Rao Jiaju, the scorpion fighting landlord of Shanghai "Bella", a hero who defended 300,000 civilians by himself, should not be forgotten.

1937 1 1 June1June, 1940, a Frenchman named Rao Jiaju joined forces with the Japanese invaders to form the Shanghai Heather Refugee Area.

Since then, more than three years ago, about 300,000 civilians have been protected in refugee areas in southern Shanghai. Rabe is Rabe's senior in Nanjing. A few years later, he was also written into the United Nations Geneva Convention, becoming an example of protecting civilians in wartime.

Unfortunately, Rao Jiaju is not as lucky as Rabe. He and his safety zone are gradually submerged in the dust of history.

20 15, Liberation Monday restored the whole development of Rao Jiaju and Shanghai Heather refugee area in several versions.

20 17 12 14, on the second day of the national public holiday, the monument of Shanghai Heather Refugee Area was completed. Two years have passed, and

We continue to pursue Rao Jiaju, an unforgettable memory of this city.

Travel: 80 years of waiting

The French town of Sant is the hometown of Rao Jiaju.

He was born in France, and everything naturally started in France. What kind of family, what kind of growth experience, finally honed and created Rao Jiaju who can save about 300 thousand civilians in Shanghai?

We don't know.

20 15 Historian Professor Su Zhiliang salvaged the detailed story of Rao Jiaju and Heather refugee area for the first time. However, most of the historical materials found in Shanghai are still based on Rao Jiaju's charitable activities in China.

At that time, the survivors in Heather refugee area are now white-haired old people. They vaguely remember that a one-armed priest came to the refugee area at dawn every day; I remember the gunfire outside the refugee area, but everyone in the refugee area can still sleep peacefully; I remember some people coming to distribute food and medicine regularly. There are hospitals, classrooms and disciplined people in refugee areas, almost like a small centralized society, which is orderly.

As for Rao Jiaju's position? Why was his energy so great that the security zone was recognized by the Shanghai authorities, concessions and Japanese invaders at that time? Later, he even accepted a large amount of food aid from then-US President Roosevelt?

We still know very little about his personal life.

On 20/0/5, after learning about Rao Jiaju's story from Su Zhiliang, Wang Min, director of the comprehensive editing and research department of Shanghai Audio-visual Archives, became interested. After research, Shanghai Audio-visual Archive plans to set up a shooting team to go to Europe to dig more first-hand information.

Intermittent emails, stumbling contact progress, and finally on 20 17, a five-member team began a trip to Europe.

The moment I got off the plane from Paris airport, history finally came to its proper moment.

In the past two years, all Rao Jiaju's researchers can only read a few words in historical materials and think over the story of Heather refugee area. Now, I can only imagine in my mind that Rao Jiaju, who is within reach, is close at hand.

After 80 years, Rao Jiaju's hometown finally came to Shanghai, where he had helped, and came for him.

Hometown: Nobody remembers him.

Sant, a few hundred kilometers away from Paris, is a small town in western France and the hometown of Rao Jiaju. On the street, the ancient buildings of the Roman era are scattered all over the place, which has condensed into the unique face of this ancient city for two thousand years.

Before leaving, the travel agency repeatedly confirmed one thing: "Are you sure you want to stay in this small hotel in Sant?" The players nodded and said yes. Even though the travel agency has repeatedly stressed that this hotel is small, old and poorly equipped, and it is not recommended to make a reservation, the team members still insist.

Because that's the apartment where Rao Jiaju was born.

No.3 Boer Square, now the house number is changed to 1, 1878 March 15, where Rao Jiaju was born.

When the visiting group stood in the lobby of the hotel dragging suitcases of all sizes, everyone's impression was really humble.

This is an old house with four floors. The corridor is cramped and the room is narrow. There is only room for a bed and simple shower facilities in each room, and the interior is almost empty.

What impressed me the most was that the European stairs were winding and creaking, and the lights on them were flickering, just like Rao Jiaju's life.

