My father was born in Khederbek, Turkey in 1939.
Khederbek (aka Kheder Bey) is one of six Armenian Villages in Musa Dagh (a mountain in Turkey).
In 1915 it was the location of a successful Armenian resistance to the Armenian #Genocide, an event that inspired Franz Werfel to write the novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh and the 2016 movie, The Promise, starring Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac.
As Ottoman Turkish forces converged upon the town, the village refused deportation and fell back upon Musa mountain, thwarting assaults for fifty-three days.
Allied warships sighted the survivors and evacuated 4,200 men, women, and children from Musa Dagh to safety in Port Said, Egypt.
My grandfather was among the survivors taken to Port Said.
As the French squads came to the rescue of the survivors, the chief priest is quoted as having said, “The evil only happened … to enable God to show us His goodness.”