The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
Encyclopedia
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh is a 1933 novel
by Austria
n-Jewish author
Franz Werfel
based on the defense of a small community of Armenians
living in the Musa Dagh
of the Ottoman Empire
in 1915 during the height of the Armenian Genocide
. The book was originally published as Die Vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh in German
in November 1933. It achieved great international success and has been credited with awakening the world to the evidence of the persecution and partial destruction of the Armenian nation during World War I. The novel is a fictional account based on the defense of Musa Dagh's Armenians who were facing deportations and massacres ordered by the Young Turkish government
.
Although written as a novel, Werfel carried out a great deal of research and the historical background content of the book has generally been accepted as fact. In the 1930s, the Republic of Turkey pressured the United States
State department to prevent MGM Studios from producing a film based on the novel. A filmed version of the story was eventually made independently and was released theatrically in 1982.
military during the First World War on the Russian front. His experience of the horrors he witnessed during the war was said to have influenced him during the course of writing the book. His reason for writing the novel is given in a prefatory note in the novel:
Later speaking to reporters, Werfel elaborated: "The struggle of 5,000 people on Musa Dagh had so fascinated me that I wished to aid the Armenian people by writing about it and bringing it to the world."
, standing on a cliff and pondering the question of "where he came from." Though proud of his identity, Bagradian, as well as his French wife Juliette and their son Stephan, has difficulty in adjusting to life back home. As a former Ottoman Army artillery lieutenant and a distinguished veteran of the 1912 Balkan War
, the future of the Ottoman Empire following its entry intro World War I also weighs heavily on him. Other major characters which are introduced in the first part of the book are the local Armenian notables such as the mayor, the community's head priest, Ter-Haigasun and local physician, Bedros Altouni.
While Bagradian re-enlists for service as a reserve officer in the artillery, he is not called up and he grows suspicious of the government's motives as the war drags on. The first signs of trouble come when the town officials report that they are being denied the use of their passports. Further indications arrive in the form of the chatter that Gabriel overhears amongt Turkish
military officers who discuss what the central government is planning. Skeptical, Gabriel and the town's leaders ignore these warnings and attribute it to the necessity of the country's national security and mere gossip. This changes in late April when the remnants of a refugee column arrive in the town, bringing tales of a brutal death march from the town of Zeitoun. It is here where readers are introduced to three important characters of the book, Protestant pastor Aram Tomasian, his pregnant wife Hovsannah and his sister Iskuhi. Detailing the accounts of mass murder, starvation and rape, they confirm the rumors that there is an order by the government to rid the country of its Armenian population.
Bagradian continues to express his skepticism and puts his faith in the Turkish government. Nonetheless, he asks for a meeting to be convened by the town officials and warns Ter-Haigasun and advises that they move a cache of rifles that had been buried near the church (which were originally awarded by CUP
authorities during the 1908 Young Turk Revolution
). The true motives of the government become clear when an order is given by a group of military irregulars that the 6,000 Armenians
living in Musa Dagh are to be deported by them south towards Syria
, purportedly for the empire's security.
warships and a British
troop carrier that had seen the distress signals hung by the cliff. Jubilant that their prayers had been answered, the Armenians earnestly greet the landing party. The side of Musa Ler close to the sea is very steep and adding to the Armenians' difficulties, the ships cannot approach the land and thus it is necessary to construct boats to reach them. The process of getting on the ships is difficult and painful.
Gabriel, in an attempt to make sure everyone is on board the ships, gets left behind; he does not bother to signal for help but instead continues back up the mountain and when he reaches his son's grave, is shot by Turkish troops. The ships take the Armenians, exhausted and on the brink of starvation, to safety to a camp in Port Said
in Egypt
.
After the first publication of Edgar Hilsenrath's
novel The Story of the Last Thought
in 1989 in Germany the critic Alexander von Bormann wrote in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung with regard to The Forty Days of Musa Dagh that was until then considered to be the most important book on the Armenian people in world literature: “But I think Hilsenrath's novel is significantly superior to Werfel's: it is a historic and poetic novel at the same time.”
anti-Semitism
; The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was labeled "undesirable" by the Nazi government and although not banned, the book was sold and purchased secretly. Werfel was expelled from the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1933. Das Schwarze Korps
, the official newspaper of the Schutzstaffel
, painted Werfel as an agent who created the "alleged Turkish horrors perpetrated against the Armenians" and also denounced "America's Armenian Jews for promoting in the U.S.A. the sale of Werfel's book."
