A secretary of the German embassy in Nanking wrote the following account after the Japanese captured the city in 1937.
On 13 December, about 30 Japanese soldiers came to a house and demanded entrance. The door was opened by a Mr Ha, who was killed immediately with a revolver. Mrs Ha asked why they killed her husband, and they shot her too. Ha's two children, aged four and two respectively, were also killed. The older was bayoneted and the younger split down through the head with a sword.
In the guest hall, a Mrs Hsia was dragged out from under a table. After being stripped and raped, she was bayoneted in the chest, and then had a bottle thrust into her vagina. Her one-year-old baby was killed with a bayonet.
一九三七年日軍攻佔南京之後，德國駐南京大使館一名秘書有以下記述。
十二月十三日，約三十個日本士兵走到一棟房子門前，着令開門。有個哈先生把門打開，馬上遭士兵用手槍擊斃，哈太太問為甚麼殺她丈夫，也被槍殺。他們有兩個孩子，一個四歲，一個兩歲，同樣遭毒手。那個四歲孩子被刺刀捅死，那個兩歲孩子則被劍迎頭劈開。
客廳裏，一個夏太太躲在桌子下面，被拖出來。那些士兵脫去她衣服，把她強姦之後，用刺刀桶進她胸膛，再用瓶子塞進陰道。她一歲的孩子也被刺刀捅死。