Ambassador Morgenthau's Story (Paperback)

~ (Author), Ara Sarafian (Author) "When I began writing these reminiscences of my ambassadorship, Germany's schemes in the Turkish Empire and the Near East seemed to have achieved a temporary..." (more)
Key Phrases: United States, Grand Vizier, American Embassy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The power of Morgenthau's book to move and instruct us eighty years after its publication, " writes Roger Smith in his introduction, "is intimately connected with its truthfulness about the atrocities and the men behind them, but also about the capacities of humans to commit enormous evil with a light heart." The memoir also documents the beginnings of U.S. interest in international human rights as well as patterns and symptoms of genocidal tendencies, foreshadowing most notably the Nazi Holocaust." --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Description

"Ambassador Morgenthau's Story," one of the best known personal accounts of the Armenian Genocide, has been republished by the Gomidas Institute. The new edition features an introduction by Ara Sarafian.

"This important and oft-cited work has been out of print for some time now," Sarafian noted. "April 24, 2000, seemed an opportune moment to make it available once again to the reading public."

Henry Morgenthau was the United States ambassador in Constantinople at the time of the Genocide. He had frequent encounters with the top government officials who organized the Genocide. At the same time, he received detailed reports from American consular officials posted throughout the Ottoman Empire.

His memoir, first published in 1918, is thus an authoritative account of the destruction of the Armenian population in historic Armenia. It is cited in the works of such Genocide specialists as Vahakn Dadrian, Ronald Grigor Suny, and Richard Hovannisian.

Morgenthau had been a successful lawyer and real estate developer in New York prior to his appointment as ambassador in 1913. He was a conscientious and hard-working diplomat. In 1915, he began receiving eyewitness reports about the destruction of Armenians all over the empire. Concerned, he confronted Ottoman leaders in Constantinople.

Sarafian reports that "by mid-July 1915 Morgenthau had concluded that a campaign of race extermination was taking place. In a letter now in the National Archives, he wrote, 'Deportation of and excesses against peaceful Armenians is increasing and from harrowing reports of eye witnesses it appears that a campaign of race extermination is in progress under a pretext of reprisal against rebellion.'"

After the United States entered World War I and severed diplomatic relations with Ottoman Turkey-the U.S. did not declare war on the Ottoman Empire-Morgenthau was free to write his memoirs. "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story" was written in a popular style and was based on the ambassador's diaries, other private papers, and diplomatic reports from 1914-16. The memoir was first serialized in "World's Work" and then published as a book in 1918. The work was a damning indictment of Ottoman leaders for their entry into World War I and the genocide of Armenians.

Morgenthau narrates the piecemeal manner in which the Ottoman Turks slid into World War I. One of the key episodes in this development was the passage of two German cruisers, the "Breslau" and the "Goeben," into the Bosphorus in August 1914. These ships (with their crews) were technically transferred to the Ottoman navy and used in the Ottoman attack on Russia. He gives fascinating insights into the subsequent period, with the destruction of the Ottoman navy, the Allied landings at Gallipoli, and the threat to Constantinople. He relates how, at one point, the Ottoman government even prepared to abandon its capital and move to Asia Minor. However, the most disturbing chapters in "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story" are those dealing with the genocide of Armenians.

Morgenthau discloses his conversations with Ottoman leaders, such as Talaat Pasha (Minister of Interior), Enver Pasha (Minister of War), and Hans Wangenheim (German Ambassador). He relates how once Talaat Pasha even admitted in private, "No Armenian can be our friend after what we have done to them."

On another occasion Talaat Pasha asked for a list of Armenian insurance-policy holders in American life insurance companies so that the Ottoman government could cash in their policies. Talaat reassured the American ambassador that the Armenians in question were "practically all dead" and had no heirs to collect the money.

Sarafian notes that "such disclosures can be corroborated as a matter of record. The Ottoman government did approach foreign insurance companies and requested such lists of Armenian policy holders-and these were for communities which were destroyed the previous summer."

Perhaps because of his own Jewish background, Henry Morgenthau was particularly sensitive to the plight of Armenians. As he related in a private letter to his son, Henry Morgenthau Jr., Ottoman Armenians were like the people of Israel in captivity, though they did not have a Moses to lead them out of their predicament.

Morgenthau's sympathy for Armenians was very real and did not wane. "Ambassador Morgenthau's Story" remains as powerful today as it was 82 years ago when it was first published.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 293 pages
• Publisher: Taderon Pr (April 24, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0953519120
• ISBN-13: 978-0953519125
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,494,002 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Number One source on Armenian Genocide, March 9, 2002

By A Customer

Ambassador Morgenthau has always been one of the most reliable sources on the Armenian Genocide. No surprise that so many attempts have been made to tarnish his image, or to question his testimonies on the terrible crime committed by the Ottoman Empire against its Christian Armenian subjects. Yet, the Morgenthau version of the 1915 events is abslutely irrefutable, and I strongly recommend this book to those interested in finding out what has really happened during the agony of the "ill man of Europe".

64 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Book to Read!, June 15, 2000

By	Vartan Gevorgyan (North Hollywood, CA) - See all my reviews

This is a book to read if you want to know about World War I, and it is the book to read and reread if you want to know about the Armenian Genocide. Morgenthau was really at the center of the action in Turkey in 1915 and 1916. He had innumerable meetings with the top officials (Talat Pasha, Enver Pasha, and all the other authors of the atrocities against Armenians). He got reports from all over the place--the consuls and missionaries stationed in different places in the interior. He knew the score and tried to do something about it.

The thing that really got my goat was the insurance incident. The Turks came to Morgenthau and told him, Well, the Armenians are dead. Their heirs are dead. So their life insurance awards revert to the state. Get them for us. [Shudder] What gall!

59 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book on the first Genocide of the 20th century, December 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Ambassador Morgenthau's Story (Paperback)

This is an excellent book to read if you want to learn about the true atrocities of the first genocide of the 20th century. This book is not for the feint-hearted but I recommend it highly as it is very accurate and comes from a very reputable source who was directly involved with the Turkish government and the Armenians during the early 20th century.

Keep in mind the following when you read the other reviews posted here:

"The French National Assembly has formally recognised as genocide the slaughter of more than a million Armenians living in the Ottoman empire between 1915 and 1917."

Additional facts/quotes:

Adolf Hitler

While persuading his associates that a Jewish holocaust would be tolerated by the west stated...
"Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

Yossi Beilin

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister. April 27, 1994 on the floor of the Knesset in response to a TV interview of the Turkish Ambassador
"It was not war. It was most certainly massacre and genocide, something the world must remember... We will always reject any attempt to erase its record, even for some political advantage."

Gerald Ford

Addressing the US House of Representatives.
"Mr. Speaker, with mixed emotions we mark the 50th anniversary of the Turkish genocide of the Armenian people. In taking notice of the shocking events in 1915, we observe this anniversary with sorrow in recalling the massacres of Armenians and with pride in saluting those brave patriots who survived to fight on the side of freedom during World War I."
-- Congressional Record, pg. 8890

Additional books I recommend:
Peter Balakian's "The Burning Tigris" and "Black Dog of Fate"

All over the world for many centuries, religious and ethnic intolerance have caused much pain and death to humanity. We should never forgive or forget any holocaust or genocide, no matter how large or how small, and the world's leaders and governments should do everything and anything in their power to recognize and prevent such atrocities in the future.