Armenian News
Network / Groong
Fund-raising
pleas on behalf of “Starving Armenians” at Christmastime: a dramatic word-picture
from The Literary Digest for December,
1919; a sketch depicting “Christmas Day in Armenia” on the cover of New Near East magazine December, 1921 and a cover from a box
of Safety Matches made at the Czech Solo Match Works — the purchase of
which goes to the “Benefit of Armenian Orphans.”
December 27, 2015
Special
to Groong by Abraham D. Krikorian and Eugene L. Taylor
LONG
ISLAND, NY
The following is an excerpt of a typical
cable sent to America, in this case from Tiflis, Russian Caucasus (12 December
1915 by Rev. Richard Hill, member of an early American Red Cross Commission to
evaluate need.)
“First of all let me repeat the words of my first cable and
emphasize with all vigor of earnestness that the situation here in respect to
the Armenian refugees is fully as bad as we had been led to believe, and that
to attempt to adequately describe the horrors of it would be a task altogether
beyond me…it would take the pen of a Dickens to give the pathos and misery of
it proper justice.”
The imagery we present is of a genre,
which is best characterized as very much sanitized and does little justice to
the reality. What we do present below will,
however, provide a superficial glimpse of that terrible period in the history
of the Armenian people. In fact, the very
word “refugee” is a little misleading. It really signifies those who were able to
escape direct murder at the hands of ‘the Turks’, and had fled or were still fleeing
to the other side of the Turkish frontier.
While physically safe for the time being, the conditions for the
Armenians quickly became horrendous. We
hope the print in the following full-page ad is large enough to read with ease.
It should be emphasized that the above was,
and is totally devoid of melodramatic elements. The situation was terrible in
the latter part of 1915, and conditions were still very bad in 1919 and for
quite a few years thereafter. (Scan from
a copy we own.)
Hopefully not ‘really’ forgotten. Fund-raising efforts on behalf of Armenians
continued for many years, and are still ongoing for the descendants of those who
found themselves in diaspora in countries like Syria and Iraq. These diasporan Armenians are today again caught
up in the turbulent madness, which obtains within these places. Diasporas are rapidly becoming ‘diasporas
within diasporas.’ (Scan from a copy that we own.)
The Solo Match Works (home factory in
Sušice near Klatovy in Bohemia - today’s
Czech Republic) was world-famous for producing wooden safety matches. Today, there are many match boxes made by them
relating to a wide range of themes and are rare enough to be sought by
collectors. Apparently the firm was
closed in 1996 after 169 years of productivity.
The word “Hai” at the upper left corner of the arc means “Armenian”. The
Armenian word that follows means for orphans and would have been pronounced “orper”
or “vorper” depending on regional dialect. Likewise, the final word in the arc means for
relief or assistance and would have been pronounced “nbasd” or “nabasd”. Unfortunately,
we are unaware of any details on the production of these matches for relief
purposes. Company labels usually state
“Made in Czechoslovakia”. It may have
been that the matches were made in Czechoslovakia and afterwards affixed with a
partially bilingual label in America. This
is pure speculation but the American eagle, if in fact that is
what the poorly drawn bird represents, would support that speculation. This is a fascinating example of the range of
activities initiated and used to raise money for relief. (Courtesy of Pamela Apkarian-Russell who
allowed us to make the scan years ago.)
Acknowledgements:
We thank the Burke Library, Union
Theological Seminary and Columbia University for access to the statement made
by Rev. Hill at the outset of this short notice. We again thank Pamela Apkarian-Russell for access
to this rare example of ephemera relating to the genocide of the Armenians by
‘the Turks.’
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