Berlin Greek Orthodox Community Commemorates Genocide Victims

In early 2012 the Promotional Society for the Ecumenical Monuments for Genocide Victims of the Ottoman Empire (FÖGG) came into being. That May, the Evangelical Luisengemeinde (Parish) made available three abandoned burial sites, where three Altars of Remembrance would be erected, dedicated to the Armenians, Greeks and Aramaean/Assyrians, respectively. (See https://mirrorspectator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/March-3-2018-1.pdf) Norms for conserving historical monuments guided the renovation work in 2015 to transform three memorials into altars, and construction work was completed in 2018.

The Luisenkirchhof III cemetery itself was established in the nineteenth century. Native trees, beech, oak, maple and linden, adorn its broad avenues and geometrical layout, reflecting the ideas of garden architect Gustav Meyer (1816-1877) and his student, Otto Vogeler (1843-1913), who planned the landscaping. The grounds, which offer a perfect location for the ecumenical monuments, have been granted official protection as a natural and historical site.

Refugees, Greek Islands Then and Now

In her remarks during the Sunday commemorative gathering, Hofmann drew parallels between the genocide a century ago, and the situation today. She recalled the conquest of the defenseless Ionian port city Smyrna (Izmir) on September 9, 1922 and its wanton destruction, which “marked one of the greatest refugee tragedies of the 20th century.”  Then, as now, she went on, the question was, what countries would take them in? She cited correspondence between the American Dr. Esther Pohl-Lovejoy, who was in Smyrna, and Dr. Mabel Evelyn Elliott from the American Women’s Hospitals (AWH), the medical director of the health department for refugees of the Near East Relief (NER). Dr. Elliott portrayed the incredible challenge posed by the need to rescue and transport almost a million refugees within a matter of weeks. In a letter dated January 16, 1923, Dr. Elliott described the conditions under which survivors travelled on ships leaving Turkey. The setting was unimaginable, she wrote, and worse, the refugees had trekked days and weeks through Anatolia’s snow-covered mountains, before boarding ships taking them through the Black Sea, Bosporus, Marmara and Aegean seas. Those who had perished during the voyage could not be buried and had to be burned in the ship’s furnaces.

When the ships arrived at the Greek coasts, the government and aid organizations were utterly overwhelmed; in 1923, about a million refugees were coming to a land with a population of 5 million. Hofmann cited an October 11, 1922 telegram dispatched by Dr. Fridtjof Nansen, League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Nansen estimated that no fewer than 750,000 refugees, mainly women and children, were scattered throughout Greece, Thrace and the islands. While he praised the efficiency of the evacuation, which had saved lives, he lamented their condition, without money, clothing, shelter or food.

Then, due to the widespread threat of contagion, the refugees were put in mass quarantine on the Cyclades island of Makronisos, which was small and lacked adequate infrastructure. The Greek government, the only one that had taken in Armenian and Greek refugees of the genocide, had reached the limit and would accept more only on condition they were free from disease, and clean. Dr. Olga Stasny from AWH, who was in charge of setting up the refugee camp, described a situation where even adequate drinking water was scarce. No telephone, no telegraph, no radio communications — and yet, the AWH was supposed to prepare to receive the refugees within 10-12 days.