A MEMORIAL CEREMONY IN HONOR OF THE NORWEGIAN MISSIONARY AND ARMENIA ADVOCATE BODIL BIøRN

armradio.am
21.07.2008 11:36

On July 22nd, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute is sponsoring a
memorial plaque dedication ceremony in honor of the famous Norwegian
missionary Bodil Biørn.

The ceremony will begin at the AGMI’s Gomidas Hall with the
presentation of the film "They call me mother"; a featured movie at
the 2008 "Golden Apricot" Film Festival. Attending the ceremony are
the members of Bodil Biørn’s family traveling from Norway to Armenia.

The ceremony will also feature the presentation of a photo album of
Eastern Armenia captured by Bodil Biørn. This greatly preserved album
includes photos of the Armenian Genocide and images of life after the
genocide. The presentation will also introduce letters, journals and
other testimonial documents that authenticate the genocide of 1915.

The ceremony will be concluded with the placement of a piece of
soil bringing from the tomb of Biørn in the "Memorial Wall" of the
Tsisernakaberd Memorial Complex.

Bodil Biørn was born in 1987 in the Norwegian city of Kragerø. In
1905, while working for the "Women Missionary Workers" organization,
she was sent to the Ottoman Empire, first at the city of Mezereh,
and later in Mush, where her primary interaction was with widows and
orphans. Biørn beca me an eyewitness of the Armenian Genocide and
documented the developments of massacres through her photography.

In 1917, she returned to Norway for a short amount of time,
before she left to the newly formed Armenian Republic where she
established an orphanage and took care of Armenian refugees from the
genocide. Furthermore, after establishing an orphanage in Armenia she
moved to Syria and engaged in a successful effort of establishing
an orphanage for the survivors. Up until 1934, she continued her
services to the Armenian people and her engagement in the life of
the orphan survivors.

Bodil Biørn past away in 1960, but her memory and her work remains
alive in the heart of Armenians today.

–Boundary_(ID_FsAGo60vFs9Hk2u6mfkZcw)–