Bernhard Arp Sindberg was briefly known in his home country Denmark in 1937 and 1938 as he played a marginal role during the battle of Shanghai, followed by a more substantial part in the aftermath of the Nanjing battle, during which he saved large numbers of Chinese civilians from Japanese excesses. However, for a long period until the early 21st century, he was virtually forgotten by the Danish public, and only regained widespread attention following a surge in the western literature on the Nanjing massacre. This paper traces Sindberg’s appearances in the Danish mass media and seeks a preliminary explanation of the significant shifts in awareness of Sindberg in the Danish public over time, going from modest recognition in the late 1930s to complete ignorance of his achievements from the 1940s until the 2000s, concluding in final acknowledgment of his role in history by the 2010s.