Armin Wegner
See also: Wegner
Armin Theophil Wegner (Elberfeld, October 16th 1886; Rome, May 17th 1978) is a military male nurse German, writer, Photographe and militant of the Human rights which gave an opinion in favor of the rights of the Juif S and the Armenian . Witness of the Armenian genocide, it took clandestine stereotypes which count among the first photographic sources preserved today.
Biography
Armin Wegner was born the October 16th 1886 with Elberfeld close to Wuppertal in the Rhineland. Male nurse during the First World War, it is useful in Turkey, which is then allied Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary). Second lieutenant in a division ordered by the marshal Von der Goltz, he is a direct witness of the genocide of the Armenians which he photographs, in spite of the orders of the army, in the camps of Armenian deportees of Ras ul-Ain, Rakka, Alep and Deir-ez-zor. The images reported clandestinely in Germany were taken in 1915 and 1916.In February 1919, Wegner addresses an open letter to the US president Woodrow Wilson published in the Berliner newspaper Tageblatt , in which it calls some with an independent Arménie.
Armin Wegner protested against persecutions against the Juif S in Germany hitlérienne. It is stopped in 1933 by the Gestapo. The April 11th 1933, it writes an open letter with Hitler in which it protests against the legislation anti-semite. Imprisoned in several prisons and concentration camps, he manages to flee to gain the Italy.
Armin Wegner was also a figure of the German Expressionnisme.
In 1967, it is seen decreeing the title of “Juste among the Nations” by the Mémorial of Yad Vashem in Israel. The following year, it is invited by the Catholicos of all the Armenians and receives the Order of Gregoire Saint the illuminator.
He dies in Rome, the May 17th 1978 at the 92 years age.
Photographs
- Off-set Armenian, 1915-1916, author Armin Wegner