The novel's importance grew during World War II
. Musa Dagh has often been compared to resistance in Jewish ghettos. The ghetto of Białystok found itself in a similar situation as Musa Dagh when in February 1943, Mordecai Tannenbaum, an inmate of the Vilna ghetto
was sent with others to organize resistance there. The record of one of the meetings organizing the revolt suggests that the novel was often used in the ghettos as a reference to successful resistance: “Only one thing remains for us: to organize collective resistance in the ghetto, at any cost; to consider the ghetto our 'Musa Dagh', to write a proud chapter of Jewish Bialystok and our movement into history,” noted Tannenbaum. Copies of the book were said to have been "passed from hand to hand" among the ghetto's defenders who likened their situation to that of the Armenians'. According to extensive statistical records kept by Herman Kruk at the Vilna ghetto library, this book was the most popular among ghetto readership, as is recounted in memoirs by survivors who worked at the library.
In addition to Bialystok in 1942, many Jews in the Palestinian Mandate contemplated retreating to Mount Carmel
and organizing a defense line due to prospects of a possible Nazi
invasion of the region. Known alternatively as the "Northern Program", "The Carmel Plan", "The Massada Plan" or the "Musa Dagh Plan", it was envisioned as a bastion against Nazi incursions and to hold out against them for at least three to four months. Meri Batz, one of the leaders of the Jewish militias who had also read the novel, stated that the community wished to "turn Carmel into the Musa Dagh of Palestinian Jewry....We put our faith in the power of the Jewish 'Musa Dagh' and were determined to hold out for at least three to four months."
The resistance held up at Musa Dagh lasted, contrary to the book's title, for 53 days. Jungk states that the change of the days by Werfel "called up biblical associations: the flood lasted forty days and nights; Moses
spent forty days and nights on Mount Sinai
; Israel
's time in the wilderness was forty years." The French warship, the Guichen, accompanying three other warships including the French flagship
Jeanne D'Arc and a British troop transport, ferried out the remaining 4,000 people left on the Damlayik, transporting them to Port Said
, Egypt
.
Werfel's Bagradian was inspired by the town's defense leader, Moses Derkalousdian. Instead of suffering the fate as Bagradian, he moved to Beirut
, Lebanon
several years after the war ended and lived there for the next 70 years, serving in Lebanon's government for several decades as a quiet and shy member of Parliament
. Derkalousdian died at the age of 99 in 1986.
(MGM) Studios to purchase its filming rights. Actor Clark Gable
was slated to play the role of Gabriel Bagradian but production had hardly even begun when in 1934 the Republic of Turkey's ambassador to the United States, Mehmed Münir Ertegün
, was ordered by his government to stop it from ever being made. As the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was intent on suppressing any mention of the Armenian Genocide, whether it was within its own borders or not. Ertegün turned to the United States State Department and told them that he "earnestly hoped that [the movie studio] would desist from presenting any such picture, which would give a distorted version of the alleged massacres." The State Department tried to assure Ertegün that the film would not include any material that would offend Turkey but Ertegün remained adamant. The State Department attempted to mollify the Turkish government by presenting it with the finalized script, although this did not satisfy it either. The film's scriptwriters offered several water-downed versions but Turkey still refused to budge.
MGM's production chief was astonished by this level of interference by a foreign power declaring, "To hell with the Turks, I'm going to make the picture anyway." The fact that MGM was moving forward with the production further enraged Turkey. Speaking to an MGM official, Ertegün threatened that "If the movie is made, Turkey will launch a worldwide campaign against it. It rekindles the Armenian Question
. The Armenian Question is settled." Ertegün's threats were soon being echoed across the Turkish press. In a September 3, 1935, editorial colored with anti-Semitic overtones, the Istanbul
Turkish-language daily Haber opined:
In the face of this pressure, Louis B. Mayer
of MGM, conceded to Turkish demands and the film was scrapped. Michael Bobelian, a lawyer and a journalist, states that the "Musa Dagh incident is critical in understanding the evolution of Turkey's campaign of denying the crimes committed by the Young Turks....The standoff with MGM revealed that Turkey would pressure foreign governments to go along with its policy of denial." Another movie version was mentioned in the 1967 sales film Lionpower from MGM as being slated for production in 1968-69 but nothing came of this version either.