Charles, an accompanying Belgian history lover, said that according to the investigation, Rao Jiaju's father was a junior officer in the French army, and his family had been migrating with the army. The officer's family occupied the whole apartment. After Rao Jiaju was born, the number of family members increased and the space was tight. They moved several times for this. During the Santer period alone, Rao Jiaju had three addresses, one of which is now a residential building, and the other only knows the basic location, but the specific address cannot be found.

Young Rao Jiaju's father moved several times and spent his childhood in the shadow of war. Has the seed of charity sprouted in his heart since then?

Now, the origin of everything, the small building where it was born, its owner has changed several times, and no one remembers him anymore.

During their stay, members of the delegation asked around. No one knows Rao Jiaju, whether he is the landlord of the small building, the owner of the hotel or a nearby neighbor. No one has heard the story of this man. He seems to have disappeared in his hometown.

When people put their photographic equipment in front of the hotel and start shooting, passers-by pass by from time to time, and they will curiously ask similar questions: Why shoot here? Is there anything to take pictures of here?

You can only tell people about Rao Jiaju's humanitarian feat over and over again, telling them that he once saved about 300,000 civilians in distant China.

"Oh." People responded. Probably surprised, but also awake after curiosity is satisfied.

Will they remember this? Will the name Rao Jiaju leave its mark in my hometown in the future? The mission can only hope so.

The next day, I interviewed Mayor Santer. After previous contact and explanation, the archives of Santander municipal government has found out Rao Jiaju's birth file, which clearly records Rao Jiaju's birth certificate and family members' information. It turned out that Rao Jiaju's family left no descendants, so the name was gradually forgotten.

Rao Jiaju's birth record

Journal: Surprise after years of dust collection

On a cloudy day in Paris, the delegation came to the Seifer Library.

The following are the reports of priests and churches sent to various places at that time. Among them, the internal publication of 1937 includes

It has been lying quietly in the library for 80 years. No one has seen it before, and no one thinks it's important. It sleeps in time with countless ordinary files.

It was not until the information provided by the delegation that Ms. Jacqueline Dior, the librarian, learned about Rao Jiaju in advance. She was surprised at this.

In the archives, there is a photo of Rao Jiaju when he was young. In the letter, Rao Jiaju gave a detailed report on the beginning and end of the establishment of the refugee area in Heather, Shanghai in June1937+0/KLOC-0, covering all aspects of the work in the refugee area, and even two photos taken by Rao Jiaju himself.

Young Rao Jiaju

These materials are very precious. People in the library feel that no one has ever come here to check Rao Jiaju's information before, and they have no idea that such a character has done such a touching thing.

After taking away these precious first-hand information, the delegation can't do anything for the time being. Only when we return to China and let professional scholars translate them one by one can we learn more about the story of Shanghai refugee area, a southern city.

Another unexpected gain was that the file mentioned that Rao Jiaju lived in an apartment at 42 Lonnell Street after returning to France from China.

With the help of Ms. Dior, the search team found this old apartment.

This apartment is still in use and well preserved. At the entrance of the apartment, the manager De Ville told a lot about the history of the house. It was used as a dormitory long ago. However, when asked about Rao Jiaju, De Ville shook his head. He doesn't know anything.

Unfortunately, the literature only mentions that Rao Jiaju once lived here, without saying which room. I'm afraid this detail can only disappear in time.

Red Cross Headquarters: a precedent for opening a safe area in wartime

Late at night in Geneva, the streets are empty. The symmetrical U-shaped house of the International Committee of the Red Cross is located on a green slope.

As everything had been connected before, the delegation arrived at the archives of the Committee headquarters the next day.

How did the International Committee of the Red Cross discover Rao Jiaju and his Heather refugee area? How did you come up with the idea of writing the case of refugee areas into the Geneva Convention in detail?

After reading the file, we know that all this is inseparable from a man named Louis Karam. He was a Swiss doctor practicing medicine in China in 1930s, and was appointed as the representative in China by the International Committee of the Red Cross.

After the outbreak of War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression, Luis Karam has been very concerned about the war in China. In Shanghai, he visited Heather's refugee area many times. In 1937 and 1938, he wrote reports on various practices in refugee areas and reported them to the Geneva headquarters, which were very detailed and specific.

