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George Fitch

Based on: Thomas Rabe, John Rabe. Sein Leben, seine Zeit. Heidelberg 2009

Last updated: 10/07/2019

George Ashmore Fitch“, licenced under fair use

George Ashmore Fitch (1883–1979), was born in Soochow (Suzhou), China to two Presbyterian missionaries. He graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio (1906) and went on to study at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, where he obtained a bachelor degree in divinity. In 1909 he was ordained by the Presbyterian Church and returned to China to work for the YMCA in Shanghai.

At the time of the Nanjing Massacre, Fitch was running the YMCA in Nanjing. He became the Associate General Secretary of the International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone. Fitch returned to the United States in March 1938, where he tried to raise awareness for the atrocities committed by the Japanese military. He later testified at the international Military Tribunal for the Far East. Upon his return to China he continued working for the YMCA and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency. Fitch also worked for the YMCA in Korea and Taiwan until he retired in 1961.