Birth of Maria Jacobsen (November 6, 1882)

Maria Jacobsen in Lebanon and Karen Jeppe in Syria. Two Danish missionaries among several colleagues who became surrogate mothers to the Armenian orphans who had survived the genocide, selflessly offering their entire life to them. In the meantime, they also became living testimony of what had happened in 1915.

Jacobsen was born in the town of Siim (central Denmark) on November 6, 1882. During her childhood, she lived in the town of Horsens, on the eastern coast of the country, with her parents. She learned about the Hamidian massacres (1895-1896) from the Danish media. Feminist activist Jessie Penn-Lewis, coming to Denmark from England in 1898, helped form the Women’s Missionary Workers (KMA; Danish: Kvindelige Missions Arbejdere ) two years later. The new organization supported Armenian orphans sheltered in German orphanages of Mush, Van, Marash, and Kharpert. After completing nursing courses, Maria Jacobsen became a member of KMA in 1906. She left for Kharpert the next year, at the age of twenty-five, as a missionary. She was appointed as director of a small hospital there, and in a short time she learned Armenian in order to communicate with local people. She started writing her 600-page valuable diary in September 1907 and would continue it for the next twelve years.

Jacobsen stated in an entry about the deportation of Armenians (June 26, 1915) that, “It is quite obvious that the purpose of their departure is the extermination of the Armenian people.” She added that what could have been done in 1895 was impossible twenty years later: “The Turks know very well about the war raging in Europe, and that the Christian nations are too busy to take care of Armenians, so they take advantage of the times to destroy their ‘enemies.’” Her diary mainly describes the deportation and exile of the Armenians of Kharpert, and scenes of murders perpetrated by the Turks from 1915-1919: “These poor people did not look like humans any more, not even animals could be found in this state, people would be merciful and kill them.” She reported that the Turkish authorities demanded to hand over the orphans from the American missionaries, but many of them were killed when this happened. During this period, Jacobsen adopted three children.

After World War I, with the support of Near East Relief workers, Maria Jacobsen gathered more than 3,600 Armenian wandering orphans, most of them suffering from infectious diseases and reduced to skeletons. In 1919 she left the Ottoman Empire after contracting typhus from the orphans. After going to Denmark, she was invited to visit the United States, where she had public lectures about the massacres and raised money for the orphans. She tried to go back to Kharpert in 1920-1921, but she was not allowed to enter the Ottoman Empire. She subsequently went to Lebanon, where she continued her activities.

In July 1922 she settled in Zouk Michail which was between the cities of Byblos and Beirut (this was the first orphanage of K.M.A.) with 208 children from Cilicia. They later moved to Saida. In 1928 K.M.A. acquired the building of the Armenian orphanage of Jbeil from the American Near East Relief, establishing the Danish orphanage “Birds’ Nest.” By its status “Birds’ Nest” was more like a school than an orphanage. The same subjects of public schools of Lebanon were taught, along with different crafts.

The Armenian orphans referred to Maria Jacobsen as “Mama Jacobsen.” She often read the Bible to the orphans in Armenian. Her humanitarian activities were deservedly acknowledged by her homeland. She was awarded the golden medal of the Danish Kingdom in 1950, becoming the first woman in the country who earned that highest state award. She was granted the Gold Medal of Honor by the Lebanese government in 1954 for her service and dedication to the Armenian community.

Maria Jacobsen died on April 6, 1960, and, according to her will, she was buried in the courtyard of the Birds' Nest. Her diary, which she had secretly smuggled out of the Ottoman Empire, was translated into Armenian and published in Danish original and Armenian translation in 1979. An English translation was published in 2001. Her bust was inaugurated in California in 2016 and a kindergarten in the town of Ijevan (Armenia) bears her name.

Birth of Maria Jacobsen (November 6, 1882)

Maria Jacobsen was a key witness of the Armenian Genocide. She belonged to a group of missionaries of different nationalities who had been active since the years before in various areas of Armenian population and continued their work for years, helping victims and survivors with their humanitarian efforts.

Maria Jacobsen in 1910

Jacobsen was born in Denmark, in the town of Siim, near Ry, on November 6, 1882. She lived in Horsens with her parents. She learned about the Hamidian massacres of 1894-1896 through the Danish media. Feminist activist Jessie Penn-Lewis arrived in Denmark from England in 1898 and helped form the Women’s Missionary Workers (Kvindelige Missions Arbejdere, K.M.A.) two years later. Young Maria soon partook in the efforts to support and provide relief to orphans in the eastern provinces of the Ottoman Empire. In 1907, at the age of twenty-five, she departed to Constantinople with American missionaries, and then left for Kharpert, where she worked at the Armenian hospital. She also developed charitable activities in Malatia, Aintab, and other cities.

After a two-years sojourn in Denmark from 1912-1914 with a charity mission, she returned to Kharpert on the eve of 1915 and became a witness of the Turkish atrocities and the deportation of the Armenians.

Maria Jacobsen kept a diary in Danish from 1907-1919, which became a valuable source to document the day-to-day unfolding of the Turkish anti-Armenian policy. In a diary entry on June 26, 1915 regarding the deportations, she stated: “It is quite obvious that the purpose of their departure is the extermination of the Armenian people.” She added: “Conditions now are completely different from what they were during the massacres of 20 years ago. What could be done then is impossible now. The Turks know very well about the war raging in Europe, and that the Christian nations are too busy to take care of Armenians, so they take advantage of the times to destroy their ‘enemies.’”

Jacobsen adopted three children during this period. The first, Hansa, had fled the Bedouin family to which she had been sold, and was hiding in a tree until she became unconscious from sickness and fell. A Turk police officer and Jacobsen found her, and the Danish missionary chose to adopt her on the spot. The second child was Beatrice, and the third was Lilly, who she had found on the side of the road.

In 1919 Maria Jacobson left the Ottoman Empire after contracting typhus from the orphans. She first went to Denmark and then to the United States, where she gave a series of lectures and speeches on the plight of the Armenian people, and the massacres that they had undergone, and raised money for the orphans.

The Kemalist government prohibited the activities of all foreign missionaries, and in 1922, Jacobsen went to Beirut, where she continued to gather and care for the orphans. In July 1922, after moving to Saida, she helped establish an orphanage which sheltered 208 Armenian orphans. The Women’s Missionary Workers (K.M.A.) acquired in 1928 an orphanage previously owned by the Near East Relief, located in Jbeil, where Jacobsen moved with her orphans and would be known as Bird’s Nest (Terchnots Pooyn, in Armenian). She would be known to the orphans as “Mama."

Jacobsen was also fluent in Armenian, and often read the Bible to the orphans in their mother language. She married an Armenian dentist. She became the first woman to receive the Gold Medal Award of the Kingdom of Denmark in 1950 for her humanitarian work. Four years later, on December 14, 1954, she was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor by the government of Lebanon on her 50th jubilee celebration for her service and dedication to the Armenian community.

Maria Jacobsen passed away on 6 April 1960 and, according to her will, was buried in the courtyard of Birds' Nest. Part of her archives were deposited in the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in 2010. Her diary was first published in a bilingual Danish-Armenian edition in 1979 by Archbishop Nerses Pakhdigian and Mihran Simonian, and years later, an English translation was published by the Gomidas Institute.