The Armenian genocide

Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet army on January 27, 1945. The UN mandated this date to be an International Holocaust Memorial Day. The Armenian Massacre started on April 24, 1915, one handred years ago this year. Over a million Armenians were killed, but this mass murder is not remembered as well as the Holocaust. Turkey, a long standing ally of the Western powers wants this shameful incident in its past buried, and the world succumbed to Turkish pressure. A bill, passed in 20017 by the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs condemning the Ottoman Empire for genocide was 'eroded' after the White House warned that the passing of this bill would restrict cooperation between the US and Turkey. Imagine if the condemnation, or even the mention of the Holocaust would be forbidden, the memory of the Holocaust would be erased, because some powerful allies of the Western world refused to confront their past crimes. Franz Werfel, the Austrian Jewish writers, understood the significance of the Armenian massacre as a precedent for Hitler's attack on Poland, and ultimately his program for the annihilation of the Jewish people. Considering his plans for a ruthless war against Poland, Hitler issued orders to his 'death head formations' to send to death mercilessly and without compassion, men women and children of Polish derivation and language. He implied that he would be remembered as Genghis Khan was remembered, not as someone who led millions of women and children to slaughter, but as the founder of a powerful state.¹ As to mass murder, he said 'Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians'. Franz Werfel, ahead of his time, understood this and published a powerful novel in 1933, Forty Days of Musa Dagh, based on a real incident that took place in 1915. The book became a best seller, was widely read and reminded Europe of an event that the new Turkish regime would have rather swept well under the carpet. The book played a role in organizing the Jewish resistance under Nazi rule. It was passed from hand to hand in Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe, and it became an example and a symbol for the Jewish underground throughout Europe.² Perhaps by remembering Musa Dagh we can do our bit to perpetuate the memory of the Holocaust and deny Holocaust deniers their platform for falsifying history.

1 http://www.armenian-genocide.org/hitler.html

2J ewish response to The Forty Days of Musa Dagh http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_response_to_The_Forty_Days_of_Musa_Dagh