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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.

Between 1940 and 1941, American diplomat Hiram Bingham IV, stationed in Marseille, France, helped as many as 2,500 Jews escape Nazi persecution by defying United States policies and issuing hundreds of immigration papers.

Turkish ambassador to Rhodes, Selahattin Ülkümen used a tenuous alliance, knowledge of Turkish law, and his skill at negotiating to protect and ultimately rescue some of the Jews on this small island.

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.