Understanding Genocide: Insights Gained Through Armenian Survivor Interviews

Understanding Genocide: Insights Gained through Armenian Survivor Interviews and Franz Werfel’s “The Forty Days of Musa Dagh” Kate Dwyer University of Minnesota Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program Senior Faculty Mentor: Joachim Savelsberg Introduction In 1933 Franz Werfel published what remains today the most famous literary depiction of the Armenian genocide – The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. The inspiration for the novel came to Werfel while he was touring Damascus fourteen years after genocide had wiped out over half the Armenian population in the region. It was the very sight of famished Armenian children working in a carpet factory that gave Werfel “the final impulse to snatch from the Hades of all that was, this incomprehensible destiny of the Armenian nation” (Werfel 1933). Thus, the very intent of the novel was not to tell a story, but to reveal the inconceivable truth of Armenian suffering. Werfel’s novel was quickly banned from Nazi Germany in 1934 at the request of the Turkish government. Yet, authoritarian leaders were not able to contain the influence of Werfel’s work. Along with other literary works, copies of The Forty Days of Musa Dagh circulated in Nazi ghettos, enhancing the spirit of fighters in the Warsaw ghetto rebellion (Toker 2019). It was read by the notation that like the Armenians on Musa Dagh, these fighters too refused to be massacred like ‘sheep’ (Gregorian 2019). There is no doubt as to why Werfel’s novel was banned; within it lie authentic truths about the Armenian genocide – truths which threatened to delegitimize the state which rose from Armenian ashes in 1923. When asked whether his story was the truth, Werfel responded, “More than the truth; because an epic represents the truth colored by imagination. An epic written by a true poet contains more reality than a history written by a historian” (NAASR, n.d.). Werfel’s belief that artistic literature can provide a greater understanding of reality than history itself is not misplaced. Literature has always been used as a means to communicate the experience of mankind in ways that may not be obvious in reality. Indeed, much of the content Werfel used for the novel is based on fact. Werfel carefully studied primary sources documenting the genocide and was a friend of the French attaché, Count Chauzel, who made available to him many documents from of the archives of the Ministry of War in Paris (Hamalain 1986). Werfel also used the accounts of German missionary Johannes Lepsius as material for two chapters (Hamalain 1986). In referring to The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, author Christoph Buch declared, “One must read Werfel’s novel in order to regain a concept of what genocide is” (Peroomian, 2003, 284). 1 Different narratives of history enhance our knowledge in distinct and sometimes opposing ways; narratives told by survivors and witnesses may be more authentic, personal, and local, whereas the narratives told by historians encompass a broader context, giving readers a more factual understanding compared to an emotional one. The narratives told by perpetrators, in attempt to avoid embarrassment and shame, may contradict those told by survivors and witnesses (Savelsberg 2020, 2021). Literary narratives have the unique ability to blend various historical and personal accounts in order to portray the extremely personal experiences and emotional responses of individuals while at the same time shedding light on broader social and political phenomena (Coser 1963; Edling and Rydren eds. 2011). This research seeks to identify how Werfel’s literary account of the Armenian genocide enhances our understanding of mass violence. It investigates the contributions Werfel provides to the understanding of the genocide gained by 60 self-reported accounts from genocide survivors and witnesses, thereby exploring how narratives and portrayals of mass violence are altered through artistic expression. Through a comparative analysis, the limitations of each account are analyzed, as well as the ways in which both accounts complement each other to achieve a greater understanding of the experiences of perpetrators and victims during the Armenian genocide. The Forty Days of Musa Dagh depicts the 53-day struggle for survival of over 5,000 Armenians who took refuge on Musa Dagh in 1915. The main character in the novel, Gabriel Bagradian, is portrayed as both a modern-day Moses who leads his fellow countrymen to safety as well as a modern-day Christ who is prepared to sacrifice his life for his people (Hamalaim 1986). Although an Armenian himself, Gabriel had lived in “complete assimilation” in Paris for twenty-three years with his French wife, Juliette, and his son, Stephan. Werfel writes that when Gabriel returned