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Special exhibition features "good Germans" kicks off in Hamburg

Xinhua, March 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

The special exhibition "Hamburg's sons - the good Germans" featuring John Rabe and his friends kicked off on Monday in the German city of Hamburg.

The exhibition, presented by Nanjing Municipal Archives and Hamburg's BallinStadt Emigrant Museum, mainly focuses on the lives of these special people of Hamburg who saved lives of over 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing Massacre in 1937.

More than 40 photo and text boards show what extraordinary contribution of the Hamburg businessman John Rabe and his friends Karl Guenther and Christian Kroeger have done in Nanjing and what happened to them after the Second World War.

Less well known in Germany, John Rabe is one of China's best-known Germans and is called the "good German in Nanjing" or "Oskar Schindler in China".

Japanese troops captured Nanjing on Dec. 13 of 1937. Over six weeks, they killed 300,000 Chinese civilians and soldiers who had laid down their arms.

In these dark times, 24 foreign businessmen and missionaries chose to stay in Nanjing. Among them were six Germans, while three of them, Rabe, Kroeger and Guenther, came from Hamburg.

The Siemens manager John Rabe created the "International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone" for endangered Chinese during the massacre.

Shu Jianmin, director of the Nanjing Municipal Archives, said during the opening ceremony: "With this exhibition we want to commemorate the members of the International Committee of the Nanjing Safety Zone led by John Rabe and thank them for their kindness and fair treatment of citizens of Nanjing."

Ingrid, the daughter of Karl Guenther, told Xinhua that the current meaning of this exhibition is that one should not let the history "fall asleep".

Heike Veth, an author based in Hamburg, said after viewing the exhibition that Germany has behaved almost like Japan in the 20th century.

"But unlike Japan, we have tried to learn from history in Germany," said Veth, adding "I think that's wonderful if Japan do this at some point and apologizes to China."

The special exhibition will be open to the public for free from March 15 to April 15 in Hamburg. Endit