Armin
Theophil Wegner (October 16, 1886 – May 17, 1978) was a German soldier and
medic in World War I, a prolific author, and a human rights activist.[1]
Stationed in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Wegner was a witness to the
Armenian Genocide and the photographs he took documenting the plight of the
Armenians today "comprises the core of witness images of the
Genocide."[2]
In
the years following the end of World War I, Wegner also voiced his opposition,
at great risk to his own life, against the anti-semitic policies of the Nazis.
In 1933, he authored an impassioned plea to Adolf Hitler on behalf of the Jews
of Germany. He suggested that the persecution of the Jews was not just a
question of "the fate of our Jewish brothers alone, [but also] the fate of
Germany."[3] Noting that he was writing the letter as a proud German who
could himself trace his Prussian familial roots back to the time of the
Crusades, Wegner asked Hitler what would become of Germany if it continued its
persecution of Jews. Answering his own question, Wegner declared, "There
is no Fatherland without justice!"[4] He was persecuted by the Nazis and,
for his efforts, is recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations.
1915
Massacre Experiences of an Eight-Year-Old
Hagop
A. Tellalian was born in 1913 and arrived at Ellis Island in 1921. This 1993
interview is taken from the Ellis Island Oral History Program archives.
"...Part
of the Genocide was to get rid of the males. So once a month a man with an
oxen-driven cart picked up all the boys ...He said, 'We're going to send them
to school,'...on that pretext. When the neighbors saw this, even the Turkish
neighbors, they would come and tell my mother, 'The man is coming around to
collect the boys again!' ...We had a dry well and Mama used to say to me, 'The
man is coming to take you away. Keep quiet, Don't say anything. Just hide down
there.' I put the cover on and I was down there .... for an hour.
(In
the June, 2000 issue of The Journal of Genocide Research, Volume 2, Number 2,
Adam Jones describes the mass killing of
males in an article that helps explain this horrow, "Gendercide and
Genocide." pp.185-212.
..My
grandfather said, 'Sixty-five years old and I'm not going to change my
religion. I was born a Christian. I'm going to die a Christian.' So he refused.
If he had accepted the Turkish religion as his own, he could have stayed in his
own shop and run his tinplating business... 'No,' he said, 'I want no part of
being Turkish...' So they said to him, 'We're going to take you to a warm
place, a warm climate.' They took him to the deserts of Iraq and the poor man
perished there ...
Turk passers-by ignore starving Armenian
orphans along the deportation road, 1915 (Censored).
After the 1918 Armistice, Armenians who were
massacred on February 28, 1919 in Aleppo, were laid out in front of the
Armenian Relief Hospital (The Independent, March 27, 1920).
Defending themselves for fifty-three days
against attacking Turkish forces in Musa Dagh, 4000 Christians were rescued,
after their Red Cross flag was noticed by a passing French naval cruiser. (See
boat rescue.)
Driven
out of their village, a mother bearing her child on her back flees towards the
desert.
Constantly in fear of being beaten and
violated, incapable of protecting themselves or their children, Armenian
mothers trudge through the hot desert toward Syria, 1915.
At every railroad station of the
Transcaucasus, the workers of the Near East Relief came upon starving Armenian
children.
Children waiting in the snow for admission into "Orphan
City."
Deportation road from
Harpoot, 1915. (Censored)
Post-Armistice Turkish
invasions of Transcaucasia released a new flood of Armenian refugees fleeing
Turkey, 1918-1920. (Censored)
Armenians being led away by armed
guards from Harpoot, where the educated and the influential of the city were
selected to be massacred at the nearest suitable site, May 1915.
A Child Pleads For Rest
Arousiag Dadian Boyajian was born
in 1905 and came to Ellis Island in 1921. This 1993 Interview is taken from the
Ellis Island Oral History Program Archives.
"I told my mother, 'I cannot
walk.' Anyway, before we got there I told many times to my mother, 'Please,
leave me here. I want to stay here. I can't walk anymore.' And she used to drag
me. One day all the group went and just me and my mother were left, 'I'm not
coming, you go.' So the gendarme came back from the group and he came and hit
my mother with the rifle, you know with the sword. And I was hollering, she was
hollering ...He said, `Come on, walk.' So we walked."
"Ravished Armenia"
Poster
This silent movie, the first
about the Armenian Genocide, was based on the stage play, "The Auction of
Souls," produced by the Near East Relief.
The movie opened up in 1919 staming Aurora (Arshaloys) Mardiganian, who
authored and personally experienced the deportations. Proceeds from the movie supported the relief
efforts.
Movie posters show Armenians who
were drafted into the Turkish Army's Labor Battalions to construct housing and
roads for Turkish troops. (See Turks
with Compassion P. 41)
Kill All The Orphans
Arshalous Norhadian Kebabjian was
born in 1909 and arrived at Ellis Island in 1920. This 1993 interview is taken from the Ellis
Island Oral History Program Archives.
"One day they tried to kill
all the orphans. We have a song on that.
I used to sing and I used to cry about that. "They wanted to take everything they had
in the house there and they want to, oh, kill all the orphans' ...Every day the
orphans sang and they used to cry, especially persons like, you know, some
persons have no feelings. But some of
them, they feel it in their hearts. They
start to cry like rivers."
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