After several, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was finally turned into a movie in 1982, directed by Sarky Mouradian with screenplay by Alex Hakobian, but it was a low-profile production. In 2006, Sylvester Stallone
expressed his desire to direct a film about Musa Dagh. According to Professor Savaş Eğilmez of Atatürk University but a massive Turkish e-mail campaign in 2007 pressured him into not proceeding with the film. In early 2009, reports surfaced that actor Mel Gibson
was also considering in directing a documentary and appearing in the adaptation of Werfel's novel but was dissuaded after receiving 3,000 e-mails sent by a Turkish pressure group.
In an ironic twist of fate, the surviving Armenian community of Istanbul was even forced in the 1930s by the Turkish government to denounce Werfel's book and its content and burn it in public rituals, similar to contemporary Nazi book burning
ceremonies and elsewhere. The Armenians would typically gather around in the courtyard of Istanbul's Pangalti Armenian Church and light copies of the book aflame.
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n-Jewish author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
Franz Werfel
Franz Werfel
Franz Werfel was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet.- Biography :Born in Prague , Werfel was the first of three children of a wealthy manufacturer of gloves and leather goods. His mother, Albine Kussi, was the daughter of a mill owner...
based on the defense of a small community of Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
living in the Musa Dagh
Musa Dagh
Musa Dagh was the site of resistance by the Armenians during the Armenian Genocide. The denizens of that region were violently expelled from their six villages by the Ottomans in 1915...
of the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
in 1915 during the height of the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
. The book was originally published as Die Vierzig Tage des Musa Dagh in German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
in November 1933. It achieved great international success and has been credited with awakening the world to the evidence of the persecution and partial destruction of the Armenian nation during World War I. The novel is a fictional account based on the defense of Musa Dagh's Armenians who were facing deportations and massacres ordered by the Young Turkish government
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
.
Although written as a novel, Werfel carried out a great deal of research and the historical background content of the book has generally been accepted as fact. In the 1930s, the Republic of Turkey pressured the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
State department to prevent MGM Studios from producing a film based on the novel. A filmed version of the story was eventually made independently and was released theatrically in 1982.
Context
Franz Werfel had served as a corporal and telephone operator in the artillery corps of the Austro-HungarianAustria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
military during the First World War on the Russian front. His experience of the horrors he witnessed during the war was said to have influenced him during the course of writing the book. His reason for writing the novel is given in a prefatory note in the novel:
Later speaking to reporters, Werfel elaborated: "The struggle of 5,000 people on Musa Dagh had so fascinated me that I wished to aid the Armenian people by writing about it and bringing it to the world."
Book One: Coming Events
The novel opens in late 1914 with Gabriel Bagradian, a wealthy Armenian who has recently returned to his native village in Musa Dagh after residing for 23 years in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, standing on a cliff and pondering the question of "where he came from." Though proud of his identity, Bagradian, as well as his French wife Juliette and their son Stephan, has difficulty in adjusting to life back home. As a former Ottoman Army artillery lieutenant and a distinguished veteran of the 1912 Balkan War
First Balkan War
The First Balkan War, which lasted from October 1912 to May 1913, pitted the Balkan League against the Ottoman Empire. The combined armies of the Balkan states overcame the numerically inferior and strategically disadvantaged Ottoman armies and achieved rapid success...
, the future of the Ottoman Empire following its entry intro World War I also weighs heavily on him. Other major characters which are introduced in the first part of the book are the local Armenian notables such as the mayor, the community's head priest, Ter-Haigasun and local physician, Bedros Altouni.
While Bagradian re-enlists for service as a reserve officer in the artillery, he is not called up and he grows suspicious of the government's motives as the war drags on. The first signs of trouble come when the town officials report that they are being denied the use of their passports. Further indications arrive in the form of the chatter that Gabriel overhears amongt Turkish
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
military officers who discuss what the central government is planning. Skeptical, Gabriel and the town's leaders ignore these warnings and attribute it to the necessity of the country's national security and mere gossip. This changes in late April when the remnants of a refugee column arrive in the town, bringing tales of a brutal death march from the town of Zeitoun. It is here where readers are introduced to three important characters of the book, Protestant pastor Aram Tomasian, his pregnant wife Hovsannah and his sister Iskuhi. Detailing the accounts of mass murder, starvation and rape, they confirm the rumors that there is an order by the government to rid the country of its Armenian population.
