WITNESSES OF HUMANITY, SWITZERLAND’S HUMANITARIAN COMMITMENT DURING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE IN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, 1894-1923, IN MEMORY OF THE MILLION AND A HALF VICTIMS OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE OF 1915
Beyrouth, Antoine, 2022, 605 p.
This book aims to pay tribute to the unprecedented solidarity of the Swiss people with the Armenians in the most difficult times. After giving a comprehensive overview of Armenian history and the events that led to the massacres and genocide perpetrated against the Armenians, the author explains how the Swiss people took a stand alongside their Armenian brothers and sisters in the Christian faith.
There is a stark contrast between the ruthless policy of annihilation implemented by the Ottoman Empire and the shining examples of selflessness provided by the aid workers in Switzerland who - as doctors, nurses and educators - provided the Armenian people with a tremendous help in the most adverse circumstances.
Two examples, among many others, must be mentioned: Sister Béatrice Rohner (1876-1947), of Baie, who suffered a nervous breakdown after all the horror she experienced as a teacher and from an orphanage, and Jakob Kunzler (1871-1949), from Walzen-hausen. Having known Kunzler, while he was Swiss vice-consul in Jaffa, Cari Lutz found him very inspired by his own heroic efforts to save the Jews in Budapest in 1944.
The author of this book gives his Swiss "witnesses to humanity" a living voice, without any loss of scholarship, as evidenced by the numerous footnotes and references. His extremely extensive research integrates for the first time unpublished documents from the Swiss archives and forms the basis of this comprehensive work which constitutes a significant enrichment of the subject.
