Armin T. Wegner was a German soldier, medic, and an amateur photographer in the years of WWI. Accidentally becoming a witness to the Armenian Genocide, Wegner took photographs that now comprise “the core of witness images of the Genocide.”
During his service in the Ottoman Empire, Wegner took hundreds of photos and attempted to introduce the world community to the tragic reality. He also addressed the President of the United States Woodrow Wilson with a request to aid the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire. After the war, he became a renowned human rights activist and publicist. Since 1933, Wegner has been fighting against antisemitism in Nazi Germany.
When the Jewish massacres began, Wegner wrote an open condemning letter to Adolf Hitler. He was sent to a concentration camp, but he would soon miraculously escape.
This film by Tigran Kzhmalyan is based on Wegner’s unique photos and letters that captured the tragic outlines of the first Genocide of the 20th century.
Armin Wegner and the Armenian Genocide
Armin T. Wegner – Der Fotograf des Genozids [Völkermord an den Armeniern]
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[…] The first humanitarian organization had been the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief that was later renamed the American Committee for Relief in the Near East, Near East Relief, and, lastly, Near East Foundation. The Foundation was established in 1915 at the initiative of the US Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire Henry Morgenthau Sr. Morgenthau is now identified as the most prominent American to speak about the Genocide. […]
[…] this preface, Wegner showed a map of the Ottoman Empire, which marked the areas from which Armenians were driven out or […]