Dicle Akar Bilgin
Aleppo Orphanage Registrations
Notes from the Editor
My father was one of the survivors of the massacre at Dersim. When he was only five years old, fifty four of his relatives were burned alive before his eyes. My father would not speak of or describe the things that had happened to him, but I always felt the unbearable weight of being from Tunceli (Dersim) every day of my life.
There is almost no reliable knowledge or documentation about what happened during the 1938 Dersim massacre. The state archives on the subject are still off limits. The only source is oral history, but this had not been documented to any appreciable degree. For this reason we started the Dersim 1937-38 Oral History Project in 2009. Because I was given the chance to work on this project, for the first time I was able to learn what my father’s generation had gone through.
A story that was captured by one of the teams that conducted interviews really touched me. An appointment was made to conduct an interview with an older woman a week later. The woman was ill and lying down. When she heard the team enter through the garden gate, she started yelling “Where have you been? Azrail, the angel of death has been calling me all week. I’m at death’s door. I told him, I’m not ready to die until I’ve told my piece. I’ve been waiting all this time, why are you late?” The poor woman had been in torment all week for fear that she had die before she could tell her story. All of the victims wanted others to know and learn what they had suffered.
When I saw the registration ledgers prepared for the children who had survived the Armenian genocide and had managed to reach the Aleppo Orphanage between 1922-27, my first thought was of that older woman. The orphans, who are no longer alive today, seemed to be speaking to me from the black and white photographs that were found among the dusty reports; they seemed to be saying “Where have you been? We want to tell our story.”
Every person recorded in those ledgers made me think of my father and the old men and women we interviewed, who had survived the massacre of Dersim. I thought of others who had survived similar massacres elsewhere.
It is my hope that we are prepared now to listen to them.
Registration Ledgers of the Orphanage
First let us take a look at the information that was recorded into the registration ledger on December 31, 1927 by Karen Jeppe, the League of Nations’ Commissioner:
"
In my capacity of a League-Commissioner - from March 1, 1922 to December 31, 1927 -
1484
people have been rescued by our institution and have entered our lists and in most cases also our reception-house.
But more than those have been rescued through our activity. Sometimes we have helped their relatives to find them, and the direct expenses having been covered by the relatives, the rescued did not enter our lists. In other cases the rescued found and joined their relatives, before they reached our home, and they too were not filed.
I estimate the number of these rescued to exceed 200, so that the total of our rescued under the auspices of the League of Nations amount to
1700
.
The files of those, who may be rescued by me in a private capacity, after December 31, 1927 will begin with
1700
.
Aleppo, December 31, 1927
Karen Jeppe
Commissioner of the League of Nations
"
From Karen Jeppe’s notes we learn that by December 31, 1927, 1484 individuals had been registered at the orphanage. These registrations consist of special ledgers containing 100 names each. We are missing the files for numbers 401-500 and 1201-1300, but all of the other registrations for a total of 1284 children are in our possession. The information about 180 children whom Jeppe rescued through her own personal efforts and whose registrations start from 1700 are in our possession also. For now, you will find below the information for 500 children (Registration No. 1-400 & 501-600).
Each page of the ledger had been set aside for one individual. On the front side of the page, along with identity information, like the person’s name, father’s name, place and date of birth, are the dates of the individual’s arrival at the orphanage and a photograph, if one was available. Below the identity information, the individual’s life story was handwritten very neatly in English. On the back of the page, information is recorded about the individual outcomes after arrival and/or the date of departure from the orphanage.
When we were transcribing the information in the ledgers, we paid special attention to the following:
1) The pagination system was maintained throughout.
a) The sections on identity information were replicated in a different format from the originals.
b) The paragraph structure of the original was replicated.
