The American Red Cross Bulletin (Vol. IV, No. 4, October 1909)

by American National Red Cross

RED CROSS HOSPITAL (SURGICAL) IN CHARGE OF MRS. DOUGHTY-WYLIE. IN SIMEONIDES’ HOUSE.

There were also about a dozen wounded in the Turkish School, and among the 2,000 or so refugees in the New Market Armenian Boys’ School there were 50 sick.

In all there were 330 wounded Armenians under treatment, of whom about half were able to come and go for their dressings. Besides this, there were some 100 sick among the crowded refugees. The small proportion of wounded relative to the total number of Armenians killed in the city during the first massacre—a number estimated at 2,500—is indicative of the vindictiveness of the killing. The chance of escape was small for a man, woman, or child once disabled by a wound.

Wounded Moslems were cared for in the government charity hospital outside the city. There were about 50 inpatients, among whom were said to be a few Christians, and about 150 outpatients. In the Turkish Military Hospital there were also about 40 wounded. From 50 to 60 other wounded Moslems were cared for in their homes. The number of Moslems killed is unknown, but is said to have been 200, more or less.

Second Massacre.

AMERICAN RED CROSS HOSPITAL (MEDICAL) ADANA.

On Sunday, April 25, the aspect of the medical relief work was abruptly changed by the occurrence of the second massacre. This began at 4 in the afternoon, with a determined fusillade on the New Market Armenian School, accompanied by the firing of the building, and followed by the massacre of most of its 2,000 or more helpless refugees as they sought to escape from the death trap. Carts piled high with bodies were busy for the next three days emptying the school playground of its dead. The acute stage of incendiarism and killing lasted only until the following night, Monday, April 26, but frequent fires and the shooting of stray Armenians continued for a week after. This massacre differed from the first in the absence of any effectual resistance on the part of the Armenians, the prominent participation of the soldiers in the killing, and in that it ended with the complete destruction by fire of the Armenian section of the town, representing something over one-fourth of the city’s area. It seems also to have been characterized by a peculiarly relentless cruelty; sick and wounded men, women, and children fell alike before the shots and bayonets of the pitiless soldiery. The 2,500 who are roughly estimated to have been killed in this second massacre are, for the most part, victims of the Armenian School massacre, together with those who were killed the same afternoon in the lower Gregorian Church and adjoining girls’ school. Of the 70 sick and wounded among the refugees here, most were either killed or burned. The hospital of the French Sisters was burned at the same time. Some of the patients were burned with it, but some were saved by two of the Jesuit Fathers, who carried as many as they could over to the Church of the Jesuit Boys’ School. Even this proved for them an uncertain refuge, for the following day the buildings of the Jesuit School were burned, and its refugees, together with the Jesuit Fathers themselves, were saved from the blood-thirsty mob only by the timely intervention of Major Doughty-Wylie. In spite of his fractured arm, he had a guard from the Vali, and rode about in the endeavor to save life and restore order.

Monday morning, April 26, it was announced that government protection would be afforded only to those Armenians who should present themselves at the Konak or government house. So through the day refugees by the thousand, among them the sick and wounded, fled to the open space in front of the Konak, until the Armenian quarter was deserted. Many were escorted there by Major Doughty-Wylie with a guard of soldiers. Here they stood waiting helplessly, without food, for many hours. The women and children were commanded to stand apart from the men, and all were subjected to a thorough search for arms or valuables. Toward evening they were told to go, but no provision was made for their going. Like a herd of frightened sheep, turning back here and there as some new terror faced them, with a number trampled to death at every fresh panic, husbands separated from wives, and children separated from parents, dead bodies lying in the streets, and darkness coming on, they gradually drifted to the new quarter of the town near the railroad station, where they finally found refuge in the two great cotton factories—13,000 in Trepanni’s factory and 5,000 in the German factory. In this flight they were partially protected by the Macedonian soldiers. Some of them were cut and wounded as they passed by Arab soldiers, but none were killed.