to the Ottoman Empire on the eve of catastrophe, “he was more French than ever. Armenian still, but only in a sense – academically” (6). Similar to the character of Moses, Gabriel was an outsider who assumed the destiny of protecting his people from atrocious suffering. Interestingly, the name Musa Dagh means Mount Moses. By changing the length of siege from 53 days to 40, Werfel dedicates his story to the perseverance of the Armenian people and alerts Jews of what was coming. The number 40 has great significance in both Jewish and 2 Armenian history: Moses fasted for forty days before climbing Sinai and receiving the ten commandments, the people of Israel wandered the desert for forty years after being liberated from Egypt, and Christ spent forty days in the wilderness before returning to his people (Hamalaim 1986). Literature Review There is a well-established tradition in society to learn from literature because it can capture certain social phenomena that cannot be easily depicted by historical accounts. Literature has a unique ability to trigger our imagination in ways that can help us understand historical events and identify ourselves with the people who lived through them; it allows us to comprehend the emotional responses of individuals. Additionally, literature can illuminate social processes and pose questions about our perceived reality. Human knowledge is socially constructed and continuously changes. Consequently, history is told differently by survivors, witnesses, historians, perpetrators, and novelists. These different accounts all enhance our knowledge of social phenomena and have significant influence over the way in which we remember and understand that phenomena. One work closely related to this research is Christofer Edling and Jens Rydgren’s Sociological Insights of Great Thinkers: Sociology through Literature, Philosophy, and Science. Edling and Rydgren’s work consists of 32 essays, which are closely modeled to this paper, examining the insights of prominent scholars and writers. In one of these essays analyzing the writing of Franz Kafka, Joachim Savelsberg revels how literature can use narrative, storytelling, and metaphor to depict realities and grave social problems and struggles. Savelsberg demonstrates that through magical realism, literature can provide “insights that reach far below the surface of appearance, revealing latent functions, hidden motives, secret structures, and the back stages of social life” (Savelsberg, 2011, 49). Similarly, in an essay on Robert Musil, Helmut Kuzmics reveals how literature enhances our understanding of modernity and the nation- state by giving sociological explanations explaining why multiethnic dynastic empires give way to nation- states, what the process of transformation is, and what emotions are linked to each stage of this process. In his essay, Kuzmics further reveals how literature can make social phenomena more visible through 3 behavioral depictions of individuals and groups. Although these works do not themselves provide insight into the understanding of mass violence, they reveal the mechanisms through which literature can enhance our understanding of social events. These mechanisms are important to consider in the analysis of the literary work The Forty Days of Musa Dagh because Franz Werfel utilizes many of the same techniques in depicting the Armenian genocide. Among scholars, there has been a particular engagement with the sociological insights of literature depicting the Armenian genocide. Rubina Peroomian’s work The Truth of the Armenian Genocide in Edgar Hilsenrath’s Fiction provides particular insight into the benefits of using literature to better understand mass violence. In her work, Peroomian (2003) explains how literature can create realistic portrayals of mass violence that not only appear more convincing than historiography but allow readers to dig out the roots of the atrocious act, the composition of the victimizer’s psyche, and the behavior of their victims. Additionally, Peroomian posits that artistic literature can bring inconceivable atrocities into the realms of human consciousness and understanding, making them more graspable for readers. Peroomian suggests that through the stories and characters that literature creates, the truth of mass violence may appear more visible than it does in reality. This is indeed the case in Franz Werfel’s depiction of the Armenian genocide. Through literature, Werfel is able to reveal certain truths about the origins of the Armenian genocide, the perpetrators who were responsible for it, and the effect of unimaginable suffering on its victims. Several scholars have examined the sociological insights of literature by engaging directly with The Forty Days of Musa Dagh. In his research, Ehrhard Bahr (2007) finds that through interactions

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