The Concentration Camps
In January 2016, it was estimated that only 10% of those deported had made it to their destinations alive. These final destinations were 25 concentration camps set up between Aleppo and Mosel.
The New York Times of August 21, 1916, reported that English minister Rev Buxton confirmed statements made by Lord Bryce months before in the House of Lords that people were being ‘swept away with a methodical thoroughness.” Rev Buxton had been working with a relief effort and had described how hundreds and thousands were being kept in camps specifically designed to kill.
Their captors deprived the inmates of food and water. One account described how 450 children were housed in 5-6 meters square tent and fed just 150 g of bread a day – if they were lucky. Others described people so hungry, they would search horse manure for grain.
The conditions were a breeding ground for disease and famine Dysentery was rife. Mass graves grew up around the camps of 60,000 Armenians who died there of starvation and disease.