‘The gates of your small country remained open…’

By Frank Ledwidge
I remember speaking to an Albanian historian, who has written in these pages, about the Albanian virtue of tolerance.
‘Its not so much that we are any more tolerant than other nations,’ he said ‘ perhaps it is simply that we are indifferent’
Typical Albanian self effacement. For if there is one thing which conspicuously distinguishes the Albanians from their neighbours, it is tolerance. No aspect of Albanian history shows this more than the country’s treatment of Jews during the Second World War.
Even before the war, Albanian consuls, with the consent of the government , were granting entry visas for Austrian and some German Jews. Albania then was acting as a transit country,rather than a haven in itself. Nonetheless many were taken in and thereby saved. The American Ambassador to Albania in the late 1930s,Herman Bernstein, who assisted in these escapes said ‘Albania is the least anti-Semitic nation in the world.’
When the war began, the Nazi machine began to work quickly against the Jews of Europe. At the Wahnsee conference in 1942 a decision was taken concerning the fate of the Jews of Europe. There was to be a ‘final solution’. Figures were placed before the meeting outlining how many Jews were in each country. Albania was assessed to have only 200.
In every country occupied by Nazis, orders went out to deliver the Jews for ‘resettlement’. This ‘resettlement’ meant gas chambers in the death camps of Eastern Europe. In most countries those orders were quickly carried out. In the Baltic States and Poland, over 90% were killed. In the Netherlands, 70%. Yugoslavia lost over 80% of its pre-war Jewish population.
There were some exceptions. Denmark heroically arranged for almost all of its 7000 Jews to escape the round-ups. Similarly we are sometimes told that the Bulgarian Government (allied to Germany) saved all its own Jews. This is true. We are generally not told however, that they handed over many thousands of those in what they called ‘annexed territories’ in what is now Macedonia and Greece. Bulgaria’s record is by no means as honourable as is so often suggested.
So what of Albania? What indeed. It was the only occupied country where there were more Jews after the war,1800, than before. Not a single Jew, as far as I can gather , was handed over to the Nazis. Numbers are often uncertain, but we can be sure that if you were Jewish, the one country you were safe, where no-one would betray you even in the middle of its own resistance and civil car, was Albania. During the Italian phase of the occupation, in towns like Kavaje and Dibra as well as Tirana, there were small communities of ’emigrees’. All were kept safe.
Some have claimed that the survival of not only all the Jews of Albania, but every single Jew who came to the country as a refugee was more due to Italian reluctance, than to Albanian hospitality. This is an argument that simply does not run. Italy surrendered in 1943, and as every Albanian knows, the ensuing German occupation was hardly benign. The truth was, as the historian Carl Savic points out, by the time of the German occupation the Jews in the country were beyond their reach.
Kosovo unfortunately cannot claim this kind of honour. The majority of Kosovan Jews were given up in 1943, and sent to Bergen-Belsen.
I have visited the baleful sites of the death camps in Poland. Over half Europe’s Jews died there. The words of Irene Grunbaum who took refuge in Albania, strike a deep chord for me, and maybe for you;
‘I’ll tell how brave, fearless, strong and faithful your sons areƉ’ll tell how they protected a refugee and would not allow her to be harmed even if it meant losing their lives. The gates of your small country remained openƁlbania, we survived the siege because of your humanity. We thank you. Mrs Grunbaum, originally from Prague, was the only survivor of her family -most of whom were lost in Yugoslavia.
Every Dane knows the details of their nation’s glorious achievements in saving their Jews. All are happy to tell foreigners about it. But how many Albanians boast of their country not only having saved all their Jews, but being the only country to have many more Jews after the war than before it. How many tell proudly that every Jew who came to the country was saved. How many even know?
Every young person in this country should be taught the details. When they are asked abroad by other young people ‘tell me about your country,’ they may rightly boast not only of distant medieval heroes, or their ancient language. They should tell of their country’s most heroic and honourable achievement. There are no mass graves here. No betrayed refugees were transported to their deaths from this country.
Nine years ago Europe’s poorest country once again welcomed thousands of refugees from Kosovo. Once again refugees from genocide were welcomed and were safe here. Tolerance and hospitality are still the hallmark of this country.
Modesty perhaps has its place, but I would respectfully suggest that Albania’s record indicates something more than indifference.