Bearing Witness to Humanity

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This book seeks to pay tribute to the Swiss people's unprecedented solidaritywith the Armenians in their most trying times. After providing a comprehensiveoverview of Armenian history and the events leading to the massacresand genocide perpetrated against the Armenians, the author explains howit came to be that the Swiss people took a stand alongside their Armenianbrothers and sisters in the Christian faith.A stark contrast emerges between the merciless policy of annihilation implementedby the Ottoman Empire and the shining examples of sel_ essnessprovided by aid workers from Switzerland, who - as doctors, nurses and educators- gave the Armenian people formidable assistance in the most adverseof circumstances.Two examples, among many, should be mentioned - Sister Beatrice Rohner(1876-1947), from Basel, who su_ ered a mental breakdown following all thehorror she experienced as a teacher and director of an orphanage, and JakobKünzler (1871-1949), from Walzenhausen. Having been acquainted withKünzler, while Swiss vice-consul in Ja_ a, Carl Lutz found him to be a greatinspiration for his own heroic e_ orts saving Jews in Budapest in 1944.The Author of this book endows his Swiss 'witnesses for humanity' with alively voice, without any loss of scholarliness, as is demonstrated by copiousfootnotes and references. His extremely wide-ranging research integratespreviously unseen material from Swiss archives for the _ rst time and formsthe basis of this comprehensive work, which constitutes a signi_ cant enrichmentof the subject.