It has been announced that Astrid Aghajanian died on 11 May 2012 at
the age of 99.
She was a very strong lady who, as far as we know, is the last
survivor in Britain of the Armenian Holocaust, and who made quite an
impact on those she met.
You can read about her and watch her giving her testimony by clicking
May she rest in peace after all she bravely has been through a long
and eventful lifetime.
Untold Stories – Astrid Aghajanian
Astrid Aghajanian survived the Ottoman Empire’s systematic destruction
of its Armenian population.
For more information on the events of 1915-18, please visit the USHMM site.
[Astrid is sitting in an armchair, talking straight to camera]
When I was a little girl, my father, they said they were going to take
him as a soldier. My father came and kissed me and said, told my
mother, `I know that they are going to shoot me, and you remember me
by looking after Helen.’ My name was Helen. And they took him and they
shot him. So my mother did everything to save me. She sold her rings,
she sold her earrings, she sold everything that she could get bread
and feed me.
They came and told their mother that they are going to look after the
children. My mother said, `No, I’m not going to give my child, I’ll
look after her’. She saw the children piled up, one on top of each
other and put fire around them and the children screaming, burning. It
was horrible, she said, and she was glad that she didn’t give me.
Other mothers starting crying, weeping, how their children were
burning like that. It was horrible.
When the Turks started slaughtering the Armenians, one after the
other, the queue was reaching us. Mother looked around. She saw that
there is no other way to run away. We are going to be killed. But my
mother took me, and she buried me and herself under the dead bodies.
So the Turks said, `We’ve finished them.’ They collected their horses
and they went.
My mother stayed with me under the dead bodies, fearing that they
might be hidden and kill us. So we stayed there till the morning. In
the morning she picked me up and she started walking in the desert. We
walked the Syrian Desert. And the shoes got torn out. We started
walking bare feet…. Imagine. I owe my life to my mother. She was a
real mother.
When she was walking she saw a Bedouin. He said, `Come with me.’ She
said, `if you are going to kill me, I don’t want to come with you.’ He
said, `No, no, come with me.’ So mother went with him. He saw a man
with many camels, very rich. He spoke with the man, and mother saw him
taking money from the man, and then he came to mother, and said, `Now
go with him.’ He sold us. He sold us to the man. So mother had to go
with the other man. She told him, `If you are going to kill me, I
don’t want to come.’ He said, `No no, come with me.’ So she went with
the other man.
And their aim was to kill her, to throw her into the river. A shepherd
boy knew about it. He came in the morning very early. He said,
`Sister, sister, they are going to send you to fetch water from the
river and throw you into the river and keep your child, don’t go.’ And
in the morning the man poured the water out from the tank, and came
and kicked mother and said, `Go and fetch water.’ She didn’t go. But
mother knew that he was after her to kill her.
A soldier came, a Turkish officer, and he was looking at the Bedouins.
He found my mother. He said, `Who are you? What are you?’ And my
mother told him. He said, `Look, I’ll get permission from the Governor
to come and fetch you and take you away.’ We were taken to the
Governor’s house. And they told her, `Now you can serve. You can work
here as a housekeeper.’
And while she was working there I was a little child, playing in the
garden. Opposite, there was a butler, and the butler called me. I ran
to my mother and I told her, `That man is calling me.’ She went and
saw him. The butler said, `Who are you?’ She said, `I am an Armenian
refugee.’ He said, `Do you have relatives?’ She said, yes, and she
would like to get in contact with her uncle who is in Aleppo to say
that we are alive, we are not dead. That’s how we were saved.
From: Baghdasarian