Sonja Methoxha
January 27 is the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. This day is a commemoration of the Holocaust genocide, in which Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered approximately six million European Jews during WWII.
In addition to the Jews, victims also account for Soviets, Poles, Slavs, Romani, physically impaired people, homosexuals, freemasons, Jehovah’s witnesses, Slovenes and Spanish Republicans.
Some thousand Jewish managed to survive the camps, or escape as refugees either to North and South Americas, or other European countries.
One of those countries that sheltered Jewish refugees in Europe was Albania.
Albania was under the Ottoman invasion for about five centuries. It was declared independent in Nov. 28. 1912. Prior to WWII the country had something to 200 Jewish Albanian citizens living in its borders. A similar number were also living in Kosovo, a higher number in Greece and Serbia.
When Hitler decided upon the persecution and extermination of the Jewish people, a number of them that couldn’t manage to escape to the Americas or Israel, eventually came to Albania. Albania is of the few countries in the world that had more Jewish people living in its borders after the WWII, than prior to it.
Approximately two thousand Jewish refugees were sheltered in Albania during WWII. They mainly came from Germany, Austria, Greece, Serbia and Yugoslavia. This number however, doesn’t account to those transiting to other countries through Albania.
For instance, an article by Lawrence Marzouk for Balkan Insight which talks of a documentary about the Jewish people saved by Albania, it also mentions how Albert Einstein transited through Albania to the US, since then-King Zog I issued a liberal visa policy in aid of as many persecuted Jews as possible.
King Zog also aided many with Albanian passports, and a way Albanians used to help Jewish people seeking shelter, was by providing fake Albanian identities to keep them hidden and safe from the Germans. With these identities, the refugees were able to find jobs in factories, agriculture, shops, etc..
Those who didn’t manage to receive fake documentation first found shelters in cities in Albanian people’s home, and when the German danger premise was approaching, they moved to more remote areas. Albanians of different social status and economy, as well as both Muslims and Catholics helped the Jewish people with a room in their houses and food.
According to a Times of Israel article by Cnaan Liphshiz, Albania has 75 Righteous recognized by Yad Vashem, a Holocaust research institute. These are people who saved their lives to save those of the Jewish people they had under their protectorate. All this information were made available to Yad Vashem through rescued and rescuer testimonies, and after the fall of the communist regime in Albania.
But what made the Albanians help the Jewish people seeking refuge in this country, and risk their lives to helping them?
The main reason is Besa, the code of honor as old as the people themselves. It is a deeply rooted ethical tradition to Albanians’ culture which transliterated it means “to keep the promise.” As Yad Vashem writes in its website “one who acts according to Besa is someone who keeps his word, someone to whom one can trust one’s life and the lives of one’s family.”
In a paragraph below it also adds “the help afforded to Jews and non-Jews alike should be understood as a matter of national honor. The Albanians went out of their way to provide assistance; moreover, they competed with each other for the privilege of saving Jews. These acts originated from compassion, loving-kindness and a desire to help those in need, even those of another faith or origin.”
Albania saving Jewish people is only recently emerging in view for the world. Because of the little knowledge on the topic, sometimes it seems to have been forgotten in Albania too. But Jewish themselves won’t forget, and those who gave a hand in helping these unfortunate people.
A more recent exhibition is taking place now in South Africa by photographer Norman H. Gershman. The display titled Besa: A Code of Honour tells the personal stories of this unknown part of Europe through Gershman’s pictures. One such story is that of Jakov and Sandra Batino, siblings aged 18 and 16 respectively, housed in Kavaje at Beshim and Aishe Kadiu’s. They had a daughter, Merushe, which became close friends with the two siblings.
“We all lived in the same bedroom. I remember we cut a hole in the bars of our rear bedroom window so they could escape if the Germans discovered that they were hiding with us. We were constantly watching for German patrols,” told Merushe to Gershman.
Her father took the two kids to a more remote area to keep them protected when the Germans were approaching. The family supplied them with food and clothing, until the liberation. Then, they left for Tirana, from which they departed to Israel.
A really striking story shown is that of Arsllan Rezniqi from Kosovo. Rezniqi was a merchant in Decan, who hid in his home more than 40 families. With his various connections he then managed to clandestinely send them to Albania.
Besa is a code of honor which owns to a neighbourly conduct. This conduct glorifies the neighbour and especially the guest to the level of family and self. This sort of hospitality and tolerance was intertwined with the religious tolerance as well. If someone knocked on an Albanian door, they were welcomed to stay as long as it was safe, they would be treated and be protected as family, under the laws of besa and conduct.
“Not only the police knew, but all the neighbors knew as well. There was a circle of silence. It’s something connected to our culture. You don’t betray your guest, and you certainly don’t betray your neighbor,” said Rexhep Hoxha, who’s father Rifat saved a Jewish family, the Aladjems.
Rexhep tells the story of the Aladjems and how his father saved them in a 2012 documentary film called Besa: The Promise. It follows Rexhep as he returns three Jewish prayer books back in Israel to the Aladjem family, as a promise. The documentary also depicts a religious tolerance through Rexhep’s grandfather, a Muslim cleric, who made his room available for the guest family.
It has to be noted that during the war Albania was under the Italian occupation. Both Albania and Kosovo were asked to hand over their lists of the Jewish people living within their borders, or that entered recently. None of them handed any lists, claiming there were no Jewish people living in the country.
As Nazi accomplices during WWII, the Italians of course did impose some anti-Hebrew rules, however, these weren’t as strong norms as in Italy itself. On some confessions as well it was acknowledged that Italians didn’t make many detail searches for Jewish families, and they were easily corruptible. Some of these rulings urged Jewish people to leave Albania, urged Albanians not to issue documentation, shelter them, or marry them.
And as Albanians totally disregarded these rulings, until the Germans came. Then the partisans came into aid to Albanian families protecting the Jewish people. As some left for Israel, a number of them also chose to live in Albania after the end of the war, creating a community here.
At the annual conference held by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington DC on March 2018, was also invited to attend the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama. He talked of the international relations between Israel and Albania, tourism and cultural prospects, but also to the help Albania provided to Jewish people during WWII.
He told the 18 thousand attendees how Albania recognized the Hebrew community and its religion in 1932. How they were sheltered both by Muslims and Catholics, and how some Catholic clerics baptised a number of Jewish people so they could change identities and escape the Germans.
He told them about nazi Hermann Neubacher came to Albania in 1943 and asked all the four religious leaders in the country to hand over the Jewish people’s list and the gold list. They handed over the list of gold, but as also mentioned above, they didn’t submit any list of Jewish citizens living in Albania.
“It is incredible how not one Hebrew were handed over to the Germans, be it from Muslims or Catholics. We should do everything we can for this treasure to remain protected and serve as inspiration,” said Rama at the conference.
