拉貝後人求援！一名南京大屠殺中，拯救了20萬中國人的納粹黨人

4月1日，中國駐德國大使吳懇做客央視新聞新媒體《共同戰「疫」》節目，與在德國的留學生代表交流，介紹當地的疫情形勢。

節目中，大使講述了一場跨越80年的守望互助，感動了無數網友：

約翰·拉貝是誰？

1937年，侵華日軍侵佔南京，製造了慘絕人寰的「南京大屠殺」。當時在中國工作的德國人約翰·拉貝，將自己的辦公室貢獻出來作為南京安全區收容難民，與其他善良的國際友人們協同，在其負責的不足4平方公里安全區內，拯救了總數20多萬中國人的生命。

然而，在回到德國後，由於支持中國四處發表演講揭露日軍暴行，他多次被蓋世太保逮捕甚至軟禁。二戰結束後又因是納粹黨員，先後被蘇聯和英國逮捕，拉貝被釋放後患有嚴重的糖尿病，最後在貧困窘迫中死去。而他的故事卻在中國銷聲匿跡，無人知曉。

直到40多年後，1996年，在美籍華人張純如和邵子平博士的尋訪下，《拉貝日記》才重見天日。12月13日，在美國紐約舉行的南京大屠殺紀念大會上，《拉貝日記》首次向外界公開，立即引起轟動，成為南京大屠殺最重要、最詳實的史料之一。

同年，英國報紙The Times（《泰晤士報》）刊登了約翰·拉貝的故事，來紀念這位偉大的「東方辛德勒」：

At the Rape of Nanking: A Nazi Who Saved Lives

南京大屠殺中：一名拯救生命的納粹黨人

By David W. Chen (1996)

When the invading Japanese Army overran the Nationalist Chinese capital in December 1937, soldiers embarked on a two-month rampage of looting, rape and killing that left tens of thousands of Chinese civilians dead in what became known as the Rape of Nanking.

1937年12月，入侵日軍佔領國民政府首都南京後，開始了長達兩個月的瘋狂搶劫、強姦和殺戮，成千上萬的中國平民因此喪生，這段歷史後來被稱為「南京大屠殺」。

Now a recently unearthed diary reveals an unlikely rescuer of thousands of Chinese: a German businessman living in China who was the leader of the local Nazi organization.

近日，一本剛剛被發現的日記揭開了一位救助者的面紗，他拯救了成千上萬中國人，而他的身份令人意外：一個居住在中國的德國商人，也是當地納粹組織的領導。

The businessman, John Rabe, kept a 1,200-page diary that provides a rare third-party account of the atrocities. In it, he writes of digging foxholes in his backyard to shelter 650 Chinese and of repelling Japanese troops who tried to climb over the wall, of dashing through war-torn areas to deliver rice, and of stopping Japanese soldiers from raping Chinese women. He even wrote to Hitler to complain about the Japanese actions.

這位名叫約翰·拉貝的商人寫了一本1200頁的日記，為日軍暴行提供了第三方的證據。在日記中，他講述了自己曾在自家後院挖掩體為650名中國人提供庇護，驅趕試圖翻過圍牆的日本軍隊，衝過戰亂區運送大米，並阻止日本士兵強姦中國婦女。他甚至還寫信給希特拉控訴日本的行為。

''These escapades were quite dangerous,'' he wrote in his diary. ''The Japanese had pistols and bayonets and I -- as mentioned before -- had only party symbols and my swastika armband.''

「這些越軌行為非常危險，」他在日記里寫道，「日本人手裡有槍和刺刀，而我——就像前面所說——只有納粹標誌和納粹臂章。」

Mr. Rabe (pronounced RAH-bay), who died in 1950, lived and worked in China from 1908 to 1938. His diary sheds light on a heretofore little-known man, who, although a Nazi loyalist, risked his life and his status to save people who would later become his country's enemies. Indeed, Mr. Rabe's outspoken support for the Chinese upon his return to Germany appears to have ruined his career.

拉貝先生1950年去世，1908年到1938年期間，他一直在中國生活和工作。他的日記讓世人了解了一個之前鮮為人知的人，儘管是一名忠實的納粹黨人，但他冒着生命危險和地位受損的風險救人，這些人後來成為了他祖國的敵人。而事實上，拉貝返回德國後仍公開支持中國，此舉似乎毀掉了他的職業生涯。

Some who have followed his case say that he, like Oskar Schindler, the German industrialist who protected Jews under very different circumstances, offers another example of the durability of humanitarian impulses in the cruelest of times.

