Armenian massacre victims interred in a mass grave in the Armenian Gregorian Cemetery, Erzurum, Turkey, 1895

Item Overview

Title

Armenian massacre victims interred in a mass grave in the Armenian Gregorian Cemetery, Erzurum, Turkey, 1895

Photographer

Sachtleben, William Lewis

Date Created

November 2, 1895

Date

1895-11-02

Collection

Sachtleben (William Lewis) Papers. Collection 1841
Sachtleben (William) Images of Armenian Massacre

Notes

Description

Photograph of rows of Armenian massacre victims interred in a mass grave in the Armenian cemetery in Erzurum. Four men place a body on the ground, while others holding shovels pause and watch or look towards the photographer. The grave is lined by a row of mourners, with tall trees visible behind them.
On Wednesday, October 30, 1895, Armenians were massacred in Erzurum and the surrounding Armenian villages. American journalist William Sachtleben happened to be in Erzurum at that time, investigating the disappearance of American cyclist Frank Lenz. During the massacre Sachtleben was in the American mission building, where over 200 Armenians fled for protection. Sachtleben witnessed the aftermath of the massacre; he took photographs of the victims in the Armenian Cemetery and wrote three lengthy and detailed letters about the massacre that were published, unsigned and attributed to an Occasional Correspondent, in the London Times on November 16, 27 and December 9. In the Nov. 16 letter he wrote: "Saturday, Nov. 2...I went with one of the cavasses of the English Legation, a soldier, my interpreter, and a photographer (Armenian) to the Armenian Gregorian Cemetery. The municipality had sent down a number of bodies, friends had brought more, and a horrible sight met my eyes. Along the wall on the north in a row 20ft. wide and 150ft. long, lay 321 dead bodies of the massacred Armenians..."

Caption

"The Trench Dug for the Bodies of the Victims: A Scene in the Cemetery. This photograph shows the horrible spectacle presented to the visitors to the Armenian cemetery two days after the massacre. Two rows of dead, thirty-five deep, had already been laid down and partially covered with the earth by labourers. When the photograph was taken, four men had just deposited another corpse, and so started a third row. The open spaces between the bodies were filled up with the skulls, thigh bones, and other human remains from the graves disturbed by digging a huge grave fifty-three feet square for the reception of the slaughtered Armenians." ["The Massacre at Erzeroum, October 30, 1895: From Photographs Taken on the Three Following Days." The Graphic: An Illustrated Weekly Newspaper, Dec. 7, 1895. Quoted in Gia Aivazian, "The W. L. Sachtleben Papers on Erzerum in the 1890s" in Armenian Karin/Erzerum, ed. R. G. Hovannisian (2003)]

Physical Description

Extent

1 photographic negative

Medium

b&w nitrate negative

Keywords

Genre

cellulose nitrate film
black-and-white photographs

Location

Turkey--Erzurum

Resource type

still image

Subjects

Cemeteries--Turkey--Erzurum
Dead persons--Turkey--Erzurum
Mass burials--Turkey--Erzurum
Armenia--History--1801-1900
Armenian massacres, 1894-1896--Turkey--Erzurum