I was at the Bulgarian Consulate General in New York tonight for a special event, organized by Thanks to Scandinavia and the Consulate General.
My very good friend Victoria Schonfeld gave the following speech, which I publish with her kind permission.
It’s about the history of the Second World War, and how Bulgaria saved the jews living on its territory.
Victoria Schonfeld:
I’ve been asked to briefly discuss Bulgaria’s heroic rescue of all of its 48,000 Jewish citizens during World War II. It is a story that is too little known even by those knowledgeable in Holocaust history. So, I hope that those here who do know the history will indulge me if I recount it in my own way.
The broad contours of the story are clear: Despite enormous pressure from the Nazis, none of Bulgaria’s 48,000 Jews were sent to the death camps of Poland. All survived. While many details of the story are disputed, there can be no doubt that the bravery and the goodness of the Bulgarian people were responsible for this extraordinary result.
For me, the story begins after the Balkan Wars and World War I, as a result of which Bulgaria lost its province of Dobrudzha to Romania and its provinces of Thrace and Macedonia to Greece. This was a huge blow to Bulgaria’s concept of nationhood, one not easily forgotten. So when, in 1940, Hitler gave Bulgaria’s King Boris the ultimatum of either being conquered by German forces, or of becoming allied with the Nazis, and very possibly having those provinces returned to Bulgaria, Boris was left with little choice and agreed to ally with Germany.
The Bulgarians initially embraced this arrangement. Hitler immediately agreed to return the province of Dobrudzha to Bulgaria. And, after Bulgaria officially joined the Axis coalition in 1941, Bulgaria was promised Thrace and Macedonia at the end of the war. In the meantime, Bulgaria was given administrative control over those provinces. Most Bulgarians were enormously pleased with these events and hailed Boris as the Unifier King.
But, as we all know, the Nazis had an agenda wholly apart from its goals of conquest the elimination of the Jews, certainly at least in all territories allied with, or occupied by, Germany. That included Bulgaria.
As a first step, in late 1940, Bulgaria was pressured to adopt the “Law for the Defense of the Nation.” This law was modeled after the infamous Nuremberg laws, which severely restricted property and civil rights of Jews and required them to wear Jewish stars. But this part of the Nazi agenda was not welcomed by the Bulgarian people. Bulgarians from all parts of the society?writers, poets,, lawyers, former ministers, the Orthodox Church, journalists, university professors and ordinary citizens protested this legislation. As one letter of protest put it: “This is not a law for the nation’s defense but rather a proposal for its infamy.” Even though the law eventually passed, the Bulgarian government realized that solving the “Jewish question” was not going to be easy.
And for a time, much to the dismay of the Nazis, the Law for the Defense of the Nation was only minimally enforced. Even though many Jewish men were sent to forced labor camps, many attempts to enforce the laws were met with resistance from the Bulgarian people who routinely visited their Jewish friends after curfew, bringing them much needed food.
Frustrated, in the fall of 1942, the Nazis forced the issue, insisting that Bulgaria establish a Commissariat for Jewish Relations. After training in Germany, Alexander Belev, a rabidly anti-Semitic Bulgarian, was appointed Commissar–his job description included the deportation of all Jews to the death camps of Poland.
From the government’s experience with the Law for the Defense of the Nation, Belev knew that any attempt to deport Bulgaria’s Jews would have to be carried out in secret or risk public outcry. So, in early 1943, Belev signed a secret agreement with Germany, which called for Bulgaria to deport 20,000 Jews, over 11,000 from Thrace and Macedonia, and the balance from Bulgaria itself. The tragedy of this story is that over 11,000 Jews from Thrace and Macedonia were deported by the Bulgarian army to the camps of Poland… Less than a dozen survived.
Then it came time to deport the more than 8,000 Jewish citizens of Bulgaria still needed to fulfill Belev’s quota. In utmost secrecy, deportation was set for March 9, 1943. But word of the deportations leaked out. 
A delegation of non-Jews from Kyustendil traveled at dawn to enlist the help of Dmitar Peshev, the Deputy Speaker of Parliament. He was shocked and outraged. He immediately confronted the powerful Nazi-sympathizing Interior Minister, who first denied the existence of the deportation order, and then, confronted with proof of the order and Peshev’s refusal to leave his office, finally called off the deportations. In a drama almost unimaginable in Nazi World War II, thousands of Jews who had been rounded up and were waiting in schools and warehouses to board trains bound for the death camps – were sent home.
I agree with those who believe that this decision would not have been made without the approval of King Boris himself who was being subjected to continued pressure from the Bulgarian church and other leaders of Bulgarian society.
When Belev and the Nazis realized that their carefully laid deportation plans had been canceled, they were furious. But they had no intention of giving up. They promptly plotted new schemes to deport all of Bulgaria’s Jews. In May & June, 1943, over 20,000 Jews were sent to the countryside – Belev’s first step to deporting them out of the country.
