Many of these horrors were told in detail in the monumental report of
Viscount Bryce, portions of which were published in CURRENT HISTORY
MAGAZINE, November, 1916. To these may be added a statement made to Mr.
Morgenthau personally by an eyewitness--a German missionary!--and put
into writing at the American Embassy in Constantinople, which reads in
part as follows:
It was that very afternoon that I received the first terrible
reports, but I did not fully believe them. A few millers and
bakers, whose services were needed by the Government, had
remained, and they received the news first. The men had all been
tied together and shot outside of the town. The women and children
were taken to the neighboring villages, placed in houses by the
hundreds, and either burned alive or thrown into the river. (Our
buildings being in the main quarter of the town we could receive
the news quite promptly.) Furthermore, one could see women and
children pass by with blood streaming down, weeping. * * * Who
can describe such pictures? Add to all this the sight of burning
houses and the smell of many burning corpses.
Within a week everything was nearly over. The officers boasted
now of their bravery, that they had succeeded in exterminating
the whole Armenian race. Three weeks later when we left Moush,
the villages were still burning. Nothing that belonged to the
Armenians, either in the city or the villages, was allowed to
remain. In Moush alone there were 25,000 Armenians; besides, Moush
had 300 villages with a large Armenian population.
We left for Mezreh. The soldiers who accompanied us showed us
with pride where and how and how many women and children they had
killed.
We were very pleased to see upon our arrival at Harpoot that the
orphanages were full. This was, however, all that could be said.
Mamuret-ul-Aziz has become the cemetery of all the Armenians; all
the Armenians from the various vilayets were sent there, and those
who had not died on the way came there simply to find their graves.
Another terrible thing in Mamuret-ul-Aziz were the tortures to
which the people had been subjected for two months, and they had
generally treated so harshly the families of the better class.
Feet, hands, chests were nailed to a piece of wood; nails of
fingers and toes were torn out; beards and eyebrows pulled out;
feet were hammered with nails, as they do with horses; others were
hung with their feet up and heads down over closets. * * * Oh! How
one could wish that all these facts were not true! In order that
people outside might not hear the screams of agony of the poor
victims, men stood around the prison wherein these atrocities were
committed, with drums and whistles.
On July 1 the first 2,000 were dispatched from Harpoot. They
were soldiers, and it was rumored that they would build roads.
People became frightened. Whereupon the Vali called the German
missionary, Mr. ----, and begged him to quiet the people; he was
so very sorry that they all had such fears, &c. They had hardly
been away for a day when they were all killed in a mountain pass.
They were bound together, and when the Kurds and soldiers started
to shoot at them some managed to escape in the dark. The next day
another 2,000 were sent in the direction of Diarbekr. Among those
deported were several of our orphans (boys) who had been working
for the Government all the year round. Even the wives of the Kurds
came with their knives and murdered the Armenians. Some of the
latter succeeded in fleeing. When the Government heard that some
Armenians had managed to escape they left those who were to be
deported without food for two days in order that they would be too
weak to be able to flee.
All the high Catholic Armenians, together with their Archbishop,
were murdered. Up to now there still remained a number of
tradesmen whom the Government needed and therefore had not
deported; now these, too, were ordered to leave, and were murdered.