Call Number:

PH-02638

Collection Name:

Bernhard Arp Sindberg Papers and Photography Collection

Creator:

No. of Items:

394 items

Span Dates:

1937-1985 (bulk 1937-1938)

Description:

Bernard Arp “Barney” Sindberg (1911-1983) was a Danish national employed in China in 1937 by the Kiang Nan Cement Factory. He first served in the Second Sino-Japanese War as a volunteer with Chinese forces during the Siege of Shanghai (September­-November 1937) by the superior Japanese forces. Assigned to take over a cement factory in Nanking, China, he arrived in that city shortly before the infamous Japanese invasion at the end of that same year. When the Japanese army routed the Chinese defenders and entered the walled city on December 13th, Sindberg, working both alone and with other foreign nationals, sought to find ways to protect portions of the civilian population from what would eventually become the "Rape of Nanking." During the course of atrocities that went on until March of 1938 and resulted in upwards of 300,000 civilian deaths, Sindberg provided a safe haven and improvised hospital within his cement works for approximately 10,000 Chinese civilians. Like his more famous counterpart, John Rabe ("the Wallenberg of Nanking"), Sindberg used his foreign status and resourcefulness to save the lives of countless civilians from the marauding Japanese army.

An amateur photographer and friend of a number of foreign newsmen, Sindberg carried his camera everywhere during this period, snapping often graphic scenes of civilian massacres and public destruction. In order to protect himself from the Japanese, he smuggled the undeveloped film out in company shipments, where it was developed by others in his company. Following the end of the war, he reclaimed his previously unseen prints and realized that he had produced one of the few photographic records of Nanking's destruction. Over the subsequent decades, during which he served as a merchant seaman on a variety of ships, he retained a significant portion of the photographs. It is this extant visual record -- supplemented by his notes and captions -- which makes up this important, amateur photojournalistic collection.

The collection consists of 394 vintage photographs taken chiefly during the Rape of Nanking. Of these a significant percentage are included in an album compiled by Sindberg himself. Many of the photographs are further enhanced by typed or handwritten notes that he composed. The collection is supplemented by a small amount of manuscript materials, including an incomplete typescript of what was probably intended to be Sindberg's autobiography. (His personal saga was apparently told in four printed Danish newspaper stories published around 1938.)

Access Restrictions:

Advance notice and curatorial approval are required to access 2006:0026:0394. To make an appointment, please contact the Curator of Photography.

Finding Aid URL:

https://norman.hrc.utexas.edu/fasearch/findingAid.cfm?eadid=01295

Location(s):

1 b, 1 osb (1-2)
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