"AUCTION OF SOULS" OR "MEMORIAL OF TRUTH"
AZG DAILY
27-02-2009
Armenian Genocide Museum & Institute
"Ravished Armenia", one of the first documentary memoirs of an
eyewitness of Armenian Genocide was published in 1918, in New York. In
this book Arshaluys (Aurora) Mardiganian, a girl from Chmshkatsag,
Armenian populated town in the Ottoman Empire, gave a detailed account
of the terrible experiences she endured during the deportations. At
the age of fourteen Arshaluys was beaten and tortured in harems of
Turkish officials and Kurdish tribesmen.
The book "Ravished Armenia" was completed when American Committee
for Armenian and Syrian Relief offered to create a film based on
the scenario of the book and all the profit, which later on reached
$30 million, would be given to 60.000 Armenian orphans in the Near
East for relief purposes. In 1918, at Metro Goldwin Mayer studio,
director Oscar Apfel made "Auction of Souls" silent film, which
actually became not only the first movie on the Armenian genocide,
but also the first genocide movie ever made. More than 10.000 Armenian
residents of Southern California, including 200 deported children,
participated in the scenes.
The premiere of the "Auction of Souls" was held on February 16, 1919,
in Plaza Hotel, New York under the auspices of Oliver Harriman and
George Vanderbilt, members of American Committee for Armenian and
Syrian Relief.
The film was shown in large cities of 23 U.S. states, in several
countries of Latin America, including Mexico and Cuba. It was a
success everywhere and was estimated as "epoch-making film".
The "Auction of Souls" was taken to Great Britain in December, 1919,
and censured. After long lasting negotiations the film was shown in
Royal Albert Hall, by the permission of Scotland Yard and played for
three weeks. At the beginning of 1920s Mardiganian’s "Ravished Armenia"
was censured and taken off the British and American libraries.
For over eighty years film historians have been searching the world for
the nine reels of Ravished Armenia but failed to find any trace. The
remaining reels of the rare nitrate based film were lost. Some say the
reels presumably sunk with a ship on their way to the port of Batoum,
Georgia, or stolen by thieves. The full-length version of the film,
which lasting 85 minutes, unfortunately, hasn’t been saved. With the
efforts of Eduard Gozanlian, an Armenian from Argentina, a 20 minute
segment of the reel was found in 1994. One copy of that segment is kept
in the funds of Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute. The film included
English, French and Armenian subtitles for every scene. The list of
the original subtitles for Ravished Armenia is preserved in The Selig
Collection at the Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts and Sciences. They are also reproduced in Anthony Slide’s
book "Ravished Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian". This
book was published by Scarecrow Press in 1997. It tells the story of
the making of the film and reveals the young girl’s survival story.
On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the "Ravished Armenia",
the AGMI has issued a memorial postcard and has created an on-line
exhibition at