Bagradian continues to express his skepticism and puts his faith in the Turkish government. Nonetheless, he asks for a meeting to be convened by the town officials and warns Ter-Haigasun and advises that they move a cache of rifles that had been buried near the church (which were originally awarded by CUP
Committee of Union and Progress
The Committee of Union and Progress began as a secret society established as the "Committee of Ottoman Union" in 1889 by the medical students İbrahim Temo, Abdullah Cevdet, İshak Sükuti and Ali Hüseyinzade...
authorities during the 1908 Young Turk Revolution
Young Turk Revolution
The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 reversed the suspension of the Ottoman parliament by Sultan Abdul Hamid II, marking the onset of the Second Constitutional Era...
). The true motives of the government become clear when an order is given by a group of military irregulars that the 6,000 Armenians
Armenians
Armenian people or Armenians are a nation and ethnic group native to the Armenian Highland.The largest concentration is in Armenia having a nearly-homogeneous population with 97.9% or 3,145,354 being ethnic Armenian....
living in Musa Dagh are to be deported by them south towards Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....
, purportedly for the empire's security.
Book Two: The Struggle of the Weak
Book two covers the first 30 days of their exile on the mountain.Book Three: Disaster, Rescue, The End
After spending forty days on Musa Dagh, the Armenians are taken aboard three FrenchFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
warships and a British
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
troop carrier that had seen the distress signals hung by the cliff. Jubilant that their prayers had been answered, the Armenians earnestly greet the landing party. The side of Musa Ler close to the sea is very steep and adding to the Armenians' difficulties, the ships cannot approach the land and thus it is necessary to construct boats to reach them. The process of getting on the ships is difficult and painful.
Gabriel, in an attempt to make sure everyone is on board the ships, gets left behind; he does not bother to signal for help but instead continues back up the mountain and when he reaches his son's grave, is shot by Turkish troops. The ships take the Armenians, exhausted and on the brink of starvation, to safety to a camp in Port Said
Port Said
Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
in Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
Reception and influence
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was met with critical praise when it was first published in 1933 and was eventually translated into 34 languages. When it was published in the United States in 1934, it sold 34,000 copies in the first two weeks. The New York Times Book Review described it as "A story which must rouse the emotions of all human beings....Werfel has made it a noble novel. Unlike most other important novels, Musa Dagh is richest in story, a story of men accepting the fate of heroes.... It gives us the lasting sense of participation in a stirring episode of history. Magnificent." Time called it a "stirring tale" and selected it as its December 1934 choice for its Book-of-the-Month Club.Importance to Armenians
Werfel's novel has made him famous among Armenians according to his biographer, Peter Stephan Jungk. Citing Father Bezdikian, an Armenian priest living in Venice, Italy whose grandfather served and fought during the siege: "Franz Werfel is the national hero of the Armenian people. His great book is a kind of consolation to us – no, not a consolation, there is no such thing – but it is of eminent importance to us that this book exists. It guarantees that it can never be forgotten, never, what happened to our people."After the first publication of Edgar Hilsenrath's
Edgar Hilsenrath
Edgar Hilsenrath is a German-Jewish writer living in Berlin. His main works are Night, The Nazi and the Barber, and The Story of the Last Thought.-Biography:...
novel The Story of the Last Thought
The Story of the Last Thought
The novel The Story of the Last Thought of the German-Jewish writer Edgar Hilsenrath is about the Armenian Genocide in 1915. The epic which has the form of a fairy tale and for which Hilsenrath received many prizes is regarded as the most important book about this historical episode...
in 1989 in Germany the critic Alexander von Bormann wrote in the Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung with regard to The Forty Days of Musa Dagh that was until then considered to be the most important book on the Armenian people in world literature: “But I think Hilsenrath's novel is significantly superior to Werfel's: it is a historic and poetic novel at the same time.”
German censorship
Werfel also wrote prophetically about the consequences of NaziNazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
; The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was labeled "undesirable" by the Nazi government and although not banned, the book was sold and purchased secretly. Werfel was expelled from the Prussian Academy of the Arts in 1933. Das Schwarze Korps
Das Schwarze Korps
Das Schwarze Korps was the official newspaper of the Schutzstaffel . This newspaper was published on Wednesdays and distributed free of charge. Each SS member was supposed to read the publication and urge others to do so as well...
