By Alma Mile
In Albania, the Jews had a very different fate than in other countries of Europe or even than in neighbouring Balkan countries. On Remembrance Day on 27 January, the French Senate described what Albania did for the Jews during World War Two as, “the battle in defence of the honour of Man.” An honour, which in Albania was not only defended by politics and the ordinary citizens, but also by the Catholic Church, regarded with a great deal of suspicion for the role it played as a supporter of Nazism.
Dom Nik Ukgjini, Docent at the Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Shkodra, produces concrete facts proving the support which the Headship of the Catholic Church extended to the Jews in Albania, facts which this Priest of the Archdioceses of Shkdora is to submit to the Conference, “Albania, 1933-1944 period, the Honour of Man, an example in Europe” scheduled for 27 January, 2008 at Palais du Luxembourg, French Senate in Paris. This conference is held under the patronage of French Senator Bernard Fournier and the Albanian Ambassador to France Ylljet Ali謡j.
Dom Nika believes that irrespective of the attention which Albanian and foreign scientific circles have devoted to this subject, the stand of the Catholic Church in Albania towards the issue of the Jewish people at the culmination of their persecution and the holocaust caused by German Nazism, remains unclear to this day. The two main sources of the materials on which this paper is based are the Archives of the Vatican and the Central State Archives in Albania. Of great assistance were the reports of the Envoy of the Holy See to Albania in the years 1938-1945, Monsignor Leone G.B. Nigris, which unequivocally clarify the position maintained by the Catholic Church in Albania. “In his writings, Nigris describes multiple cases where he extended protection to people, Italians, Germans, foreign missionaries, but above all, to Jews. In the name of the Vatican, during the years of occupation Nigris kept a dialogue open with all the governments, Italian (fascist), German (Nazi), and with the Albanian Regency, adapting to the circumstances as they were created, and intervening when people’s lives were endangered, without trying to make any distinctions,” says Dom Nika. The assistance Nigris extended to the Jews was concrete aid, advice, money and intervention with the authorities. One such occasion is that of 29 April in 1944, in Shkodra, when fourteen Jews were arrested on the pretext that “a communist plot had been uncovered to blow up the Cathedral and to then lay the blame on the Germans, who had admitted that they were paid by the Jews who had come from Kosovo.” Another case is the arrest in Tirana of four Jews, among whom Rabbi Leo Thur. They were subjected to a great deal of pressure to reveal names and addresses of schooled Jews. Monsignor Nigris intervened with the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior and the Minister of the German Delegation, which led to their release. The archives shed light on other occasions of the intervention and recommendations of Nigris or of the Archbishop of Shkodra, Monsignor Gasper Tha詮 According to Dom Nika, the simple clergymen also contributed a great deal towards helping the Jewish cause. He mentions the talks of Father Anton Harapi with General Fistum in September 1943, for the protection of the Jewish citizens. Another known occasion is that of the defence of the German Albanologist Norbert Jokl by Father Gjergj Fishta. (Another distinguished name also appears in relation to the case of Jokl, arrested on 4 March, 1942, who did not belong to the Catholic Church, and that is Ernest Koliqi, at the time Minister of Education, who sent a letter to General Gianni, asking him to intervene at the Reich in Berlin). This all happened at a time when the Catholic Church had adopted a neutral stance towards the sides in the War. “Up until the last moment Pope Pius XII, tried everything within his power to stop the eruption of war. This included the talks he had with Hitler, at the beginning of May 1939, which unfortunately failed. Using the motto “Man-god” or “either we are Christians or Germans” Hitler paved the road towards launching the war, and one of the goals was to destroy the Catholic Church and Judaism, as is stressed in his chronicles. Pope Pius XII, at the Head of the Catholic Church world wide, could do nothing else other than position the Church in neutrality towards the belligerent sides in the War. He also requested that his envoys in several countries of Europe maintained the same stand,” says Dom Nik Ukgjini.
Contrary to the general stand, the facts reveal that the Catholic Church in Albania sided with the Jews, at a time when in the former Yugoslavia, it is thought that about fifty thousand Jews were massacred, especially in the Camp of Jasenovac, in present day Croatia and in other camps. At the end of the War, there were 2,500 to 3,000 Jews in Albania who had arrived here from Dalmatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece, from 200 Jews that there were in Albania at the outbreak of the War. They too could have suffered the same fate as their other compatriots who disappeared from the face of the earth throughout Europe.
