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CAIRO TO DAMASCUS
until today that her son was dead or that she had been sleeping next to his grave for three nights."
Dr. Semerjian and his colleague, Dr. Daghlian, had worked
as technicians in the Mandate government's Health Department. They removed shrapnel and bullets by old-fashioned
but effective methods, stemmed the flow of blood and treated
for shock. "Doctor" was merely a title of gratitude. So far they
had treated more than two hundred. All of Jerusalem's physicians had fled long before, leaving the Old City at the mercy
of midwives, ignorant practitioners, and quacks. Despite the
pleas of Trans-Jordan officials, not one Arab physician returned
during the hectic days of Jerusalem's siege (in contrast with
Israeli doctors, who begged to be allowed to remain). With
some foresight the Armenians had laid away a supply of
medicine and bandages, the latter washed again and again and
used indefinitely as new patients replaced the old.
All told, twenty-seven Armenians were killed during the
siege. The Jews in the New City knew, of course, that t