By Apostol Kotani
After the Nazi invasion of Albania, orders were issued to capture all Jews. Four members of the Arditi family in Shkodra were arrested and then taken to the extermination camps. Jasha Baruchovic was detained but, owing to the help of Ali Sheqer Pashkajt in Lajthize, his life was saved. Similarly, Nisim Bahari was to be executed by shooting if it had not been for the intervention of Ismail Gjata; just as it was that Mark Menahemi was helped by Vasil Noli in Elbasan, or doctor Ludovik Kalmari who was saved by Selim Ram Selimusaj.
In those decisive moments, Albanian hospitality and the Albanian pledge or “Besa” would emerge visibly with all its sublimity. They were sheltered, hidden, given false documents, moved from one safe place to another, from the countryside to towns, or the other way around, and no Jew was ever maltreated. They were taken from Tirana to the villages of Zall-Herr, Shupal, Shengjergj, Picall, Koder-Kamez, as far as Qaf-Muher of Dibra; or from Berat to the villages of Molisht, Tozhar, Vrion, etc; from Vlora to the villages Three-Brethren, from Durresi to Shkozet, and so on. Thus, Albania became such a unique country in Europe for its role in saving Jews. The research has revealed that 122 Albanian families, inside and outside the official borders, sheltered and saved Jews by risking their own lives. Furthermore, they did that without any material interest or moral obligation, driven just by the age old tradition of hospitality, tolerance and humanism.
After they left Albania, some at the end of 1944 and others at the beginning of 1945, almost all the Jews that came during the war years began to send regards and thanks to the Albanian families that had provided them shelter and saved their lives. For instance, Samuel Mandili, in a letter sent and published by the Union Newspaper, on 20 February 1945, wrote: “All Israelis that came to Albania were saved owing to the generous feelings of the Albanian people, who considered it a moral obligation to offer a shelter and to protect in their own homes, as guests, every persecuted emigrantƔhe positive stand of Albanians should be known and notably underlined, because it deserves worldwide recognition and that of each educated personƅven the poor peasants had heard about the arrival of these innocent people, prosecuted by the Nazis, and not only did they open the doors of their homes to the Jews, but split with them their last morsel”.
Whereas the Jewish Committee of ex-Yugoslavia, in the letter sent to the Albanian Government in May 1945, wrote: “The first reaction of the Jews of Yugoslavia, immediately after their departure from Albania, was to express their enthusiasm towards the Albanians who took an admiring stand in the most critical moments of their lives, in the most difficult times of civilized mankindŮAt a time when the Jews of Yugoslavia, Poland, Germany and so on were vanishing in the gas chamber and by other cruel means, with no distinction between men, women and children, in the Balkans there existed a nation that stood up against any racist theory, even higher than western civilization; the nation of heroes and hospitalityƏur brothers that returned from Your Motherland told us that the Albanian families had accepted them good-handed in their homes, had protected them from all difficulties and whenever they heard of the plans against them, the sort of plans that caused Albania a great many deep woundsƉn the history of this world war, it will be noticed a small but generous and heroic country, the Albanian nation, who perhaps will be remembered as the only occupied country in Europe that forbade and stopped the persecution and extermination of the Jews”. Nisim Bahar, saved from what would be a certain death, as he was going to be executed, in the early 1950’s wrote to Zhulia Kantozi: “I’m in Oher, I’m on top of a mountain clip looking at the city of Pogradec. I miss that place. I wish I had wings to fly towards and kiss the Albanian land, the one that saved my life”.
The chief executive of the research center of the Holocaust Museum in the USA, Mr. Michel Berembaun, in 1995, in the presence of 100 members of the Jewish and Albanian communities in USA, pointing at the names of the Albanian families inscribed on the Memorial Wall, among other things said: “The Albanian people proved to have an extraordinary courage, by hiding the Jews during the extermination campaign led by the Nazis, each of these brave souls is an example of the human courage and nobleness and most of all an oath (vow) toward the human race”. Whereas the Chief Counsel of the Holocaust Museum, Mr. Miles Lerman, said: ” We are here to thank Albania that gave life to such noble sons and daughters who knew what to do in a time when the Jews were isolated and abandoned, in a time when they felt that even God had forgotten them. Therefore we are very proud of the Albanian nation and very grateful to them”. This is only some of the appreciation given by many other personalities, such as the Director of the Yad Washem Museum, Doctor Mordehaj Paldiel, Jozef Jakoen, Johana Gerechter, Dr. Ana Kohen, Jasha Baruhovic, Mordehaj 術hllomo Llazar, Elio Gani, Moise and Trazina Batino, and so on, the rest of whom are impossible to be all listed here.
