A signing ceremony for a building in honour of the man instrumental in saving the lives of more than 250,000 people in the Nanjing Massacre was held in the capital of Jiangsu Province yesterday afternoon.

The John Rabe (1882-1950) and International Safety Zone Memorial Hall and John Rabe Research and Exchange Centre for Peace and Reconciliation will be built at his former residence.

The three-storey house is located inside the Gulou District campus of Nanjing University, and it could be open to public next August.

The Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Shanghai, Nanjing University, Siemens China and Siemens Home Appliances China signed a four-party agreement in the ceremony to renovate the house.

"The memorial hall is to commemorate John Rabe, who saved the lives of numerous Nanjing residents during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the centre is to promote academic research of international peace and reconciliation," said Zhang Rong, vice-president of Nanjing University.

"Rabe served as the business representative of Siemens in Nanjing during World War II," said Peter Borger, executive vice-president of Siemens China, "We are proud of his legacy in China, where he significantly contributed to the development of the friendship between China and Germany."

The four organizations agreed to provide 2,250,000 yuan (US$ 277,435) for the renovation, with Siemens as the main contributor.

John Rabe was born in Hamburg, Germany. He came to China in 1908. From 1931 to 1938, Rabe was in Nanjing and witnessed the Nanjing Massacre which killed at least 300,000 Chinese people.

His house was a refugee camp at the time, taking in at least 600 citizens during the massacre. Rabe also kept diaries recording more than 500 atrocities made by the Japanese invaders, which is used today as important evidence of the Nanjing Massacre.

(China Daily December 7, 2005)