In 1915, the infant Berj Kailian escaped the Armenian Genocide in World War I while lashed to her mother’s back. Five years after Kailian’s death, the Armenian Museum of America in Watertown presents the exhibition, “In the Shade of Branches,” an occasion for looking at the past through the lens of an artist committed to life moving forward. During the Turkish massacre and deportation of over a million Armenians, Berj Kailian’s mother miraculously survived her husband’s murder and the loss of three older children and crossed in safety to Yerevan with her baby, Berj. After four desperate years working with the Red Cross in the refugee-swollen city, Kailian’s mother finally secured funds from her American brothers to emigrate to Weymouth, Massachusetts. Their path took them across Siberia by rail. From Vladivostok, they were rescued and brought to Japan by the writer Diana Agabeg … [Read more...] about THE DARKNESS LIFTED: POWERFUL SURVIVORS’ TALE AT ARMENIAN MUSEUM