German General and the Armenian Genocide

Muriel Mirak-Weissbach is a graduate of Wellesley College and a Fulbright scholar, who completed her graduate studies at the State University of Milan. She has published articles on politics and culture in the Arab and Islamic world, and on Armenia, as well as essays on literature and philology. Her recent publication include; Through the Wall of Fire, Armenia - Iraq – Palestine: From Wrath to Reconciliation (2013), and Madmen at the Helm: Pathology and Politics in the Arab Spring (2012). In 2012 she and her husband established the Mirak-Weissbach Stiftung, a small foundation supporting cultural, educational, and social projects in Armenia.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsNotes on Text, Translation, and SpellingPrologueChapter 1. Constantinople 1913Chapter 2. Gallipoli 1915Chapter 3. Genocide 1915-1918Chapter 4. Malta 1919: February–AprilChapter 5. Malta 1919: April–AugustChapter 6. Germany 1919Chapter 7. Yerevan 2019Chapter 8. Conclusion: HonorAppendix I: Letter from Liman von Sanders to the Swiss Government with First Enclosure: Letter by Dr. Constantin Makris to the High Court Martial of MaltaAppendix II: Second Enclosure: Document by Liman von Sanders. The Occurrences Which Led to the Partial Evacuation of AivalikAppendix III: ChronologyBibliographyIndex

“Mirak-Weissbach, born in the United States but the daughter of two Armenian refugees whose parents were killed during the genocide perpetrated by the Young Turks, wished to honor this person who defended her people and, in writing the volume, also gave a precious historical testimony on the lacerating ambiguity that accompanies tragic events such as wars, when heroism and cowardice, moral rigor and cowardly betrayal are mixed in intrigues in which distinguishing the wheat from the chaff is sometimes very difficult if not impossible.” • Frontiere Rivista Di Geocultura“This is a very valid inquiry into a multifaceted, fascinating German general during a late-Ottoman era of extremes… Based on primary sources, the author succeeds in giving a sober, but poignant portrait of a man of “honor” in times of disregard for human dignity.” • Hans-Lukas Kieser, University of Newcastle, Australia“The author frames her story as an effort to salvage the reputation of this remarkable person, which she does. Her account of his repeated refusals to obey deportation orders from the Young Turk regime is well-documented, gripping, and fast-paced; the behind-the-scenes drama of his imprisonment on Malta appears here for the first time. A book devoted to Liman von Sanders and his “honor” is ideal to assign in upper-level classrooms, for it provokes the question: What would it take to stop genocide?” • Margaret Lavinia Anderson, University of California Berkeley