Wegner's report on the Armenian Genocide

[Skomand]

Wegner's report on the Armenian Genocide


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armin_T._Wegner

"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. 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."

After WWI he gave public slide lectures and his photos have been well known since then.

The lecture itself is published here for the first time.

Armin T. Wegner
Die Austreibung des armenischen Volkes in die Wüste
Ein Lichtbildvortrag


http://www.wallstein-verlag.de/9783892448006-armin-t-wegner-die-austreibung-des-armenischen-volkes-in-die-wueste.html

A review of the book in German:

http://hsozkult.geschichte.hu-berlin.de/rezensionen/2013-2-095

[Skomand]

Before Wegner there was another, earlier chronicler of Turkish massacres and pogroms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Lepsius

Johannes Lepsius (1858, Potsdam, Germany - 1926, Meran, Italy) was a German Protestant missionary, Orientalist, and humanist with a special interest in trying to prevent the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. He initially studied mathematics and philosophy in Munich and a PhD in 1880 with an already award-winning work. During World War I he published his work "Bericht über die Lage des armenischen Volkes in der Türkei" ("Report on the situation of the Armenian People in Turkey") in which he meticulously documented and condemned the Armenian Genocide. A second edition entitled "Der Todesgang des armenischen Volkes" ("The way to death of the Armenian people") included an interview with Enver Pasha, one of the chief architects of the genocide. Lepsius had to publish the report secretly because Turkey was an ally of the German Empire and the official military censorship soon forbade the publication because it feared that it would affront the strategically important Turkish ally. However Lepsius managed to distribute more than 20,000 copies of the report. In his novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh ("Die vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh") the Austrian-Jewish author Franz Werfel portrayed Lepsius as a "guardian angel of the Armenians".


In 1896 he published a book about the Hamidic massacres:

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johannes_Lepsius

Als Reaktion auf die hamidischen Armeniermassaker 1894 bis 1896, die bereits genozidalen Charakter hatten, gründete er 1896/1897 mit einer großen Werbekampagne, die ihn durch ganz Deutschland führte, sein Hilfswerk.

Von der Reise zurückgekommen publizierte Lepsius in Deutschland einen Tatsachenbericht, der fast täglich in Fortsetzung im August und September 1896 im vielgelesenen Berliner „Reichsboten“ erschien. Diese Artikel werden als Buch zusammengefasst und bildeten die erste bedeutende Armenien-Dokumentation von Johannes Lepsius. Ihr Titel lautete:


Armenien und Europa. Eine Anklage-Schrift wider die christlichen Großmächte und ein Aufruf an das christliche Deutschland. Berlin-Westend 1896, 2. Auflage

Download:
http://archive.org/details/armenienundeuro00lepsgoog