一些關注他的人說，他和在迥然不同的情況下保護了猶太人的德國實業家奧斯卡·辛德勒一樣，又一次在最殘酷的時代彰顯了人道主義永恆的光輝。

圖片來源：電影《辛德勒的名單》

Scholars say Mr. Rabe's diary, which includes reports from other foreign observers, photos and other memorabilia, is valuable not so much for revealing new historical facts, but because it provides an unusually detailed and personal account from a German witness to an incident considered among the most brutal in modern warfare. They believe the diary to be authentic, because American missionaries in China who were Mr. Rabe's contemporaries knew of his actions and supplied similar accounts of atrocities.

有學者說，拉貝先生的日記——其中包含了其他外國觀察家的報告、照片和其他紀念品——其價值不在於揭示了新的歷史事實，而是在於它從一名德國目擊者的角度，為現代戰爭中最殘酷的這一事件提供了異常詳細與個人化的敘述。學者們相信這本日記是真實的，因為與拉貝同時代的在華美國傳教士都知道他做了什麼，他們對暴行有類似的描述。

The diary also offers a counterweight to claims by some Japanese officials who have long denied either the existence or the scale of the massacre in Nanking, which is now known as Nanjing.

長期以來，一些日本官員要麼質疑南京大屠殺的真實性，要麼質疑大屠殺中死亡的人數，這本日記也是對上述質疑的有力反擊。

''It's an incredibly gripping and depressing narrative, done very carefully with an enormous amount of detail and drama,'' said William C. Kirby, a professor of modern Chinese history at Harvard University, who has read parts of the diary in German. ''It will reopen this case in a very important way in that people can go through the day-by-day account and add 100 to 200 stories to what is popularly known.』'

哈佛大學中國近代史教授柯偉林拜讀了德文版日記的片段。「這本日記里詳細記錄了大量細節和不少戲劇性事件。筆觸扣人心弦，讀完讓人心情沉重。」他評價說，「這本日記以一種重要視角重新審視南京大屠殺，人們可藉以了解該時期的日常生活。除了眾所周知的史料外，日記還記載了不少小故事。」

The diary has only now come to light because of the efforts of Iris Chang, a Sunnyvale, Calif., author. While researching a book on the Nanjing massacre a few years ago, she stumbled upon a few references to Mr. Rabe's humanitarian efforts. She tracked down Mr. Rabe's granddaughter, Ursula Reinhardt, in Berlin, and upon discovering that Mr. Rabe had kept a diary, persuaded the family to make it public.

多虧了來自美國加利福尼亞州桑尼維爾的女作家張純如，這本日記才得以重見天日。幾年前，張純如在翻看一本關於南京大屠殺的書籍時，發現書中的注釋提到了拉貝先生的人道主義援助行動。她找到了現居柏林的拉貝先生的孫女烏蘇拉·萊因哈特，發現了這本日記，並說服他們公布這本日記。

張純如與她的英文歷史著作《南京暴行：被遺忘的大屠殺》

Born in Hamburg in 1882, Mr. Rabe spent much of his life in China working for the Siemens Company, rising to become its top representative there, selling telephones, turbines and electrical equipment. His children and grandchildren were born in China, and he had many Chinese friends. He spoke Chinese fluently.

拉貝1882年出生於德國漢堡，一生大部分時間在中國為西門子公司工作，銷售電話、渦輪機和電氣設備，直至成為該公司駐華總代表。他的子女和孫輩都出生在中國，他有許多中國朋友，他的中文也說得很流利。

But by 1937, Hitler's Germany was shifting its loyalties away from China and toward Japan. So when Japanese forces converged on Nanjing, many Germans who were working in China felt torn, Professor Kirby said.

但到了1937年，希特拉的納粹德國逐漸背棄中國轉而支持日本。因此，柯偉林教授說，當日軍向南京集結時，許多在中國工作的德國人感到左右為難。

Mr. Rabe was ordered by Siemens to leave for the safer grounds of Wuhan, a few hundred miles west on the Yangtze River. But he refused. Instead, he became chairman of a group of about two dozen German and American missionaries, doctors and professors who established a neutral zone in Nanjing as a haven for Chinese refugees.

西門子命令拉貝離開南京前往更安全的武漢，武漢位於南京以西幾百英里遠的長江邊。但他拒絕離開，留在了南京。大約二十幾位來自德國和美國的傳教士、醫生及教授一起在南京建立了一個中立的安全區作為中國難民的避難所，拉貝成了這個小團體的領頭人（安全區國際委員會主席）。

It was a daunting task. Mr. Rabe witnessed people who were shot, doused with gasoline and burned alive. He saw bodies of women lanced with beer bottles and bamboo sticks.

這是一項艱巨的任務。拉貝親眼目睹人們被槍擊、澆上汽油後活活燒死。他還看到不少婦女被啤酒瓶和竹竿扎得體無完膚。

In his diary entry for Jan. 1, 1938, Mr. Rabe wrote: ''The mother of a young attractive girl called out to me, and throwing herself on her knees, crying, said I should help her. Upon entering (the house), I saw a Japanese soldier lying completely naked on a young girl, who was crying hysterically. I yelled at this swine, in any language it would be understood, 'Happy New Year!' and he fled from there, naked and with his pants in his hand.''

