The Danish Peace Academy
Maria Jacobsen and the genocide in Armenia
By Karekin Dickran, 2004
Introduction
Maria Jacobsen, 1910
The town of Harpoot, on the hillside of the mountains can be seen the
American buildings serving as residences, hospitals, school and
university, 1907
Maria Jacobsen was born in the small town of Siim, Dover Denmark on
November 6, 1883 to a loving Christian family. She spent her childhood
in Horsens, Denmark with her parents, her father Jens Jacobsen (born
1853) and her mother Ane Kristine Pedersen (born 1857). In 1898, Maria
Jacobsen attended a Christian Congregational meeting organized by
Baroness Sigrid Kurck who was campaigning to publicize the sufferings
of the Armenians. Fifteen year old Maria Jacobsen was deeply moved by
the news of the massacres and persecution of the Armenians and an urge
to relieve the sufferings of the people grew in her heart day by day.
In 1905 young nurse Jacobsen was in Copenhagen for her higher
education and was soon working in the childrens ward at Sundbys
Hospital. She cared for and loved her little patients, but felt lonely
and perplexed. There were few women in that kind of work in those days
and she was the only young woman nurse working at the hospital. Then
one day she went to the Y.M.C.A. (K.F.U.K) where she met other young
women nurses like herself and she was soon selected to lead a study
group of young Christian women engaged in missionary work.
In the fall of 1905 she began course work at K.M.A.’s mission school
and was selected to join K.M.A.’s Armenian Committee. In 1906, after
she graduated as a nurse, and after summer vacation, she returned to
K.M.A.’s mission school then went to London to study. She worked a few
months at a polyclinic [emergency ward] in London practicing her
nursing skills while studying English.
She became intensely devoted to missionary work, which was quite
extensive with many different activities and programs. Inside
K.M.A. (Women missionary workers) senior staff members were following
her development. One day they offered her a position to travel abroad
as a nurse and missionary. But Jacobsen declined. She felt her place
was among the sick children at Sundby’s Hospital where she was content
leading her small study group. But when she received a personal
request from senior KMA staff to travel to the mission field, this
time to India, she began to waver.
A personal calling to the work became a stronger and stronger
feeling. One Sunday when she was at the Trinitatis Church in
Copenhagen praying for guidance, she made her decision. During prayer,
she felt as if the Lord had spoken to her and she answered: Lord, if
it is your will, then I will go. She then stepped up to the alter to
confirm her pledge and from that moment on one Danish woman’s destiny
was sealed. Twenty-four year old Maria Jacobsen’s fate was formally
sealed on October 4, 1907 during a missionary ordination and farewell
ceremony at Garnison’s Parish Hall where she received her ordination
and first field assignment.
During those hard times K.M.A. was able to do much constructive
work. To begin with, they had opened a modest home in Mezreh, Turkey,
which they named Emaus [taken from Luke 24:13-35 signifying faith and
renewal] with the purpose of aiding Armenian orphans and others who
were persecuted. Its mission was also to provide poor women with
financial aid to buy school materials and to teach them skills so they
could support themselves financially. Their other mission was to bring
Christian revival to souls left in darkness, thus spreading the good
news of the Bible to places like Ourfa, Bitlis, Van, Ayntab, Kharpert,
and Mardin in Aisa Minor. They sometimes cooperated with other foreign
missionary societies such as the American Board. Maria Jacobsen was
the fifth woman missionary that K.M.A. had sent to Asia Minor to bring
aid to Armenians. In her heart burned a fire of love and compassion
toward persecuted women and children.
Embarking on her journey, Maria Jacobsen went first to Berlin where
she met Laura, a sister missionary from Germany who had already been
in the mission field in Anatolia. Through her conversations with
Laura, Jacobsen, for the first time, got a glimpse of what was waiting
for her in Asia Minor. As the train departed the Berlin station,
Sister Laura cried and cried as Jacobsen herself began to understand
that its one thing to hear about mission work in a small
congregational meeting in Copenhagen, a safe distance from the real
events, but something quite different to actually be in the middle of
a foreign country where the events are occurring.
>From Berlin she went to the harbor town of Constance in Romania and
sailed to Constantinople, (Istanbul). The first sight that greeted her
there was a hysterical mass of shouting and crying people in ragged
clothing, a chaotic and strange world where crowds of panicked people
were dragging and pulling their suitcases. For a moment she thought
she had landed in the middle of savages. She was confused and
disturbed by these overwhelming impressions until she was able to free
herself from the crowd and board the ship that would take her to
Samson, a small harbor town on the northern coast of Asia Minor. In
Samson, while shopping for supplies at a local market, she saw other
missionaries on their way to their respective mission stations who
were also buying provisions for their difficult journeyfuel lamps,
field beds, blankets, kitchen utensils, etc., etc.
