Karen Jeppe and the Armenian People - A Life – a Calling

"Karen Jeppe and the Armenian People - A Life – a Calling" is a biographical and easy-to-read story about the Danish teacher Karen Jeppe, who heroically took action and saved many Armenians from death marches, slave labor and executions under the Armenian genocide in 1915-17.

At the beginning of the 1900s, Karen Jeppe worked as a teacher in Denmark but one fateful evening she attended a lecture about the political stir in the Ottoman Empire. The Armenian people’s fate moved her profoundly and she decided to travel to the Armenian city Urfa to help the many thousands of orphans that lived there.

In Urfa, Karen Jeppe becomes the teacher for a group of Armenian children who have experienced gruesome things. They have seen their parents and siblings murdered, and now they must beg and steal to survive. Karen Jeppe takes the children under her wing and is not only an excellent teacher but also a fantastic initiator and organizer. She teaches the children to read and write, and the adults are put to work farming and doing needlework.

During Karen Jeppe’s stay in the country, the situation worsens for the Armenians. The Armenian genocide progresses and everywhere there is fear, arrests, death marches, deportations, and thousands of refugees trying to survive. Karen does all she can but for every hundred she helps there are thousands she cannot. Still, Karen Jeppe does not give up. She travels to Aleppo in Syria, where she continues to support the exiled Armenian refugees until her death in 1935.

The story of Karen Jeppe is a strong portrait of a brave, competent, and insightful woman, who was driven by love and self-sacrifices for her fellow man by leaving her own safe life in Denmark.

The book is meant for adults but is written in an easy-to-read language which makes it suitable for all.