Remembering the Armenian Genocide of April 24, 1915

 The Armenian Genocide was mentioned by Hitler, prior to his 1939 invasion and assault of the Polish people.  He said  to Reichmarshal Hermann Goering and the commanding generals at Obersalzberg

“Our strength consists in our speed and in our brutality. Genghis Khan led millions of women and children to slaughter – with premeditation and a happy heart. History sees in him solely the founder of a state. It’s a matter of indifference to me what a weak western European civilization will say about me.

I have issued the command – and I’ll have anybody who utters but one word of criticism executed by a firing squad – that our war aim does not consist in reaching certain lines, but in the physical destruction of the enemy. Accordingly, I have placed my death-head formations in readiness – for the present only in the East – with orders to them to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men, women, and children of Polish derivation and language. Only thus shall we gain the living space (lebensraum) which we need. Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”

In Benny Morris & Dror Ze'evi's book "The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of Its Christian Minorities, 1894–1924" confirms the number of people killed in the Ottoman Empire's invasion of Armenia. It was April 24th when community leaders were killed, beginning the genocide of 1.5 million people and the flight to California and New York, of those who took heed to warnings of pending destruction.

While many people recognize the Kardashian family as the most notable Armenians few realize they are related to an infamous evangelist who details how a significant number of Armenians came to Southern California.  Demos Shakarian, founder of Full Gospel Business Association and author of "The Happiest People". 

"Among the Pryguny in Romanovo village was a "Boy Prophet", Efim Gerasimovitch Klubnikin, who, as early as 1855, when he also lived in Erivan Governorate, began to have visions of an unspeakable tragedy and warned that all must flee to a "place of refuge."

Additional details concerning the Armenian community: Institute News – USC Institute of Armenian Studies

Related article: Southern California Armenian History Presented at CSUN |

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