Narrating the Armenian Genocide: an Italian Perspective

Abstract

In many diasporic Armenian communities around the globe, stories of the Armenian Genocide resurface long after the traumatic events of 1915. This is also the case of survivors (and their descendants) who took refuge in Italy. Finding it difficult to speak at length and in depth about their profoundly painful memories and experience some waited decades to share the trauma through oral history accounts and written memoirs. This article addresses the memoirs of Armenian Genocide survivors in Italy. It explores how, despite all the trauma and difficulty, they put pen to paper and give expression to the horrors and tragedies they witnessed, documenting what the world needed to know better.