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An NER doctor at Marash reports the Greek deportations to McAfee. January 1923.
Location
Marash (Kahramanmaras), Turkey
Year
1923
Item Detail
Greek relief at Marash ended with the departure of the Chardak group on 24 January 1923, after 2,738 Greeks had passed through. The writer calls the forced midwinter deportation barbarism: twenty froze to death crossing the mountains, parties arrived half naked and faint, and fifty-three Greeks entered the hospital in a single day with pneumonia and dysentery. The Armenian exodus had begun on 5 January and the hospital closed for want of staff. The letter breaks off mid-sentence and the signature page was never scanned, so the writer is not established. An ink annotation names Kunzler.
Context
Nellie Marie Miller Mann (1897–1997) was a member of Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Indiana, and a graduate of Goshen College. The Mennonite Relief Commission placed her with Near East Relief in 1921, one of two Mennonite women it sent to the Near East in these years. She was appointed on 20 August 1921, sailed the same day aboard the S.S. Patria, and reached Beirut on 20 September. At the Syria-Palestine headquarters she was secretary to the treasurer and, by April 1923, in charge of the individual remittance department. She left Beirut at the end of August 1923.
The collection holds her letters to her family and to her fiancé Cleo Mann, her appointment papers and contract, and the Near East Relief reports, rosters and field accounts she kept. Together they document the Beirut office through the movement of orphans out of Anatolia and Cilicia into Syria and Lebanon in 1922, the Greek deportations of the following winter, and the deaths of two NER workers, Menno Shellenberger at Diarbekir and Lester James Wright on the Aleppo road. David W. Mann published his mother's writings as Letters from Syria, 1921–1923 (2013) and gave the originals to the Near East Foundation.
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Holding Institution
Rockefeller Archive Center
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External Link
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Attribution
Rockefeller Archive Center. Near East Foundation records, FA406. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14.
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Rights
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Notes
Typed in the letter: "Because of the barbarism of forcing this deportation in midwinter these refugees and especially the latter groups, suffered cruelly. Twenty froze to death in coming over the mountains leading to Marash." / "As many as 53 Greeks entered the hospital in one day, suffering acute pneumonia and dysenterry." / "Personally, I feel that I have incurred the sullen ill will of the Government, because of my refugee activities." / "The outlook is dark and most discouraging."
Written in ink beside the dateline in a later hand: "Dr Kunzler"
The letter is unsigned on the surviving page and the signature page is not in the collection. Jacob Kunzler was at Urfa in December 1921 and directed Ghazir in April 1923. Dr. Kristensen was the Near East Relief doctor at Marash in the same weeks.
Sources for the Item Detail:
• Nellie Miller to Mr. and Mrs. Vernon E. Reiff, Beirut, 4 March 1923 ("Dr. Kristensen was down from Marash for a few days ... the Turks have made it impossible for him to keep the hospital in operation"). Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• George C. Doolittle, "Death of Mr. Menno Shellenberger," Aleppo, 3/1/22, quoting "Doctor Jacob Kunzler’s signally devoted service" from Urfa. Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Near East Relief, Syria-Palestine Area, Organization and Personnel, 28 April 1923, sheet II, "Ghazir — Dr. & Mrs. Kunzler." Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
About this group
• Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Near East Foundation records (FA406), Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Near East Relief appointment certificate, 20 August 1921, signed C. V. Vickrey and C. M. Fowle ("Miss Nellie M. Miller has been duly appointed a member of the relief expedition"). Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Near East Relief, Syria-Palestine Area, Organization and Personnel, 28 April 1923, sheet I ("Secretary to Treasurer & in charge of Individual Remittance Dept. — Miss Nellie M. Miller"). Nellie Miller-Mann, Series 14, Rockefeller Archive Center.
• Nellie Miller Mann, Letters from Syria, 1921–1923, transcribed and edited by David W. Mann (Morgantown, Pa.: Masthof Press, 2013).
• Rockefeller Archive Center finding aid, Near East Foundation records: https://dimes.rockarch.org/collections/Ahi2i3M7wcFTbQuXZgxDib
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Document Contents
One-page typed copy marked "COPY." at the head, written from Marash, Turkey, on 28 January 1923 and addressed "Dear Mr. McAfee." The writer reports that Greek refugee relief at Marash practically ended with the departure of the Chardak group on 24 January, leaving 222 orphans to be sent out, and that 2,738 Greeks in all were assisted at an expenditure of about L.t.g. 1800, with L.t.g. 100 contributed by the Mission. He describes twenty refugees frozen to death in the mountains, as many as fifty-three Greeks entering the hospital in one day with pneumonia and dysentery, sporadic typhoid, and amputations of frozen feet and toes. He reports constant obstruction by the authorities, a wholesale exodus of Armenians beginning on 5 January that left only two to three hundred in Marash, the closing of the hospital for lack of assistance, and twenty-seven and twenty-three orphans remaining in "Bethel" and "Acorn" with seven to ten students at the College. He asks whether emergency medical work is available elsewhere. The page ends mid-sentence and no further page was scanned.