The Yad Vashem museum in Israel has opened an exhibition to honor Albanians who sheltered Jews from the Nazis during WWII. The exhibition shows 17 photographs of Albanian Muslim individuals and families who saved Jews.
“An Albanian’s home is the house of his God, his friends and in the end of his family. Qouraan teaches us that all people, Jews, Muslims and Christians do have only one God” says Refik Veseli, whose parents were the first to be honored by Yad Vashemi as “the righteous among nations.” But they were not the only ones; Yad Vashem has recognized, so far, 63 Albanians among 22,000 others awarded this title.
The small European country with a majority of Muslim citizens, succeeded where other countries failed. None of the Jews hosted in Albanian territory during the Nazi occupation were killed. The message of the exhibition is that if other European countries would have done the same thing, the fate of millions of Jews during that time would have been much different. The exhibition was opened, also, at the UN building in New York in remembrance of the Holocaust day and it will be opened in many other countries too.
An exhibition for the Albanians
The exhibition consists of 17 photographs of Muslim Albanian individuals or families by the American photographer Norman Gersham. Each picture tells a unique story of salvation. The portraits of the persons in the photos are surrounded by a bright halo, inviting the viewers to know them and their families better. The photos have this kind of originality in every detail, starting from the objects the protagonists chose to be shot, following their traditional Muslim outfits and finally with their hands in the chest as a sign of loyalty.
Gersham says that their children were taught to always open the door when it knocks and once they opened it they had to be responsible for the ones they let in, meaning they had to protect anyone that entered at their houses.
After the Nazi occupation, Albanian citizens, in an incredible act of courage, refused to hand over those Jews hidden in Albania. Moreover, a number of Albanian government agencies helped the Jews by providing them with false identity documents. Albanians helped Jews based on the code of honor, known in Albanian as “besa,” which in the Albanian culture stands before nationality, religion, or race.