How did Louis Karam know Rao Jiaju in that war-torn era? Was he also deeply moved, so he mentioned and publicized Heather's refugee area in Shanghai many times in the report? The answer, we still don't know, can only be translated and sorted out by scholars.

Fourth Geneva Convention

Daniel Pamir

Daniel Pamir is a historical researcher in the library and public archives of the International Committee of the Red Cross. He gave Rao Jiaju a very high historical evaluation. He said:

"As far as I know, Raojiaju Safe Zone is the first internationally recognized and successfully established international safe zone. This is a neutral protected area. It has no precedent and was successfully established in wartime to protect civilians. I think Rao Jiaju has created a new model of protected areas, which is still used in some conflict areas. If people want to establish a safe area, they will also learn from the experience of Raojiaju safe area. "

FranoisBignon, a member of the General Assembly of the International Committee of the Red Cross, is also a historian. He believes that Heather's refugee area has great enlightenment to the protection of civilians in wartime and the construction of war neutral zone in the second half of the 20th century.

In this house, which embodies the brilliance of the world humanitarian spirit, the members pointed to the information and said that the so-and-so clause in the Geneva Convention was based on the case of Heather refugee area in Shanghai. So-and-so, inspired by Shanghai Shinan refugee area.

For the history of war, nothing is more touching than saving lives.

We should not forget.

Cemetery: It's far away in the suburbs, and it's hard to find something simple.

The last stop in Berlin is Rao Jiaju's resting place.

From 65438 to 0945, Rao Jiaju, who returned to his hometown from China, did not give up the cause of humanitarian aid. He was appointed as an inspector by UNHCR and continued to do refugee relief work in war-torn and devastated European countries. He has been to Poland, and after the defeat, he went to Germany.

Raojiaju Cemetery was discovered by Krauspe Geller, a local historian who wrote local chronicles. 20 13 a domestic scholar followed Rabe's clue and stumbled upon one.

Crosby Geller talked about Rao Jiaju's last years in Berlin and the changes of Rao Jiaju's cemetery.

Rao Jiaju suffered from chronic malnutrition and overwork, and his condition became more and more serious. He fell down in Berlin because he was too weak and was later diagnosed with leukemia.

1September 9, 946, Rao Jiaju was critically ill, lying in bed, wanting a glass of champagne, and someone poured him a few mouthfuls with a spoon. By this time, he was very weak. On 10, Rao Jiaju began to coma and died at 16: 40.

At first, Rao Jiaju was buried in the French National Cemetery in Vernau. 195 1 year, the French national cemetery was rebuilt and relocated. Most of the bodies buried in the cemetery were transported back to France, and some of them were transferred to the Berlin Wetland Cemetery on the outskirts of Berlin. However, Rao Jiaju's family has no descendants, and his cemetery has remained in Berlin.

It was a fine day, and the Berlin Wetland Cemetery in the Holy Lake was empty. Looking around, there are only a group of tombstones that look similar.

I thought it would take some time to find Rao Jiaju's tombstone. As luck would have it, an old lady in a little red riding hood came up and asked her what help she needed. Members of the delegation replied: "We are looking for the tombstone of Rao Jiaju. Have you ever heard of Rao Jiaju? "

I had no hope, but the old lady nodded at once and said excitedly, "I know this man!" " I heard my husband mention it. Come on, I'll take you to his grave. "

It turns out that someone still remembers him.

Although the old lady didn't know why her husband remembered it, she couldn't say much, but she remembered the location of the cemetery and turned two corners, just in the French tomb area of the cemetery.

The delegation presented flowers and candy in front of Rao Jiaju's simple tombstone. First of all, in 20 13, people from China, Germany and France laid a monument for Rao Jiaju. A few years later, a layer of green moss grew under it. The words on this stone tablet were written by a cultural scholar Yu and are still clearly visible today.

Rao Jiaju sleeps quietly here. In the cemetery where he helped Germany, in the rows of tombstones of French soldiers, his is just an ordinary one.

