This week we will honor two heroes who share a connection.
Let me introduce:
Armin T. Wegner and Iris Chang!
These two people were born on different continents and at different times. Although they grew up in the same century, they never met once in either of their lifetimes. And yet, they both share a major connection. They bore witness to some of the most terrible atrocities that were committed in the 20th Century. They both dedicated their lives to shedding light on these atrocities. And both of them paid a heavy price for doing so.
Part 1
Armin Theophil Wegner was born on October 16, 1886 in Wupertal, Germany. At the outbreak of World War I, he enlisted in the German Army as a medic. He fought in Poland during the winter of 1914-1915 and received the Iron Cross for valor on the battlefield. In April of 1915, Wegner became part of the German Sanitary Corps and was transferred to the Middle East to give aide to Germany's ally, Ottoman Turkey. For a while, he provided medical aid to wounded Turkish soldiers. However, everything changed when he went on leave.
Armin Wegner had heard rumors of massacres committed by the Turks against the people of Armenia. He decided to personally investigate these rumors to see if they were true. To his horror, he found that they were.
The German command had given orders for German soldiers to not interfere with the Turks. This included what they were doing to the Armenians. Despite these orders, Wegner decided to secretly document the Armenian genocide. For nearly a year, he secretly collected notes, documents, letters, and annotations. He also took hundreds of photographs of massacres, mass deportations, and even concentration camps.
Eventually the Turks became aware of Wegner's documentation of their crimes and complained to the German high command. Armin Wegner was then recalled to Germany and much of his of photographs were destroyed. However, he still managed to hide and smuggle many of them back. Wegner remained in Germany until the end of World War I. In 1919, he sent a letter addressed to President Woodrow Wilson. In this letter, he asked the president to give support to the Armenian people who had survived the genocide. Despite Wegner's efforts, neither President Wilson nor any other political figures addressed or even acknowledged the Armenian genocide.
Part II
Iris Chang was born on March 28, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey. While growing up, she became interested in Chinese history. After she graduated from college with a bachelor's degree in journalism, Chang began to make monthly visits to China. One field she primarily focused on was the Chinese experience in World War II. It was here that she learned of a terrible act of genocide that took place just a few years before the start of the Second World War. This was the massacre of thousands of people within the city of Nanking at the hands of Japanese soldiers. This act was known as, "The Rape of Nanking".
Chang had heard stories from her grandparents of Japanese atrocities against the people of China before and during World War II. When she visited China, Chang decided to investigate the massacre. She was able to locate numerous survivors (and even some Japanese soldiers) and interview them. She also found thousands of pictures and rare documents that gave astonishing details about the Nanking Massacre. It was then that Iris Chang also discovered that most people around the world (mainly the United States and Europe) knew almost nothing about it. She realized that the massacre would most likely be completely forgotten unless someone forced the world to remember. In 1994, she decided to write a book about the atrocities that were committed at Nanking.
In 1997, Iris Chang published the book, The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. Her book detailed the horrific massacre that was committed by Japanese soldiers. These atrocities ranged from mass executions, killing contests, gang rape, and mutilation. The details of the six week massacre that began on December 13, 1937 were told from the point of view of both Chinese survivors, Japanese soldiers, and numerous foreigners (mainly people from Europe and the US) who bore whiteness. In her book, Chang estimated that as many as 300,000 people were murdered in Nanking.
Her book also told the story of the brave foreign journalists, missionaries, doctors, and diplomats who established an International Safety Zone within the city. This zone (which Japanese soldiers were ordered not to enter) was used to shelter thousands of Chinese civilians and fleeing soldiers from the Japanese. These foreigners not only saved thousands of people, it was they who secretly filmed and documented the massacres that were being committed by the Japanese (this was where Iris got much of her references).
Chang's book became a New York Times best seller and sold more than half a million copies within the United States. It also received critical claim by historians for its accuracy and its graphic depictions of the Nanking Massacre. Iris immediately became a national celebrity and was repeatedly asked to give lectures by numerous news agencies. In a single year, she visited at least 65 cities to give interviews about her book. The Rape of Nanking, is still regarded by many historians as one of the best books ever written. However there was at least one nation was not pleased with Iris Chang's book. Within the country of Japan, the book caused an uproar among Japanese critics and historians who called it completely fictitious and full of fabrications. Although the book was eventually published in Japan (in 2007) most Japanese citizens remain ignorant of the Nanking Massacre and deny that it ever happened.
Epilogue
In the aftermath of World War I, Armin Wegner continued to advocate for the people of Armenia. He wrote numerous papers about what he had whitenessed and documented. Unfortunately most of his pleas fell on deaf ears. When Adolf Hitler and the Nazis rose to power in 1933, Wegner's horrific experiences were reawakened. He began to see the persecution of Jews within Germany. Hoping to prevent history from repeating itself, Wegner sent a letter to Hitler openly denouncing the latter's persecution of the Jews. Within days, Armin Wegner was arrested by the Gestapo and imprisoned in a concentration camp near Lichtenberg. He was released after a year in captivity and fled to Italy where he lived under an assumed name for the whole of World War II. Although Wegner was honored by Israel (he received Righteous among the Nations) and the survivors of the Armenian genocide, he was virtually forgotten by the rest of the world. He died in Rome on May 17, 1978. He was 91 years old.
Despite Iris's fame and recognition, it came at a bitter cost for her. Most of her friends and family did not know it, but Iris Chang suffered from severe depression. As a result, she became victimized by her own research (which greatly disturbed and traumatized her). Hearing the graphics stories of torture killings and repeated raping of women took a terrible toll on her. Although she did her best to hide it, her depression only continued to get worse as she got older. Ultimately it became unbearable. On November 9, 2004, Iris Chang committed suicide. She was only 36 years old. She is regarded by many as the, "final victim" of the Nanking Massacre.
Throughout history, many acts of genocide have been committed. The identities of the perpetrators and the victims might be different but the end result is always the same (thousands or millions of people being killed). Sadly, genocide has continued to be committed across the globe and it likely to repeat itself in the future. However, there are those who have shown that genocide can be stopped from ever happening again. These people are the ones who witness it and speak out. Armin Wegner and Iris Chang were among those people. They both bore witness to acts of genocide and decided to make sure that these tragedies would never be forgotten. Ranging from documentation and publishing books, they epitomize the true value of what it means to be a historian, a journalist, and someone who cares about making a better future.
Although Armin T. Wegner and Iris Chang are now gone, their work remains. Because of them, the voices of the victims of Armenia and Nanking will always be remembered. I believe that if people today could learn about who they were, what they did, and why they did it, the world could become a much better place and prevention of the next genocide will be possible. All it takes is one person, to give a voice to the many who cannot speak. Can you do it?
http://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/wegner.html
http://www.armenian-genocide.org/wegnerbio.html
http://www.armin-t-wegner.us/biography/
http://100years100facts.com/facts/armin-wegner-took-pictures-saw-1915/
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/armin-wegner-the-german-who-stood-up-to-genocide-of-both-armenians-and-jews-1.2201998
http://www.irischang.net/about/
http://www.scmp.com/culture/books/article/2096452/how-rape-nanking-author-iris-chang-honoured-chinese-museum-newly
Chang, Iris (1998). The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Historian-Iris-Chang-won-many-battles-The-war-2679354.php
No comments:
Post a Comment