John Heinrich Detlef Rabe (23 November 1882 – 5 January 1950) was a German diplomat and businessman best known for his efforts to stop
Japanese war crimes and protect Chinese civilians during the
Nanjing Massacre. The
Nanking Safety Zone, which he helped to establish, sheltered approximately 250,000 Chinese people from
Imperial Japanese Army atrocities. Rabe had been sent to China as an official representative of
Nazi Germany in the European-U.S. diplomatic quarter in
Nanjing, the
Republic of China's capital. He served as senior chief of the diplomatic mission at the time of Japanese conquest.