, the official newspaper of the Schutzstaffel
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
, painted Werfel as an agent who created the "alleged Turkish horrors perpetrated against the Armenians" and also denounced "America's Armenian Jews for promoting in the U.S.A. the sale of Werfel's book."
Resonance among Jews
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh also found a particularly warm reception among Jews in the 1930s. Many of them believed that the novel, though speaking about the Armenians, contained allusions to Judaism and Israel, which in turn dovetailed with Werfel's beliefs. Werfel's famous line in the novel which reads "To be an Armenian is an impossibility" meant much Jews living in Europe and Palestine.The novel's importance grew during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Musa Dagh has often been compared to resistance in Jewish ghettos. The ghetto of Białystok found itself in a similar situation as Musa Dagh when in February 1943, Mordecai Tannenbaum, an inmate of the Vilna ghetto
Vilna Ghetto
The Vilna Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the occupied Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , during the Holocaust in World War II...
was sent with others to organize resistance there. The record of one of the meetings organizing the revolt suggests that the novel was often used in the ghettos as a reference to successful resistance: “Only one thing remains for us: to organize collective resistance in the ghetto, at any cost; to consider the ghetto our 'Musa Dagh', to write a proud chapter of Jewish Bialystok and our movement into history,” noted Tannenbaum. Copies of the book were said to have been "passed from hand to hand" among the ghetto's defenders who likened their situation to that of the Armenians'. According to extensive statistical records kept by Herman Kruk at the Vilna ghetto library, this book was the most popular among ghetto readership, as is recounted in memoirs by survivors who worked at the library.
In addition to Bialystok in 1942, many Jews in the Palestinian Mandate contemplated retreating to Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel
Mount Carmel ; , Kármēlos; , Kurmul or جبل مار إلياس Jabal Mar Elyas 'Mount Saint Elias') is a coastal mountain range in northern Israel stretching from the Mediterranean Sea towards the southeast. Archaeologists have discovered ancient wine and oil presses at various locations on Mt. Carmel...
and organizing a defense line due to prospects of a possible Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
invasion of the region. Known alternatively as the "Northern Program", "The Carmel Plan", "The Massada Plan" or the "Musa Dagh Plan", it was envisioned as a bastion against Nazi incursions and to hold out against them for at least three to four months. Meri Batz, one of the leaders of the Jewish militias who had also read the novel, stated that the community wished to "turn Carmel into the Musa Dagh of Palestinian Jewry....We put our faith in the power of the Jewish 'Musa Dagh' and were determined to hold out for at least three to four months."
Historical notes
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
spent forty days and nights on Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai
Mount Sinai , also known as Mount Horeb, Mount Musa, Gabal Musa , Jabal Musa meaning "Moses' Mountain", is a mountain near Saint Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. A mountain called Mount Sinai is mentioned many times in the Book of Exodus in the Torah and the Bible as well as the Quran...
; Israel
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...
's time in the wilderness was forty years." The French warship, the Guichen, accompanying three other warships including the French flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
Jeanne D'Arc and a British troop transport, ferried out the remaining 4,000 people left on the Damlayik, transporting them to Port Said
Port Said
Port Said is a city that lies in north east Egypt extending about 30 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, north of the Suez Canal, with an approximate population of 603,787...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
Werfel's Bagradian was inspired by the town's defense leader, Moses Derkalousdian. Instead of suffering the fate as Bagradian, he moved to Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
, Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
several years after the war ended and lived there for the next 70 years, serving in Lebanon's government for several decades as a quiet and shy member of Parliament
Parliament of Lebanon
The Parliament of Lebanon is the national parliament of Lebanon. There are 128 members elected to a four-year terms in multi-member constituencies, apportioned among Lebanon's diverse Christian and Muslim denominations. Lebanon has universal adult suffrage...
. Derkalousdian died at the age of 99 in 1986.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
Turkish censorship
The popularity of the novel led Metro-Goldwyn-MayerMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
(MGM) Studios to purchase its filming rights. Actor Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
was slated to play the role of Gabriel Bagradian but production had hardly even begun when in 1934 the Republic of Turkey's ambassador to the United States, Mehmed Münir Ertegün
Münir Ertegün
Mehmet Münir Ertegün was a Turkish legal counsel in international law to the "Sublime Porte" of the late Ottoman Empire and a diplomat of the Turkish Republic during its early years...
