Asa Jennings
Asa Kent Jennings (* 1877 ; † 1933 ) was a Methodist theologian and member of the YMCA who saved hundreds of thousands of Greeks , Armenians and Jews from murder by the Turks during the Asia Minor catastrophe .
Life
Asa Kent Jennings was born in New York State, and in 1904 fell ill with tuberculosis. Numerous doctors told him that he would die within a few weeks. After this death did not occur, he believed in a divine providence.
On behalf of the YMCA, he reached Smyrna in August 1922 . A Greek family who had fled gave him the building they had left behind. While Turkish troops in Smyrna were busy with looting, rape and murder, the YMCA was busy rescuing survivors. Under the protection of the US Navy , Jennings brought 500 women and 2,000 children whose parents had been killed into the building. At first only Greeks and Armenians were affected by the atrocities, Jews were exempted from the Turkish troops.
Asa Jennings drove his car directly to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and negotiated with him the rescue of the Greeks and Armenians. Ataturk allowed Jennings to remove all minorities from Turkey, but only gave Jennings seven days, which was extended to eleven days. The high number of people who now had to be brought to Greece did not meet with affection there, as they overwhelmed the state, which then had a few million inhabitants. Nevertheless, the state supported the action with 55 ships. The Greek frigate captain Theofanides had supported the project and was later dismissed for insubordination. A total of 350,000 people were brought to safety in Greece in the 11 days, of which 300,000 were Greeks, 25,000 Armenians and 25,000 Jews, and 1,250,000 were added in the following 10 months.
Asa Jennings was also committed to the modernization of Kemalist Turkey. Since the YMCA would not be accepted in Turkey just because of the name “Christian”, it was renamed “American Friends of Turkey”. She was expressly welcomed, so children's facilities were established so that women could work, and sport was introduced for men with the first sports field in Turkey. The fact that Turkey is socially much more modern than other states of the former Ottoman Empire is also attributed to the American Friends of Turkey .
In 1945 MGM Studios produced a 10-minute short film about Asa Jennings.
Awards
- Order of the Redeemer
- Raoul Wallenberg Foundation Prize (posthumous)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0240938/
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jennings, Asa |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Jennings, Asa Kent (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Methodist theologian, member of the YMCA |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1877 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1933 |