Book One introduces a German Protestant missionary Johannes Lepsius, a real person, and Enver Pasha, the Ottoman War Minister, who with Talaat Pasha and Djemal Pasha (the Three Pashas), the triumvirate that ruled the Ottoman Empire. The chapter, titled ″Interlude of the Gods,″ reveals the Turkish point of view vis-à-vis the Armenians and the West. Werfel intended his depiction, almost entirely drawn verbatim from Lepsius's published account, to be sympathetic and damning, especially when Enver consults with Talaat on the progress of the deportations.