From Hell to Heaven is a valuable eyewitness account written by Armenag Antranigian (Bedigian), who experienced the genocide first-hand and lived long enough to compile his own memoirs. This is the English translation of the Armenian yet unpublished original, written in the 1940s.
Antranigian witnessed the loss of all members of his family and miraculously survived by hiding in the mountains and gorges of Keghi, in the region of Erzerum, while serving as a slave for Kurdish families. In late 1916, he finally managed his escape to the Russian side of the war front and reached Erzerum. In 1917, he joined the Armenian volunteer forces for the defense of Erzurum. As a foot soldier, he served under General Antranig and participated in the military campaigns of Zangezur, Nakhichevan, and Khoy in northern Iran.
He spent a year in Tiflis, Georgia, as a refugee before reaching Constantinople in late 1919 and immigrating to the United States three years later.
