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carbinePRO t1_irsus4e wrote

Reply to comment by GottaPSoBad in TIL about John Rabe. A German representative in China who used his Nazi credentials and influence to save 200,000 Chinese citizens from being slaughtered by Japanese forces in 1937 during the Nanjing Massacre. by LethalPoopstain

That's a really light way of putting it.

It's just really hard to completely root for this guy. Rabe found his success by rubbing shoulders with Nazis, and agreeing with their racial politics. Yes, he was technically de-Nazified, but he still supported the Nazis, even after they publicly outed their ideas with the Nuremberg Laws.

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GottaPSoBad t1_irsvvxj wrote

I get you. Definitely not trying to downplay the issues here. I'm just saying it doesn't surprise me that a Japanese imperialist and a German Nazi would each fail, at least initially, to see how awful their own country was during WW2. Most people carry around some level of cognitive dissonance, especially about things that hit closer to home (literally or metaphorically).

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carbinePRO t1_irsxh86 wrote

I hear that. I read something not too long ago about the idea of Nazis being heroes, and Rabe and Schindler were the subjects of that piece. The journal concluded that it is possible to separate the party affiliation from the person based on their deeds, which I believe is fair to a degree. There were a lot of German businessmen who were abroad and part of the Nazi Party that had no idea of what was happening back home. Maybe it's possible that Rabe was a just a naive idealist. He did write to Hitler hoping that he would stop the Japanese from committing war crimes against the Chinese. I don't know how someone would think Hitler would be capable of doing such a thing if they were aware of what he was ordering to happen to the Jews.

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ThePhysicistIsIn t1_irtw3lk wrote

Close to a quarter of the german population was part of the Nazi party, for most it didn’t mean anything else than being part of a social club that helped them get promotions at work

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Timpstar t1_irv3lx2 wrote

Exactly. It's a tough pill to swallow, but the lives of so many germans became not only liveable, but great thanks to the nazis. Sometimes people excuse bad behavior if it means it'll get their own living situation from bad to good.

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ThePhysicistIsIn t1_irxyeke wrote

In terms of real wages the conditions of the average german did not actually materially improve during Nazi leadership, but it was no secret that refusing to join the party placed you at a disadvantage/made you suspect.

Many Anti-Nazis joined the party just to cast off suspicions. It really didn't mean you supported the party. No more than being part of the Communist party in the USSR meant you believed in Communism. It just meant you were willing to pretend.

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HorsesSuck120 t1_irulcks wrote

I'll treat him like a human I guess. He did bad, and that should be noted, but he did do good, which should also be noted.

We shouldn't completely erase someone from history because they did something bad, if they also did a lot of good.

(Of course the more despicable the deeds, the more good they have to do to earn this respect)

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