Eberhard Count Wolffskeel Von Reichenberg, Zeitoun, Mousa Dagh, Ourfa

Description

Hilmar Kaiser received his doctorate from the European University Institute (Florence), where he specialized in late Ottoman social and economic history and the Armenian Genocide. Kaiser has since become the leading expert on the Armenian Genocide with a number of pathbreaking published works and conference papers In Eberhard Count Wolffskeel Von Reichenberg. Zeitoun, Mousa Dagh, Ourfa: Letters on the Armenian Genocide Kaiser presents a thought provoking critique of our understanding of the Armenian Genocide. He argues that there was no single official German view regarding Armenians in 1915, and that our understanding of the German role during the Armenian Genocide is tinged by Allied wartime propaganda and flawed scholarship. The German government pursued its own national interests, which lay in keeping the Ottoman Turks on the German side during World War I. However, individual German diplomats, military personnel, and business people, clashed over their government's policies over the genocide of Armenians. Having provided this crucial context, Kaiser presents us with the letters of one German officer who did participate in the destruction of Armenians. Eberhard Wolffskeel Von Reichenberg witnessed the destruction of Armenians in Zeitoun, Mousa Dagh, and Ourfa, and his letters to his wife and father provide us with frank insights into the mind of this German officer during the genocide of Armenians. In all three cases Eberhard was called in because of Armenian resistance to deportation and destruction. Wolffskeel's zeal against Armenians was considered beyond the call of duty and he was recalled to Germany by the German military authorities. Wolffskeel's letters are reproduced here both in their German original, as well as in English translation.