Discover some of the testimonies in USC Shoah Foundation's Armenian Genocide Collection.

Levon Giridlian was just 10 years old when he saw 2,500 friends, family members, and neighbors massacred and thrown into a mass ditch.

It was 1895, and he was in his hometown of Kayseri, Turkey. Giridlian, however, was not a Turk but rather an Armenian. The killings later became known as the Hamidian massacres, a chilling precursor to the 1915 Armenian Genocide.

Beginning in the 1870s, Ottoman Empire was losing territory as many faction within its borders began insisting on self-determination. Armenians in the country began to follow suit, asking for better treatment by the Turkish government, and even autonomy. The Sultan, Abdul Hamid, saw the Christian Armenains as a furthering of hostilities from the Christian, European world.

A group of Kurdish bandits armed by the state came to be known as the Hamidiye, or Hamidian Regiments, and were given free rein to attack Armenians. Although Britian, France and Russia forced the sultan to sign reforms limited the Hamidiye’s power, such reforms were never implemented.

At just 10 years old, Levon Giridlian saw the massacre of thousands. 

For Giridian, this meant that the sultan declared -- by newspaper, posters, and town crier -- that each town Armenians lived in would have two hours of massacres. Kayseri’s was to happen on November 17, a Friday. The Turks planned to begin the killing after attending mosque, but having heard about it the Armenians closed their shops for the day and returned home.

Giridlian had been at a bathhouse with his mother when the massacre started. The Turkish proprietor of the bathhouse, believing his customers were his responsibility until they were home, escorted them safely back to their house, where they managed to evade the Turks. Giridlian’s father had been in hiding, and returned home two days later, to his relieved family. His uncle, however, was not so lucky and all the members of his household were killed.

Though the massacre was only supposed to go on for two hours, inspired by what the soldiers were doing, many regular Turkish citizens from all around the country heard about the killings and journeyed to Kayseri to partake in them. The massacre ended up lasting a full 24 hours.

Nine years later, still facing persecution as an Armenian, Giridlian left Turkey for the United States. Eleven years after that, in 1915, the Armenian Genocide would begin.