>From there she continued her journey to her destination, the small
town of Harpoot (Kharpert), in the highlands of Anatolia in the middle
of Asia Minor. The journey would take 16 days by baroosh, an
open-sided flat wagon drawn by horses that is normally used for
freight. A carpet was spread on the wagon for her. It was to be the
home of the young nurse for the 16-day journey. Nights were
miserable. She slept at lodging-houses and stables that were devoid of
sanitary facilities and human comfort. The situation got even worse as
she went deeper into Asia Minors wilderness.
After a long and tiring journey, as she got nearer to Harpoot the
first sign of encouragement that greeted Jacobsen was the American
doctor, Dr. Raynolds. He was riding down from the Armenian highlands
to greet her and saw the Danish nurse. He immediately raised his hands
to heaven and exclaimed, It is for you that we have been praying for
so long to come! He had been stationed there as a missionary in
Armenia for several years and had personally witnessed the massacres
of Armenians during 1895-96. He had also fallen into the hands of the
Turks himself who had mistreated him severely and had cut off his
nose. Fortunately, he was able to sew it back together again himself
while standing before a mirror.
The American missionaries had already opened a station at Harpoot
along with a small temporary hospital. The hospital had doctors but no
nurses, and the arrival of a Danish nurse was the greatest event the
staff had experienced for a long time. Maria Jacobsen worked with the
physicians, who among themselves had referred to her as the angel of
salvation, even before her arrival in Asia Minor. They rode out in
small groups to welcome her, and when it was revealed that the same
day was her 24th birthday, they celebrated her birthday with great
festivities. But the next morning began the serious business of her
work.
It usually took missionaries from one to two years to learn the
Armenian language, but for Maria Jacobsen things were quite
different. She had no time to wait to learn the language. She was
needed immediately to begin working the next day. The hospital needed
nurses more than anything else. The Mission-station rented a house,
and beds were lined up next to each other in one big room. Maria
Jacobsen took her lodging in one corner of the room with her field bed
and utensils.
An Armenian pharmacist was appointed to teach her Armenian, which
could only take place in the evenings, usually after a long, hard
working day. Harpoot’s high altitude affected her too; the climate was
exhausting. Throughout the winter she struggled with her work and
language studies. Not even an hour of respite was granted her. She
rode with doctors along high mountains and through plains to assist in
births. Sometimes she had to ride for five days in snowstorms to reach
villages to help mothers deliver their babies into the world. She
never complained nor regretted, even for a second, that she had left a
calm and comfortable life back home to devote her life to fatiguing
humanitarian work in Asia Minor.
The Armenian genocide
1915. A group of deported Armenians
1915. Armenian intellectual leaders were murdered or publicly hanged
to spread fear among the Armenians of the Ottoman Empire
1915. Survivors of a family stand powerless before a dying family
member during the massacres
1915. A group of children lament their torment as they wait to be
received into , Maria Jacobsen children home in the town of
Harpoot
1915. One of many orphaned Armenian children found naked and starving,
drifting aimlessly amid the ruins of a house
NEAR EAST RELIEF MAP
Missionary Review, Vol 42, JANUARY 1922
Maria Jacobsen, 1960
In 1915 the massacres of Armenians began all around Maria Jacobsen.
She was alarmed by the magnitude of the catastrophe that was spreading
day by day. On April 24, 1915, the most important figures of the
Armenian community in Constantinople – newspaper editors, writers,
churchmen, Armenian intellectual leaders and even parliamentarians,
were taken from their homes and summarily deported to remote
regions. Most were never heard of again. Armenian society in the
Ottoman Empire had just been decapitated.
When the Turks and Kurds carried into effect the horrible massacres
and the genocide against the Armenians in 1915, it was more than the
little Danish woman could bear. The Turks forced women and children
together on death marches and drove them ruthlessly south in endless
caravans of human flesh, while missionaries who saw the brutalities
stood powerless. Soldiers were posted at doors and on rooftops, and
supplications by missionaries to government officials to help the sick
was rejected by officials who said they had already sent physicians
and nurses with the deportees. But just as sheep are led to slaughter
the Armenians were driven out of town, beyond the highlands and plains
where, hidden from view, an orgy of death began of terrible abuses and
horrible murders. Thousands upon thousands of Armenians were murdered
in the most bestial of methods. Dead bodies lay on the roads. There
was neither nurses nor doctors to move them, as trucks and wagons
drove over the dead.