, was ordered by his government to stop it from ever being made. As the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey was intent on suppressing any mention of the Armenian Genocide, whether it was within its own borders or not. Ertegün turned to the United States State Department and told them that he "earnestly hoped that [the movie studio] would desist from presenting any such picture, which would give a distorted version of the alleged massacres." The State Department tried to assure Ertegün that the film would not include any material that would offend Turkey but Ertegün remained adamant. The State Department attempted to mollify the Turkish government by presenting it with the finalized script, although this did not satisfy it either. The film's scriptwriters offered several water-downed versions but Turkey still refused to budge.
MGM's production chief was astonished by this level of interference by a foreign power declaring, "To hell with the Turks, I'm going to make the picture anyway." The fact that MGM was moving forward with the production further enraged Turkey. Speaking to an MGM official, Ertegün threatened that "If the movie is made, Turkey will launch a worldwide campaign against it. It rekindles the Armenian Question
Armenian Question
The term "Armenian Question" as used in European history, became common place among diplomatic circles and in the popular press after the Congress of Berlin; that in like Eastern Question, refers to powers of Europe's involvement to the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire beginning with the...
. The Armenian Question is settled." Ertegün's threats were soon being echoed across the Turkish press. In a September 3, 1935, editorial colored with anti-Semitic overtones, the Istanbul
Istanbul
Istanbul , historically known as Byzantium and Constantinople , is the largest city of Turkey. Istanbul metropolitan province had 13.26 million people living in it as of December, 2010, which is 18% of Turkey's population and the 3rd largest metropolitan area in Europe after London and...
Turkish-language daily Haber opined:
In the face of this pressure, Louis B. Mayer
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer born Lazar Meir was an American film producer. He is generally cited as the creator of the "star system" within Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in its golden years. Known always as Louis B...
of MGM, conceded to Turkish demands and the film was scrapped. Michael Bobelian, a lawyer and a journalist, states that the "Musa Dagh incident is critical in understanding the evolution of Turkey's campaign of denying the crimes committed by the Young Turks....The standoff with MGM revealed that Turkey would pressure foreign governments to go along with its policy of denial." Another movie version was mentioned in the 1967 sales film Lionpower from MGM as being slated for production in 1968-69 but nothing came of this version either.
After several, The Forty Days of Musa Dagh was finally turned into a movie in 1982, directed by Sarky Mouradian with screenplay by Alex Hakobian, but it was a low-profile production. In 2006, Sylvester Stallone
Sylvester Stallone
Michael Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone , commonly known as Sylvester Stallone, and nicknamed Sly Stallone, is an American actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, film director and occasional painter. Stallone is known for his machismo and Hollywood action roles. Two of the notable characters he has portrayed...
expressed his desire to direct a film about Musa Dagh. According to Professor Savaş Eğilmez of Atatürk University but a massive Turkish e-mail campaign in 2007 pressured him into not proceeding with the film. In early 2009, reports surfaced that actor Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson
Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...
was also considering in directing a documentary and appearing in the adaptation of Werfel's novel but was dissuaded after receiving 3,000 e-mails sent by a Turkish pressure group.
In an ironic twist of fate, the surviving Armenian community of Istanbul was even forced in the 1930s by the Turkish government to denounce Werfel's book and its content and burn it in public rituals, similar to contemporary Nazi book burning
Nazi book burnings
The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn all books in Germany which did not correspond with Nazi ideology.-The book-burning campaign:...
ceremonies and elsewhere. The Armenians would typically gather around in the courtyard of Istanbul's Pangalti Armenian Church and light copies of the book aflame.
See also
- Vakıflı
- Armenian GenocideArmenian GenocideThe Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
- Anti-ArmenianismAnti-ArmenianismArmenophobia is the fear, dislike of, hatred or aversion to the Armenians, Republic of Armenia and the Armenian culture, which can range in expression from individual hatred to institutionalized persecution...
- Denial of the Armenian Genocide
Further reading
- Minasian, Edward. "The Forty Years of Musa Dagh: the Film that was Denied." Journal of Armenian Studies. vol. 2, № 2, 1985-1986.
- _______________. Musa Dagh. Nashville, Tenn.: Cold Tree Press, 2007.
- Steiman, Lionel Bradley. Franz Werfel, the Faith of an Exile: From Prague to Beverly Hills. Waterloo, Ont.: W. Laurier University Press, 1985.
- Wagener, Hans. Understanding Franz Werfel. Columbia, S.C.: University of South Carolina Press, 1993.