Reviews

The Good Man of Nanking: The Diaries of John Rabe by Erwin Wickert, John Rabe, John E. Woods

mpdarby's review against another edition

4.0

This was my first book about the way the Chinese were treated by the Japanese in WWII. John Rabe definitely lives up to his name as the German Oskar Shindler. Fascinating story full of compassion. Rabe manages to keep his sense of humor and wit throughout all the horrible atrocities of war.

jennyn52779's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

bibliostatic's review

5.0

This book demonstrates that the truth is often far more complicated than we think. The fact that a member of the Nazi Party is a humanitarian hero in Nanking is a little mind-boggling.

scoutanderin's review

5.0

A harrowing and emotional true life account about the first days of the Japanese occupation in Nanking, Rabe really captured a narrator's voice while writing in his personal journals. While sometimes difficult to read (in the sense that the brutality described is almost too bestial to be true) the translated diary's of John Rabe stand as reminder of the Holocaust that was committed, and then forgotten about, in China during WWII. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Chinese, Japanese, and German history, as well as World War II and memoir readers.