On November 23, 1882, John Rabe was born in Hamburg, Germany. His father was a ship's captain, but died when John was young. When his father died he left school to work as an apprentice for an export firm in Hamburg for almost three years. Later he worked for an English firm in Africa and learned to speak English. A malaria outbreak in 1906 forced him to go back to Germany. His father dying always weighed heavily on him and he always hated to see death. This could play a huge role in why he decided to save over 200,000 Chinese people.