Last updated: 12/07/2019

John Rabe had lived in Nanking since 1931 and was well connected in the city. His contacts to embassies, officials, Chinese, and other foreigners helped him to establish the safety zone and provide refugees with food and shelter.

But Rabe was not the only person who helped to save civilians and who recorded his experiences in Nanjing. In addition to members of the International Committee for the Nanjing Safety Zone, several other Western foreigners as well as Japanese and Chinese were – to different degrees – involved in humanitarian action. Some of them recorded their day-to-day lives in report or diaries.