Though Koko Mazloumian was an Armenian in the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide, he and his family escaped persecution due to their close ties with some of the Ottoman leadership.
Mazloumian’s family ran the storied Baron Hotel in Aleppo, Syria. Despite the fact that most other places they were massacring Armenians, the Turkish army adopted the hotel — which also had a mostly Armenian staff — as a sort of informal headquarters.
June 20th is recognized by the United Nations as International Refugee Day to raise awareness of the plight of the refugees around the world. In the Visual History Archive, the testimonies of genocide survivors include their personal experiences as refugees. As of now, the world is facing the biggest refugee crisis since World War II. To shed light on the current and past refugee crisis explore 10 interesting facts about the refugee experience.
Experiencing the brand-new “Alternate Realities” programme at this year’s Sheffield Doc/Fest—the UK’s largest documentary film festival—was dizzying and diverse. Following on from Sundance and Cannes, which have recently made their first serious forays into virtual reality, Doc/Fest curators put 12 major VR and other interactive projects into their programme this year.