'The Forty Days of Musa Dagh’ remembered in Vienna

“The Forty Days of Musa Dagh”, Franz Werfel’s historical novel covering the World War I era and the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, has been commemorated in Vienna.

The city’s Public Radio has hosted a festive event dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the novel’s first edition. The ceremony, entitled “Forty Days – 100 Years: Franz Werfel’s Literature as a Mirror”, was organized by the Armenian Embassy to Austria and the Yerevan-based Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

Opening speeches were delivered by Archimandrite Tiran Petrosyan, a patriarchal delegate of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Priest Poghos Kojayan, the head of the Vienna-based Mechitarist Congregation, and Hamo Petrosyan, a board member of the Wuppertal-based Armin Teo Wegner companies. The Genocide Museum-Institute’s director, Dr Hayk Demoyan, later delivered a report to introduce new video materials featuring the Musa Dagh battle.

The second part of the event was a round table discussion devoted to the novel.

The Austrian National Library had provided an original copy of the novel, which was introduced to the participants.

Austrian writer and translator Herbert Maurer later read out different episodes from the novel.

At the end of the meeting, Armenian Ambassador to Austria Arman Kirakosyan memory medals of the Genocide Museum-Institute to several Austrian, German, Austrian-Armenian and German Armenian intellectuals.

The event had also brought together different Austrian government officials.