George Ashmore Fitch

George A. Fitch was born in Soochow, China in 1883, the son of Presbyterian missionaries

George F. and Mary McLellan Fitch. After receiving his B.A. from the College of Wooster in  Ohio in 1906, Fitch attended Union Theological Seminary in New York. He was ordained in 1909 and returned to China to work with YMCA in Shanghai.

When the Nanking Massacre occurred, Fitch was the head of the YMCA in Nanking. He quickly became active in assisting the International Committee for the Nanking Safety Zone. Fitch's diary of events in Nanking was carried out by the first person able to leave Nanking for Shanghai after the occupation by the Japanese.

In  1938,  Fitch  traveled  throughout  the  United  States  giving  talks  about  the  Nanking  Massacre.  He returned to China to serve with the YMCA and the United Nations Relief and  Rehabilitation  Agency,  then  went  on  to  serve  the  YMCA  in  Korea  and  Taiwan  until  his  retirement in 1961.(American Missionary Eyewitnesses to the Nanking Massacre, 2007)

Video on George A. Fitch's life and reading of letters, portrayed by actor John Getz

Retrieved from: The Nanking (2007), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfkk-GtM_sI