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A courageous German medic risked his life to denounce genocide


Published: February 2, 2018

A black-and-white photo of a man in an army medic’s uniform featuring a white armband with a cross on it. Each side of the collar has a white patch with a large cross. The man is looking straight at the camera with a neutral expression. A building is behind him. Partially obscured.

Photo: Public domain, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

When the First World War began in 1914, pacifist Armin T. Wegner enlisted in the German army as a medic. In April 1915, his medical unit deployed to the Middle East.

Soon, Wegner began hearing rumours of persecution of Armenian people living in the region. At great risk to his own safety and against military orders, he set out to investigate and document these atrocities through photographs.

White man in an army uniform with a black cross at the edge of his collar wears a keffiyeh, white headdress worn in the Middle East.
Armin T. Wegner, 1916 in Aleppo. Photo: Public domain, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

I will never kill a human being, no matter where on earth it might be! Never to aim a cannon or a gun at my foreign brothers. So help me God!

Armin T. Wegner

With audio description

Choosing to be an upstander

Why did Armin T. Wegner choose to document the genocide against the Armenian people, putting his own life in danger? The government of the Ottoman Empire, which directed the violence against the Armenian people, was an ally of Germany in the First World War.

As a medic in the German army, Wegner was strictly prohibited from speaking out against the actions of the Empire. Yet, through his photographs and his writing, Wegner bore witness to scenes of destruction and despair. He chose not to be a passive bystander. Instead, he took a stand against human rights violations, and became an upstander for human rights.

A black-and-white photo of a child lying on the ground with a woman leaning over her and a girl standing next to them. There are no buildings or vegetation. In the background, there are people walking and a mound. The text below the image reads: “A common sight among the Armenian refugees in Syria. An Armenian child dead in the fields within sight of help and safety at Aleppo.”
Photo and letter by Armin T. Wegner documenting the Armenian genocide. The visible portion of the letter reads “A common sight among the Armenian refugees in Syria. An Armenian child dead in the fields within sight of help and safety at Aleppo. Photo: Public domain, Library of Congress

My own conscience calls me as a witness.

Armin T. Wegner

In the years following the war, Wegner said he was compelled by his conscience to share the truth of what was occurring, in order to try to stop the suffering of the Armenians and to ensure the atrocities would not be forgotten. He took hundreds of photographs in the deportation camps where Armenians were imprisoned.

Secretly sharing evidence

A black-and-white photo of a man in an army medic’s uniform with prominently displayed crosses on the collar standing in front of a train with one hand on the train.
Armin Wegner in a medic uniform at a train station. Photo: Public domain, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

Through a series of safe routes and diplomatic connections, he was able to smuggle out some of his documentation to American and German sources. However, in 1916, one of his letters was intercepted. As punishment, he was made to serve in the cholera wards, where he became very ill. In late 1916, Wegner was recalled to Germany. On his return, he covertly smuggled photographs that he had taken of the brutal treatment of the Armenians.

Armin Wegner in a medic uniform at a train station. Photo: Public domain, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
A black circular frame which appears to be a camera lens with the word “Nostar” and other text and numbers on it. Within it is a dim circular photo of a man.and other text and numbers Partially obscured.

With the ardor of one who has seen their unimaginable sufferings and has felt them in his own heart, I speak in the name of those whose despairing cries I had to hear without being able to still them….

Armin T. Wegner

A lifetime of confronting injustice

Wegner was finally able to publish information about the Armenian genocide after the First World War. Throughout the 1920s, he gave lectures about what he had witnessed.

After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Wegner was again compelled to speak out against injustice. Even though the Nazis brutally punished dissent, Wegner wrote a letter to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, imploring him to end discrimination against the Jewish people. This action resulted in his arrest, interrogation and imprisonment, eventually leading him to flee his homeland.

