Smyrna, September 1922: The American Mission to Rescue Victims of the 20th Century's First Genocide

The harrowing story of an ordinary American and a principled Naval officer who, horrified by the burning of Smyrna, led an extraordinary rescue effort which saved a quarter of a million refugees from the Armenian Genocide.

In September 1922, the richest city of the Mediterranean was burned, and countless numbers of Christian refugees killed. The city was Smyrna, and the event was the final episode of the 20th Century’s first genocide — the slaughter of three million Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians of the Ottoman Empire.

The slaughter at Smyrna occurred as warships of the great powers stood by — the United States, Great Britain, France and Italy. The deaths of hundreds of thousands seemed inevitable until an American minister staged a bold rescue with the help of a courageous U.S.naval officer. Now, the forgotten story of one of the great humanitarian acts of history gets told.

With a foreword by James Russell, Mashtots Professor of Armenian Studies at Harvard University

A bribe, a lie, and an empty threat—these were the tools Reverend Asa K. Jennings, a minister from upstate New York, used to rescue hundreds of thousands of helpless refugees following the 1922 burning and rape of Smyrna, the richest city of the Ottoman Empire, by the Turkish troops of Mustapha Kemal, known today as Ataturk.

Smyrna, September 1922 tells the harrowing and inspiring story of Jennings and a strong-willed naval officer, Lt. Commander Halsey Powell, who together orchestrated one of the century’s greatest humanitarian missions. Drawing extensively from survivors’ stories, fresh primary sources, and years of research, Lou Ureneck paints an unforgettable portrait of the fire at Smyrna—the symbolic end of five hundred years of Ottoman rule and the final act in a ten-year religious slaughter. His gripping narrative reveals forces that would define the rest of the century: virulent nationalism, trading oil for national principles, and conflict and misunderstanding between the Christian West and Moslem East.

Previously published as The Great Fire

Praise for Backcast: “This book is a rarity: humble in its beauty, elegant in its reflection.” - Anchorage Daily News

“Huckleberry Finn written by Charles Dickens, a story of self-preservation told without bathos. ... There are two adventures here, each in its own wilderness and each with its own measure of indecision, difficulty, discovery and serendipity.” - Keene Sentinel

“With its poetic fineness and almost mathematical detail, fly-fishing has a gestural language which links aficionados on a stream, even in silence. It’s that language that Ureneck hoped would help reverse a widening gulf between himself and a teenage son. The hope played out in an eventful fishing trip on Alaska’s lonely Kanektok River in 2000. The father-son link was reknit, if not right away, and not necessarily in the way Ureneck imagined. ... More than a fish story, it’s an autobiography, and at the center are two broken families.” - Boston Globe

“Although the fishing-trip memoir verges on literary cliché, this recounting of an Alaskan journey that Ureneck, head of BU’s journalism program, took with his son manages to more than stand out—calling to mind at times that gold standard of fish-and-family portraits, Norman MacLean’s A River Runs Through It. Exploring in equal parts the Alaskan wilderness and his tricky relationship with his son, Ureneck is not content with mere absolution; instead, he hunts for redemption, and along the way nets a fresh start with his boy.” - Boston magazine

“[A] thoughtful, engaging memoir...an enjoyable, heartfelt narrative.” - Kirkus Reviews

“The unflinching terrain of the Alaskan interior has yielded an unflinching memoir, one of the finest meditations on fathers and sons that I?ve ever read. There’s nothing sentimental or sugarcoated here—it’s of a piece with the landscape where it’s set. But there is quiet redemption.” - Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature

“This is a comprehensive yet intimate work of scholarship, reminding readers of a horrific moment in modern history now largely forgotten.” - Weekly Standard

“This is simply a fabulous book, as deep and true as the Alaskan waters that serve as its backdrop. It is an exciting adventure story. It is a profound story of the heart. It is warm and beautiful and so sweetly honest, a father fighting for his son, to know him, to regain him, in a way that will stay and linger long after the final page is turned.” - Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights

“The Great Fire reads like a fast-paced thriller replete with vivid profiles of heroes, villains and ordinary people caught up in ethnic and religious violence.” - ABC News

“The Great Fire reads like a fast-paced thriller replete with vivid profiles of heroes, villains and ordinary people caught up in ethnic and religious violence.” - The Post and Courier

“[The Great Fire] is highly readable and paints a portrait of a pivotal period in world history.” - The Register Herald

“Ureneck’s narrative is intense and vivid.” - Philadelphia Inquirer

“The Great Fire reads like a fast-paced thriller replete with vivid profiles of heroes, villains and ordinary people caught up in ethnic and religious violence.” - Associated Press