Armin T. Wegner

Born in Elberfeld, Germany, on October 16, 1886, Armin T. Wegner became known as a writer of expressionist poetry, travel writing, and essays, but his reputation reaches far beyond literature. During World War I he served in the Ottoman Empire as a medical officer, and the photographs and notes he made there became some of the most important firsthand records of the Armenian genocide.

Wegner was also a committed pacifist who spoke out when silence was safer. After the Nazis came to power, he wrote an open letter protesting the persecution of Jews. He was arrested and tortured, then eventually left Germany and spent much of the rest of his life in Italy.

He died in Rome on May 17, 1978. Today he is remembered not only for what he wrote, but for the risks he took to defend human dignity and to preserve evidence of atrocities that others wanted erased.