AGE: Secondary |
THEME: Unusual People: 'The Good Nazi' - John Rabe |
PREPARATION: |
This collective worship could be divided to use on two consecutive occasions:
John Rabe's diaries are published in an American version as The Good Man of Nanking: the Diaries of John Rabe, Alfred Knopf (1998). Apart from Tintin's adventures in The Blue Lotus, it is hard to find much awareness of this period in popular culture. J.G.Ballard's Empire of the Sun might interest older students. A good website about John Rabe:
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READING: |
| Ask a student to read the parable of the Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37. You may wish to mention the fact that it is a very well known story before you begin. |
DEVELOPMENT: |
| How many of you have read any of the Tintin books? Which ones? Destination Moon? Red Rackham's Treasure? One of the earliest is The Blue Lotus. It's not a classic - Hergé was still developing his characters (Professor Calculus doesn't appear yet, or Captain Haddock, but the Thomson twins are there). It's an interesting book, though, because it was written in 1934 and is set against an event in China called the Manchurian Incident. You've probably never heard of the Manchurian incident, even if you're doing GCSE history. But it's really part of the Second World War. British people think that the war began in 1939, but for Chinese people the war began in 1931, when the Japanese invaded their country - on the pretext that the Chinese had destroyed a Japanese train (the Manchurian Incident). By 1945 perhaps 20 million people had died in China. No one in the West, either Britain or American, has much awareness of the terrible history that lies behind that number. Here is just one story. In 1937 the Chinese army retreated from the capital city, Nanking. There were terrible scenes at the edge of the Yangtze River as soldiers and civilians fought to get in the last boats that could ferry them back to safety. Back in the city, a few foreign missionaries, realising that things were going to be bad, had cordoned off an area for civilians which they called the 'International Safety Zone'. Hundreds of thousands of people fled into this area, including many soldiers, who abandoned their weapons and uniform. As soon as the Japanese entered the city, they began a most appalling massacre. It is too horrible to describe the mass torture and executions that went on. Blood flowed everywhere. Only in the Safety Zone was there any chance of survival - but even here Japanese troops could enter at will and they did, dragging out anyone they wanted. In this hell-hole there were also many brave missionaries attempting to confront hatred with love. But the really surprising hero of the International Safety Zone was a German called John Rabe. He was a business man - and a fervent Nazi. He was head of the local Nazi branch and very proud of his portrait of Hitler, his Nazi medals and other signs of his importance as a Nazi. But as the Japanese approached he worked tirelessly to bring food into the area. He was elected chairman of the Zone. Once the Japanese arrived, he acted with incredible bravery. There wasn't much he could do to save the men and boys, though he sent many letters to 'Mein Fuhrer' begging that something be done to stop the killing. He spent much of his time roaming the streets trying to stop the mass rapes that took place day after day and intervened directly on hundreds of occasions. In fact his Nazi armband was a useful tool - the Japanese were frightened of offending the German Nazi party. As one Christian missionary wrote: "When any of them objects, he thrusts his Nazi armband in their face and points to his Nazi decoration, the highest in the country, and asks them if they know what it means. It always works!" Rabe eventually returned to Germany, with a smuggled film of Japanese atrocities which he used in lectures to publicise the plight of the Chinese. What he most wanted to do was to see Hitler and persuade him to change his pro-Japanese policy; in fact he was arrested by the Gestapo. In 1945 he was arrested again, this time by the British for being a Nazi. It was only his record from Nanking that saved him. When the Chinese heard of his plight (his family were starving in the rubble of Berlin) they sent him money and food. He is remembered by the Chinese as 'The Living Buddha of Nanking'. He died of a stroke in 1950. Today we almost automatically associate the swastika sign with a sense of evil, even though it is a symbol that was used for centuries - for example in Roman mosaics and Indian art - before the Germans adopted it. There is no doubt that Nazism was evil, but that is exactly why we are so startled to find the swastika symbol being used to save life. [FIRST PART COULD END HERE] This (yesterday's) collective worship is (was) called 'The Good Nazi'. You might not have read the Tintin book The Blue Lotus but you have probably heard of 'The Good Samaritan'. This parable of Jesus is set in an occupied land. The Greeks first, then the Romans, had both used force to bludgeon the Jews into submission. Jews responded to this invasion of their space by emphasizing their separateness (holiness) from the invaders. Some tried to do this by using guerilla military techniques to maintain separateness (Zealots), others obsessively followed the Jewish religious rules, the Torah (Pharisees). One of the most revolutionary things about Jesus was the way he subverted the idea of 'Us/Them'. In the story of the Good Samaritan it is one of 'Them' (a Samaritan) and not one of 'Us' (Priests), who shows love and is therefore truly holy. We all carry ideas of 'Us' and 'Them' around in our heads. 'Them' might be supporters of a rival football team - or people who hold different political views - or people from another ethnic group. When we think of such people as 'Them', we dehumanize them. And then we can smugly assure ourselves of our own goodness. But for Jesus all people, whether 'Us' or 'Them', are loved by God - and are capable, in turn, of showing that love to other people. Jesus' parable would have been as disturbing and inconceivable to his original audience as the thought of a 'good' Nazi is to us. Jesus would have condemned Nazism, but he could never have forgotten that individual Nazis could be loved by God and just occasionally - perhaps because of that - would be capable of showing real compassion. God's love knows no boundaries - or at least, not man-made ones. |
REFLECTION: |
| Let's spend a moment of quietness thinking about what we have been hearing. What made John Rabe behave as he did? What would you have thought if you had seen Rabe's photograph, with his Nazi armband proudly on display, if you had not known anything about him? Picture some individuals who you have negative feelings about. And think about those groups whom you automatically dismiss as 'Them'. Take some time to reflect on the fact that God loves 'Them' as much as he loves 'Us'. |
FOLLOW UP: |
| John Rabe, the proud Nazi, became known as the 'Living Buddha of Nanking'. Those studying Buddhism might like to investigate the meaning and importance of the concept of 'Living Buddha' in some Buddhist traditions. |
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