Being ourselves in a position of greater freedom, we can say that this forgetfulness and this want of critical power are not surprising in the German public, having regard to the fact that their Government is in close alliance with the perpetrators of the crimes which Bratter and other persons of the same mental and moral calibre try to explain away or justify, and which could and would have been prevented long ago if that Government had not disregarded the elementary dictates of humanity. The G

In Haftevan and Salmas 850 corpses were found in the wells and cisterns alone, all headless. Why? The Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish troops had promised a sum of money for every Christian head. The wells are drenched with the blood of Christians. From Haftevan alone 500 women and girls were handed over to the Kurds in Sautchbulak. In Diliman crowds of Christians were locked up and forced to become Mohammedans. The males were circumcised. Gülpashan, the richest village in the district of Urmia

Statement by a German Eye-witness of Occurrences at Moush. Communicated by the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief. Towards the end of October (1914), when the Turkish war began, the Turkish officials started to take everything they needed for the war from the Armenians. Their goods, their money, all was confiscated. Later on, every Turk was free to go to an Armenian shop and take out what he needed or thought he would like to have. Only a tenth perhaps was really for the war, the

As stated above, three days’ grace was given to the Armenians, but two hours had scarcely elapsed when the soldiers began breaking into the houses, arresting the inmates and throwing them into prison. The guns began to fire, and thus the people were effectually prevented from registering themselves at the Government Building. We all had to take refuge in the cellar for fear of our orphanage catching fire. It was heartrending to hear the cries of the people and children who were being burnt to de

Next day there was a regular battue through the cornfields. (The corn was then standing, and many Armenians had hidden in it.) From that time on, convoys of exiles were continually arriving, all on their way to the slaughter; we have no doubt about their fate, after the unanimous testimony which we have received from many different quarters. Later, our Greek driver told us that the victims had their hands tied behind their backs, and were thrown down from the cliffs into the river. This method w

After that, the 400 young men were conveyed out of the town by night and never heard of again. Shots were said to have been heard in the distance. Three days later, the rest of the Armenian community at H. was summoned by bugle to assemble before the Government Building, and then deported. The men were first sent off in one direction, and later the women and children, on ox-carts, in another. They were only given a few hours to make their preparations, and Sister DA. described their consternatio

1 1914.  ↑ 2 They were at work in the German hospital at Erzeroum from October, 1914, to April, 1915.— Editor.   ↑ 3 7th June: Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift , November, 1915.  ↑ 4 Amounting to about 20,000–25,000 people in all: Allgemeine Missions-Zeitschrift , November, 1915.  ↑ 5 One of the two authors of the present statement, which has been drafted in the first person by the other witness, but represents the experience of both. The Editor is in possession of the drafter’s name, but does no

— th April (the next day). We were able to see the unfortunate refugees, who are still here to-day. These are the circumstances of their departure from Zeitoun, or rather this is the tragedy which preceded their exile, though it was not the cause of it. The Turkish gendarmes outraged several girls in the town, and were attacked in consequence by about twenty of the more hot-headed young men. Several gendarmes were killed, though all the while the population as a whole was opposed to bloodshed, a

Between the 10th and the 30th May, 1,200 of the most prominent Armenians and other Christians, without distinction of confession, were arrested in the Vilayets of Diyarbekir and Mamouret-ul-Aziz. <It is said that they were to be taken to Mosul, but nothing more has been heard of them.> [On the 30th May, 674 of them were embarked on thirteen Tigris barges, under the pretext that they were to be taken to Mosul. The Vali’s aide-de-camp, assisted by fifty gendarmes, was in charge of th

On the 20th August, 1915 4 , at six o’clock in the evening, it was proclaimed at Marash that, according to the order of the Vali of Adana, all males over 15 years of age (5,600 altogether) must be assembled outside the town, ready for marching, by mid-day on Saturday; any one of them found in the town after 12 o’clock would be shot on the spot. Everyone knew the meaning of this order, and we lived through hours of most awful terror. At the last moment the Vali’s order, owing to the intervention

Not one half of the deported persons remain alive. The day before yesterday one woman died here in the station yard; yesterday there were 14 deaths, and this morning a further 10. A Protestant minister from Hadjin said to a Turk at Osmanieh: “Not one half of these deported persons remain alive.” The Turk replied: “That is what we are after.” It ought not to be overlooked that there are some Mohammedans who disapprove of the horrible deeds done against the Armenians. A Mohammedan Sheikh, a person

(d) Letter from Fräulein M. to Mr. N., dated 13th December, 1915, on the way to Aleppo. I should have written long before this, but during these last weeks I have been more on the road than at home, and the work in the camps was often so urgent that I could not find time for anything else. I suppose you have had, in the meantime, the receipt for the 200 liras you sent me. Many thanks for the quick response. I only wish you could see these poor people yourself; you would get an impression of the

“How can we teachers read German fairy tales with our pupils, or, indeed, the story of the Good Samaritan in the Bible? How can we ask them to decline and conjugate indifferent words, while round about in the neighbouring yards the starving brothers and sisters of our Armenian pupils are succumbing to a lingering death? In these circumstances our educational work flies in the face of all true morality and becomes a mockery of human feeling. “And those poor creatures who in their thousands have b

1 The italics are the Editor’s.  ↑ 2 The italics are the Editor’s.  ↑ 3 The italics are the Editor’s.  ↑ 4 The remarks of this Headmaster, who only calls attention to the personal inconvenience suffered by the teachers in the school, is in singular contrast with the impassioned feelings of pity for the Armenians expressed and undoubtedly felt by the author of the report.— Editor’s Note.   ↑ 5 The italics are the Editor’s. The fact which comes out clearly in several of the documents included in t

Followed by many good wishes we at last continued on our way, with the impression of this misery still weighing upon us. In the evening, when we reached the village, we met yet another Armenian convoy of the same kind. This time it was the people of Zeitoun. There was the same destitution and the same complaint about the heat, the lack of bread and the persecutions of the Arabs. A little girl who had been brought up by Kaiserswerth Deaconesses in the Orphanage at Beirout, told us of her experien

Of every fifty persons who start from Rakka or Sepka on boats, twenty arrive, often even less. At the time of my arrival, the Government had gathered 200 orphans in a house in Der-el-Zor. At my departure (six weeks later) there were 800. They get daily a little bread and some soup. In the meantime 12,000 deported came to Der-el-Zor. Every day we see caravans going in the direction of Mosul. Nevertheless, at my departure, there were at Der-el-Zor and in its neighbourhood over 30,000 Armenians. Th

Government officials at Trebizond picked out some of the prettiest Armenian women of the best families. After committing the worst outrages on them, they had them killed. Cases of rape of women and girls even publicly are very numerous. They were systematically murdered after the outrage. The Armenians deported from Erzeroum started with their cattle and whatever possessions they could carry. When they reached Erzindjan they became suspicious, seeing that all the Armenians had already been depor

From Mush to Hinis, at short distances from each other, I saw piles of bodies of Armenians in the fields alongside the road. Between Sherkes-Koi and Hinis I saw two ravines filled with corpses of Armenians, about 400 in each ravine, mostly men. Another ravine was filled with bodies of little children. At Khara-Shuban I saw a large number of bodies of Armenians floating on the river Murad. When I went to Erzindjan I was told that wholesale massacres were perpetrated at Erzindjan, Mamakhatoun, and

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