As more countries host events to honour those who perished in the Nanjing Massacre that marks its 82nd anniversary today, so too do hitherto unheard tales of heroism emerge that unite humanity across time and space.
This time last year, people were coming to lay wreaths at the newly-unveiled Nanjing Massacre Victims Monument at the Elgin Mills Cemetery in Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada. This year, in San Francisco, USA, the Rape of Nanking Redress Coalition is co-organiser of an event taking place to honour the Massacre’s victims.
Elsewhere, it was in Denmark this summer that an event took place to bring the local populace’s attention to the unlikely hero in a factory security guard named Bernhard Arp Sindberg, who saved the lives of as many as 20,000 Chinese citizens over the course of the mere 106 days that he spent in 1937-8 Nanjing.
While Sindberg is a legend in China and particularly Nanjing, until now he was virtually unknown in his home country.
The gift of a statue of Sindberg from the Nanjing government to the city of Aarhus earlier this year changed that, undoubtedly assisted by the fact that Queen Margrethe II of Denmark unveiled the statue herself.
There to translate the Queen’s speeches into Chinese, and those of other Danish dignitaries at the event in the city’s Marselisbourg Memorial Park, was Line Elk Hansen, an old Nanjing hand who now, back home in Denmark, works for the Danish-Chinese Business Forum, that just last month received the patronship of H.R.H. Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark.
Elk Hansen will be a familiar name and face to much of the foreign community of Nanjing on account that during her time in Nanjing, she worked for both EtonHouse International School and The British School of Nanjing.
Speaking with The Nanjinger, it emerged that Elk Hansen’s suitability for the translation job came about on account of connections on multiple levels to both Nanjing and the city of Aarhus, where the statue of Sindberg is located.
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“The strange thing is that he is not at all famous in Denmark. … Nobody in Denmark had a clue who he was”, Elk Hansen told The Nanjinger. “When I came back from China I was frustrated that there was so little Nanjing in Denmark. I actually put the Capital Region of Denmark together with Jiangsu Province and they ended up doing this Strategic Partnership”.
More or less in parallel with these ties on a provincial level, so Aarhus and Nanjing also initiated a city partnership back in 2012, backed by mayor of Aarhus, Jacob Bundsgaard, and his counterpart in Nanjing’s Qixia District, the-now-vice mayor of Nanjing City, Xing Zhengjun. The initiative came about after a visit by Nanjing authorities to Aarhus who were seeking information about Sindberg. Not a lot was initially forthcoming, but upon further investigation, the Danes discovered that there was indeed this man in history who had performed such a great deed of bravery.
The entire experience then led to today’s more formalised structure in which Aarhus has status as one of Nanjing’s International Friendship & Cooperation Cities & Areas.
Fitting then that the still-in-office Bundsgaard was among those for whom Elk Hansen translated at the statue unveiling, ahead of Queen Margrethe.
“One of the reasons I was chosen [to translate for the Queen] was that they knew I had this connection to Nanjing.
“It was a great honour. It was the Municipality of Aarhus that asked me to do the translation. It took me about 3 seconds to decide; I said yes! But then I was very nervous, all the time”.
No wonder, for someone translating into a non-native language as difficult as Chinese.
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“The reason I could say yes to this is that I knew the preparations would be done in such a way that I would have the speech in Danish in good time”, she recalled.
A bit of an anti-authority figure, Sindberg served previously with the Spanish army in Greenland, before his working as a security guard for the Nanjing Jiangnan Cement Factory, where he found himself able to shelter Chinese people from the brutality of Japanese invaders by hiding them within the spacious factory.
In his statue in Aarhus, Sindberg is depicted with his arms outstretched, an undeniable sign of welcome and saviour, while his enclosure has been named the “Gate of Hope”, a design by Danish artist, Lene Desmentik, assisted by Shang Rong at the Institute of Sculpture and Art in Nanjing University.
As the story of Sindberg has come to light, others too will no doubt be unearthed as time marches by, with more people the world over wishing to find out about the needless Massacre, and in their own way, do that they can to honour the memory of those who perished on this day 82 years ago.
