To the Desert: Pages from My Diary

By Vahram Dadrian "Like no other survivor account. . . . An important document, an engaging chronicle and a painful reminder of the human costs of war, mass killing and lost homelands.” —The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review (10 January 2004) Vahram Dadrian (1900–1948) started writing his diaries on 24 May 1915 because of the calamitous events facing Armenians on the horizon. This was the period when Ottoman authorities began the vilification of Armenians, as a precursor to mass deportations and massacres. The Armenians of Chorum, where the Dadrians lived, fared no differently than other communities. They were deported to Aleppo, and then on to Jeresh (Jordan), where they remained until the end of World War I. Surviving members of the family returned to Constantinople (Istanbul) in 1919, where Vahram composed his diary-notes for publication.Vahram's account, written in Armenian, was first published as a book in 1945. This is the first English translation of that work. It is a somewh