Akabe Kehyaian Saryian - Armenian Genocide Survivor

In 1996, shortly after my daughter was born, I knew I had to memorialize at least a small portion of my grandmother's experience as an Armenian Genocide survivor. This is Akabe Kehyaian Saryian's story of family separation, death, homelessness, survival in Ottoman Turkey and the eventual reunion with her Father in America. I personally shot this video with a camcorder inside my living room in Staten Island, New York City. My grandmother loved listening to Al Jolson music. So, in order to set the right mood for memories, I played some of her favorite music while I conducted this interview. The story begins in 1913 when my grandmother was 3 years old and my great-grandfather, Boghos "Paul" Kehyaian, who was 31 at the time, travelled to the U.S. from Turkey. By the time my grandmother was 6 or 7, her mother had died and she became homeless - forced to live on the streets of her hometown in Kayseri, Turkey. She survived on scraps of discarded food and the carcasses of dead animals. She also recalls singing and dancing on the streets for coins people with give her.