But the opposition from all segments of Bulgarian society was simply too strong. 42 members of Parliament’s ruling party protested any deportation. Again, leading lawyers, doctors, politicians of all stripes, academicians and others joined the outcry. Metropolitan Kyril of Plovdiv threatened to lie down on the tracks to prevent deportations. The Holy Synod, led by Metropolitan Stefan of Sofia, continued to pressure the King unrelentingly, both publicly and privately, to stop any deportations.
Once again, beset with these pressures, the King felt he had no choice. Ordered to a meeting with Hitler, the King refused Hitler’s demand that the Bulgarian Jews be deported, claiming that he needed them to build roads. Hitler knew this was a ruse but was not in a position to oppose the King. All able-bodied Jewish men were sent to labor camps; and, as I said, other Jews were sent from cities to the countryside; but no Jew was ever forced to leave Bulgaria.
After the war ended, the Jews returned to their homes, which often had been kept for them intact by their neighbors.
WHY? Why did this small, relatively powerless nation openly defy the Nazis for the sake of its Jewish people?
Many reasons have been advanced and debated. It is clear, for example, that the Jews of Bulgaria lived side by side with other Bulgarians and were never treated differently or regarded themselves as different. At the core, however, I believe the rescue resulted from Bulgaria’s long history of oppression and its tolerance and integration of diverse groups within its society. This tradition included the exercise of the moral authority of the Bulgarian church.
I would like to close with an excerpt from Metropolitan Stefan’s plea to the King in May 1943, to halt the deportation of the Jews:
“In keeping with the spirit of which the Bulgarian people have been educated; in keeping with the considerations and prescriptions dictated by international norms for human life;
in keeping with the real, well-known and deep-felt tolerance that the Bulgarian people have demonstrated with regard to the Jewish minority historically and still demonstrate today, we implore Your Majesty to stop the implementation of the anti-Jewish law and order its full cancellation. This august action, Your Majesty, will spare our country from the greatest crime and most perfidious act hatred towards men and you will appeaar in all the strength and magnificence of your royal power as the protector and defender of the Bulgarian aspiration to liberty and justice, peace and love, thus preserving for evermore the halo of Bulgarian tolerance and democratic spirit.”
_____
pictures from The Sofia Jewish Museum.
Veni- i have never been on a blog before – i am so thrilled.
Thank you- Vicki
PS really cool blog
To Mr.Veni Markovski, Ms. Victoria Schonfeld and all our Bulgarian Friends.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
Whereas the remarkable attitude of the Bulgarians towards the rescue of the Jewish community during World War II is well known all over the world, most European people ignore that a tiny isolated country, Albania, did also its best to protect the Jews.
I take the liberty on writing here from France to let you know about a book which is an opportunity to discover this somewhat unknown page of History.
ALBANIA
LITERATURE, HISTORY AND CULTURE
It is as the French correspondent of Neshat Tozaj, Albanian writer, journalist, film script writer and General Director of Albautor, the Albanian Association for Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, that I take the freedom of letting you know of the recent publication of his last book in France “Ils n’?taient pas fr?res et pourtant” Albanie 1943-1944″, the original title published in Albania is “Shalom”.
This book intentionally written as a novel because of the friendship described tells us that the Jewish Albanian community and all the refugees who came from other countries found protection and salvation among the Albanian population under the nazi occupation. The Jews in fact were immediately protected and hidden.
“They were not brothers and yet… Albania 1943-1944″, the English version of the work, was recently translated by Marc Lowenthal, the son of Mr. Larry Lowenthal, Executive Director of Boston’s American Jewish Committee.
Mr. Van Christo, Executive Director, Frosina Information, Mr. Alan Adelson, Jewish Heritage Project, Mr. Jack Goldfarb and Mr. Stephen Schwartz, amid other personalities, gave us their support for the future publication in the United States. A publication which might be also thought of one day and why not in Bulgaria…
If I am so determined to defend this book it is also because I belong to a family mostly composed of Catholics, Protestants and Jews among whom many teachers who all aim at bringing together and not divide. In this respect this book has a great pedagogical value.
All the testimonies addressed by the French readers and several others coming from different countries, United States, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Germany, Greece, Belgium and from Bulgarian people living in France encourage us to continue our information campaign around the world. The book is now referenced on various web sites, among them historical, literary and mediatic ones.
Indeed our greatest wish would be to find somebody in Bulgaria relaying our information, any Specialist, ready to write some words about this page of History and eventually about the French publication of the book so that European people could learn more about another historical example.
Besides Neshat Tozaj’s publication a dossier about the Jewish rescue in Albania would deserve to be approached, particularly in France, and why not by international prominent specialists of the Jewish rescue in European countries ? Dossier, article or interview to which would certainly willingly collaborate, if of course invited to, the writer Mr. Isma?l Kadar?, Mr. Alfred Moisiu, the President of the Republic of Albania (whose grand-parents, I think, information to be verified, were Albanian Jews), President Avner Shalev, His Excellency Mr. Marc Sofer, Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, Dr Bracha Rivlin, Mr. Shaban Sinani, Director of the National Archives, Mr. Refik Veseli, President of the Albanian-IsraeI Friendship Society, Ambassadors such as Mr. Ferit Hoxha in France, his homologue in the United States, Professor Petrit Zorba, Professor Bernd Fischer, Dr. Anna Kohen, different American specialists and historians, Mr. Jack Goldfarb… not to forget the remarkable Professor Kotani. The Professor Kotani, very young resistant at the time, who is trying with most difficulties to have a second edition of his book “The Hebrews in Albania during the centuries” published.
