Armenian Trees Planted in Germany to Bear Fruits of Friendship and Reconciliation

Letters went out to schools, church parishes and cultural institutions of all kinds, asking if they wanted an Armenian tree on their land. On April 18, schoolchildren armed with shovels and spades joined with other Armenian and German friends of the project. Scholz planted the first Armenian plane tree and following her warm words of dedication and other greetings, Armenian brandy and sweets were served, after which 40 trees were set into the ground. In the afternoon the zoo grounds received 4 weeping willows and 4 walnut trees, the Schliekerhaus Museum was graced with a walnut tree and willows were placed in front of the city archives building.

There followed the planting of Armenian plane trees, plantanus orientalis, in 19 cemeteries of the city. Armenian plane trees at German cemeteries, one might ask. There is very good reason for this choice: to commemorate the liberation from terror and war 70 years ago. With the help of the cemetery authorities, all those locations were selected (among them two Jewish cemeteries) where forced laborers, prisoners of war and bombing victims of World War II are buried. Now, alongside German monuments there are Armenian trees that commemorate those victims of fascism and war.

It is known that up to 1.5 million Armenians perished in the genocide, and that hundreds of thousands of children and orphans who survived found refuge in countries scattered throughout the world. When those children became adults, almost all those who had not left Europe became victims of World War II. Over 600, 000 Armenians were drafted into the Soviet army, on the one hand, or the German army, on the other, if they lived in Bulgaria, Rumania or other countries allied to Germany. The precise number of Armenian forced laborers under the swastika has not been researched to the present day. What is known is that about 400, 000 Armenians died in the war or are were missing. Their relatives mourn them still.

In autumn, it has been decided to plant Armenian plane trees in Stuttgart and surroundings, because more than 250 Armenian forced laborers slaved away there at Mercedes and as many again at the Salamander shoe factory nearby. In the Ruhr region itself, countless Armenian forced laborers and prisoners of war from eastern, western and southern Europe lost their lives. Even the issue of art theft 70 years later has not been settled, and the fate of precious manuscripts and book illustrations from Armenian libraries, like the Nubarian Library in Paris and the Armawir Library in southern Russia/northern Caucasus, is unknown.

If students and teachers plant walnut and plane trees from Armenia in  their schoolyards, and children of immigrants (from 40 countries) plant Armenian willows in their high-rise neighborhood Hustadt, as is the case in Bochum, then hope in a peaceful future will blossom.

Trees bring people together. In this sense, the head of the Bochum-Linden-Dahlhausen Nature Friends Jochen Hopmann planted a copper beech tree on May 13, in the Bochum-Linden local cemetery, in commemoration of the victims of the Armenian genocide. The name of the tree in German is Blutbuche – “blood beech.” This is the very first tree that a German organization has ever planted for the victims of the genocide — a comforting gesture for the descendants.  The branches of the copper beech tree will soon brush up against the leaves of the Armenian plane trees that Ordukhanyan planted there in the name of peace.