John Rabe, the Good German of Nanking
| No Comments »An interesting article from Der Spiegel on the history and resurgence of German biopics, “grey” national heroes, and the Nazi who saved 200,000 Chinese lives in Nanking. I’ll be watching the movie when I find it!
THE GOOD NAZI?
German Films Delve into Difficult History
By Lars-Olav Beier
The biopic genre is booming and new screen epics are in the works to celebrate a host of German icons. This week “John Rabe,” a film about a Nazi who saved tens of thousands of lives, opened in cinemas across the country.
He looks anxiously at the sky, watching the low-flying fighter planes drop their bombs into the fleeing crowd. It is December 1937, and German businessman John Rabe, the representative of the Siemens Group in the eastern Chinese city of Nanking, is witnessing Japanese fighter pilots as they attack the company’s facility there, killing helpless civilians.
In that moment of despair, he suddenly has an idea. Rabe, a long-standing member of the Nazi Party, quickly orders his workers to unfurl an enormous swastika flag that the party had sent to him in China. Then Rabe and large numbers of Chinese crouch under the flag. The ruse works, and the Japanese, allied with the Germans, call off the attack.




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