International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone

The International Committee was established in order to establish and manage the Nanking Safety Zone.

Many Westerners were living in the city at that time, conducting trade or on missionary trips. As the Japanese army began to approach Nanking, most of them fled the city. A small number of Western businessmen, journalists and missionaries, however, chose to remain behind. The missionaries were primarily Americans from the Episcopal, Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches. To coordinate their efforts, the Westerners formed a committee, called the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone.

German businessman John Rabe was elected as its leader, partly because of his status as a member of the Nazi party and the existence of the German-Japanese bilateral Anti-Comintern Pact. Rabe and other refugees from foreign countries tried to protect the civilians from getting killed by the Japanese. The Japanese didn't recognize the Safety Zone, and hundreds of men and women were raped and killed. Due to Rabe's efforts some 250,000 people were protected during Nanking Massacre.

In February 1938 as violence by the Japanese Army abated, the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone was reorganized as the Nanking International Relief Committee, which did humanitarian work in Nanking until at least 1941. There are no records of any activity by the Committee after 1941 and it is believed likely that it was forced to discontinue its operations after the United States entered World War II.

The Westerners who remained behind established the Nanking Safety Zone, a score of refugee camps bordered by roads on all four sides that occupied an area of about 2 square miles. This is approximately the same size as Central Park in New York.

The fifteen members of the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone were as follows:

George Ashmore Fitch, was general secretary of the "Foreign YMCA" in Shanghai, advisor to OMEA, active in the humanitarian work, named by John Rabe (Chairman) to be director of the ICNSZ, and served as acting mayor of Nanking after Mayor General Ma Shao-chuan turned over to him treasury resources, some police, and food stores. Most lists do not mention him as a formal member. Perhaps this is because he was elected director while he had been travelling and before he returned to Nanjing. These individuals are not to be confused with the members of the International Red Cross Committee of Nanking, which did similar work. Its 17 members included Robert O. Wilson, an American doctor at Drum Tower Hospital of Nanking University Hospital, James McCallum, an American missionary at the same institution, and Minnie Vautrin, an American missionary at Ginling Girls' College.

...
Wikipedia