2) The summary text was transcribed exactly from the original including some stylistic and grammatical errors. The transcription is generally faithful to the original. The following are the issues that were addressed:
a) The names of cities were written differently in various summaries; since this did not prevent comprehension, these different spellings were maintained.
b) Due to the difficulty in reading handwriting, possible and occasional spelling errors in private names and cities may have occurred.
c) Some problems arose due to the difference in spelling of the non-native English spoken by the recorders. Syntax discrepancies in the original text were maintained.
d) Only a few of the most obvious usage errors were corrected. (Ex. Use of “he/his” when referring to a girl, or the opposite.)
e) The date formats and the abbreviated names of institutions used in the text were transcribed in a standardized manner. (Example: N.E.R. was used for Near East Relief, January 01, 1923 for 01.01.1923).
f) In some of the Registration No. boxes there are two numbers which we separated by a slash. The first one is found in respective order in all Registration No boxes but the purpose of the second number, could not be identified yet.
3) The information provided on individuals on the backs of pages were recorded with spaces left between paragraphs.
The presumptions on the subject of registrations:
a) These registration ledgers were not the registrations that were taken contemporaneously.
b) We believe that the life stories of the children were recounted at the time of their acceptance into the orphanage or during the course of their stays and that these were placed into categories based on set criteria at a later date and then transcribed into these ledgers.
Karen Jeppe Statistics:
According to the statistics that Karen Jeppe formulated based upon the information in the ledgers.
1. Age and Sex of the rescued
No.
Boys and Girls
(under 15 years old)
Women and
Older Girls
Older Boys
0001 – 0100
52
22
26
0101 – 0200
40
27
33
0201 – 0300
42
36
22
0301 – 0400
24
43
33
0401 – 0500
33
32
35
0501 – 0600
24
29
47
0601 – 0700
24
43
33
0701 – 0800
44
21
35
0801 – 0900
29
34
37
0901 – 1000
23
43
34
1001 – 1100
15
36
49
1101 – 1200
16
23
61
1201 – 1300
24
26
50
1301 – 1400
20
26
54
1401 – 1484
12
25
47
430
463
591
Total number: 1484
2. Number rescued by year and file number.
Year
File Number
Total each year
1922
0-194
194
1923
195-413
219
1924
414-653
240
1925
654-916
263
1926
917-1229
313
1927
1230-1484
255
Total
1484
3. Later fate of the rescued on December 31, 1927
No.
Dates
Joined Relative
Self supporting
Orphan
Disappeared
Dead
Still with us
0001 - 0100
26/09/22
52
24
10
13
-
1
0101 - 0200
05/01/23
44
31
20
5
-
-
0201 - 0300
30/05/23
72
17
9
-
-
2
0301 - 0400
02/12/23
60
33
5
2
-
-
0401 - 0500
28/04/24
73
20
2
4
1
-
0501 - 0600
25/07/24
70
21
1
2
2
4
0601 - 0700
25/05/25
67
28
1
2
1
1
0701 - 0800
19/08/25
80
11
1
2
-
6
0801 - 0900
14/12/25
69
25
-
1
1
4
0901 - 1000
08/05/26
66
19
9
1
2
3
1001 - 1100
25/08/26
62
24
5
3
-
6
1101 - 1200
24/11/26
57
29
-
2
-
12
1201 - 1300
26/04/27
66
15
1
1
-
17
1301 - 1400
21/08/27
49
26
1
-
2
22
1401 - 1484
21/08/27
31
19
1
-
1
32
918
342
66
38
10
110
216*
1134
342
66
38
10
110
*216 joined their relatives, before they reached our home, see report.
4. Age and sex of those still in the home on December 31, 1927
32 boys and girls who are still too young to leave.
26 woman and girls over 15 years of age.
19 older boys, weaker or disabled.
20 older boys, newcomers.
13 older boys, in the colony.
100 Total
Statistical information about 500 of the children.
Some of the information that we gathered from the 500 registrations that we are publishing here:
Information about the places where they were either born or removed from:
The most commonly listed places: Adýyaman, Bursa, Diyarbakýr, Erzurum, Harput, Mardin, Mush, Palu, Siverek, Sivas and Urfa.
Just about every child had been deported with their families. Later, either their families were killed en route or the child was separated from them. The child was either given to another by the family in order to save the child’s life or the child was kidnapped.
Gender according to the 500 individuals:
Number of boys able to reach the orphanage: 296; girls: 204.
