Photographs of Armenian genocide from the Armin T. Wegner collection

Identifier
irn512281
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1987.88.1
  • RG-10.278
Level of Description
Item
Source
EHRI Partner

Web Source

https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn512281

Extent and Medium

folder

1

Creator(s)

  • Armin T. Wegner

Biographical History

As a second-lieutenant in the German Army stationed in the Ottoman Empire in Apr. 1915, Armin T. Wegner took the initiative to investigate reports of Armenian massacres. Disobeying orders intended to stifle news of the massacres, he collected information on the genocide and took hundreds of photographs of Armenian deportation camps, primarily in the Syrian desert. Wegner was eventually arrested, but not before he had succeeded in channeling a portion of his research material to Germany and the United States through clandestine mail routes. When he was transferred to Constantinople in Nov. 1916, he secretly took with him photographic plates of images he and other German officers recorded.

Archival History

Armin T. Wegner Collection, Schiller-Nationalmuseum and Deutsches Literaturarchiv

Acquisition

The copy photographs were donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum by Tessa Hofmann in 1987.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of 56 copy photographs depicting the results of the Armenian genocide from 1915 to 1923 in the Ottoman Empire. Images are of children and adults in various activities, corpses in ditches, hangings, Armenians as refugees living in tents in the Syrian desert, and piles of skulls and burned bodies.

People

  • Wegner, Armin T., 1886-1978.

Subjects

  • Hanging.
  • Armenians--Turkey.
  • Armenia--History--1901-.
  • Gallows.
  • Refugee camps.
  • World War, 1914-1918--Atrocities.
  • Dead persons--Turkey.
  • Armenian massacres, 1915-1923.

Genre

This description is derived directly from structured data provided to EHRI by a partner institution. This collection holding institution considers this description as an accurate reflection of the archival holdings to which it refers at the moment of data transfer.

Copies

  • Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum holds copies of Holocaust-relevant archives from Armin T. Wegner Collection, Schiller-Nationalmuseum and Deutsches Literaturarchiv