【编者按】2025年是中国人民抗日战争暨世界反法西斯战争胜利80周年。在这场关乎民族存续的战争中，来自五洲四海的国际友人，不畏艰险远渡重洋，以医疗救助、战地报道、技术支援等多种形式投身这场民族解放事业。大道不孤，白求恩大夫的手术刀、斯诺的新闻笔、拉贝的安全区等都是跨越国界的生命印记。《山河故人远道来》国际传播系列报道，以中英双语视频结合AI动画技术再现历史细节，致敬跨越国界的信念之光。
【Editor's Note】
2025 marks the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. In this war that concerned the survival of the nation, international friends from all over the world braved dangers and crossed the seas to join the cause of national liberation in various forms such as medical aid, war reporting, and technical support. The path of righteousness is not lonely. Dr. Bethune's scalpel, Snow's journalistic pen, and Rabe's safety zone are all life marks that transcend national borders. The international communication series "From Afar Came the Unforgotten" uses bilingual Chinese-English videos combined with AI animation technology to reproduce historical details and pay tribute to the light of belief that transcends national borders.
1937年冬，南京城陷，侵华日军的铁蹄踏碎古都安宁，三十万同胞惨遭屠戮。在这场人间浩劫中，一位美国女性以超乎寻常的勇气，为上万名中国妇孺撑起生命的屏障。她就是金陵女子文理学院代理校长明妮・魏特琳。
炮火映红天际时，她站在校门口，以看似柔弱的身躯对抗野蛮暴行。她如同炼狱中的一抹温暖，于至暗时刻折射出人性的辉光，更彰显着女性在危难中的坚韧力量。
临危请命，她守定危城
魏特琳1886年生于美国伊利诺伊州一个贫寒家庭，1912年从伊利诺伊大学教育学专业毕业后赴中国工作，1919年出任金女大教育系主任。1928年，吴贻芳被聘任金女大校长。魏特琳成为其重要的助手。
1937年11月12日，上海沦陷，日军向南京进逼。校长吴贻芳权衡再三，决定迁校成都。能带的都尽量带了，可校园怎么办？教学设备怎么办？关键时刻，魏特琳挺身而出：“把学校交给我吧！”她决然留守，成为战火中金女大的实际负责人。她指导学生和教师采取紧急防御措施、购买物资、向上海发送求救信号、下令修建战壕、安排校园内储存物资和搭建避难场所……美国大使馆曾多次送信要求其撤离，她的答复掷地有声：“就像在危险之中，男人们不应弃船而去，女人也不应丢弃她们的孩子。”
柔肩担险，她立于人前
南京大屠杀期间，魏特琳担任国际红十字会南京委员会委员和金女大难民所所长，在南京国际安全区下辖25个难民所中，她是唯一一位女性所长，也是唯一由外国人担任的难民所所长。她每天都像母鸡护小鸡一样守卫着前来避难的妇女儿童，最高峰时金陵女子文理学院的校园里收容了10000多名妇孺。
日军进城后，每天都会有日本兵到金陵女子文理学院抓人。他们不仅从学校的大门、侧门强行入内，还有人翻越围墙进校园，更有甚者，夜间从学校低矮的篱笆上爬过来。魏特琳整日在校园里巡逻，从一个地方跑到另一个地方，大声地喊：“这是美国学校！”但有时日本兵并不理会，他们拿着血迹斑斑的刺刀威胁她，还有人狠狠地抽魏特琳的耳光。“枯叶瑟瑟地响着，风在低声呜咽，被抓走的妇女们发出凄惨的叫声。”她在日记里记下这刺骨的一幕，次日却仍站在门口，迎接更多涌入的妇孺，用并不高大的身躯挡在所有人身前。
1938 年1月，一名妇女找到魏特琳，说她的儿子失踪了，恳求她能帮忙寻找。仅三四天的时间，失踪人员名单就上升到600多人。魏特琳专门编制了一份名单，帮助统计避难妇女失踪了的丈夫、儿孙情况，一次又一次同日本大使馆交涉。她深知，稍微出点差错，对他们所有的人来说就意味着死亡。
她一生未育，却有一群“孩子”
1938年2月初，罄竹难书的南京大屠杀基本趋于结束，南京的大多数难民营也随之关闭。可金女大内仍有好多妇女不敢回家，还有不少人家破人亡走投无路。魏特琳继续收容她们，直到3月中旬，仍有3300名妇孺生活在她的羽翼之下。
生命保全了，魏特琳又开始为她们的未来谋划。曾经的民众教育思想又复苏了，她积极创办职业训练班，手把手地教妇女们织毛巾、织袜子。9月，甚至办起了女子中学，共有学生170多人。紧接着，小学、托儿所相继成立。生命不息，教育不止，魏特琳女士没有这样说，却是这样做了。
恐怖高压下的坚守磨损了她的心力。1941年5月14日，魏特琳未能等到日军投降的那一天，告别了这个世界。临终前，她留下遗言：“如果能再生一次，还是要为中国人服务，中国是我的家。”
1941年5月18日，魏特琳的葬礼在美国举行，金女大校友代表徐亦蓁乘坐飞机从马萨诸塞州赶往密歇根州参加了告别仪式。在长方形的墓碑正面，雕刻着金女大校舍的剖面图，同时用苍劲的隶书写下四个汉字——“金陵永生”。
In the winter of 1937, the city of Nanjing fell as the invading Japanese army trampled the ancient capital's peace.When the disaster struck, an American woman displayed extraordinary courage, offering a shield of life for tens of thousands of Chinese women and children. She was Minnie Vautrin, acting president of Ginling College.
