Under the Shadow of Death

The best account of the Armenian Holocaust ever written. A must read for every Armenian who wants to understand the gruesome facts as they really happened. -- Professor Christiansen "--UCLA Professor"

Garabed Hagop Aaronian was born on March 20, 1886, in the village of Husenik, in Kharpert, Turkey. Garabed was the third of six sons and two daughters born to Altoon and Hagop Aaronian. Two of his brothers, Aharon and Levon, died in the Turkish massacre of World War I. He attended Robert College in Istanbul, Turkey, with the aid of a scholarship. After more than three years of college, on February 21, 1915 he was drafted into the Turkish Army and was sent to Mount Amanos in Cilicia to work as an Engineer-Officer and as Adjutant to Akiah Bey, being directly responsible for the construction of roads that had to pass over the mountain range. Following his discharge from service and graduation from Robert College, he worked for Socony Oil. He immigrated to his dreamland, the United States of America, in 1923, and initially settled in Providence, Rhode Island, where his eldest brother Alep and family resided. In 1929 he journeyed from Providence to Marseille, France, where he proposed to and married Perouze, a young lady he knew before, who was the daughter of Lucia and Garabed Parsekian. He brought his bride back to the United States and settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he worked for Bethlehem Steel. In 1933, they moved to Youngstown, Ohio, where he worked for Truscon Steel. Shortly thereafter, due to the depressive state of the economy, Garabed and Perouze were forced to once again relocate with their two children to Highland Park, Michigan, where he was happily employed by the firm Griffels and Vallet as a Civil Engineer for 18 years. Finally in September 1954, a long time dream was consummated. The Aaronian family relocated themselves to California, taking up permanent residence in Altadena. In 1955, a hardback book he wrote in Armenian pertaining to his hometown, Husenik, was published. Additionally, he thoroughly researched and made his family tree going back nine generations. Garabed Aaronian may be remembered by the older Armenians as he wrote articles for approximately 45 years in both the Hairenik and the Asbarez newspapers. He died May 3, 1983.