John Rabe (5 Stars)

This German film was called "City of War" when it was first released in England and America. The Americans obviously couldn't make their mind up, because a year later it was reissued with the name "John Rabe", so you can now find the DVD in shops with both names. I hope nobody is confused and buys it twice.

This is a true story about a forgotten war and a forgotten hero. It tells the tale of John Rabe, the head of Siemens in Nanking (China), and how he managed to save more than 200,000 lives in December 1937. Before this film was made almost nobody in Germany, America or any other western country had heard of him. And yet in China children learn about him in school, as the greatest German hero of the 20th Century. I asked a friend of mine from Hong Kong if she knew John Rabe, and her reply was, "Yes. Doesn't everyone?"

John Rabe was born in Hamburg in 1882, and started a career at Siemens. In 1910 he was sent to China, where he worked in several cities before finally being made the head of the Siemens factory in Nanking. He was a patriotic German, and as such he was a member of the Nazi party and supported Adolf Hitler unquestioningly. On the other hand, he had a great love for the Chinese people, an affection which went further than an employer-employee relationship. When the Japanese invaded Nanking he felt responsible to protect not only his workers, but also the whole of the city. He did this by relying on the power of the Swastika. Japan was Germany's ally in 1937, so they held back and didn't attack anyone under the protection of the German flag. He set up a security zone which was a safe haven for the Chinese within the city. Though intended to hold 100,000 people, it eventually contained more than 200,000 people, maybe as many as 250,000.

So why was this great man forgotten outside of China? The reasons can be seen in what happened to him next. In early 1938 he was called back to Germany and immediately arrested. Because of his criticism of the Japanese he was considered a traitor. After the war his problems were not over. Since he had been not just a passive party member, but also an outspoken supporter of Hitler, he was not allowed to work by the allied powers. He and his family lived in poverty. He only survived because he was sent monthly food parcels from China.

The film doesn't hold back in showing the atrocities of the Japanese occupiers. They didn't recognise the Geneva Convention, so they executed any Chinese soldiers that they captured. They raped young girls and cut off men's heads for sport. They were every bit as evil as the Germans, but there is a big difference. The Germans have admitted their crimes, but the Japanese deny their atrocities ever happened. Independent authorities estimate the Japanese slaughtered about 300,000 civilians in Nanking; the Japanese call this an exaggeration and claim it was only about 200 people. (Not a typing error, I really mean two hundred). After the war there were war tribunals with Japanese generals put on trial and executed as war criminals. The generals associated with the Nanking massacre were posthumously pardoned in the 1980's. The official view of the current Japanese government is that the Nanking massacre is merely an invention of Chinese propaganda.

I fully realise that I've only written about the facts behind the film, not the film itself. All I can say is that it's a powerful film worth watching. Five stars! Click here to view the trailer.