Marsovan 1915: The Diaries of Bertha Morley, Bertha B. Morley (softcover)

Marsovan 1915 is a critical edition of the diaries of Bertha Morley, an American music teacher in Marsovan (near Kharpert). It is a blow-by-blow account of the Armenian Genocide in Marsovan between April and September 1915.The text was prepared for publication by Hilmar Kaiser. Kaiser notes that the diaries were written for Morley’s own private purposes. She records the systematic disintegration of the Marsovan Armenian community: the arrest of Armenian community intellectuals, the methodical deportation of the rest of the population, and the eventual destruction of deportees. Morley narrates how Armenian property was plundered by Ottoman local and central officials and how Armenian women and children converted and were absorbed into Muslim households. She also testifies to the efforts of Ottoman authorities to conceal their criminal activities. Bertha Morley (1878-1973) was stationed at the Western Turkey Mission of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Marsovan. Her diary is a detailed account of the initial phase of the Armenian Genocide. It covers the period May-September 1915. She narrates how the crime of genocide was carried out in Marsovan and surroundings. It documents her life in detail, revealing her thoughts and feelings as her friends and neighbors were destroyed. Almost every day she wrote between half page and several pages. Sometimes, however, she did not find time to write down her experiences, but filled in later from notes she kept, threading a continuous narrative on the Armenian persecutions in Marsovan.