April Showers bring May Flowers
by Pamela Apkarian-Russell
Spring at last, with the return of green to the land and the blooming of the daffodil, lilac, forsythia, crocus, and tulip. How lovely, how refreshing, how delightful April 21st is the Queen of England's birthday April 24th is the day that is celebrated as the day when the first genocide of this century was committed. A genocide which to this day is denied by the country that committed it and which has never given justice to the million and a half people, half of the world's population of this minority first Christian nation.
Let's start with the flowers, a lovely subject. Early seed packages, and Shaker seeds, as well as catalogues selling seeds, bulbs, and plants, are even more popular today than they were years ago. The lithographed ones have escalated in price as have the boxes with the colorful floral labels. Labels on boxes that have been shellacked are not worth anything like those that have been left in their original condition.
There are some nice advertising trade cards with seed and flower motifs. Cards on the other hand, which just show flowers are very low in value including those pretty Prang holiday greetings. Prang is still very popular with collectors, but it is the children and women which demand the money, not the lily and the moss rose with which Louis Prang was so enamored.
Queen Elizabeth II came to the throne in 1953. Anyone deciding to collect QE II items, the woman not the Cunarder, should limit themselves to a specific area or time period, as the amount of items produced is almost infinite.
The royal wedding of then Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip, the royal tours to the colonies prior to her father's death, the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret during the war years, are one segment, while Elizabeth as Queen is another. The wealth alone of material made up for the coronation or the Silver Jubilee are overwhelming.
However, believe it or not, as many items as were made for these-there is as much or more for Princess Diana's wedding. Elizabeth unfortu- nately, never glamorized herself; she always looked more at home wearing a kerchief while checking out the horses than she did with the crown jewels.
Collecting just the books on her is overwhelming as so many have been written and are being written even as we speak. Magazines are worse, but two are especially well worth having. The Sphere, and The Illustrated London News are two wonderful magazines. The special issues are so beautifully orchestrated and colorful that they really are a joy to own and are still relatively inexpensive.
If Elizabeth's reign is longer than Victoria's then the amount of printed matter will remain relatively inexpensive. Princess Anne items are really quite scarce and well worth collecting. The Queen Mother is in poor health, but she is resolute in the fact that she intends to live to be over a hundred as she wants an official birthday telegram from her daughter, the Queen! Now if you really want to own a wonderful item, the Queen Mum is selling her lavender Rolls Royce, and another castle..... Will Camilla Parker Bowes, ever become Queen (consort) I hope so but I very much doubt it.
Perhaps, it is time for us all to look at the person rather than the wardrobe or how photogenic they are.
April 24 was a day of which Adolph Hitler was very aware. He had seen a world outraged over the extended genocide of a Christian populace, but which they had not done anything about because of the strategic location of the perpetrator and the importance of black gold (oil). England, France, Italy, and America watched the offender not only get away with it, but to continue to do it without any consequences, then to deny it, even when the documentation was so prolific it was overwhelming.
Hitler, when signing the papers to begin the Jewish genocide said, "Be merciless in exterminating the Polish men, women, and children. Who, after all speaks today, of the annihilation of the Armenians?" Hitler could not understand why, when Germany had coached and helped Turkey with their ethnic cleansing problem before and after WWI - and it had been so successful, why he could not get rid of his ethnic minorities in the same manner, with the same lack of consequences. No one hated Attaturk or Jemal, Talat, or Enver, or even for that matter, their ally the Kaiser; why then should they hate him? If Hitler had come to trial his line of defense most probably would have been "They did it and it was okay, why can't I?"
If Hitler had stuck to painting, we might now be seeing exhibits of lunatic art instead of genocide art. This century is almost over and when 2000 comes along, the first genocide of this century will be forgotten and justice will have died with it, as there are so few survivors still living. This means a precedent has been set for current and future Hitler's, who will feel that they too can get away with crimes against humanity.
There are an incredible number of items you can collect on genocide world wide. Perhaps the most popular item is a postcard of Hitler sitting in jail shouting, "Quick, get Cohen my lawyer!"
I do not think there are many Judaica collections that do not have this card. It is interesting that though there were postcards made of the hangings of the Armenians and the refugees, there are none of the Jewish holocaust victims. One can only wonder what type of barbarians would not only perpetrate such acts but memorialize them on souvenir cards. These cards are painful to look upon as are the books and pamphlets of survivors stories.
ET Paul did sheet music for "An Armenian Maid", the story of Flora Mardigian, who escaped to this country during the genocide and wrote a book about her awful experiences. The music sells for $100, the book has just been reprinted but the original sells for about $40. The book was made into a movie which has been lost. There is a standing $1000 reward offered for the film. To date, no one has claimed it.
There are so many books and cards and magazine articles written about genocide and genocide survivors. Yet, because the international community allowed the Armenian genocide and the burning of Smyrna and its Christian communities, then will the many Hitler's of this world think they too can "get away with it"? Look at today's newspapers and you will understand why some heads of governments feel it is okay to kill Kurds, and Croats, and Tootsies, etc.
Genocide has a long tradition and only up to recently has our species realized that maybe it shouldn't be done; but then it is such an easy thing to walk away from as one will probably never know that there are mass graves lying beneath those flowers, or under that barren field.
Genocide memorabilia is often rather graphic and if you have a weak stomach, we suggest you do not look at. For those that find this subject objectionable, one can only say that "history" is what it is and that justice is a rare commodity. Demand exceeds availability both on the Hitler and Nazi cards and on genocide of any nation or people. News photographer's pictures are great documentation. Art of any type that can be authenticated as being from death marches or concentration camps are sought out by collectors, museums, organizations alike. The Holocaust museum, Project Save, AIM, are just a few of those who are eager to purchase items.
The best item I have ever seen is a beaded purse, with no top, showing Mount Ararat and Noah's dove. Below is a soldier and a woman. Translated, the writing says, "Brother and Sister, Prison (concentration camp)." Who knows if they survived and if so how, or how the purse showed up at Brimfield, so many years later? There is horror in the thought that lamp shades were made of human skin and that a bar of soap could have come from a once living being. Read the paper on April 24th and decide for yourself if one can get away with murdering a million and a half people. Some genocides just aren't very important. and they set the stage for Rwanda and Somalia, and Bosnia, and.........