Germany, Turkey, and Armenia: A Selection of Documentary Evidence Relating to the Armenian Atrocities from German and other SourcesAnonymous
History
Germany, Turkey, and Armenia: A Selection of Documentary Evidence Relating to the Armenian Atrocities from German and other Sources
Anonymous
Armenian question; World War, 1914-1918 -- Armenia
In Meskene I gathered one hundred children under a tent. I had their
hair cut and their rags washed. They received daily some bread and
some soup. As I had to go further, I sought someone to care for the
orphans. I found a young widow from Hadjin, who asked me if she might
take the children under her care. She belonged to a good family and
had received a good education. She gave herself with an intense love
to the children-work. Ten days after my departure they had sent the
woman with the one hundred children South. I found her a few weeks
later in Sepka, clothed in rags. She had lost her wits, and wandered
about the place asking, "Where are my children? What have you done
with my children?" When she had reached Abu Hara she had spent all
her money and was destitute. The children were scattered--a prey
to hunger. In Der-el-Zor I found two of them, the only survivors;
they said that all the rest had perished.
In Meskene I saw more than 600 deported who had lived in Muara till
now, and who had spent a pitiful sojourn of nine months there. They
were now once more persecuted and sent to different places. Slowly
and wearily they came on with their possessions on their backs. As
nourishment they cook grass, press the water out, and make balls
which they dry in the sun.
On the first of May, I came to Debsy, where I found the above mentioned
six hundred deported, all in despair. They had not even been allowed
to rest once or even to gather grass, but had been cruelly driven
on. On the way I found people dying everywhere, exhausted from hunger
and thirst. They had remained behind the caravan and must perish so
painfully. Every few minutes came a stench of corpses. The gendarmes
beat these stragglers, saying that they pretend to be tired. In Debsy
there are 3,000 deported. In Abu Hara 6,000. In both places the death
rate is one per cent. daily.
In Hama I found 7,000 deported, 3,000 of them hungry and practically
naked. Here there is no grass, the locusts have consumed everything. I
saw the people were gathering locusts and eating them raw or
cooked. Others were looking for the roots of grasses. They catch
street dogs, and like savages pounce upon dead animals, whose flesh
they eat eagerly without cooking. They showed me how they bury the
dead, shallow near the tents.
In Rakka alone there are 15,000 deported in tents. The camp is
situated on both banks of the Euphrates, but these people are not
allowed to enter the city. Rich people are paying from T£30-40 to
get permission from those in authority to live for a length of time
in the city. Everywhere the same lamentable pictures repeat themselves.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account