Built in 1985, extended and renovated in 1995 and occupying some 28,000 square metres, the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall is a sprawling edifice of a museum that is impressive by anyone’s standards. Nevertheless, the Memorial and all that it represents, would not function as it does were it not for many whose efforts over the last 75 years have sought absolution to the memories of 1937’s atrocities.
John Rabe may be the best known example of exemplary volunteer behaviour through his actions to help establish the Nanking Safety Zone that is estimated to have saved the lives of up to 200,000 Chinese civilians.
His efforts have never been forgotten by the people of Nanjing. Upon returning to Germany in 1938, he continued campaigning to stop any further inhumane violence; actions that were to lead to his detention and interrogation by the Gestapo. Following the war he continued sporadic work for Siemens, but the Massacre would forever haunt him. Both the British army and the People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs of Russia arrested Rabe, releasing him only after intense interrogation. Stripped of the work permit issued to him by the British Zone of occupied Berlin, Rabe had little choice but to undergo de-nazification to have any chance at reemployment.
Still unable to find work and on the verge of starvation, from 1946 to 1948 the Rabe family lived in a one room apartment and survived by eating wild seeds and whenever possible selling their modest collection of Chinese art. Upon learning of their dire straits, the people of Nanjing raised the equivalent of ¥120,000 in today’s money that was personally delivered to the Rabes by the mayor of Nanjing himself. For the following year, the people of Nanjing were to send a food package to the Rabe family each and every month.
Such selfless acts can be seen to this day among Nanjing’s good Samaritans. For the past 18 years, more than 400 students of Nanjing Xiaozhuang College have donated their efforts to the Volunteer Tour Guide Service at the Memorial Hall. By giving up their holiday time, between them they have shown more than 2.5 million visitors around the exhibition area.
It is job that is taken most seriously, and for which there is no shortage of applicants. To be an official member of the Volunteer Tour Guide Service requires interview, training and trial lectures. Successful applicants will stand in front of the mirror in their dormitory, exercising the lecture again and again, followed by copious note swapping and discussion. They learn from each other and strive hard for perfection.
Today, the easiest way to visit the Massacre Memorial is by metro. It was not the case in 2008, prior to the opening of line 2 when the volunteer students of Xiaozhuang College had their campus in Jiangning District. Come rain or shine, the group of approximately 20 students would each year make the long twice-daily journey to their work. Even during the Memorial’s renovation, the students would donate more of their time, collecting 12,802 human archives and organizing a database of victims.
Volunteers at the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall are not limited to those from local colleges and universities, but they do share a deep understanding of the subtle meanings that are built into each and every corner of the museum; nuggets of information that they are only too happy to share with those who are willing to listen. An American volunteer working at the Memorial comments, “The statuary and landscaping outdoors are interesting and worth reflection. For example, the gates to the memorial open to an expansive field of stones divided by a two dark stone sidewalks. Even many Chinese learners might not realize that the sidewalks make the Chinese character ‘ren’ or ‘person’. Every statue, every step and every tree carries meaning.”
