|
a145e36
|
As the Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel warned years ago, to forget a holocaust is to kill twice.
|
|
nanking
world-war-ii
|
Iris Chang |
|
eba8ba2
|
Almost all people have this potential for evil, which would be unleashed only under certain dangerous social circumstances.
|
|
human-nature
society
|
Iris Chang |
|
04737fd
|
Looking back upon millennia of history, it appears clear that no race or culture has monopoly on wartime cruelty. The veneer of civilization seems to be exceedingly thin - one that can be easily stripped away, especially by the stresses of war.
|
|
cruelty
history
|
Iris Chang |
|
4bb5cce
|
The Rape of Nanking did not penetrate the world consciousness in the same manner as the Holocaust or Hiroshima because the victims themselves had remained silent.
|
|
|
Iris Chang |
|
f257323
|
The heroic efforts of the Americans and Europeans during this period are so numerous (their diaries run for thousands of pages) that it is impossible to narrate all of their deeds here.
|
|
|
Iris Chang |
|
440138d
|
Perhaps the most fascinating character to emerge from the history of the Rape of Nanking is the German businessman John Rabe. To most of the Chinese in the city, he was a hero, "the living Buddha of Nanking," the legendary head of the International Safety Zone who saved hundreds of thousands of Chinese lives."
|
|
|
Iris Chang |
|
40064db
|
In 1996 I began an investigation into the life of John Rabe and eventually unearthed thousands of pages of diaries that he and other Nazis kept during the Rape. These diaries led me to conclude that John Rabe was "the Oskar Schindler of China."
|
|
|
Iris Chang |