The whole world should know about John Rabe, hero of Nanjing

I went to Hamburg last weekend to cover the concert version of the opera The Diaries of John Rabe in the landmark Elbphilharmonie, but to me it was really an emotional trip to pay tribute to Rabe who was born in the German port city on Nov 23, 1882.

Rabe went to China in 1908 and lived there for 30 years. In the six weeks from December 1937, he and 20 other foreigners sheltered more than 200,000 Chinese in the Nanjing Safety Zone they had established, saving them from the Nanjing Massacre when the Imperial Japanese Army killed 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers in the then Chinese capital.

While Rabe is well known to many Chinese as a hero, few people outside China have heard his name, including people in his hometown Hamburg despite the movies and books highlighting his heroism.