Missionaries were not permitted to leave the city for six months. When
they did venture out they saw thousands of skeletons lining the roads
as far as they could see. Places where once they enjoyed Sunday
excursions and vacations, they now saw only scenes of horror and
desolation. The Turks had beheaded women and children and threw them
into the lake. It was evident that not all had died immediately.
The sick, the dying, and the dead piled over each other and spilled
into the ditches. The missionaries saw the dead spread along the
plains, a hand sticking out of the soil, bodies hastily covered with a
handful of soil. Missionaries could do nothing but witness this
unspeakable slaughter. Their town was referred to as the
Slaughterhouse because Armenians from all over Asia Minor were driven
there where Turks and Kurds murdered them mercilessly in cold blood
and were allowed to do to them whatever they desired. On a single day
30,000 people were driven out of the city and massacred. Almost no one
survived.
Maria Jacobsen witnessed the heroic suffering of the Armenian people
who suffered as Jesus did on the cross, but this time it was on a
charred cross. Orphans with horror in their eyes wandered as mere
skeletons, almost maddened by the reign of terror. And a little
seven-year-old girl that the Turks had sold to a Bedouin family had
fled and managed to hide in a tree where she clung to the branches
with both arms in fear of falling down. A Turk gendarme discovered her
when the poor child, sick and weak, fell from the tree unconscious.
Fortunately, Maria Jaobsen was there at the time it happened and she
adopted the girl instantly. She was the first child Maria Jacobsen
personally adopted. She named her Hansa. The second child she adopted
was named Beatrice, and the third was Lilly whom she found in
miserable condition along the side of the road. Soon Maria Jacobsen
had taken over 3600 children under her protection and hid them from
the Turks.
The mornings were especially painful. As she came out of her house
each day she would find the bodies of 10 to 15 children who had died
of hunger or exhaustion during the night. An old Armenian woman buried
the dead for her. But the old lady was nearly blind and could not dig
the graves deep enough so during the night wild dogs would eat most of
the corpses.
All day long new orphans came knocking at Maria Jacobsen’s door and
each day she opened her heart and home to them. Some Armenian homes in
town had a hole inside their homes that led to an underground shelter
or hiding place that was used when danger threatened the family. They
took refuge inside these shelters. It was here that Maria Jacobsen
placed the children she found. During the night she brought food to
the hungry children and divided the food into three rations so the
children could have three meals a day, just enough to be life
sustaining. When the bread got bad and moldy she would boil the pecked
wheat into a kind of soup. The only fuel she had was manure that old
Armenian wives gathered and dried for her.
As she recalls:
We lived this way for a year in fear that all the children would die
of hunger. Each day new groups of children stood in front of my door
asking for help, but what more could I do? I had nothing more to give
them. One day a 13 year old boy stood out among a starved group of
children that came to me. His belly was not swollen up with hunger as
others so I told him; there are many in worse condition than you who
need help. Your’s is the least serious, that’s why I am sorry, I can not
take you in. The same evening when I came to our kitchens fireplace,
my eyes caught a child lying crumpled on the warm ashes. It was the
boy I sent away the previous day. He had died of hunger. That day I
thought I would never be able to smile again. Each day we found ten to
fifteen children that had died of famine.
When America entered the First World War in June 1917, Americans were
compelled to leave Turkey. Maria Jacobsen alone stayed to run the
hospital and to care for the children patients who were totally cut
off from the rest of the world.
When American missionaries from the Near East Relief returned in 1919,
they brought twenty heavily loaded cars, packed with all kinds of
food, provisions and clothing to distribute among the children. Maria
Jacobsen by then had over 3,600 orphaned children. The Americans would
now take over the caring and responsibility for all of them.
Jacobsen saw the terrible suffering of so many people that she could
not simply watch without interfering. Chaos ruled Turkey and the
battlefronts. For several months, soldiers stayed in town just to
survive the hardships. There were thousands of sick or wounded
soldiers that hadnt even the means of transportation back to their
homes. Most of them who tried to reach home died like flies on the
way, and corpses lay all over the roads. They had neither money nor
food, nor warm clothing while winter was raging with snowstorms. Even
here, Maria Jacobsen brought aid and help where she found even the
slightest sign of life. One of her plans was to open shelters along
the way, but it did not succeed for her. She herself wrapped both her
hands and feet with naphthalene bandages to protect against infection,
but her precautions were to no avail. She came down with typhus fever
and cerebrospinal meningitis. For six months she was sick in bed and
followed the horrors of war from her window. She saw executions,
blindfolded men shot and their bodies carried away. K.M.A’s archives
includes letters, reports, eyewitness accounts, and personal
experiences written by Danish missionaries corresponding back home,
which describe everyday life inside Emaus and the national tragedy of
endless persecutions and killing orgies, specially in the period of
1914 – 1922 when it was the hardest and darkest times for the survival
of the Armenian nation.
