![An Armenian woman and her child sit on a sidewalk next to a bundle of their possessions. [LCID: 34283]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/49a190a6-7751-4815-82a3-0b401f048ed5.jpg "An Armenian woman and her child sit on a sidewalk next to a bundle of their possessions. [LCID: 34283]")
An Armenian woman and her child sit on a sidewalk next to a bundle of their possessions. Ottoman Empire, 1918–20.
Item View![Studio portrait of two Armenian girls. Ottoman Empire, ca 1895. [LCID: 94397]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/a5ee800a-9a16-4553-b87c-0207ca1adf83.jpg "Studio portrait of two Armenian girls. Ottoman Empire, ca 1895. [LCID: 94397]")
Studio portrait of two Armenian girls wearing traditional clothing. Ottoman Empire, ca 1895. [Courtesy of Mabel Aharonian]
Item View![Portrait of an Armenian family in Ordu, Ottoman Empire. [LCID: 94395]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/0ab15bc3-98a9-46dc-930e-a09fba5f8f80.jpg "Portrait of an Armenian family in Ordu, Ottoman Empire. [LCID: 94395]")
Portrait of an Armenian family in Ordu, Ottoman Empire. Pictured are Elbis Jeknavorian, Ohanjan Chitjian and their three children. [Courtesy of Jack Chitjian]
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Ottoman military forces march Armenian men from Kharput to an execution site outside the city. Kharput, Ottoman Empire, March 1915-June 1915. [Courtesy of the Armenian National Institute.]
Item View![Ottoman troops guard Armenians being deported. Ottoman Empire, 1915-16. [LCID: 93740]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/386be776-15da-48ef-bfef-f5522d538c2a.jpg "Ottoman troops guard Armenians being deported. Ottoman Empire, 1915-16. [LCID: 93740]")
Ottoman troops guard Armenians being deported. Ottoman Empire, 1915-16.
Item View![Armenian children lie in the street of an unidentified town. [LCID: 68684]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/dae2da34-f93e-452a-9f18-7890b483ad46.jpg "Armenian children lie in the street of an unidentified town. [LCID: 68684]")
Armenian children lie in the street of an unidentified town. Photograph taken by Armin T. Wegner. Wegner served as a nurse with the German Sanitary Corps. In 1915 and 1916, Wegner traveled throughout the Ottoman Empire and documented atrocities carried out against the Armenians. [Courtesy of Sybil Stevens (daughter of Armin T. Wegner). Wegner Collection, Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach & United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.]
Item View![An Armenian refugee, wearing a scarf and a pack on her back. [LCID: 34290]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/3a30638a-6f42-4b14-a4c1-51e43f8b624a.jpg "An Armenian refugee, wearing a scarf and a pack on her back. [LCID: 34290]")
An Armenian refugee, wearing a scarf and a pack on her back. Ottoman Empire, 1918-20.
Sometimes called the first genocide of the twentieth century, the Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the multiethnic Ottoman Empire in 1915. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide, either in massacres and individual killings, or from systematic ill treatment, exposure, and starvation.
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