ceremonies in Germany and elsewhere. Armenians would normally gather around in the courtyard of Istanbul's Pangalti Armenian Church and set fire to copies of the book. The Jewish community of Istanbul similarly denounced Werfel in 1934. According to Ascherson, the Armenian and Jewish communities in Istanbul were coerced into criticizing the novel. Jews the world over welcomed The Forty Days of Musa Dagh and readily saw the parallels Werfel (himself Jewish) had drawn between them and the Armenians, especially the resentment and persecution both societies endured in the nineteenth century, when each benefited and suffered from governmental liberalization policies and the economic success that such policies engendered along with the Industrial Revolution. The old Armenian saying in the novel—"To be an Armenian is an impossibility"—resonated with Jews living in Europe and Palestine. The novel's importance grew during World War II. Musa Dagh has often been compared to resistance in Jewish ghettos. Marcel Reich-Ranicki wrote that it was the most-read book in the Warsaw ghetto. The Białystok Ghetto population found itself in a similar situation as Musa Dagh, in February 1943, when Mordecai Tannenbaum, an inmate of the Vilna ghetto, was sent with others to organize resistance there. The record of one of the meetings organizing the revolt, suggests that the novel was used as a guide for resistance: "Only one thing remains for us: to organize collective resistance in the ghetto, at any cost; to consider the ghetto our 'Musa Dagh', to write a proud chapter of Jewish Białystok and our movement into history" noted Tannenbaum. Copies of the novel were said to have been "passed from hand to hand" among the ghetto defenders who likened their situation to that of the Armenians. According to extensive statistical records kept by Herman Kruk at the Vilna ghetto library, the book was the most popular among ghetto readership, as is recounted in memoirs by survivors who worked at the library. Many Jews in the Palestinian Mandate contemplated retreating to Mount Carmel and organizing a defense line, due to prospects of a Nazi invasion of the region. Known alternatively as the "Northern Program", "The Carmel Plan", "The Massada Plan", and the "Musa Dagh Plan", it was envisioned as a bastion against Nazi incursions, to hold out for at least three to four months. Meri Batz, one of the leaders of the Jewish militias who had also read the novel, stated that the community