University of Illinois Alumni Raise Awareness about the “Forgotten Holocaust” in China

My name is Jenny Chan and I graduated from the class of 2012. University of Illinois took me in directions that I never knew existed.

When I entered the University in 2008, I didn’t know what I wanted to do in the future. Despite my confusion as an incoming minority student, Illinois alumni inspired me to do more, to reach and stretch. With one of the largest alumni network in the world, University of Illinois has cultivated hundreds of people who are committed to excellence and service around the world.

Chills went up my spine when I found out that two Illinois alumni sacrificed their lives for the Nanjing Massacre. One of them is Minnie Vautrin (‘1900). As a graduate of College of Education, Minnie Vautrin started the first women’s college that offers bachelor’s degrees in China.  During the Nanjing Massacre, Minnie hosted over 10,000 women and children refugees on campus. Fortunately, her diary was preserved and still serves as a powerful evidence for the Nanjing Massacre up to this date!

Nanjing Massacre is also known as the Rape of Nanking. Within six weeks after December 13^th 1937, about 300,000 civilians were killed and 40,000 women were raped in Nanjing, the former capital of China. Because of the politics, Nanjing Massacre remains largely unknown in the United States. Therefore it is known as the “forgotten Holocaust” according to Iris Chang, an Illinois alumna (‘1989).

Iris Chang decided to raise awareness about the history after reading about the horrific genocide at the University of Illinois library. Her book, the Rape of Nanking, was published in 1997 and became New York Time’s best seller with over 400,000 copies sold. Unfortunately, Iris Chang committed suicide in 2004.

With less than 200 survivors of the Nanjing Massacre still alive, I feel the urgency to raise awareness about the forgotten Holocaust in China. I gave up job offers and became a full-time activist. I understand that this is an uphill battle, but this is my historical duty as a Chinese-American to let people remember the history. “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” says George Santayana.


Forgotten Heroes

Alumni support enables me to turn idea into action. Cheng Yu, an LAS alumnus in 2013, and I teamed up and created the Foundation Honoring Nanjing Massacre Survivors. We are a producing a play Forever Ginling, based on Minnie Vautrin’s diary. The first preview of the play will be on August 9^th at the Temple Baptist Church.

In order to fund the production cost, we are having a launch party for the play this Saturday (July 13th). It is more than a coincidence that our first donor, Hani Sharabash, also studied at the University of Illinois.
We are also very thrilled to be joined by Pete Stanek who has been educating people about the Nanjing Massacre for over 20 years. Currently, he is the President of the Global Alliance for Preserving the History of WWII in Asia. He will travel from another county to San Francisco in order speak at the launch party.

Illinois is truly a global university. I am proud of the diversity and commitment of our alumni who are devoted to the cause of raising awareness of the Nanjing Massacre, which remains a sensitive topic in Japan, China and Taiwan. I am grateful to the common education experience that we share that bond us together.

Jenny Chan currently resides in San Francisco, CA. She is the co-founder of the Foundation Honoring Nanjing Massacre Survivors.