When Jacobsen regained her health, she retuned to Denmark but the
stories of her work inside Turkey as mother to 3,600 children had
already reached the United States. People were eager to see and hear
this extraordinary woman. It was difficult for many to grasp how it
could have been possible to save 3,600 children under such
conditions. Maria Jacobsen traveled to the United States in October
1920 and for seven months, until the spring of 1921, she toured the
country telling her incredible story of the heavy burden she carried
in Turkish Armenia. She served as a catalyst that helped to raise
materials and money for Armenian refugees still being driven toward
the Mesopotamian desert and further down to the Middle East.
The Bird’s Nest
When she returned to Denmark from America, she learned that the Turks
were intensifying their persecution of the remainder of the
Armenians. But before the final round of massacres occurred, American
missionaries and the Near East Relief were permitted to take 110,000
orphans out of Turkey. Some were transferred to Greece, to Russian
Armenia, and others to Syria (Lebanon). With the transfer of so many
orphans to Syria and Lebanon, and in order to continue the great task
entrusted to her and Sister Karen Marie Petersen, who was already
deeply affected by the sufferings of the Armenians, Jacobsen returned
to the work field on January 17, 1922 and greeted the new refugees in
Beirut. The situation was nearly indescribable. Everything was in
chaos. Mobs of people with bundles on their backs were suddenly
gathered in one place where they had to raise tents or find a corner
to sleep, or gather their families, find food or do cooking amid rain
and mud as pools of water flowed everywhere.
Near East Relief had gathered orphans from different refugee camps and
entrusted their care to Maria Jacobsen. By July 3, 1922 she was
entrusted with 208 children from Cilicia who found a new home at Zouk
Michail between the cities of Byblos and Beirut. This was the seed
that was to become the Birds Nest in Sidon. Other missionaries arrived
in refugee camps and did tremendous work for the Armenians. By opening
workshops, clinics, soup kitchens, kindergartens, skill centers and
Bible schools they fulfilled a desperate need for both physical and
spiritual care. The number of Danish missionaries grew as more medical
specialists came.
The home at Zouk Michail grew so rapidly that many practical problems
developed. The shortage of water forced Jacobsen to search for a
better home for the children. A Druze prince helped her by renting her
his huge villa in Sidon [Saida]. She moved there with the entire
household on May 1, 1923.
On one sunny day Maria Jacobsen stood on the steps of the new home
surrounded by three hundred orphans. In her hands she had a bag filled
with candy that she was going to distribute to them. The children
immediately became excited and crowded around her. Anxious to reach
her, they shouted Mama, Mama (mother, mother) and stretched their
hands out desperately trying to grab the candy. Suddenly the picture
of the children with all their hands outstretched struck her with a
vivid image. They are like newly hatched Birds, she thought. From that
day on she named the new home the Birds Nest. And that name is now
known not only in Denmark, but also all over the Middle East. Maria
Jacobsen finally succeeded in creating a safe haven for her small
Armenian children and it has lived on in the memory of all those she
helped and their children.
In 1928 K.M.A. purchased property from the American Near East Relief,
which from 1922 to 1928 had run an Armenian orphanage on the grounds
of Djoubeil (Byblos). Finally, the Danish missionaries established the
long dreamed of Danish Birds Nest home, creating the solid foundation
for a real home. A Summer Home was established in the village of
Terzaya in 1930, high up in the mountains that was used as a health
resort for the children during summer vacations. Since then the Danish
Bird’s Nest has become legendary in the Middle East.
K.M.A. encountered some problems during World War II when all
communications were cut. Through the aid of other Christian
organizations, especially the aid from American-Armenians, closure of
the home was prevented.
New missionaries arrived at the end of the war to normalize and
strengthen the weakened parts of the work and to expand the work by
establishing a scouting movement, F.D.F, in 1948, improving the
educational standards and establishing the After Care Foundation in
1953, for the higher education of Birds Nest graduates, and expanding
Danish personnel to eight missionaries. Besides Maria Jacobsen there
was now Pastor Oluf Emil Paaske with his Norwegian wife (“Tante”)
Kirsten Elizabeth Ask Paaske and (Aunty) Magda Sxrensen. Jacobsens
sister, Anna Jacobsen, was already hired in 1931, and many others soon
followed.
