“Rescuer or perpetrator? A general between reason of state and morality: Otto Liman von Sanders and the Armenian Genocide”

Book presentation and discussion with Muriel Mirak-Weissbach

Moderated by Roy Knocke (Lepsiushaus Potsdam)

Together with the author and our guests, we would like to search for clues to the unusual biography of Otto Liman von Sanders.

In the First World War, the German Reich decided for political reasons not to do anything serious to prevent the Ottoman ally from genocide against the Armenians. More than that. German officers were also involved in the genocide. None of the responsible and co-responsible parties has ever been held accountable for this.

The high-ranking officer Otto Liman von Sanders, head of the German military mission in the Ottoman Empire since 1913, pulled out of this collaboration: He repeatedly refused to comply with the deportation and extermination orders issued by Ottoman Interior Minister Talat Pasha, threatened to intervene against the measures, and thus saved the lives of thousands of Armenians and Greeks as well as numerous Jews in Palestine.

In British captivity of war (1919), Liman von Sanders was confronted with allegations that he was a war criminal and involved in the Armenian genocide. But these proved baseless — and he returned to Germany as a free man.

Two years ago, Muriel Mirak-Weissbach presented a biography in which she differentiated and assessed Liman von Sanders' work.

‍

Muriel Mirak-Weissbach, journalist and writer, born in the USA as the daughter of Armenian immigrants, former university lecturer in English studies in Milan, then employee of international newspapers (focus: political-cultural developments in the Arab and Islamic world); publications on literature and philology; has been increasingly involved with the history and culture of Armenia for twenty years and correspondent for the US “Armenian Mirror-Spectator.” Together with her husband, she runs a foundation to support social and cultural projects in Armenia.

‍