About 40 years ago, historian Edward Minasyan wrote a book “40 Years of Musa Dagh,” in which he traced the fate of the legendary novel by Franz Werfel. More on this in the article below.
This is not a typo. Everyone is widely familiar with Franz Werfel’s famous novel “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” but few have heard of the little book “40 Years of Musa Dagh,” even among Armenians. Its author is the American-Armenian historian Edward Minasyan. It was published in 1986 and written not in a fictional genre, but as a documentary investigation. It describes the events that occurred after the publication of Werfel’s novel. And they are no less dramatic than what happened to his characters in 1915. Only in this case, the heroes are different, as is the battlefield.
The Austrian writer of Jewish origin, Franz Werfel, published his novel “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” in 1933 in the USA. It depicts the heroic defense of the Armenians on Mount Musa Dagh during the 1915 genocide. In America, the book became a bestseller in just a few weeks.
Producers of the film company “Metro Goldwyn Mayer” (MGM) decided to make a film adaptation of Werfel’s novel. Irving Thalberg — the famous producer, nicknamed the “wonder child of Hollywood,” declared that it would be the best film in Hollywood’s history.
Thalberg had a rare ability to recognize successful scripts that would become box office leaders, and he could infallibly recognize and identify the star potential of actors. After his death, the most talented producers receive the Irving Thalberg award at the Oscars ceremony, i.e., it’s an “Oscar” for producers. For the leading role of Gabriel Bagradian (Arm. Գաբրիել Բագրատյան), the most famous actor, the “King of Hollywood,” and the number one star, Clark Gable, who is known today primarily for his role in “Gone with the Wind,” was chosen. The already famous director Ruben Mamoulian was invited as a director. In general, the usual process of preparing for the launch of a film production was underway.
However, political forces soon began to interfere. The Turkish Ambassador Mehmet Munir Ertegun, and then a number of European ministers, began to threaten the film company and even the US State Department with a boycott of all American films. Naturally, the producers were quite surprised by such a brusque and unprecedented interference in their work. Such a thing had never happened before, and such cases are hardly remembered in the history of cinema. The opinion of the filmmakers was divided. Thalberg was outraged and insisted on continuing the work, but the pressure began to intensify. In 1936, Thalberg suddenly and unexpectedly died at the peak of his powers at the age of 37. The MGM leaders decided to completely abandon the idea of adapting the novel.
Jewish Musa Dagh
So, what incredible and surprising things for the world audience did Thalberg and other MGM producers see in the novel?
Franz Werfel diligently studied and skillfully outlined the course of the heroic struggle of the peaceful Armenian population against the Turkish army from July to September 1915. The most amazing thing in his book is how peasants, most of whom are unarmed, fight against a regular army armed with machine guns and cannons. And in the end, surprisingly, they win. But MGM producers wanted to adapt this book not just for that reason. They, like the founders of the film company, were of Jewish origin and, as if by their creative intuition, or perhaps by the will of Providence, felt what would befall their people just a few years later.
In Germany, the boycott of Jews began on April 1, 1933. If they could have told the world the tragic and heroic story of the defenders of Musa Dagh (Arm. Մուսալեռ), this could lead to a new condemnation of the perpetrators and their supporters, if not punishment. Then, even Nazi criminals might have thought about the impending retribution. But the lobbying by the Turkish ambassador to the US and, according to historian Aike Demoyan, the German consul who supported the ambassador, maximally opposed it. And after Thalberg’s death, or perhaps because he left life so early, they achieved the cancellation of the whole project. Therefore, Hitler could prepare his plans and soon begin to exterminate entire nations. To ensure his followers were not afraid of retribution, the Führer cited a historical example.
On August 22, 1939, in Obersalzberg (Germany), when there were only a few days left before the invasion of Poland and the start of World War II, during a meeting, he told his generals: “Who, after all that has happened, speaks of the extermination of the Armenians?”
And yet, Werfel’s novel was able to help the Jews. Here is what Yair Auron, an Israeli historian specializing in the history of the Holocaust and racism, a professor and head of the Open University of Israel, tells:
“There is an amazing example. At the end of 1942, there was a danger of Germany invading Palestine from North Africa. If it were not for the war in Egypt, which ended with the success of the Allies, the Nazi army would have easily entered Palestine, and they might have done the same as in Europe. But then among the Jews, there were new figures who were warriors and prepared to resist. And they conceived to gather their limited forces in Palestine on Mount Carmel near Haifa (height 500 meters). And there they wanted to fight the German army. And they named the Carmel plateau after the mountain from the novel “The plateau of Musa Dagh”. And then the commander of the Jewish underground army took one of his officers, and they ascended Mount Carmel at night, and the commander asked this officer:
Did you read “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh”?
He answered: Of course!
And then he told him: “Here we will arrange our Musa Dagh”. This is amazing! It’s a real story and real names. And I was even more impressed by the effect the book had on the Jewish underground. They were young men – 15, 16, 17, 18 years old. The commander was 21 or 22 years old. Young people. And they fought Nazi Germany in their ghettos. Sometimes even contrary to the opinion of the majority of Jews in the ghetto, who failed to resist the Germans.”
Screen adaptation
In 1969, American entrepreneur and billionaire of Armenian origin, Kirk Kerkorian, became the owner of MGM. But when he decided to resume the work stopped in the 1930s to shoot “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,” he was told from the State Department that this could spoil relations with Turkey, which at that time was already a NATO ally of the US. However, the rights to the film adaptation of the novel had already been purchased. A film based on Werfel’s book was eventually made in the early 80s, not by MGM, but by a small and unknown company and on a much smaller scale. In 1982, director Sarkis Muradyan made a film based on a script by Alex Akopyan. This film passed almost unnoticed, it was not advertised either in the US or in other countries, and never got released. It was mainly watched among Armenians. And it was shown on Armenian television after the start of the Karabakh movement. However, Kirk Kerkorian still found a way to fulfill his long-standing intention.
In 2017, after his death, the American film “The Promise” directed by Terry George and produced by Eric Esrailian, was released worldwide. The script was written by American screenwriter Robin Swicord and is based on the events of the Armenian Genocide, with well-known actors Oscar Isaac, Christian Bale, and Charlotte Le Bon in the leading roles.
The film was entirely funded by Kirk Kerkorian, according to his will, and it was not low-budget but rather large-scale. $90 million was spent on its production. In the finale, the main characters, escaping from the Turks, reach the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, join the defending defenders of Musa Dagh, and are saved with them by swimming to the French cruiser “Guisan.” The role of the savior of Musaler, French Admiral Louis Dartige du Fournet, was played by famous French actor Jean Reno. The story of this brave and noble man deserves a separate narrative. But more on that later.
Armen Petrosyan
Translation by Vigen Avetisyan