In 1950 Maria Jacobsen received the Danish Kingdom’s Gold Medal Award
in appreciation for her humanitarian work. And on December 14, 1954,
for her 50th Jubilee celebration at the American University in Beirut,
she was presented with the Gold Medal of Honor by the Lebanese
government, the Protestant Congregation, and the Gregorian community,
as appreciation for her work among the Armenians.
>From her post in Lebanon she toured Denmark in 1957 to report on her
activities to friends of Armenians in Denmark, where she told them, I
think this will be the last time I see Denmark. She knew that she
would live and die among her beloved Armenian people and that her home
was now the Bird Nest. Although physically weakened, she was still at
her post writing letters to raise funds for the Birds Nest, even up to
her death.
By the end of the last week in April 1957 and every Sunday evening
thereafter, Jacobsen began to recount her life story and her
experiences in Harpoot (Turkey) to the children of the Danish Birds
Nest. I was eleven years old then and still remember her telling us
the vivid and emotional stories that are now documented in her
diary. She felt compelled to explain to us why she wrote so intensely
in her diary. The diary functioned as her only sanctuary to take
refuge from the daily inhumanity practiced by the Turks and Kurds
against Armenians. The atrocities she witnessed during the Armenian
massacres had so appalled her that she could only talk about them them
in her diary.
While I was doing research for a book about K.M.A’s Danish Birds Nest;
I was puzzled over a book of 112 pages published in Danish in 1920,
entitled In the Shadow Valley by Maria Dinesen, who was a writer and a
member of KMA. In the book she recounts the memoirs of a woman by the
name of Grace Dickson who had returned from Harpoot. I did a lot of
research on Grace Dicksons existence with no results. No one in
K.M.A. had even heard of a woman with that name and I never saw that
name while researching the archives. However, while I was reading
Dicksons sad stories, they reminded me of the stories Maria Jacobsen
had told us about the massacres she witnessed. Only than did I realize
that it was Maria Jacobsen herself who used the pseudonym of Grace
Dickson. But more importantly, I understood why. Her experiences with
the Turks had been so terrifying that even after she returned to her
safe home in Denmark, she still did not wish to reveal her name or the
existence of her diaries, probably because of her determination to
return to her field work among the Armenians. She must have believed
it necessary to keep her discretion as the servant of God and not act
as a political commentator. That also explains why no one knew about
her diaries, because they only appeared ten years after her death.
Group photo of the children of the Home, mailed as a Christmas
gift to the Danish fathers (supporters) of the Birds Nest
On December 14, 1954, at the American University in Beirut, Maria
Jacobsen was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor by the Lebanese
government, the protestant congregation and the Gregorian community as
appreciation for her humanitarian work among the Armenians
Maria Jacobsen died on April 6, 1960 after a long and fruitful life
dedicated to helping others. Although physically weakened, she was
still at her post writing letters to raise funds for the Bird’s Nest,
even up to her death. Whether having good or bad days she always
remained a missionary and worked to save souls which for her was her
greatest task. As mother to thousands of orphan children she felt a
special call to help them and to show them the way to Christ. She was
entombed in a special chamber the way the old Phoenician Kings were
buried.
Her last task was to strengthen the bond between the Bird’s Nest
children and the friends of the Bird’s Nest around the world. For her
last Christmas she wrote over 600 letters, quite a task in her old
age, something few could achieve. The memory of Maria Jacobsen is
still alive and her name is legendary among Armenians. She was a
beacon of light and hope when only darkness filled the nights and days
and she set an example for many others to follow. After she passed
away, her sister Anna Jacobsen took charge of The Birds Nest. She came
to The Bird’s Nest in 1931 to just spend a holiday with her sister,
but that holiday lasted until May, 1967.
After the death of Maria (Mama) Jacobsen in 1960, and throughout the
sixties, work at the Bird’s Nest concentrated on building and
renovation activities as well as reforming the entire educational and
childrens pedagogical system by modernizing the Home to the standards
of the surrounding community. New missionaries and specialists arrived
to carry out diverse plans. They forged new agreements and developed
contacts with other institutions of higher learning. With the purchase
of property in Beirut they constructed a building that was to be used
for social events and club activities for former Bird’s Nest students.
That building became the home of the After Care organization built to
strengthen the social and spiritual needs of youngsters in the
transitional period from childhood to independence.
In 1970, K.M.A.’s Chairman Sister Kirsten Vind, transferred the
responsibility of the Bird’s Nest to the Cilician Armenian
Patriarchate with its headquarters in Antelias, Lebanon. In 1980
K.M.A. formally ended its association with Mission work. In its place,
Folkekirkens Nxdhjflp in Denmark took up the responsibility of
transferring donations from the friends of the Bird’s Nest in Denmark
to the Birds Nest.
