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Nanjing hero's story told on film
By Erik Kirschba |
February 9, 2009, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE director of a new film about a German engineer who helped save 200,000 Chinese in Nanjing from Japanese troops said he hoped it would spark debate and help Japan come to terms with its past.
Florian Gallenberger, whose film "John Rabe" is based on the true story of the courage of a Siemens executive during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, said his film could also shed light on Rabe's long-overlooked heroism.
"We're fully aware the film could be explosive in Japan," said Gallenberger, whose native Germany has also faced sometimes turbulent reflection on its Nazi past in the wake of films on the Holocaust and Hitler decades later.
"It's an extremely controversial subject in Japan and there are fears there could be severe repercussions. I hope the film won't be silenced in Japan. I'd very much hope this film could help get an opening-up of discussion going in Japan."
Rabe was an electrical equipment executive in Nanjing, then the national capital of China. The six-week wave of killing by Japanese soldiers after Nanjing fell was among the bloodiest episodes of Japan's invasion of China. Chinese accounts say about 300,000 people were killed.
For China, how Japan remembers the "Rape of Nanking" - as the city was then called in English - has become a test of how contrite its neighbor is about its occupation of much of the country from the 1930s up to 1945.
In 1937, Rabe was head of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. Rabe had worked in China for Siemens for 30 years and was about to return to Berlin when the invasion began. As Germany and Japan were allies, Rabe used his Nazi party membership and did all he could to protect civilians.
He was arrested by the Gestapo on his return to Berlin in 1938 for collaborating with the Chinese. After World War II, the Allies at first refused to de-Nazify him. He died in Berlin in 1950, forgotten in his home country but a hero in China.
The film, which premiered in Berlin, stars Ulrich Tukur ("The Lives Of Others") and Steve Buscemi.
Florian Gallenberger, whose film "John Rabe" is based on the true story of the courage of a Siemens executive during the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, said his film could also shed light on Rabe's long-overlooked heroism.
"We're fully aware the film could be explosive in Japan," said Gallenberger, whose native Germany has also faced sometimes turbulent reflection on its Nazi past in the wake of films on the Holocaust and Hitler decades later.
"It's an extremely controversial subject in Japan and there are fears there could be severe repercussions. I hope the film won't be silenced in Japan. I'd very much hope this film could help get an opening-up of discussion going in Japan."
Rabe was an electrical equipment executive in Nanjing, then the national capital of China. The six-week wave of killing by Japanese soldiers after Nanjing fell was among the bloodiest episodes of Japan's invasion of China. Chinese accounts say about 300,000 people were killed.
For China, how Japan remembers the "Rape of Nanking" - as the city was then called in English - has become a test of how contrite its neighbor is about its occupation of much of the country from the 1930s up to 1945.
In 1937, Rabe was head of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. Rabe had worked in China for Siemens for 30 years and was about to return to Berlin when the invasion began. As Germany and Japan were allies, Rabe used his Nazi party membership and did all he could to protect civilians.
He was arrested by the Gestapo on his return to Berlin in 1938 for collaborating with the Chinese. After World War II, the Allies at first refused to de-Nazify him. He died in Berlin in 1950, forgotten in his home country but a hero in China.
The film, which premiered in Berlin, stars Ulrich Tukur ("The Lives Of Others") and Steve Buscemi.
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