It is known that during the times of Adolf Hitler, Armenians were ranked among the nation having a Jewish origin, consequently, Armenians were supposed to be annihilated like the Jews. But it did not happen thanks to the efforts of a group of Armenian and foreign scientists.
Aravot.am asked the historian and expert on genocide issues, Ashot Hayruni, to explain how the Armenians living in the countries occupied by Nazi Germany avoided annihilation. “In 1932, it was common in Germany that the Armenians are also Jews. The authors of this anti-Armenian campaign were mainly the Turks and their supporters who were unaware of anything. The justifications were meaningless, for example, that Armenians are Jews because they have suffered in the history like them. I must happily say that there were conscious people in Germany at that time such as Johannes Lepsius who were friends of the Armenian people. They came out strongly against this view arguing that Armenians are not Jews but Aryans and originated from them, accordingly the Germans should have paid special attention to the Armenians. Thanks to all of this, the anti-Armenian campaign stopped and by a special decree from the Minister of Internal Affairs of Germany, Armenians were ranked among the Aryan nations. The decree remained in force until the end of the World War II,” told Ashot Hayruni.
He noted that in 1934, a collection consisted of 10 articles under the heading of “Armeniertum-Ariertum” was published, which became the basis of the above-mentioned decree. Each of the articles is a proof from the historical, ethnic, cultural, scientific and other viewpoints that Armenians have an Aryan origin. One of the authors had noted that if Armenians are not Aryans, then Italians should not be Aryans too…
As Ashot Hayruni said, if not for this collection and Armenians be identified with Jews, Holocaust was expected to them too. “In this matter, Manuk Abeghyan’s nephew, historian and expert in culture, Artashes Abeghyan, as well as German-representatives of the school founded by Lepsius made the maximum contribution.” We also asked our interlocutor why in the presence of such a collection, some modern authors argue that Armenians are newcomers in their native land. “Historic-scientific views are sometimes politicized. Attempts are made to make them serve the political interests. There are more senseless ideas than mentioned by you, which are aimed not at giving accurate conclusions but to serve certain political interests. I think such views should not be taken seriously,” said Ashot Hayruni.
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Note that today is the Holocaust Remembrance Day. On January 27, 1945, the Soviet Army liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz) Nazi concentration camp.
Luiza SUKIASYAN
