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Lepsius, Johannes Liberia Lepsius, Johannes Lepsius, Johannes inside Turkey. For his part, Lepsius was committed to unearthing the most comprehensive record possible of [DECEMBER 15, 1858–FEBRUARY 3, 1926] German pastor, historical archivist the genocide of Armenians. Thus, he readily agreed to the foreign ministry’s offer to let him prepare a series Johannes Lepsius is widely recognized as one of the of books based on formerly secret German diplomatic most important opponents of the Turkish genocide of records, beginning with a volume documenting Ger- Armenians and as an early campaigner for modern con- man activities in Turkey and Armenia between 1914 cepts of human rights. Lepsius’s work among Arme- and 1918. nians during World War I, more so than that of any German officials claimed that they were releasing other individual, helped to document genocide and a copy of the complete record to Lepsius, but they actu- place it on the public agenda. ally supplied him with censored versions of dozens of As a young man, Lepsius trained as a German documents in order to conceal German complicity in evangelical church (Lutheran) pastor and became a the killings. In the end, Lepsius’s published collection missionary in Turkey during the mid-1890s. He came presented unusually frank and detailed evidence of the to public attention when he traveled in disguise to Young Turks’s campaign of genocide, but tended to ab- gather evidence on the Turkish massacres of tens of solve Germany of any responsibility for those acts. The thousands of Armenians. Lepsius’s report on the po- foreign ministry then used Lepsius’s account in publici- groms, Armenian und Europa (1896, 1897), stirred ty and in international negotiations concerning Ger- considerable controversy and significantly affected in- man reparations for war crimes. ternational relations with the Turkish sultanate. He Lepsius went on to help prepare further volumes also helped found the Deutsche Orient Mission to oper- of previously secret German records concerning Ger- ate orphanages and schools for Armenian children. man-Turkish-Armenian relations. It was not until the New massacres of Armenians began in late 1914 1990s that the ministry’s true tactics were clearly docu- and early 1915. The Young Turk military junta moved mented, when scholars compared the published re- secretly and with extraordinary violence to exterminate cords with those captured after the fall of Nazi Germa- Armenians. Protestant missionaries deep inside Turkey ny in 1945 and with edited copies discovered in were among the few outsiders who witnessed the first Lepsius’s personal archives. months of the unfolding genocide. Lepsius compiled eyewitness accounts of the killings and deportations SEE ALSO Armenians in Ottoman Turkey and the and, at some risk to his life, formally appealed to Turk- Armenian Genocide; Germany; Morgenthau, ish authorities to end the deadly deportations of Arme- Henry nian women and children. The Young Turk war minis- ter, Enver Pasha, refused this request. BIBLIOGRAPHY Alexander, Edward (1986). “The Lepsius Symposium: A Lepsius turned to publicity in an effort to bring Report in Summary.” Armenian Review 39(4):95–99. pressure on the German government and, though it, Dadrian, Vahakn (1995). The History of the Armenian the Young Turks. To avoid wartime censorship, in Genocide. New York: Berghan Books. 1916 he privately published and distributed a report on Gust, Wolfgang, and Sigrid Gust, eds. (2003). Armenian the killings. Lepsius secretly collaborated with then Genocide during the First World War: Documents from U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, Henry Morgenthau, to German State Archives, Revised and Extended Collection of document the Armenian genocide for English-speaking Diplomatic Documents published by Johannes Lepsius in audiences. 1919 under the title, “Germany and Armenia.” Available from http://www.armenocide.net. Later, Lepsius also testified for the defense in the Christopher Simpson trial of Soghomon Tehlirian, the assassin of Turkish In- terior Minister Tal’aat Pasha. Tehlirian was acquitted. In the first months following the defeat of Germa- Liberia ny and Turkey in World War I, the German foreign The beginnings of Liberia as a modern state are rooted ministry perpetrated a deception on Lepsius that went in American circumstances that led to a back-to-Africa undiscovered for the next seventy years. The post-war movement among a relatively small number of African- Turkish government rightly accused Germany of help- Americans, and which was supported by white Ameri- ing to mastermind the Armenian massacres. Germany can sponsors. With multiple motives, some far from was already facing allegations of committing atrocities charitable, the American Colonization Society in Europe and sought to avoid responsibility for crimes launched the Liberian experiment in the early years of [648] encyclopedia of GENOCIDE and CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY.
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