A China man in his forties said, "I only knew Rabe before. This time you gave me the address of the cemetery, so I looked it up online and found that Rao Jiaju is so powerful that we don't know much about it. "

So when he came out of Rao Jiaju's cemetery, the translator said, "You should go and see Rabe's cemetery." He motioned, "It's very different from Rao Jiaju's cemetery."

Rabe's cemetery is located in the cemetery of Emperor William Memorial Church in the center of Berlin. 20 13 Nanjing municipal government funded the restoration of the memorial cemetery in the original site of Rabe cemetery to express the memory of Rabe. Therefore, its tombstone can be seen at a glance, and the flowers in the surrounding seasons are in full bloom, indicating that people often come to worship and sweep.

Pegler said with emotion: Everyone knows john rabe. Comparing Rabe and Schindler, they are undoubtedly great humanitarians. But from the research point of view, Rao Jiaju is a pioneer. He inspired Rabe a lot, and Rabe wrote to Rao Jiaju for advice.

On the trip, almost everyone who has heard of Rao Jiaju's deeds will repeat this sentence: his historical value is no less than Rabe's, and this history should be discovered, not forgotten.

[Reporter's Notes]

People who have disappeared in history

After the visit to Europe, almost everyone in the group lamented that Rao Jiaju had been forgotten. It seems that there has never been such a person in history.

Almost everyone I met along the way didn't know him beforehand. I don't know him at home; The work unit does not know him; The cemetery is deserted and young people don't know him.

Along the way, almost every document I read has never been turned over before. All the letters, reports, photos and videos have been lying quietly for more than half a century, during which no one moved or knew.

Ruan, an American scholar who studied World War II, came across the name "Rao Jiaju" many times in historical materials, so he later wrote a short article "Rao Jiaju Safe Zone: Refugees in wartime Shanghai". After 20 15, there are few breakthrough documents to enrich and continue the research on Rao Jiaju and Heather refugee area he founded.

Rao Jiaju, like a grain of dust caught in the cracks of history, gradually dissipated. We forgot him, and so did our hometown.

Wang Min said that all previous contacts and clues in Europe were salvaged, and most of the responses were "this person was not found".

Charles was originally a Belgian engineer, and his hobby was studying old houses in Shanghai. He met Wang Min at an academic seminar. After learning that the Shanghai Audio-visual Archive had collected and filmed Rao Jiaju's special topic, Charles enthusiastically said that you would always accompany me because "I want to do something for him".

Even now, the first-hand documents brought back are waiting for textual research and unsealing. In other words, Rao Jiaju is still lying in the data, in the corner of historical memory.

Today, what else can we do to commemorate Rao Jiaju and Heather refugee areas?

Sun, Wang, a junior in the history department of Shanghai Normal University, and Zhu, a student in the advertising department, jointly formed a project to describe the local history of Shanghai, including the history of war, with children's picture books.

After learning about Rao Jiaju from the teacher, they decided to draw his story into a picture book. Students looked up historical materials and found an interesting detail: Rao Jiaju always likes to put a few sweets in his pocket. Every time he goes to the refugee area, he coaxes the children with candy.

So it took six months and eight revisions to complete the picture book Grandpa in the Pocket. During this period, they checked what the door of Shanghai Chenghuang Temple looked like, checked the color of candy in Shanghai at that time, and made a series of strict scrutiny before they produced a picture book.

Today, three college students used picture books to tell stories to children in Shanghai many times. Grandpa in his pocket became a children's story that these children talked about.

At the end of the story, it is getting dark. Grandma Shanghai, the heroine, took out a handkerchief from her pocket, wiped her tears and prepared to go home.

"Hey? Who put two sweets in my pocket? "

"Is that you, grandpa? So you have been in my pocket. "

"Then you must know that I miss you very much."

Yes, we all miss you.

The following excerpt is from the story of Rao Jiaju's "Safe Zone" published in Liberation Monday on 20 15.

19 13 A French priest came to Shanghai. Looking from the Huangpu River, he probably didn't expect that after 24 years, the fate of 300,000 people here is closely linked to himself.

His name is Rao Jiaju.

1937 August 13 is a day that Shanghai will never forget.

On this day, the destroyed city was full of death and terror. The Japanese invaders continued to burn, kill and plunder in the scorched earth. Thousands of people have been displaced and become refugees.

