Apocalypse 10 lives - Learning resource files

Dim Seed

  • Nationality: American
  • Birth date: October 1, 1871
  • Family/social situation:

    Son of Greek immigrants. Christened Demetrios but calls himself Dim, “more American.”

    Recently divorced from Cornelia Odebrecht, a woman of German origin.

  • Occupation:

    Reporter for the World Chronicle, an influential daily of Democrat allegiance.

Biographical elements of the character
Elements of the historical context

  • June 28, 1914

    Latin Bridge, Sarajevo, Bosnia.
    Dim has been sent to report on the Balkan “powder keg.”

  • Sarajevo in 1914, before the war. The assassination on June 28, 1914. Arrest of Gavrilo Princip.

  • October 27, 1914

    Dim’s hotel room, Sarajevo, Bosnia.
    He looks back on the assassination, Princip’s trial, the triggering of the war.

    CRISS-CROSSING A LIFE

  • Context of the outbreak of war; the geopolitics of Europe. Nationalist movements and reasons behind the assassination; the Black Hand. Atrocities committed by the Austrians in the Balkans.

  • December 24, 1914

    Ruins in Flanders, the Armentières region on the French side of the border with Belgium.
    Dim spends Christmas with the soldiers.

    CRISS-CROSSING A LIFE

    • Émilien Meysenot has wandered into the British lines and participates in the Christmas fraternization with soldiers from the German lines.

  • Life in the trenches between attacks: wine, letters, and fraternizing with the enemy on Christmas Eve.

  • March 6, 1915

    Dim’s hotel room, Trebizond, Turkey.
    Dim writes to a colleague.

  • The Russo-Turkish War (Caucasus Campaign). The “Ice Army.” Events presaging the Armenian genocide.

  • December 24, 1916

    Across from the Chaldean church of Thara in Mosul, Mesopotamia.
    Sitting in an outdoor teahouse, Dim watches an Orthodox Christian procession and meets Derya, an archaeologist.

  • The Armenian massacre. The oil fields of Syria at stake. The war in the Middle East; Lawrence of Arabia and Faisal (future king of Iraq).

  • July 8, 1918

    At a Paris sidewalk café, La Closerie des Lilas, in Montparnasse.
    Dim has an appointment with Ismaël Tangaré and Eugene Bullard.

    CRISS-CROSSING A LIFE

  • Eugene Bullard, African-American pilot in the French air force. Exposes the living conditions, status, and exemplary role of the “native” soldiers.

  • October 4, 1918

    Lobby of the Victoria Hotel, Damascus, Syria.
    A crowd welcomes Lawrence of Arabia, dressed in Arab robes.

  • The war in the Middle East, the taking of Jerusalem and Damascus; Lawrence of Arabia.