In 1937, as the invading Japanese Army closed on Nanking, then the capital of China, all foreigners were ordered to leave the city. One man, a mild 55-year-old German named John Rabe, who ran the local Siemens factory, refused on the grounds that it would show a bad example to his Chinese workers. Sending his wife and family to safety, he watched in horror as the Japanese began to wipe out the population. Hastily contacting the tiny remaining community of foreigners - fewer than 20 people - and using the flimsy authority of a pact Hitler had made with the Japanese, Rabe spent months safeguarding and providing refuge for thousands of Chinese, often interposing himself physically between the executioners and their victims. Every night Rabe would record these extraordinary events in his diary, the contents of which are presented in this book.