ARMENIAN GENOCIDE PROGRAM AT BCC

Holmdel Independent
8/0409/Front_Page/024.html
April 9 2008
NJ

Brookdale Community College’s Center for Holocaust Studies will present
a performance of the musical "The Georgetown Boys" on Saturday, May 3,
at the Long Branch Middle School.

The musical tells the true story of about 109 young boys who, after
being orphaned during the Armenian Genocide, were brought to Canada
to be trained as farmers in Georgetown, a suburb of Toronto.

Written and directed by Dr. Herand Markarian, the musical features
the Hamazkayin Youth Theater Group of New Jersey. Through music and
drama, it captures the experiences of the boys as they adapt to a
new country thousands of miles from their ancestral homeland. Most
of the performers are descendants ofArmenian Genocide survivors.

This theatrical presentation is sponsored by the Center for Holocaust
Studies as this year’s Annual Armenian Genocide Remembrance Program.

The center established the annual program in 1988. Each year since
its inception, the center has sponsored programs including lectures
by prominent genocide scholars.

The performance will be held at 8 p.m. at the Long BranchMiddle
SchoolAuditorium, 350 Indiana Ave. (corner of Indiana and Bath
Avenues). Ticket prices are $20, $25 after April 20, $12 for students
and Center for Holocaust Studies members. For tickets call (732)
842-8028 or visit

The Armenian Genocide was carried out duringWorldWar I between the
years 1915 and 1918 by the Turkish government. The Armenian people were
subjected to deportation, expropriation, abduction, torture, massacre
and starvation. After only a little more than a year of calm at the
end of World War I, the atrocities were renewed between 1920 and 1923,
and the remaining Armenians were subjected to further massacres and
expulsions. Over 1.5 million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1923.

Genocide is the organized killing of a people for the express purpose
of putting an end to their collective existence.