拉贝后人求援！一名南京大屠杀中，拯救了20万中国人的纳粹党人

4月1日，中国驻德国大使吴恳做客央视新闻新媒体《共同战“疫”》节目，与在德国的留学生代表交流，介绍当地的疫情形势。

节目中，大使讲述了一场跨越80年的守望互助，感动了无数网友：

约翰·拉贝是谁？

1937年，侵华日军侵占南京，制造了惨绝人寰的“南京大屠杀”。当时在中国工作的德国人约翰·拉贝，将自己的办公室贡献出来作为南京安全区收容难民，与其他善良的国际友人们协同，在其负责的不足4平方公里安全区内，拯救了总数20多万中国人的生命。

然而，在回到德国后，由于支持中国四处发表演讲揭露日军暴行，他多次被盖世太保逮捕甚至软禁。二战结束后又因是纳粹党员，先后被苏联和英国逮捕，拉贝被释放后患有严重的糖尿病，最后在贫困窘迫中死去。而他的故事却在中国销声匿迹，无人知晓。

直到40多年后，1996年，在美籍华人张纯如和邵子平博士的寻访下，《拉贝日记》才重见天日。12月13日，在美国纽约举行的南京大屠杀纪念大会上，《拉贝日记》首次向外界公开，立即引起轰动，成为南京大屠杀最重要、最详实的史料之一。

同年，英国报纸The Times（《泰晤士报》）刊登了约翰·拉贝的故事，来纪念这位伟大的“东方辛德勒”：

At the Rape of Nanking: A Nazi Who Saved Lives

南京大屠杀中：一名拯救生命的纳粹党人

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，入侵日军占领国民政府首都南京后，开始了长达两个月的疯狂抢劫、强奸和杀戮，成千上万的中国平民因此丧生，这段历史后来被称为“南京大屠杀”。

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，一本刚刚被发现的日记揭开了一位救助者的面纱，他拯救了成千上万中国人，而他的身份令人意外：一个居住在中国的德国商人，也是当地纳粹组织的领导。

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.

这位名叫约翰·拉贝的商人写了一本1200页的日记，为日军暴行提供了第三方的证据。在日记中，他讲述了自己曾在自家后院挖掩体为650名中国人提供庇护，驱赶试图翻过围墙的日本军队，冲过战乱区运送大米，并阻止日本士兵强奸中国妇女。他甚至还写信给希特勒控诉日本的行为。

''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.''

“这些越轨行为非常危险，”他在日记里写道，“日本人手里有枪和刺刀，而我——就像前面所说——只有纳粹标志和纳粹臂章。”

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.

拉贝先生1950年去世，1908年到1938年期间，他一直在中国生活和工作。他的日记让世人了解了一个之前鲜为人知的人，尽管是一名忠实的纳粹党人，但他冒着生命危险和地位受损的风险救人，这些人后来成为了他祖国的敌人。而事实上，拉贝返回德国后仍公开支持中国，此举似乎毁掉了他的职业生涯。

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.

一些关注他的人说，他和在迥然不同的情况下保护了犹太人的德国实业家奥斯卡·辛德勒一样，又一次在最残酷的时代彰显了人道主义永恒的光辉。

图片来源：电影《辛德勒的名单》

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.

有学者说，拉贝先生的日记——其中包含了其他外国观察家的报告、照片和其他纪念品——其价值不在于揭示了新的历史事实，而是在于它从一名德国目击者的角度，为现代战争中最残酷的这一事件提供了异常详细与个人化的叙述。学者们相信这本日记是真实的，因为与拉贝同时代的在华美国传教士都知道他做了什么，他们对暴行有类似的描述。

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.

长期以来，一些日本官员要么质疑南京大屠杀的真实性，要么质疑大屠杀中死亡的人数，这本日记也是对上述质疑的有力反击。

''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.’'

哈佛大学中国近代史教授柯伟林拜读了德文版日记的片段。“这本日记里详细记录了大量细节和不少戏剧性事件。笔触扣人心弦，读完让人心情沉重。”他评价说，“这本日记以一种重要视角重新审视南京大屠杀，人们可借以了解该时期的日常生活。除了众所周知的史料外，日记还记载了不少小故事。”

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.

