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1915: Life in an Armenian village on the slopes of Musa Dagh
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
What you need to know before your trail
‘Musa Dagh stood beyond the world. No storm would reach it, even if one should break’
It is 1915 and Gabriel has returned to his childhood home, an Armenian village on the slopes of Musa Dagh. But things are becoming increasingly dangerous for his people in Turkey, and, as the government orders round-ups and deportations, the villagers of Musa Dagh decide to fight back. The seminal novel of the Armenian genocide, Franz Werfel’s bestselling 1933 epic brought the catastrophe to the world’s attention for the first time, and has become a talismanic story of resistance in the face of hatred.
Travel Guide
Travel to Armenia and Turkey and Musa Dagh
For many people it is depressing even to move house. A lost fragment of life always remains. To move to another town, settle in a foreign country, is for everyone a major decision. But, to be suddenly driven forth, within twenty-four hours, from one’s home, one’s work, the reward of years of steady industry. To become a helpless prey of help. To be sent defenceless out to Asiatic highroads, with several thousand miles of dust, stones, and morass before one. To know that one will never again find a decently human habitation, never again sit down to a proper table. Yet this is all nothing. To be more shackled than any convict. To be counted as outside the law, a vagabond, whom anyone has the right to kill unpunished.”
“The old sporadic fanaticism of religious hatred had been skillfully perverted into the cold, steady fanaticism of national hate.”
BookTrail Boarding Pass: The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
Destination/location: Armenia Author/guide: Franz Werfel Departure Time: 1915
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