author
Aurora Mardiganian
1901–1994
A survivor who turned unbearable experience into testimony, she brought the story of the Armenian genocide to American readers and moviegoers through her memoir and a silent film based on it.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born Arshaluys Mardiganian in the Ottoman Empire in 1901, she survived the Armenian genocide as a teenager after losing much of her family and enduring a brutal journey to safety. After reaching the United States, she told her story in the 1918 memoir Ravished Armenia.
Her account quickly reached a wide audience. She also appeared as herself in the 1919 silent film adaptation, often known as Auction of Souls, helping make her one of the most visible Armenian witnesses of that era.
Mardiganian later lived a quieter life in the United States and died in Los Angeles in 1994. Today she is remembered not only as an author and actress, but as an early and powerful public witness whose story helped preserve the memory of a catastrophe many tried to ignore.