多亏了来自美国加利福尼亚州桑尼维尔的女作家张纯如，这本日记才得以重见天日。几年前，张纯如在翻看一本关于南京大屠杀的书籍时，发现书中的注释提到了拉贝先生的人道主义援助行动。她找到了现居柏林的拉贝先生的孙女乌苏拉·莱因哈特，发现了这本日记，并说服他们公布这本日记。

张纯如与她的英文历史著作《南京暴行：被遗忘的大屠杀》

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.

拉贝1882年出生于德国汉堡，一生大部分时间在中国为西门子公司工作，销售电话、涡轮机和电气设备，直至成为该公司驻华总代表。他的子女和孙辈都出生在中国，他有许多中国朋友，他的中文也说得很流利。

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，希特勒的纳粹德国逐渐背弃中国转而支持日本。因此，柯伟林教授说，当日军向南京集结时，许多在中国工作的德国人感到左右为难。

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.

西门子命令拉贝离开南京前往更安全的武汉，武汉位于南京以西几百英里远的长江边。但他拒绝离开，留在了南京。大约二十几位来自德国和美国的传教士、医生及教授一起在南京建立了一个中立的安全区作为中国难民的避难所，拉贝成了这个小团体的领头人（安全区国际委员会主席）。

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.

这是一项艰巨的任务。拉贝亲眼目睹人们被枪击、浇上汽油后活活烧死。他还看到不少妇女被啤酒瓶和竹竿扎得体无完肤。

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日的日记中，拉贝写道：“一个漂亮小姑娘的母亲大声叫着我，跪倒哭着求我帮帮她。我一进（她家）门就看见一个日本兵赤身裸体地躺在一个小女孩身上，小女孩歇斯底里地哭喊着。我用那个畜生应该能听懂的语言冲他吼了句“新年快乐！”，他就爬起来跑了，光着身子，手里拿着裤子。”

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.

在另一篇日记中，拉贝提到了他藏起来的中国人。他写道，有650人在他的后院打呼噜，所以很难入睡。12月10日，南京断水断电，被大火包围，他注意到他的金丝雀彼得竟会跟着枪炮声的节奏鸣叫。

拉贝在安全区院子里铺着一面德国纳粹旗帜来震慑日军

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月回到德国后，拉贝给希特勒写了一封信，请求他劝阻日本在南京的暴行。结果，他却被盖世太保逮捕，审问了三天，并被命令对这件事保持沉默。

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.

从那时起，拉贝的生活陷入了恶性循环。1938年至1945年间，拉贝仍断断续续为西门子公司工作，包括在阿富汗短暂驻留。

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.

随着第二次世界大战愈演愈烈，拉贝在日记中越来越多地写到了饥饿和战争造成的种种破坏，他和家人在柏林只能吃荨麻和橡子汤。

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.

当时约有9%的德国人是纳粹党员，拉贝就是其中之一——正因如此，战后，他不得不为了保住一份工作而向盟军申请去除纳粹身份。拉贝的第一次申请被拒绝了，于是他不得不上诉。

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.

据张纯如女士说，最终，由于拉贝在中国的人道主义行为，他在1946年6月被去除了纳粹身份。但调查让拉贝心力交瘁，他在1950年死于中风。

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

赖因哈特在柏林的家中接受电话采访时说：“这段不得不去除纳粹身份的经历让他备感羞辱。”

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.

拉贝的日记可以为一些中国组织的努力提供支持——多达30万中国人在南京大屠杀中遇难，这些组织要求日本政府道歉或者做出战争赔偿。与德国不同的是，日本在世人面前一直拒绝为战时暴行承担责任。一些日本高官，包括前法务大臣永野茂门，坚称这一事件从未发生过。

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.''

张纯如女士谈起拉贝先生时说：“我想他是觉得自己可以发挥作用，认为如果德国知道日本在做什么，德国就可能阻止日本的暴行。这可能太天真了。但对我来说，约翰·拉贝是中国的奥斯卡·辛德勒，是又一个面对邪恶勇行善举的榜样。”