On Tuesday, June 30, 2015 at 6:00 p.m., the Main Library, 1550 Oak St., will host author, artist and independent historian Ellen Sarkisian Chesnut, who will share the story of non-Armenian women involved in saving Armenian lives from 1915-1923.
Upon hearing of the atrocities committed against the Armenian population in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a number of young women from Scandinavian countries went to Turkey to care for the victims. Maria Jacobsen was a Danish missionary and a key witness to the Armenian Genocide. The Norwegian missionary, Katherine Bodil Biorn was a nurse in Mezereh, Kharbert aka Harpoot province and later in Mush, Western Armenia. Bodil documented the events through her testimonial diary and her photography. The experiences of these two women, among others, will be the subject of Ellen’s talk.
Ellen was born in Mosul, Iraq of Armenian ancestry and immigrated to the United States when she was two years old. She has lived in San Francisco most of her life and has been a teacher, artist, and student of history, as well as the family archivist. Her book, Deli Sarkis: The Scars He Carried, about her father’s experience during the Armenian genocide, will be available for purchase at the program.