The Albanian state prior to the 90’s never perceived the possibility that the Jews left in Albania should leave the country, no matter what the diplomatic relationship with Israel was. Even when asked by the Israeli government in the 50’s about the issue of transfer, the Albanian government replied that it had not taken it into consideration and did not intend to do so, and that the Jews themselves had never made any request. When diplomatic relations were established on 19 August 1991, the way was clear for the approval of the return of their citizenship. The reinstatement of citizenship was made official in April 1991, but it was applied not only to the Jews but also to a number of Albanians that had created marital ties.
Their departure was very emotional. They said goodbye to the Albanians that had accompanied them to the airport with tears in their eyes, just as brothers say goodbye to brothers, or other close family members; scenes similar to those of refugees. The journalist Enri Kamp who witnessed their welcoming to Jerusalem on 11 April 1991 described those emotional moments. He wrote in the New York Times: “Comparing to the Israelis arriving from other parts of Europe, the Albanian Israeli had a greater emotional state, felt not only by the adults, but kids also”. Although many years have gone by, they do not forget each other and continue their correspondence and visits to each other’s homes.
Why Albania?
Jewish-Albanian relations date back to the second century BC. Those early, friendly relationships left a mutual trail in later contacts between these two communities. That fact has been mentioned in the writings of Apollodarius (a great ancient writer of the second century BC), the geographer Scymi, Zaharia Majani, the historian Meillet and Kohen, Joseph Flavius (an historian of first century), etc. There are also a significant number of foreign publications dealing with Jews in the Southeast Europe and in today’s territory of Albania, as well as the conditions of their mutually friendly relations.
The same can be said for the first group of Jews that dropped on the Albanian shores in the year 70 AD. This time it was a convoy of slavery ships owned by emperor Titus that was transporting slaves to Rome taken hostage after the occupation of Palestine. One of the ships was hit hard by the sea and floated away into the Ionian Sea, and then anchored at the port of Saranda.
The Albanians also offered refuge and a warm welcome to groups that arrived here in the 15th century when trying to escape the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Largely, those groups settled in the Albanian towns of Vlora, Berat and Elbasan, with fewer in Prishtina, Prizren Shkup, and Manastir. A small number of Jews were also accommodated in other towns like Durres, Lezhe, Danje and Gjinokaster. Later, during the second half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th other small groups also came to Albania.
The US Ambassador in Albania in 1932, Herman Bernstein, undertook a study on this phenomenon in Vlora and Saranda, which was documented in the “Daily Jewish Bulletin” in 1934. Amongst other things, he wrote: “In Albania, this small, beautiful Adriatic country, there weren’t any kind of problems with the Jews. There are no signs of them being discriminated against, not only because the Jewish community here is small in number, but because Albania is one of the few countries in Europe, where today religious prejudices and racial hatreds do not exist, although Albania itself is divided into three religious beliefs”.
The echo of the good Jewish-Albanian relationship surpassed the Albanian borders.
This is the reason why, when the Nazi persecution of the Jews began in Germany, representatives of the Jewish communities of Vienna and Florence presented the High Commission for the Refugees of the United Nations the proposal to transfer to Albania all the German Jews, and even offered 8 million francs in gold to be invested in the irrigation of the rivers Buna and Drin. The same interest was shown to exist among the Jewish communities of Switzerland, Poland and the Czech republic. The Albanian government received requests to give life to the project.
Many equilateral meetings took place between diplomatic representatives and finally a deal was signed. But the negotiations with the Albanian government in the years of 1934-1935 ended without result, due to the intrusion of the Italian fascist government, which aimed to bring Italian colonists to Albania. Despite that, hundreds of Jews from Germany, Austria, Poland and so on, found a way to Albania, either as a transit country or they came as tourists, while some settled permanently to Albania.