A black-and-white photo of a man seated, facing a quarter turn from the camera with an unhappy expression. There is a closed dark door behind and to the side of him. The walls are white and there is some clothing hanging on the other side of the doorway.
Wegner during his imprisonment, 1933. Photo : Domaine public, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
A small, pointy-toed, brown leather shoe on the palm of a hand. The shoe fits completely on the hand and is decorated with applique and embroidery. The person holding the shoe is wearing several metal bracelets.
Armenian child’s shoe found in 1915 in Anatolia beside the way of deported Armenians by the German eyewitness Armin T. Wegner. The shoe is photographed on the hand of Wegner’s daughter Sibyl Stevens, in England. She sent the shoe as a gift to the Armin T. Wegner Gesellschaft in Wuppertal (Germany), the birth town of Wegner, where the shoe is saved in the Armin T. Wegner Zimmer museum, in the municipal library. Photo: Ulrich Klan, 2004

Wegner carried the experience of witnessing the Armenian genocide throughout his life. In 1915, he discovered a small child’s shoe along a path used to march Armenians into exile. He kept this shoe with him wherever he went.

Armenian child’s shoe found in 1915 in Anatolia beside the way of deported Armenians by the German eyewitness Armin T. Wegner. The shoe is photographed on the hand of Wegner’s daughter Sibyl Stevens, in England. She sent the shoe as a gift to the Armin T. Wegner Gesellschaft in Wuppertal (Germany), the birth town of Wegner, where the shoe is saved in the Armin T. Wegner Zimmer museum, in the municipal library. Photo: Ulrich Klan, 2004

Although his efforts to document the Armenian genocide went unacknowledged for many years, Wegner is now widely recognized as one of the most important chroniclers of the suffering experienced by the Armenian people.

A black-and-white, high contrast, photo of a man with disheveled white hair and a short white beard kneeling behind a circular pit with a flame in it. The man and the fire pit are surrounded by stone slabs.
Wegner visiting the monument to the Armenian Genocide, Yerevan, 1968. Photo: Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
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Suggested citation : “Armin Wegner: Witness to the Armenian Genocide .” Canadian Museum for Human Rights. Published February 2, 2018. https://humanrights.ca/story/armin-wegner-witness-armenian-genocide

White man in an army uniform with a black cross at the edge of his collar wears a keffiyeh, white headdress worn in the Middle East.

Armin T. Wegner, 1916 in Aleppo

Photo: Public domain, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
A black-and-white photo of a child lying on the ground with a woman leaning over her and a girl standing next to them. There are no buildings or vegetation. In the background, there are people walking and a mound. The text below the image reads: “A common sight among the Armenian refugees in Syria. An Armenian child dead in the fields within sight of help and safety at Aleppo.”

Photo and letter by Armin T. Wegner documenting the Armenian genocide. The visible portion of the letter reads “A common sight among the Armenian refugees in Syria. An Armenian child dead in the fields within sight of help and safety at Aleppo.

Photo: Public domain, Library of Congress
A black-and-white photo of a man in an army medic’s uniform with prominently displayed crosses on the collar standing in front of a train with one hand on the train.

Armin Wegner in a medic uniform at a train station.

Photo: Public domain, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
A black-and-white photo of a man seated, facing a quarter turn from the camera with an unhappy expression. There is a closed dark door behind and to the side of him. The walls are white and there is some clothing hanging on the other side of the doorway.

Wegner during his imprisonment, 1933

Photo : Domaine public, Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach
A small, pointy-toed, brown leather shoe on the palm of a hand. The shoe fits completely on the hand and is decorated with applique and embroidery. The person holding the shoe is wearing several metal bracelets.

Armenian child’s shoe found in 1915 in Anatolia beside the way of deported Armenians by the German eyewitness Armin T. Wegner. The shoe is photographed on the hand of Wegner’s daughter Sibyl Stevens, in England. She sent the shoe as a gift to the Armin T. Wegner Gesellschaft in Wuppertal (Germany), the birth town of Wegner, where the shoe is saved in the Armin T. Wegner Zimmer museum, in the municipal library.

Photo: Ulrich Klan, 2004
A black-and-white, high contrast, photo of a man with disheveled white hair and a short white beard kneeling behind a circular pit with a flame in it. The man and the fire pit are surrounded by stone slabs.

Wegner visiting the monument to the Armenian Genocide, Yerevan, 1968.

Photo: Deutsches Literaturarchiv Marbach

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