在1938年1月1日的日記中，拉貝寫道：「一個漂亮小姑娘的母親大聲叫着我，跪倒哭着求我幫幫她。我一進（她家）門就看見一個日本兵赤身裸體地躺在一個小女孩身上，小女孩歇斯底里地哭喊着。我用那個畜生應該能聽懂的語言沖他吼了句「新年快樂！」，他就爬起來跑了，光着身子，手裡拿着褲子。」

In another entry, referring to the Chinese he had hidden, Mr. Rabe wrote that it was hard to sleep with 650 people snoring in his backyard. On Dec. 10, with water and power failing and the city ringed by fire, he noticed that his canary, Peter, sang in rhythm to the sound of gunfire.

在另一篇日記中，拉貝提到了他藏起來的中國人。他寫道，有650人在他的後院打呼嚕，所以很難入睡。12月10日，南京斷水斷電，被大火包圍，他注意到他的金絲雀彼得竟會跟着槍炮聲的節奏鳴叫。

拉貝在安全區院子里鋪着一面德國納粹旗幟來震懾日軍

Upon his return to Germany in February 1938, Mr. Rabe wrote a letter to Hitler, asking him to persuade Japan to stop the atrocities. But he was arrested by the Gestapo, interrogated for three days and ordered to keep silent on the subject.

1938年2月回到德國後，拉貝給希特拉寫了一封信，請求他勸阻日本在南京的暴行。結果，他卻被蓋世太保逮捕，審問了三天，並被命令對這件事保持沉默。

From there Mr. Rabe's life headed into a downward spiral. Between 1938 and 1945, Mr. Rabe worked on and off for the Siemens Company, including a brief stint in Afghanistan.

從那時起，拉貝的生活陷入了惡性循環。1938年至1945年間，拉貝仍斷斷續續為西門子公司工作，包括在阿富汗短暫駐留。

As World War II intensified, Mr. Rabe wrote increasingly in his diary about hunger and the ravages of war; he and his family in Berlin had to eat nettles and acorn soup.

隨着第二次世界大戰愈演愈烈，拉貝在日記中越來越多地寫到了飢餓和戰爭造成的種種破壞，他和家人在柏林只能吃蕁麻和橡子湯。

Because Mr. Rabe was one of the about 9 percent of Germans who were members of the Nazi party, he had to petition to be de-Nazified by the Allies after the war in order to hold a job. His first petition was denied, and Mr. Rabe had to appeal.

當時約有9%的德國人是納粹黨員，拉貝就是其中之一——正因如此，戰後，他不得不為了保住一份工作而向盟軍申請去除納粹身份。拉貝的第一次申請被拒絕了，於是他不得不上訴。

Ultimately, in June 1946, Mr. Rabe was granted de-Nazification status because of his humanitarian acts in China, according to Ms. Chang. But the investigation proved draining, and he died of a stroke in 1950.

據張純如女士說，最終，由於拉貝在中國的人道主義行為，他在1946年6月被去除了納粹身份。但調查讓拉貝心力交瘁，他在1950年死於中風。

''He was humiliated because he had to go through de-Nazification,'' Mrs. Reinhardt said in a telephone interview from her home in Berlin.

賴因哈特在柏林的家中接受電話採訪時說：「這段不得不去除納粹身份的經歷讓他備感羞辱。」

Mr. Rabe's diary may bolster the efforts of Chinese organizations, who contend that as many as 300,000 Chinese were killed in Nanjing massacres, to extract an apology, or possibly war reparations, from the Japanese Government. Unlike Germany, Japan has been perceived as resisting responsibility for wartime atrocities. Some high-ranking Japanese officials, including a former Minister of Justice, Shigeto Nagano, maintain the incident never happened.

拉貝的日記可以為一些中國組織的努力提供支持——多達30萬中國人在南京大屠殺中遇難，這些組織要求日本政府道歉或者做出戰爭賠償。與德國不同的是，日本在世人面前一直拒絕為戰時暴行承擔責任。一些日本高官，包括前法務大臣永野茂門，堅稱這一事件從未發生過。

Ms. Chang said of Mr. Rabe: ''I think he felt that he could make a difference, that if Germany knew what Japan was doing, then maybe Germany could have influenced Japan to stop it. It may have been naivete. But to me, John Rabe is the Oskar Schindler of China, another example of good in the face of evil.''

張純如女士談起拉貝先生時說：「我想他是覺得自己可以發揮作用，認為如果德國知道日本在做什麼，德國就可能阻止日本的暴行。這可能太天真了。但對我來說，約翰·拉貝是中國的奧斯卡·辛德勒，是又一個面對邪惡勇行善舉的榜樣。」