Those arrivals had an audible echo amongst the Italian political circles of that time. The issue was mentioned in many newspapers and Albanian consulates. This compelled Zog’s government to take precautions to stop the large number of Jews entering Albania. The Council of Ministers voted on two important decisions. The first, on 28th January 1939, declared that each Jew who entering Albania must be carrying 250 francs in gold, while the second, on 25th February 1939, declared that all Jews entering Albania must have 500 francs of gold and that his passport contained a signature from the country of issue that he was welcomed in that country. Those decisions were communicated to the Albanian diplomatic representatives in Rome, Paris, Istanbul, Geneva, Brussels, Bucharest, Vienna, Egypt, Manastir, Skopje, Corfu, Washington and so on.
After the Italian fascists took over Albania and King Zog was in exile, the collaborating Albanian government drafted many orders and laws to impede Jews entering Albania from neighboring states, and to evict quickly those who had already entered Albania. After the Nazi Meeting of Vanza on 20 January 1942, cruel times were ahead for Jews, not only for those in Albania but also for those living in the rest of Europe. The conference decided that the Jews were to be apprehended and exterminated; a decision that concerned not only the German Jews but all of them living in the satellite states of the Nazi-fascists. The echo of those horrible decisions reached Albania too. The true threat to the Jews in Southeast Europe followed the Nazi invasion of ex-Yugoslavia. Then, hundreds of Jews from Kosova, ex-Yugoslavia, Austria, Bulgaria, Poland, Macedonia, Greece, etc, poured to Albania.
Immediately after they entered Mitrovica, the Nazis ordered the Italian authorities in Prishtina to gather all the resident Jews and submit them to the authorities. An Italian officer, who was later killed by the Nazis, informed the Albanian authorities about the order: Hysen Prishtina, vice-prefect of the state, Preng Ullini, secretary to the mayor, and Doctor Spiro Lito, the director of the hospital. All these men went immediately to the Italian command center and begged them not to surrender the Jews to the Nazis, but instead to find a way to save them. The voices crying for their protection also came from higher posts, such as from the Albanian Prime-Minister of that time, Mustafa Kruja, who also notified the representative of the Italian King to Albania, Francesco Jacomoni. The latter gave his approval to bypass procedure and to bring the Jews to Albania. Then, the authorities of Prishtina, Prizren and Peja received orders to provide Jews with escort passes so that they could enter Albania.
Expecting the application of that order, the Albanian authorities of Prishtina organized a medical visit to the Jewish camp where they found that 60 of them were infected by typhus and that they should be quarantined so that the disease would not be transmitted to others. According to the statement of an eyewitness, Zhulia Kantozi, they were sent to Albania at the beginning of 1942. On 5th April 1942, the first group with 100 people arrived and settled in Berat. The second group of 195 people came later and settled in Kavaja, where they were isolated in a large building. A third group of 175 people settled in Kruja. Also, in the period of 1942-1943, other individuals or small groups came to Albania either with false documents or illegally, departing from Shkup, Manastir, Tetova, Uroshovaci, Prizreni, Peja, Viena, Belgrade, Bulgaria, Greece, etc. Altogether, about 1000 people arrived in Albania, not including the 200 Jews already resident in the pre-war period and the many that used Albania as a transit country while looking for a safe place.
They knew that they would find the Nazis and the fascist invaders even in Albania, but still they came hoping that Albanians, well known for their hospitality and honesty, would welcome and protect them. That opinion can be ascertained in the reports of the border authorities when they had asked them about the reason that brought them to Albania. Here it is worthy mentioning the expression of a driver coming from Bulgaria after escaping from a concentration camp, who was hindered by the authorities at the border. He implored them with the words: “I beg of you not to send me back to Bulgaria, if you wish to kill me, I would rather be killed here in Albania.”
Even in Albania, Jews were placed under strict supervision, especially by the fascist interrogation offices of Berat and Kavaja. But for the sake of truth, it should be noted that due to the tolerance of the Italian authorities no arrests took place, except for 15 people that had been taken to the German concentration camp in the district of Mat. Also, money transfers to the Jews of Durres were tolerated by the merchants of Switzerland through the Bank of Naples. Immediately af ter the surrender of the Italian fascist army, the command-in-chief of the concentration camp in Kavaja called upon three Jews, tore their names off the list and advised them to run wherever they could to save their lives from the Nazis.
