Minnie Vautrin

In December 1937, Japanese troops captured the Chinese city of Nanking.

The events that followed would become known as the Rape of Nanking, as
hundreds of thousands of Chinese people were executed or sexually
assaulted. Things could have been even worse if several foreigners in
Nanking hadn’t worked to protect the locals. Among them was Minnie
Vautrin.

Vautrin was an American immigrant from Illinois who had been president of
Nanking’s Ginling College since 1919. When the massacres started, she
declared the college a civilian safety zone and more than 10,000 women
eventually sought shelter there. On many occasions, Vautrin was the only
thing that stood between the soldiers and their intended victims, often
having guns waved in her face. Unfortunately, even though she saved the
lives of countless people, Vautrin’s experience of the massacres had a
profound impact on her and she later committed suicide.

Minnie Vautrin’s heroism has often been overshadowed, since one of her
collaborators in Nanking was the heroic Nazi party member John Rabe,
and the image of a Nazi saving the lives of thousands has attracted more
attention than the actions of an American woman. Even the 2009 film about
the Rape of Nanking decided to change her name and make her character
French while focusing on Rabe’s actions.