As for Maria Jacobsen, What she has done for one of these little
children, she has done for me, says Jesus, and she will in turn
receive her merit. Regarding Maria Jacobsen’s diaries published by
Gomidas
The translation of Maria Jacobsens Diaries was undertaken by
K.M.A. under the supervision of Sister Kirsten Vind, the last chairman
for K.M.A. I had great pleasure in cooperating with her on Birds Nest
matters for the last three decades, Kirsten Vind even entrusted the
original manuscripts of Maria Jacobsen’s diaries to me after being
assured that I consider them our national heritage.
I can’t thank Richard Kloian of the Armenian Genocide Resource Center
in California enough for putting this entire project in motion from
the very beginning in 1997. He was the first person to contact me from
the U.S. about Maria Jacobsen and the Danish missionaries and helped
to keep the momentum for the project going. He introduced me to a
number of key people, including Ara Sarafian of the Gomidas Institute,
who have been instrumental in helping to further the work and to bring
attention to the role of Danish Missionaries during the Armenian
Genocide. I would also like to thank him for initiating the contact
with Eric Markusen of the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide
Studies who contacted me about KMA archives in 2001. Since then, with
Richard Kloian’s assistance, the Center has undertaken a pilot study
of the holdings of the Danish Missionary Association under the
sponsorship of the Zoryan Institute of Canada.
Another objective of my work has been the collection of photos in a
CD-ROM as a heritage toward the friendship of the Danish and Armenian
people, that it may be a modest contribution to enrich the holdings of
the Armenian Genocide Resource Centers. The CD-ROM photo album of the
Danish Bird’s Nest complements the material in Jacobsen book,
illustrating nearly all key events during the 1900-1970 period.
Furthermore, the 15 CD-ROMs in my possession include portraits of
Danish missionaries and Armenian children who, during their childhood,
grew up in the homes of Mezreh, Zouk Michael, Saida and Djoubeil.
I hope that forthcoming generations of Armenians and Danes continue to
forge a bond of lasting friendship, one that began in tragic
circumstances but one that continues with hope and mutual respect so
that together we can create a better human future for all. Although
Turkey still denies the Armenian genocide I appeal to the Turkish
Government and to the world community to restore the properties that
belonged to the deportees to their families or ancestors, or pay
compensation to the present Armenian government for their illegal
confiscation. Project Save Bird’s Nest Photo Archives
An archive devoted to collecting, documenting, preserving, and
presenting the history of the Bird’s Nest and its photos from
1900-1970. A resource that includes photographs and the complete
history of the Danish Bird’s Nest (in Danish). We have already produced
15 CD-ROM photo albums, containing more than 2500 photographs,
portraits, panoramic vistas, and images of many subjects. All
photographs were re-scanned in high resolution (600 or 800 dpi).
The photo CD-ROM albums of Danish Bird’s Nest complements the contents
of the book, illustrating almost all major events in the period
1900-1970. Furthermore the CD-ROM includes portraits of Danish
missionaries and Armenian children who spent their childhood and grew
up in the Homes in Mezreh, (Turkey). Zouk Michael, Saida and Djoubeil
in Lebanon.
The aim of Project Save Bird’s Nest Photo Archives is to collect photos
from all available private sources, to scan the photos onto CD-ROMs,
and donate them to the present Armenian Bird’s Nest. All photos sent to
me will be returned to their owners after scanning.
I suggest to all who wish to support the project to send related
photographs to the address below. The final stage of the project is to
establish an archive at the present Armenian Bird’s Nest and to be able
to make a donation to them of a powerful new computer so that it can
be a place for all to connect to the past, while considering the
present, thus creating a future for everyone. Literature
Dickran, Karekin: Various Titles of Publications related to Northern
resources by one or another way
Lous, Eva: Karen Jeppe – Denmark’s First Peace Philosopher
Press Release September 2001
A key account of the Armenian Genocide at Kharpert (Harpoot): Maria
Jacobsen, Diaries of a Danish Missionary. Harpoot, 1907-1919
(translation supervised by Kristen Vind). Initially commissioned by
the late Catholicos Karekin Sarkissian. Ara Sarafian, editor.),
(Princeton and London: Gomidas Institute Books, 2001, ISBN
1-903656-07-9]), $30.00.