As gunfire flushed the sky, she stood at the college gate, a seemingly frail body defying savage violence. Like a warm spark in purgatory, she refracted the light of humanity in the darkest hour, embodying the unyielding power of women in crisis.
Staying Behind: Protecting a City Under Siege
Minnie Vautrin was born in 1886 into an impoverished family in Illinois, USA. After graduating in Education from the University of Illinois in 1912, Vautrin went to work in China. By 1919, she was Ginling's Director of Education. In 1928, when Wu Yifang became President, Vautrin served as her key assistant.
In 1937, as Shanghai fell and Japanese forces closed in on Nanjing, President Wu Yifang decided to move the college to Chengdu. They took what they could, but the campus and equipment remained. At the critical moment, Vautrin stepped forward: "Leave the college to me!" She resolved to stay and became Ginling's leader amid the war. She directed students and faculty to take emergency defensive measures, purchase supplies, send distress calls to Shanghai, order trenches dug, and arrange for stockpiled provisions and shelters within the campus.Despite repeated U.S. Embassy orders to evacuate, she refused firmly:"Just as men shouldn't abandon ship in danger, women shouldn't abandon their children."
Her Fragile Shoulders, Immense Courage
During the Nanjing Massacre, Vautrin served on the International Red Cross Committee and directed Ginling's refugee camp. Among the 25 refugee camps under the Nanjing International Safety Zone, she was the only female director and the sole foreign national in that role.Like a mother hen protecting her chicks, she guarded the women and children seeking refuge, sheltering over 10,000 people in the Ginling College campusat the peak.
After the Japanese troops entered the city, soldiers came to Ginling College every day to seize people. They forced their way in through the main and side gates, scaled the walls, and at night crawled over the low hedges. Vautrin patrolled the campus from dawn to dusk, running from spot to spot, shouting, “This is an American school!” Yet the soldiers often ignored her; some threatened her with blood-stained bayonets, others struck her hard across the face.“Dry leaves rustled, the wind sobbed low, and the women dragged away screamed in anguish,” she wrote in her diary. The next morning she was back at the gate, admitting more women and children, her slight figure planted squarely between them and danger.
In January 1938, a woman came to Vautrin begging her to help find her missing son. Within three or four days, the list of the disappeared had grown to more than 600 names. Vautrin compiled a detailed register of the lost husbands, sons and grandsons reported by the refugee women and, time after time, confronted the Japanese embassy with it. She knew that the slightest error could spell death for them all.
Childless, Yet Mother to Many
By early February 1938, the unspeakable Nanjing Massacre was largely over, and most of the city's refugee camps were closed. Yet many women at Ginling still dared not return home, and others had nowhere to go. Vautrin kept the gates open; even in mid-March, 3,300 women and children still lived under her protection.
Lives saved, she turned to their future. Her old conviction in mass education revived. She launched vocational classes, teaching the women by hand to weave towels and socks. In September she opened a girls’ middle school for 170 pupils; a primary school and a nursery followed. Vautrin never said, "While there is life, there is education," but she lived it.
The relentless terror and pressure wore down her spirit. On May 14, 1941, Minnie Vautrin passed away, never living to see the day of Japan's surrender. Before her death, she left these final words:"If I had a second life, I would still serve the Chinese people. China is my home."
On May 18, 1941, Vautrin's funeral was held in the United States. Xu Yizhen, representing Ginling College alumni, flew from Massachusetts to Michigan to attend the farewell service. On the face of her rectangular tombstone, an engraving depicts a cross-section of the Ginling College campus building. Beside it, four powerful Chinese characters are rendered in the bold clerical script (Lishu):"Ginling Lives Forever".
（来源：人民政协报、侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆、《魏特琳日记》）
无限工作室出品
策划：魏鹏 辛然
文案：沙斯媛
翻译、配音：武玮佳
剪辑：马茜
设计：陈艳娇
本文链接：http://www.gihot.com/news-4-12557-0.html山河远道故人来丨魏特琳：柔肩担险，烽火中的“她力量”
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