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W. L. Sachtleben 
Corpses of massacred Armenians in Erzurum 
1895, 30 October (taken) 1895, 7 Dec (published) 
  
Magazine illustration 
Creative Commons - Wikipedia 
 
LL/60689 
  
A photograph, taken by the American W. L. Sachtleben, depicting the victims of a massacre of Armenians in Erzerum on October 30, 1895, being gathered for burial at the town's Armenian cemetery.
"What I myself saw this Friday afternoon [November 1] is forever engraven on my mind as the most horrible sight a man can see. I went with one of the cavasses of the English Legation, a soldier, my interpreter, and a photographer (Armenian) to the Armenian Gregorian cemetery. The municipalty had sent down a number of bodies, friends had brought more, and a horrible sight met my eyes. Along the wall on the north .... lay 321 dead bodies of the massacred Armenians. Many were fearfully mangled and mutilated. I saw one with his face completely smashed in with a blow of some heavy weapon after he was killed. I saw some with their necks almost severed by a sword cut. One I saw whose whole chest had been skinned, his forearms were cut off, while the upper arm was skinned of flesh. I asked if the dogs had done this. 'No, the Turks did it with their knives'. A dozen bodies were half burned." ... "A crowd of a thousand people, mostly Armenians, watched me taking photographs of their dead. Many were weeping beside their dead fathers or husbands."
W. L. Sachtleben, "Letter to the Editor", The London Times, December 14th 1895 (quoted in G. Aivazian, "Sachtleben Papers on Erzurum", in Richard G. Hovannisian (ed.), 2003, Armenian Karin/Erzurum, (CA, Costa Mesa)). 
 

 
  
 
  
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