Faith under fire — firsthand
Christian persecution & survival stories
Firsthand accounts of Christians who survived massacre, siege, and genocide — the Armenian death marches and the Boxer Rebellion in China — recording both the atrocity they endured and the faith they carried through it. These are eyewitness testimonies, free to read in the public domain and offered here as clean editions.
- 1
1918 · The Armenian genocide · Aurora Mardiganian
Ravished Armenia
Aurora Mardiganian · 1918
A young Armenian Christian watches her family and town destroyed and endures the death marches, yet survives to bear witness — one of the earliest firsthand testimonies of the Armenian genocide.
- 2
1903 · The Boxer Rebellion, China · Archibald Glover
A Thousand Miles of Miracle in China
Archibald E. Glover · 1903
Hunted, beaten, and near death on a thousand-mile flight to the coast, the Glover family survives against all odds — a harrowing personal narrative of the 1900 anti-Christian violence.
- 3
1901 · The Boxer Rebellion, China · Arthur H. Smith
China in Convulsion
Arthur H. Smith · 1901
A missionary of decades chronicles the persecution and courage of Chinese Christians and foreigners caught in the Boxer storm — the martyrdoms, the siege of the legations, and the aftermath, from an eyewitness.
Questions about these survival narratives
- What are these books about?
- They are firsthand accounts of Christians who lived through mass persecution — the Armenian genocide and the Boxer Rebellion in China — recording both the cruelty they witnessed and the faith and courage they saw. They are survival narratives and eyewitness testimony, not later histories.
- Are these difficult to read?
- They describe atrocity honestly — massacre, siege, and death marches — so they are sober reading; readers and teachers may wish to preview passages. They are valued precisely because they are firsthand records of what happened.
- Are the texts free to read?
- All are in the public domain, with a free source linked on each title. Our clean editions add readable typesetting.
More reading lists
T.S. Baker Books — eyewitness testimonies in clean editions, free sources linked.