eretzyisrael: Armin Wegner was born in 1886 to an aristocratic Prussian family. He enlisted in the G
eretzyisrael: Armin Wegner was born in 1886 to an aristocratic Prussian family. He enlisted in the German Army during World War I and served as a medic. Stationed in Baghdad in 1915, Wegner witnessed the death marches of thousands of Armenians who were being deported and slaughtered by the Ottoman Army.Disobeying direct orders to keep quiet about the massacres because Germany and the Ottoman Empire were allies, Wegner gathered evidence to show the world what was happening. He collected documents and took hundreds of photographs.Wegner was arrested by the Germans and sent back to Germany. Many of his photographs were confiscated and destroyed, but he managed to save some by hiding the negatives in his belt. Wegner’s photographs remain the best documentation of the Armenian genocide.After the war, Wegner became a successful journalist and prominent anti-war activist. In the early 1930’s, Wegner was the only writer to speak out publicly against Hitler’s persecution of the Jews.He penned an open letter to Adolf Hitler on behalf of the Jews of Germany. No newspaper would publish it, so he sent the letter directly to Nazi Party headquarters. In the letter, Wegner said that Hitler’s actions against the Jews would destroy Germany.Soon after sending the letter to Hitler, Wegner was arrested by the Gestapo, tortured, and imprisoned in several concentration camps.He survived and fled to Rome, never returning to Germany. In 1967 Wegner was honored as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s museum of the Holocaust, Yad Vashem.A year later, he was invited to Armenia to receive an award for his heroism.Armin Wegner died in 1978, at the age of 91, and is buried in Rome. The inscription on his tombstone quotes the dying words of Pope Gregory VII in 1085:“I loved justice and hated iniquityTherefore I die in exile”For his courage in fighting injustice at the risk of death, we honor Armin Wegner as this week’s Thursday Hero at Accidental Talmudist.Accidental Talmudist -- source link