During this time, Pietschmann witnessed mass deportations and acts of violence committed against the Armenian deportees. In his accounts, he indicates that the first wave of deportees were the more prominent members of the local Armenian community. He describes how Armenian deportees were sent further west where they were ultimately killed by being hurled into gorges. This was confirmed by Schlimme's earlier report, in which he described those sent to the Kemah gorge as mostly hungry and half-naked women and children. Schlimme reported that when they gave the deportees some bread, the latter were immediately beaten by the gendarmes for having accepted it. Pietschmann lamented thus over the Armenian children on their way to their destination: