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Decades after the end of World War II in China, Sino-Japanese relations continue to remain strained. Conflicting memories and accounts of imperial Japan’s occupation of China and wartime atrocities remain one element of this discord. One of the most visible expressions of this tension arises regularly at the Yasukuni shrine.

John H. D. Rabe’s story presents a paradox. He is remembered as a great humanitarian despite remaining a loyal member of the Nazi Party. Born in 1882 in Hamburg, Germany, Rabe first came to Shanghai in 1908. He began working for the Chinese branch of the Siemens Company in 1911 and 20 years later in 1931 transferred to Nanjing and served as director of the Siemens branch office with his wife and two children. Siemens was largely responsible for building the Nanjing telephone lines and supplying turbines for the electrical plant and equipment for the city’s hospitals.

Learn about the memo that urged President Roosevelt to step up US efforts to rescue Jews from the Nazis, and led him to establish the War Refugee Board.

Learn about one of the challenges of writing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: defining common rights that represented all nations and cultures around the world.

Consider a Swiss merchant’s account of how his German colleagues responded to the events of Kristallnacht (Spanish available).