Bertha Sophia Felicita von Suttner was a 19th century author and peace activist from Austria. Her most famous work, the anti-war novel titled ‘Die Waffen Nieder’ (Lay Down Your Arms), became an international bestseller and was published in all the major world languages of the time. Upon the success of her novel, Bertha von Suttner quickly rose to prominence within the international peace movement that was gaining ground in Europe and in the United States of America. She founded the Austrian Peace Society, contributed to the establishment of many other pacifist organizations throughout Europe and founded a peace journal, Die Waffen Nieder, which was later succeeded by the journal Die Friedens-Warte.

The Syrian civil war is an ongoing multi-sided armed conflict in Syria in which international interventions have taken place. The war grew out of the unrest of the 2011 Arab Spring and escalated to armed conflict after President Bashar al-Assad’s government violently repressed protests calling for his removal. Violence in Syria has escalated amid an absence of meaningful efforts to end the war. A confidential list of individuals and units are believed to be responsible for crimes against humanity, breaches of international humanitarian law and gross human rights violations. We have created a Library Special on the Syrian civil war in order to provide you easy access to our collection. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask the librarian: r.steenhard@ppl.nl