German Film:

John Rabe (2009) (134 mins)

A true-story account of a German businessman who saved more than 200,000 Chinese during the Nanjing massacre in 1937-38.
How does one portray a Nazi as a hero, especially one who rescues Chinese civilians by sheltering them under the giant swastika of a German flag? Despite his allegiance to Hitler, Rabe performed a Schindler-esque rescue of innocent victims due in large part, ironically, to his Nazi affiliation and the party’s alliance with the Japanese.
At the outset, Rabe (Ulrich Tukur) is not a sympathetic character. The director of Siemens China in 1937 Nanking, he is preparing to leave his post after nearly 30 years of service. He works closely with the Chinese, but he treats them — and compares them to — children. When the Japanese attack the capital at the outset of the Second Sino-Japanese War, however, he offers refuge to his workers and their families at the Siemens plant. Eventually, Rabe heads an effort to establish a safety zone in the city that saves a reported 250,000 lives from the eight-week Nanking Massacre, the “forgotten Holocaust” of World War II.

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