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April 28, 2014

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Queen of Denmark in tribute to Nanjing Massacre victims

Source: Xinhua | April 28, 2014, Monday | Print Edition

Program Code: 0909346140405008 | Souce: CNTV

DENMARK’S Queen Margrethe II paid her respects to the victims of the Nanjing Massacre in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, yesterday.

The queen and her husbandPrince Consort Henrik arrived at the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre yesterday morning.

She looked at photographs depicting Bernhard Arp Sindberg, a Dane who helped save up to 20,000 Chinese lives during the massacre of 1937-38 when more than 300,000 Chinese were killed by Japanese soldiers who had occupied the city.

“Sindberg was a witness of the Nanjing Massacre and one of the foreign friends who protected Chinese refugees in Nanjing,” Zhu Chengshan, curator of the memorial hall, told the queen.

History cannot be changed but lessons can be learned, the queen said when she arrived in Nanjing on Saturday.

Sindberg came to China at the age of 26 seeking adventure, and eventually found a job as a watchman at the Jiangnan Cement Factory, run by a Danish firm, in Nanjing.

His arrival coincided with the Japanese invasion in December 1937, making him a witness to the brutality perpetrated against unarmed soldiers and civilians.

In a 107-day period during a bitter winter, Sindberg, along with German colleague Karl Gunther, established a makeshift camp for Chinese civilians inside the cement plant, ran a small field-hospital for the wounded and tried to provide food and other supplies to refugees.

In 2004, a yellow Danish rose was named the Nanjing Forever — Sindberg Rose by Sindberg’s hometown Aarhus Municipality, in remembrance of the events.

The Danish Embassy in Beijing later gave the roses as gifts to the memorial hall.

The queen stopped to appreciate the yellow flowers at the Peace Square of the memorial hall, where she met Su Guobao, a survivor of the massacre.

“I was only 10 when the massacre took place. My family and I, among other Chinese refugees, lived in the camp Sindberg established,” 87-year-old Su told the queen.

The whole family survived on money and rice from Sindberg, Su said.

“My heart is filled with gratitude. Thanks to Sindberg and Denmark,” he told the queen.

The occasion was also a chance for Sindberg’s niece Marianne Stenvig Andersen, who was among Danish delegates to visit China, to renew her friendship with Su.

The queen added some soil to a tree symbolizing peace at the square, and watered it.

The queen will visit Shanghai today.

 

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