There were far more boys reaching the orphanage between the years 1922 and 1924; the girls increased over time.
Numbers 1-100 in the first ledger included 74 boys to 26 girls.
Numbers 101-200 in the ledger included 63 boys to 37 girls.
Numbers 201-300 in the ledger included 56 boys to 44 girls.
Numbers 301-400 and 501-600 in the ledgers showed about half and half.
Many of the boys had been put to work as shepherds, farmers and in other ‘gofer’ type service roles. In 1922 especially, there were many children who abandoned their flocks in the mountains and escaped.
The girls were employed as servants or forcibly married. For this reason it makes sense that it would have been more difficult for girls to escape.
Classification of the 500 individuals according to their ages at the time of the 1915 deportation:
2 children were 0 years old at the time of the deportation: brought to the orphanage by their mothers.
9 children were 1 year old at the time of the deportation: The one child who was brought to the orphanage in 1922 at age 8 and the 2 children who were brought to the orphanage in 1923 at age 9 had been left by their relatives. There were 6, 10 year old children who arrived in 1924.
6 children who were 2 years old: they were brought to the orphanage by family members who were unable to care for them.
22 children were 3 years old: from these children’s stories we know that almost all of them had managed to live with members of their own families for some period of time.
29 children were 4 years old: 24 of them came to the orphanage in 1923.
The biggest group of children was those between the ages of 5 and 11. There can only be one explanation for this large number. This age group is the one most amenable to being put to work for a variety of purposes. For this reason it is likely they were the most preferred for involuntary (or 'voluntary') seizure. (5 years old: 35; 6 years old: 29; 7 years old: 57; 8 years old: 68; 9 years old: 52; 10 years old: 43; 11 years old: 34).
Those who were 12 years old or older dropped to single digits. 12 years old: 13; 13 years old: 7; 14 years old: 5; 15 years old: 5; 16 years old: 6; 17 years old: 7; 18 years old: 1.
Most of those age 19 years and older were women who were accepted because they had no other place to go. 19 years of age: 1; 20 years of age: 4; 21 years of age: 4; 22 years of age: 5; 23 years of age: 10; 25 years of age: 1; 26 years of age: 3; 27 years of age: 2; 28 years of age: 1; 39 years of age: 1; 59 years of age: 1, a grandmother arrived with her grandchild.
There are 4 individuals whose ages are unknown based upon the registrations.
Only 3 of the children born after the deportation arrived with their mothers.
Their ages at the time they arrived at the orphanage:
3 children, 8 years old; 2 children, 9 years old; 16 children, 10 years old; 12 children, 11 years old.
50 children, 12 years old; 25 children, 13 years old.
While there is an increase with 62 children at age 15 and 73 children at age 16,
the numbers roll back to 53 at age 17 and 53 at age 18.
A clear drop in numbers can be observed starting from age 19.
The numbers of those who had relatives serving in the Ottoman army and their kinship:
Those whose fathers were soldiers: 22
Those whose husbands were soldiers: 5
Those whose uncles were soldiers: 1
Those who had been forced to marry Turks, Kurds or Arabs or who had been pressured to do so:
From 20 male children:
The sisters of 8 of them.
The cousin of one.
The relative of one.
Ten of them had had mothers who had been forced to marry or were pressured to marry.
The children of two mothers who had been pressured to marry, stated that their mothers had been murdered for refusing to marry.
Of the 207 girls who managed to reach the orphanage, 89 stated that they had either been pressured to marry at least once or been married off during the course of the deportation.
Based upon the registrations, we see that girls, some of whom were mere children during the deportation, who were forcibly married, did not bring any children with them, despite having been married for a number of years. Only 3 of the women brought their children with them. In only two instances did women state that they had escaped, leaving their children behind. It seems impossible that these women would not have given birth to children, considering the conditions they were living in at the time and the fact that they were married between 2 and 8 years.
It is plausible and would not be incorrect to state that these women, who had decided to escape, had also decided to leave their children behind. There were, no doubt, various reasons for this, not least of which is the fact that they had been forcibly conscripted into a harem.
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Dicle Akar Bilgin
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