This book seeks to pay tribute to the Swiss people's unprecedented
solidarity with the Armenians in their most trying times. After
providing a comprehensive overview of Armenian history and the events
leading to the massacres and genocide perpetrated against the Armenians,
the author explains how it came to be that the Swiss people took a stand
alongside their Armenian brothers and sisters in the Christian faith. A
stark contrast emerges between the merciless policy of annihilation
implemented by the Ottoman Empire and the shining examples of
selflessness provided by aid workers from Switzerland, who - as doctors,
nurses and educators - gave the Armenian people formidable assistance in
the most adverse of circumstances. Two examples, among many, should be
mentioned - Sister Beatrice Rohner (1876-1947), from Basel, who suffered
a mental breakdown following all the horror she experienced as a teacher
and director of an orphanage, and Jakob Kunzler (1871-1949), from
Walzenhausen. Having been acquainted with Kunzler, Carl Lutz found him
tobe a great inspiration for his own heroic efforts saving Jews in
Budapest in 1944. The Author of this book endows his Swiss 'witnesses
for humanity' with a lively voice, without any loss of scholarliness, as
is demonstrated by copious footnotes and references. His extremely
wide-ranging research integrates previously unseen material from Swiss
archives for the first time and forms the basis of this comprehensive
work, which constitutes a significant enrichment of the subject.
