shelter

He also drew a flag of National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP) on a piece of canvas (6m x 3m) bearing a big swasktika, so as to warn the Japanese bombers: No invasion of this area where the Germans lived.

The NSDAP flag on a piece of canvas drawn by Rabe

Rabe at the entrance of the air-raid shelter

Rabe in front of his air-raid shelter, October 1937

John Rabe stipulated a rule that children and women had the priority to use the air-raid shelter. He also wrote a poem It Concerns Everybody to give advice to people.

To My Guests and Employees of Siemens

Those who often use this raid-proof shelter of mine must comply by the following rules:

The safest seats are for children and women, that is, the middle of the shelter Men should sit or stand at two sides.

Whoever violates these rules is not allowed to use this air-raid shelter anymore.

John Rabe

October 19. 1937, Nanjing

He also wrote a verse:

To whom it may concern

Now’s the time and now’s the season:

Damn it man, do use your reason!

Crouching at your dugout door

Is witless foolishness and more!

First: because the bombs that drop

Are known to travel from up top,

And that shrapnel from on high

Is said to hurt the stander-by.

Once it booms and it’s too late,

You tell yourself: Oh heck, I’ll wait,

There’s surely time enough to duck,

I only wanted one last look….

Stuff and nonsense. Curly, think

A little faster, hero! Slink

Into your shelter there!

Reason calls you to beware!

At the fall of Nanjing on December 13,1937, large numbers of Chinese people  fled in droves into the 25 refuges in the Safety Zone. John Rabe’s house at No.1 Xiao Fenqiao was one of them. It was called “the Refuge at Siemens,” which at its peak had harbored over 600 refugees. Several senior officers of Nanjing Garrison Command such as Long Yingqing and Zhou Qingfeng also hid on the second floor of the John Rabes’ house. Wang Guanghan, a wounded pilot, also entered the refuge at John Rabe’s house and stayed there for his recovery. He later disguised as Mr. Rabe’s servant and successfully escaped from Nanjing. 

The Diaries of John Rabe recorded: Rabe’s house (the Refuge at Siemens) harboring 602 refugees

Pilot Wang Guanghan, KMT officers including Long and Major Colonel Zhou disguised as Rabe’s employees

The Japanese army examined each of the over 600 refugees at the John Rabe’s House to identify Chinese soldiers. Refugee Zong Youqin’s brother was a fisherman who had callus on the shoulder and an obvious mark on the forehead since he had been wearing straw or felt hats for years. The Japanese therefore singled him out as a suspect of Chinese soldier to interrogate him. It was John Rabe who did his best to defend Zong and eventually saved him from the Japanese.

Zong Youqin, refugee at the Rabe’s House

Ding Yongqing, John Rabe’s neighbor who also took refuge at his house yard, recalled John Rabe’s meticulous care, “Mr. Rabe was very kind to us. He provided us with food including broad beans – the special food that defended us from cold winter. Thus we were able to survive.”

Ding Yongqing, survivor of the Nanjing Massacre

Owing to John Rabe’s proper care, there was no death or injury among the 600 or so refugees staying at his yard. On the New Year’s Day of 1938, these people stood in line to bow to John Rabe and presented him a large piece of red silk which read, “You are the living Buddha for more than several hundred thousand Chinese people”. 

There was no death or injury among the over 600 refugees at Rabe’s courtyard

The wishes from the refugees to John Rabe

The wishes from the refugees to John Rabe

John Rabe expressed his pleasure in what he had done in his diaries. “The best Christmas present I could have ever expected,” he wrote, “is to have saved the lives of over 600 people.” (from the Diaries of John Rabe, on December 25, 1937)