Grace Knapp relates in her memoirs The mission at Van in Turkey in war time that she was in Van at the outbreak of World War I. She notes that during mobilization of the Ottoman army in the fall of 1914, many Armenians were ransacked and their wealth stolen.[9] Armenian soldiers conscripted in the Ottoman army were subjugated to maltreatment and were forced to do manual labor under harsh conditions.[9] Prior to the conscription, the arms of the Armenians were confiscated and the population was left in a vulnerable state at a time of war.