A Danish Missionary Maria Jacobsen (born in Siim, Dover Denmark,
November 6, 1883; died in Djoubeil Byblos, April 6,1960) where she
spent the greater part of her life working for Armenian orphans at the
Trchnots Pouyn [Bird’s Nest] orphanage in Lebanon. She was known as
Mama to hundreds of Armenian children, orphaned during the Armenian
Genocide. Maria’s involvement with Armenians started in 1907 when she
first went to Kharpert (Harpoot) as a Danish missionary. She was a
nurse by training and formed part of a growing Danish interest in
Ottoman Armenians. Maria worked alongside other Danish, German, and
American missionaries. Since she had a good knowledge of English, she
was stationed at the Annie Tracy Riggs Hospital in Mezreh. Her work
took her to surrounding villages, and she developed a genuine
affection for the people around her.
The Armenian Genocide of 1915: Maria Jacobsen was eyewitness to the
genocide of Ottoman Armenians and tried to save as many Armenian women
and children as she could. She constantly pleaded with the Ottoman
authorities, and provided relief where she could while recording what
she saw. Her diaries are invaluable for a critical understanding of
the Armenian Genocide. Most of her Armenian acquaintances were
murdered by the Ottoman government. Though she could leave, she chose
to remain in Kharpert until the end of WWI. She worked tirelessly to
save as many Armenians as she could, often through special pleadings,
clandestine relief, and other means. Hundreds if not thousands
survived because of the efforts of Maria Jacobsen and other foreigners
in Kharpert (e.g. Henry Riggs, Ruth Parmelee, Leslie Davis, and Danish
missionary Karen Marie Petersen).
In her diaries throughout her stay in the Ottoman Empire, Jacobsen
kept notes of different events in her life. These notes became more
substantial with time, especially during WWI, when she began recording
the genocide against Armenians. Indeed, by 1919, she had produced one
of the most detailed primary accounts of the Armenian Genocide ever
written. By far the largest part of Maria’s diaries, over 600 pages in
the original Danish, covered the period of the Armenian
Genocide. These accounts were hand-written in four books and are now a
complete record of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey.
Armenian Genocide Documentation: Diaries of a Danish
Missionary. Harpoot, 1907-1919 (release date, September 2001) is the
latest addition to the Gomidas Institute’s Armenian Genocide
Documentation Series, alongside such titles as Tracy Atkinson, The
German, the Turk and the Devil Made a Triple Alliance; Harpoot
Diaries, 1907-1917; Henry Riggs, Days of Tragedy in Armenia: Personal
Experiences in Harpoot, 1915-17; James Barton, Turkish
Atrocities. Statements of American Missionaries on the Destruction of
Christian Communities in Ottoman Turkey, 1915-1917; and Beatrice
Morley, Marsovan 1915. The Gomidas Institute is the leading institute
publishing original primary records on the Armenian Genocide. For more
information please visit or e-mail us at
[email protected]
Gomidas London; Ara Sarafian. 7 Tower Close, Reading, Berks RG4 8UU,
England. Fax/phone: (0118) 9464196.
Contact Person: Ara Sarafian Gomidas Institute (UK) PO Box 32665
London W14 0XA Tel: (020) 7602 7990 Email: [email protected] Web:
Karekin Dickran was instrumental in bringing this project together.
Contact person in Danmark: Karekin Dickran Hans Broges Gade 45, 8000
Aarhus C. Denmark. e-mail: [email protected] Telphone: 45 + 86
13 90 54 K.M.A.s Danish Bird’s Nest
Compiled By Karekin Dickran (In Danish)
The story of the Danish Bird’s Nest begins in 1900, when the Womans
Missionary Workers (Kvindelige Missions Arbejdere) K.M.A. was
established, structured and organised in Scandinavia and particularly
in Denmark. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, K.M.A. sent
missionaries to help and serve the Armenian people who were subjected
to the unbearable tyrannical rule of various Turkish officials who
kept the Armenian people in fearful and inhuman condition.
During those hard times K.M.A. was able to do much constructive
work. To begin with, they opened a modest home in Mezreh which they
named Emausto aid Armenian orphans and those persecuted during the
massacres of 1894-95. They taught skills to poorer woman and provided
them with financial support so they could buy needed materials with
which they could learn to support themselves financially. They also
brought Christian revival to souls left in darkness, thus spreading
the good news of the Bible in places like Ourfa, Bitlis, Van, Ayntab,
Kharpert, Mardin, sometimes in cooperation with other foreign
missionary societies such as American Board.
During the First World War, in spite of the massacres and the various
restrictions by the Turkish government and the local Pashas
intolerance, the missionaries did their utmost to continue their
constructive work, even when their own lives were under severe threat
and danger. Yet, they remained faithfully at their post saving, one or
another way, at least 10,000 Armenian lives.
Jacobsens book includes excerpts from letters, reports, eyewitness
accounts, and personal experiences, written by Danish missionaries who
corresponded back home, describing daily life inside Emaus and the
countless national tragedies, endless persecutions and killing orgies,
especially in the period of 19141922 when it was the most difficult
and dark times for survival of the Armenians as a nation. There are
some statements by American and German missionaries, and German
military officials, on the destruction of Christians in Turkey. One
chapter describes the recurrent annual summer meetings for Danish
youngsters in Denmark that collected provisions, clothing and raised
funds.
Another chapter describes the hardships of the transfer of the orphans
to Syria and Lebanon. And in order to continue the great task
entrusted to her and Sister Karen Marie Petersen, who was already
deeply affected by witnessing over a long time the sufferings of
Armenians, Sister Maria Jacobsen returned to her field work in Zouk
Mikhael, later in Sidon. Other missionaries in refugee camps did
tremendous work for Armenians in times of extreme poverty and
despair. They opened workshops, clinics, soup kitchens, kindergartens,
skill centres and Bible schools for those in desperate need of
physical and spiritual care. Many other pages describe the fulfilled
and unfulfilled work from the period 19221950 with annual reports,
description of the refugee camps, and letters from the growing numbers
of Danish missionaries and medical specialists.
The third chapter describes the purchasing of property from the
American Near East Relief, which from 1922 to 1928 had run an Armenian
orphanage on the grounds of Djoubeil (Byblos) and how, finally, the
Danes established their long dreamed of Danish Bird’s Nest creating the
solid foundation for a Home. A Summer Home was established in Terzaya
in 1930 to provide a better health for the children. Since then the
Danish Bird’s Nest has become legendary in the Middle East.
Some minor difficulties were endured by K.M.A. during World War II
when all communications were cut. But through aid from other Christian
societies and American-Armenians the closure of the Home was
prevented. New Missionaries arrived at the end of the war to normalize
and strengthen weakened parts of the work and to expand the work by
establishing a scouting movement, F.D.F, in 1948, thus improving
educational standards and establishing an After Care Foundation in
1953 extending higher education to Bird’s Nest graduates, and expanding
Danish personnel to eight missionaries.
After Maria Jacobsens (Mamas) death in 1960 and throughout the sixties
work at the Home concentrated on building and renovation activities as
well as revising the entire educational and childrens pedagogical
system which was reformed and modernized and brought up to the
standards of the surrounding society. New missionaries and specialists
arrived to carry out diverse plans, forge new agreements and
connections with other institutions of higher learning. Property was
purchased in Beirut that served as a gathering place for social and
club activities for former Bird’s Nest students, and new activities
were begun to strengthen the social and spiritual needs of the
students for the transitional period from childhood to independence.
For the period 1950-1970 Jacobsen’s book discusses K.M.A.s annual
reports that describe in almost chronological order the last years of
1968-1970 where K.M.A.’s chairman Sister Kirsten Vind began
negotiations to transfer all K.M.A.’s assets in Lebanon to The
Catholicosate of Cilicia in Antelias because of the 1967 war between
the Arabs and Israel.
The CD-ROM photo album of the Danish Bird’s Nest complements the
contents of Jacobsens book, illustrating almost all major events
during 1900-1970. Furthermore the CD-ROM includes portraits of Danish
missionaries and Armenian children who spent their childhood in and
grew up inside the Homes of Mezreh, Zouk Michael, Saida and
Djoubeil. Another objective has been the collection of the photos in a
CD-ROM as a heritage for the friendship of the Danish and Armenian
people, that it may make a modest contribution to enrich the work of
The Armenian Genocide Resource Centers.
Gratitude alone is not enough to express the deep appreciation to the
Danish people for the tremendous work done for Armenians in times of
our national desperation and suffering.
Compiling the story of the Danish Bird’s Nest is one way of saying
thanks for the tremendous work done by Danes for Armenians in times of
our national desperation and to say to those unknown Armenians who
died for their faith. Other concerns and objectives have been the
collection of photos in a CD-Rom as a heritage for Danish and Armenian
peoples friendship, and may be to make a modest contribution to enrich
work of The Armenian Genocide Resource Centers.
Gratitude alone is not enough to express the deep appreciation to the
Danish people for the tremendous work done for Armenians in times of
our national desperation and suffering. As for the unknown countless
Armenians who died for their faith, we will never will forget you!
Contact: Karekin Dickran Hans Broges Gade 45, 8000 Aarhus
C. Denmark. e-mail: [email protected] Telphone: 45 + 86 13 90 54
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Fredsakademiet.dk. Opdated Fri, 26 Mar 2004 22:41:21 GMT
Ayskan Charik te´………