Italian Policies and Albania’s Acceptance of the Jews

By Monika Stafa
These last few years, there has been a great deal of talk, inside and outside of the country, about how the Jews were saved in Albania. Perhaps researchers don’t see eye to eye about partial facts and interpretations, but everyone agrees that protection was extended to the Jews during two periods: during the period of the Monarchy and during the anti-fascist National Liberation War. The parties also agree that protection of the Jews in Albania cannot be explained without the acceptance of two factors: the solidarity of the people and the stand of the authorities.
The first period covers the years from 1932-1939, and there is ample evidence from this time indicating bi- and multi-lateral diplomatic endeavours to provide shelter in Albania for massive Jewish groupings in proportion with the territory and population of the country. In particular these endeavours were made by the Organizations of the League of Nations, such as the High Commissariat of Refugees, (UNHCR); but also top representatives of the World Jewish League; and of the Jewish Communities in the States that implemented anti-fascist policies such as Britain and the United States.
Now, it is a well known fact that the Albanian monarchy did everything within its power to take the Jews of Central Europe and of the Balkans into their protection. Why this actually happened is an open issue for the history of the country. What actually remains a mystery is how a solidarity policy of the Albanian authorities for the fate of the Jews first came about, at a time when these authorities, to a high degree, were politically controlled by Rome, the fundamental power of the Nazi-fascist axis.
It could be maintained that this issue pertains to Italian history, so let the Italians ponder over it. But, during research over a matter of weeks of Albanian archival materials, it emerged that documents linked to the stand of Italian diplomacy towards the policy of Albanian Monarchy are in safe keeping here in Tirana, due to the complicated circumstances which were generated by the relations between the two countries at the end of World War Two.
Italian documents on the arrival of Jews in Albania during the period of the Monarchy, contain a wealth of information, not only related to the policy of support which the former King Zog extended to the Jews, but to the personal fate of each one of them, to the links they had with Albanian citizens, whether ordinary citizens or officials of power, politics, or businessmen, of the Bolshevik Communist Movement or of the conservatory organizations.
The Italian documents preserved in Tirana and chiefly of a diplomatic character, but also, towards the end, materials pertaining to other specialized institutions, cover a period of more than ten years, 1932-1943. These materials are exceptionally important to comprehend not only the importance of the acts by the Albanian State, in defence of the Jews, but also to break out of the traditional black and white way of viewing history, a view which has often caused the assessment of events, developments and personalities of our world to be buried.
These records reveal that during the period of the Monarchy, political initiatives were undertaken, including some that were very dangerous, such as the acceptance of the Jews; which did not comply with the official stand of the “caretaker State,” a position Italy had won with decisions adopted by the Conference of Ambassadors and which it has strengthened with two “bilateral treaties of Tirana,” of 1926 and later.
Via the differences in policy of the Albanian Monarchy and fascist Rome concerning the fate of the Jews, an effort could be made to go as far as the relativity of conclusions drawn to date on the so called “complete bondage” of the former Monarch King Zog towards Italy. There are also many other aspects which call for a relative comparison.
My research in the Albanian Central Archives allowed me to observe that several of the factors that allowed Ahmet Zog to pursue a sympathetic policy towards the Jews who were fleeing the forces of the Reich in search of a location where they would be safe, are either not mentioned at all, or, when they are mentioned, they are sorely underestimated. It was not just the people that offered good will and hospitality to the Jews, but also the Offices of the State which implemented a very flexible and liberal policy towards their fate. Hundreds of Jews crossed the borders and entered Albanian territory from 1932 to 1939, with regular visas issued by Albanian Consul Offices abroad. When the diplomatic functions of the Albanian State were extinguished with the invasion of Italy, persons who governed alongside the foreigners in Tirana, continued the same policy of protection of the Jews.
It was not only the need for investments and capital which encouraged the Monarchy to review its policy of the transformation of Albania into a “Second Palestine” as the Western press wrote at the time. Neither was it merely the reason that the Jews did not constitute any major community in Albania which could be viewed negatively by the local public. Ahmet Zogu continued implementing his pro-Jew policy during the time he was in political asylum too, when he was in Great Britain and where he promised that if he were to return to power, he would provide shelter to more than 25 thousand Jewish children in his country.
Documents testify to the fact that Albanian efforts to save Jews assumed the character of projects. One of these projects was to dredge the mouth of the River Buna, drain the lands that are flooded by its waters and settle several hundreds of Jews there. The projects of the former US Ambassador to Tirana Hermman Bernstein, a real friend of Albania, who deserves public recognition, (which he will certainly receive sooner or later). But these projects expressed the seriousness with which Tirana treated the issue of saving the Jews, and they reject all speculation that at the heart of this issue there was more talk than action. The initiatives that were undertaken during the Monarchy would never be fully understood without calculating the level of danger which the small, Albanian State took upon itself, opening up the borders, or pretending not to see the illegal crossings of its borders precisely form the people proclaimed “The world peril,” alongside Bolshevism. This tiny State, with the many treaties signed that impeded it, which was among the first States to be occupied with the outbreak of WWII, put up a major challenge, rejecting anti-Semitism as a philosophy and law, refusing to obey the anti-Jewish Laws of the bigger allies such as Italy, opening up all kinds of paths to come to the aid of the Jews to save them from a repetition of “crystallization night,” and every other form of wholesale hatred, violence and pogroms.
The Italian records in Tirana reveal that even Rome itself was not zealous in implementing anti-Jewish policies, and it often permitted the smaller allies, like Albania, out of the interest range of world diplomacy and especially out of the range of the “Big Brother and Ally,” Hitler to do that which it couldn’t. The distinctions between fascist policy and Nazi policy in exercising Shoah also merit thorough researching in the future. Documents prove that there cannot be pure developments: where there is good there is bad and vice versa.
Through Italian and Albanian sources which testify to the fact that Jews were saved by Albanian citizens and authorities, another issue emerges: was it really impossible to have prevented the World Holocaust in the middle of the last Century? There are at least two small countries, both occupied: Albania and Denmark, which did their best to avoid a single Jew being hurt, not only those who were residents, but the newcomers too. If the Jews were saved in these two countries, was it not possible then to have prevented this world calamity, even partially?