Armin T . Wegner Armin Theophil Wegner ( October 16 , 1886 – May 17 , 1978 ) was a German soldier and medic in World War I , a prolific author , and a human rights activist . Stationed in the Ottoman Empire during World War I , Wegner was a witness to the Armenian Genocide and the photographs he took documenting the plight of the Armenians today " comprises the core of witness images of the Genocide . " In the years following the end of World War I , Wegner also voiced his opposition , at great risk to his own life , against the anti - semitic policies of the Nazis . In 1933 , he authored an impassioned plea to Adolf Hitler on behalf of the Jews of Germany . He suggested that the persecution of the Jews was not just a question of " the fate of our Jewish brothers alone , [ but also ] the fate of Germany . " Noting that he was writing the letter as a proud German who could himself trace his Prussian familial roots back to the time of the Crusades , Wegner asked Hitler what would become of Germany if it continued its persecution of Jews . Answering his own question , Wegner declared , " There is no Fatherland without justice ! " He was persecuted by the Nazis and , for his efforts , is recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations . Life . Education . Wegner was born in the town of Elberfeld , Rhineland ( Wuppertal ) in Germany . Educated at first in Striegau ( modern Strzegom ) , he later pursued further study in Zurich , Breslau , and Berlin . Upon completing his doctoral studies in law , he began to travel broadly throughout North Africa , Arabia , and Europe . He showed interest in becoming a travel author , and this led to his optimistically joining the armed forces in order to " hold the helm of my life in my own hands . I shall see Baghdad , the Tigris , Mossul , Babylon . I am fully aware of the choice I have made . . . I have become a soldier . . . I have put my life at stake for my soul ' s sake . " World War I . He enrolled as a medic at the outbreak of World War I during the winter of 1914 - 1915 , and was awarded the Iron Cross for assisting wounded under fire . He rose to the rank of second lieutenant in the German Sanitary Corps , which was attached to the Ottoman Sixth Army . Wegner was part of a German detachment led by Colmar Freiherr von der Goltz , which was stationed along the Baghdad Railway in Syria and Mesopotamia ; here , Wegner witnessed the death marches of Armenians during the height of the Armenian Genocide . Disobeying orders intended to smother news of the massacres ( as the Ottoman Empire and Germany were allies ) , he gathered information on the massacres , collected documents , annotations , notes , and letters and took hundreds of photographs in the Armenian deportation camps in Deir ez - Zor , which later served to evidence the extent of the atrocities to which the Ottoman Armenians were subjected . At the Ottoman command ' s request , Wegner was eventually arrested by the Germans and recalled to Germany . While some of his photographs were confiscated and destroyed , he nonetheless succeeded in smuggling out many images of the Armenian persecution by hiding the negatives in his belt . Wegner protested against the atrocities perpetrated by the Ottoman government against the Armenian people in an open letter , published in the " Berliner Tageblatt " , submitted to American President Woodrow Wilson at the peace conference of 1919 . The letter made a case for the creation of an independent Armenian state . Also in 1919 , Wegner published " Der Weg ohne Heimkehr " ( " The Road of No Return " ) , a collection of letters he had written during what he deemed the " martyrdom " ( " Martyrium " ) of the Anatolian Armenians . Weimar period . In Germany after the war , Wegner married author Lola Landau , and became an activist espousing pacifism . He was involved in a German pacifist organization that was later incorporated into War Resisters International . During the Weimar period , Wegner became acquainted with Walter Rathenau , Helmut Gerlach , Johannes Lepsius , and other dissenters and journalists . In 1921 Wegner testified at the trial of Soghomon Tehlirian , the Ottoman Armenian who had killed Talat Pasha in Berlin . Wegner ' s role was only to confirm the scope and horror of the Armenian experience during the events that later became known as the Armenian Genocide . Talat Pasha , the former Minister of the Interior of the Ottoman Empire , had been sentenced to death in absentia for orchestrating the Armenian massacres ; Tehlirian , though he killed the former Ottoman administrator in front of several eyewitnesses , was found not guilty on the grounds of temporary insanity . The documents of the sensational trial were collected into a book , " Justicier du génocide armènien : le procès de Tehlirian " , for which Wegner authored the preface . In his introduction , Wegner asserts that the Armenian massacres were governmental crimes committed by the Ottoman government , and that the Turkish people themselves " would never have stained themselves with a similar crime . " Wegner notes that he witnessed several instances of civil disobedience during the Armenian Genocide , in which Ottoman officials refused to carry out " the orders of extermination . " In 1922 Wegner published " Der Schrei von Ararat " ( " The Scream from Ararat " ) , an appeal for the rights of surviving Armenians . Toward the mid - 1920s , Wegner reached the peak of his popularity as a writer and as a co - creator of German Expressionism . In 1927 - 8 , he and his wife traveled to the Soviet Union and also visited the Soviet Socialist Republic of Armenia , where he met with several Armenians he had befriended in Berlin in 1918 - 1920 . Based on his journey , Wegner authored " Five Fingers Over You " , the success of which made him a celebrity . The text described the underlying political violence of the Soviet Communist model , foretelling the advent of Stalinism . Nazi era . In 1933 , Wegner denounced the persecution of Jews in Germany in an open letter to Adolf Hitler . Shortly after authoring the letter , Wegner was apprehended by the Gestapo , who imprisoned and tortured him . He was subsequently interned in the Nazi concentration camps at Oranienburg , Börgermoor and Lichtenburg , among others ; upon his release , he fled to Rome , where he assumed the alias Percy Eckstein to conceal his identity . In 1939 , Wegner and his wife mutually agreed to divorce . He would later suggest , " Germany took every thing from me . . . even my wife . " Legacy . Wegner was awarded the Highest Order of Merit by the Federal German Government in 1956 . His native city of Wuppertal awarded him the prestigious Eduard - Von - der - Heydt prize in 1962 . In 1967 he was accorded the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem . A year later , he was invited to Armenia by the Catholicos of All Armenians and awarded the Order of Saint Gregory the Illuminator . He died at the age of 92 in Rome . Some of his ashes were later taken to Armenia to be honored at a posthumous state funeral near the Armenian Genocide Monument ' s perpetual flame . A documentary film depicting Wegner ' s personal account of the Armenian Genocide through his own photographs called " Destination Nowhere : The Witness " and produced by Dr . J . Michael Hagopian premiered in Fresno on 25 April 2000 . Prior to the release of the documentary he was honored at the Armenian Genocide Museum in Yerevan for championing the plight of Armenians throughout his life . Recalled by some as " the only writer in Nazi Germany ever to raise his voice in public against the persecution of the Jews " , by the time of Wegner ' s death in Rome he had been " virtually forgotten " by the German people . He had never felt at home again in Germany after fleeing in the 1930s , and had lived out the remainder of his days in Italy . The inscription on Wegner ' s gravestone echoes the dying words attributed to Pope Gregory VII in 1085 .