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.

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.

Fun fact, there's a Japanese person who did the same thing, except with Jews against the Nazis.

Chiune Sugihara, a.k.a., the Japanese Schindler.

I just find it ironic that they partnered in the war, but were actively against each other's treatment of specific people groups. If only they had this same insight, but with their own nations.