Armin T. Wegner

A German medic in WWI. His photographs have shaped how we visualize the Armenian genocide more than anything else. Also a writer & activist who spoke up about the Armenians & later the Jewish people in Nazi Germany, getting arrested & tortured.

A thread (1/9)

As a soldier in the German army, Wegner was able to roam within the Ottoman empire. He defied Ottoman orders and captured many of the most images we know from the genocide: piles of dead bodies, starving women and children, etc. Many of his photos were confiscated. (2/9)

Ottoman atrocities against Armenians and Christians was not something new to Wegner. When he was nine years old, he came across a report in a German newspaper about the Hamidian massacres, 1894-1896. This made a lasting impression on him. (3/9)

After WWI, Wegner actively wrote and testified about what had happened to the Armenians. He even wrote to US president Woodrow Wilson, telling him that the Armenians needed their own independent state. (4/9)

In the 1930s, he spoke up against the persecution of Jews by the new Nazi regime. He was arrested and tortured by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp. He later fled to Rome. Lola Landau, his first wife and a poet, was Jewish. (5/9)

Armin Wenger’s son talking about him (6/9)

Armin Wegner at Tsitsernakaberd, the Armenian genocide memorial in Yerevan (7/9)

Some readings if you’re interested in learning more about Wegner. *Armin T. Wegner and the Armenians in Anatolia, 1915* includes letters he wrote home and other documents. (8/9)

On a related note, watch @brightgardenv 2nd meeting with @o_abbazov and @ArpiBekaryan about the impact of photographs and film in shaping our perception of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict & their impact: (9/9)