|
The man behind the photos
Among the most devastating evidence of the Armenian genocide is the series
of photographs taken by Armin Wegner, who documented conditions of the Armenian
deportation camps in 1915-1916.
In April 1915 he was sent to the Middle East as a member of the German
Sanitary Corps. Between July and August he used his leave to investigate
rumors about the Armenian massacres that had reached him from several
sources.
Ignoring the strict orders of the Turkish and German authorities, Wegner
collected notes and documents, and took hundreds of photographs in the
Armenian camps. With the help of foreign consulates and embassies, he sent
some of this material to Germany and the United States.
His clandestine mail routes were discovered and Wegner was arrested by the
Germans at the request of the Turkish high command - and was put to serve in
the cholera wards.
Having fallen seriously ill, he left Baghdad for Constantinople in November,
1916. Hidden in his belt were his photographic plates and those of other
German officers with images of the Armenian genocide to which he had been a
witness. In December of the same year he was recalled to Germany.
On Feb. 23, 1919, Wegner's "Open Letter to President Wilson" appealing for
the creation of an independent Armenian state was published in the Berliner
Tageblatt.
In 1968 he received an invitation to Armenia from a senior Armenian church
figure and was awarded with the Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator.
Wegner died in Rome at the age of 92 on May 17, 1978.
Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News Archives