John Rabe

John and Dora Rabe autograph signatures, Nanjing, 22 May 1932

John Heinrich Detlef Rabe (23 November 1882 – 5 January 1950) was a German diplomat and businessman best known for his efforts to stop Japanese war crimes and protect Chinese civilians during the Nanjing Massacre. The Nanking Safety Zone, which he helped to establish, sheltered approximately 250,000 Chinese people from Imperial Japanese Army atrocities. A member of the Nazi Party, Rabe had been sent to China as an official representative of Nazi Germany in the European-U.S. diplomatic quarter in Nanjing, the Republic of China's capital. He served as senior chief of the diplomatic mission at the time of Japanese conquest.