The Exodus of Musa Dagh Armenians from the Sanjak of Alexandretta to Anjar, Lebanon in 1939 The Armenians of Musa Dagh constituted one of the most important Armenian communities in the Sanjak of Alexandretta/Iskenderun, an autonomous province (or county) in northwestern Syria. With the tacit approval of the French mandatory government in Syria and Lebanon, and after a questionable legislative election, Turkey annexed the Sanjak on the eve of World War II. The indigenous populations were given the choice of staying or leaving. The overwhelming majority of Armenians elected to relocate to other parts in Syira and Lebanon given the lingering trauma caused by the World War I genocide. The Musa Dagh Armenians, like most of their compatriots in the region, accordingly exited the Sanjak in the summer of 1939, spent seven weeks at Ras al-Basit in the open, and were transported by the French to Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. The emerging settlement of Anjar continues to exist as the sole Armenian rural town in Lebanon. This paper explores the three main phases of that exodus. The first phase deals with the general situation in the six main villages of Musa Dagh during the last months before departure. The psychological torment of leaving ancestral lands, loss of property, fear of living under Turkish rule once again, and uncertainty about the future punctuated the scene. In the end, the bulk of Musa Daghians decided not to stay. The second phase describes the exodus. The women, children, and the elderly traveled by vehicles and the able-bodied me on foot, the movable belongings were shipped via the sea, and the animals were led by shepherds. They all gathered at Ras al-Basit on the Meditarranean, between Latakia and Kesab, where they spent their days and nights in sheds made of branches. Unsanitary living conditions and inclement weather brought about a host of illnesses that claimed many lives. In the meantime the French searched for a suitable location in Lebanon to settle these refugees. The choice was Anjar, a rocky and marshy terrain near the Syrian border. The third phase discusses the refugees’ move to Anjar in the first week of September, 1939, the hardships they encountered, and the humanitarian assistance they received from governmental and non-governmental agencies. Although acclimatization to the new milieu proceeded slowly over a number of years, today Anjar is a viable rural settlement with all the comforts of modern living.