Countless refugees gathered in Heather. They were crowded on the road of the Republic of China, eagerly looking at the gate of the French Concession, lacking food and clothing, and in a miserable situation.

Rao Jiaju, the captain of the rescue team, came up with an idea.

"After consultation with China and Japanese military authorities, the area north of Fangbang Road was designated as a safe area as a refugee shelter." This is Heather Refugee Area, also known as Raojiaju Area, which was established on1937165438+1October 9.

Initial negotiations to mediate the concerns and interests of all parties are extremely difficult.

The public concession and the French concession should agree, and so should China and Japan. The warring parties have signed a written agreement and the safe area is reasonable.

This "almost impossible task" actually made Rao Jiaju succeed with superb communication skills. Thanks to Rao Jiaju's accumulated contacts and word of mouth.

Later, Rabe, who tried to establish a safe zone in Nanjing, was forced to close the safe zone in less than half a year under the pressure of the Japanese side because he failed to get approval.

The benefits of a written agreement are obvious. On June165438+1October 1 1 day, the Japanese army occupied most of Heather's area and set fire to the streets for several days, but Heather's safe area was not affected.

The refugees were divided into nine districts. There are general affairs, paperwork, discipline, design, supply, public affairs, health, cleaning, registration, investigation, medical treatment and so on under each regional leader. The staff are all from China. The comprehensive office consists of refugee group, resident group, security group, health group and material group. The budget is divided into four parts: food, clothes, hospital and others.

This is a "small refugee area" and an almost perfect management system.

Heather refugee area can be written as Geneva convention, and its unique example value lies in this. Because it not only conceived, but also created the wartime refugee management system, which has produced worldwide influence so far.

Six ounces of rice is five cents. This is the daily share of each refugee. According to the data, there are 24 food distribution centers and 24 collective canteens in the safe area.

Every day, the parade in the temple yard winds hundreds of meters. The issuer sits at the table and the ticket is stamped and punched. Scoop rice out of a pile of sacks and pour it into the refugee's bag.

The Committee is most worried about health care. Once an infectious disease breaks out in a safe area, the consequences are unpredictable. This work is too heavy for any organization to handle alone, so the responsibility is shared by all kinds of good groups. There are too many sick refugees, and even abandoned babies on the roadside often get sexually transmitted diseases.

1937 165438+1October16, the first temporary hospital in Chenghuangmiao was established. The outpatient department handles more than 300 cases every day, but it is still out of proportion to the number of refugees.

The next day, a temporary maternity hospital was established in Heather's circulating library. Later, disaster children's hospitals opened one after another. These free clinics cost a lot of money.

Every day, there is always a rickshaw, facing the morning light, from Ban Lü Road, Old North Gate, Xinkai River and out of Ilo.

Heather is like a maze of narrow streets. Be careful when two rickshaws pass by. The streets were rugged with sharp stones. After the refugees poured into here, they quickly occupied all the empty rooms and filled every corner.

Rao Jiaju does everything by himself. He goes to the refugee area every day, because no matter how well managed, there are always omissions.

Ren Xipeng, the head of the seventh district, falsely reported the number of refugees and deducted food rations. After the incident, some relief rice, relief clothes 100 sets and silk quilts 100 beds were found from his home, and he was severely punished.

1939 In April, the refugee area entrusted Hengda Foreign Firm to buy 1000 bales of brown rice, with hundreds of bales mixed with barnyard grass and stones.

There will also be illegal incidents such as drug abuse, gambling, alcoholism and fighting in refugee areas. Therefore, a criminal court was established.

It can be said that Shanghai people and international friends have jointly supported the refugee areas. It has maintained a population of 300 thousand in the past three years by means of relief, and many researchers lament that it is "really amazing"

In the French version of the brochure "The Story of Rao Jiaju", there is such a sentence: "Admirable Shanghai, a city with immeasurable charitable donations, is so generous that it seems that we can't expect more."

Source: Shangguan.com.

The original title of the article is: Shanghai should not be forgotten! Li Xun visited Rao Jiaju.