Armenian-American Soldiers as Liberators against Nazism
Aftandilian, Gregory · 2025
Aftandilian examines Armenian-American soldiers in World War II — many of them children of genocide survivors — who enlisted partly to prove their patriotism and shed the 'foreigner' label. He argues their wartime experiences, both leaving distraught survivor parents at home and witnessing Nazi atrocities in Europe (including against Armenian slave laborers and prisoners), led them to connect the extreme nationalism of the Committee of Union and Progress with Nazi ideology, deepening their sense of Armenian identity and responsibility. The article draws on oral-history interviews and Armenian-American periodicals.
Read the publication ↗Citation
Aftandilian, Gregory 2025. Armenian-American Soldiers as Liberators against Nazism. International Journal of Armenian Genocide Studies, Vol. 10, No. 1 (2025), pp. 40–53 (Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute Foundation, Yerevan); DOI 10.51442/ijags.0062. https://doi.org/10.51442/ijags.0062
What this offers a reader
The children of genocide survivors going to war against Nazism — and drawing the line for themselves between the CUP and the Nazis.
Oral-history-based study of Armenian-American WWII service and its effect on second-generation identity.
Our WWII generation, sons of survivors, who saw in Nazi crimes an echo of what their parents fled.
How Armenian-American WWII soldiers linked their parents' genocide to the Nazism they fought.
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