I would like to precise certain points about the novel written by Neshat Tozaj. Of course the matter of the novel is based on authentic events but the writer chose to present them in this way to stress the brotherhood born between the two boys. Neshat Tozaj’s essential purpose is to make people know that the Jewish community has been protected in Albania during the nazi occupation and to tell why. Religion has nothing to do with this but the strong tradition of hospitality called “besa”. You are to know that in Albania nobody would define himself as Moslem, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant or even Jew, for those remaining in the country, but above all as Albanian. It is not rare in Albania to find in the same family members of different beliefs who all honour the different religious feast Days…
The novel is the opportunity to approach the Albanian underground Resistance, the welcome attitude reserved not only to Albanian Jews but foreigners and the moral code typical of this country which permitted to save the community. The main interest of the book in our perturbed world is to show that a people in Europe has been capable to live in harmony totally outside of religious problems. This situation is to day discovered, Albania during nearly fifty years was cut from the rest of the world…
Neshat Tozaj has often chosen the novel form of writing to present his country and his history to allow us to know more about Albania. Such was the case of the novel “The knives” (Thikat) which, when published in Albania and then in France in 1991, has been internationally welcomed by a great number of observers who spoke about the book. The U.S. State Department even wrote that “Thikat” was a starting point to democratic reform in Albania. The book was denouncing the exactions committed by the Sigurimi under Enver Hoxha.
Of course our purpose is essentially before all making this part of History known just to honour a people that deserves our gratitude and also to honour the memory of all the Jews who found protection in Albania.
Hoping the subject will retain your attention, Dear ladies and Gentlemen, I took the liberty of writing to you because few but prominent Historians and Specialists have treated this piece of history such as Professors Michele Sarfatti, Giovanni Armillotta, Lino Sciarra (Italy), Bernd Fischer, Mr. Jack Goldfarb, Mr. Stephen Schwartz, Mr. Harvey Sarner, Ms. Cloyes-DioGuardi (US) and Ms. Antonia Young (U.K), who have been trying for many years to get these events more widely known, among whom personalities who are looking forward to a future publication in English of Mr. Tozaj’s work.
With my very best regards from France.
Claire.
——
PRESENTATION OF THE WORK
” Ils n’?taient pas fr?res et pourtant… Albanie 1943-1944 ”
“They were not brothers and yet… Albania 1943-1944”
By
Neshat TOZAJ
French Publishers: La Soci?t? des Ecrivains (S.d.E)
A SOMEWHAT UNKNOWN HISTORY
In his work “Ils n’?taient pas fr?res et pourtant… Albanie 1943-1944? Neshat Tozaj describes the Jewish community that had been present in Albania for centuries as well as Jews from other countries welcomed during, hidden and protected during the second world war. “Shalom”, the original title of the work published in Albania has been modified for French readers since we wished to reach them in all their diversity.
The author deals with this period with an approach different to that which one is used to reading, hearing or seeing in most documentaries. The Jewish community is not only depicted as a persecuted community but also as an Albanian community living among other Albanians, united in the same struggle against Nazism and Fascism. A struggle carried on to protect life, human dignity, the property of each person and the cultural heritage. The joint commitment to this fight and friendship taken to the ultimate sacrificed by non-Jewish Albanians to save their brothers and their guests set an example that is almost unique and especially unusual in History.
This book, inspired by actual facts, is an opportunity to pay homage to a little nation often forgotten, which was merely doing its duty in barbarous times.
The publication of this book, apart from the moment of history that it reveals, seems to me to be essential and salutary for many people, starting with the youngest, of all origins, religions or other philosophical allegiances. In fact, in our age in which the problems of racism, anti-Semitism or excessive community loyalty are the order of the day, this work brings a very comforting ray of light. “Ils n’?taient pas fr?res et pourtant…” is also a message of hope and encouragement.
The book of Neshat Tozaj, intentionally produced in the form of a novel, the man being mainly an author and journalist, is an opportunity to learn about the Albanian resistance and to recognize the particularly warm welcome extended by the Albanian people to the Jewish community in this dramatic period.
I would add that, for a more profound insight into the period described in Neshat Tozaj’s novel, I had access to the remarkable work “The Hebrews in Albania during centuries” (sic) by Professor Apostol Kotani, a historian and a very young resistance fighter at the time. This work retraces the history of Albanian Jews settled in the country since antiquity and it allows us, above all, to discover that in Albania, the Jewish community was spared during the Second World War. During his long years of research, Mr Kotani has gathered the poignant testimony of many Jews of ancient stock or refugees, all of whom express their eternal gratitude to this “little” country that was able to honour its tradition of “Besa”, the sharing of bread, salt and the heart with anyone who is in distress, a foreigner, a guest of the like, on Albanian soil. Survivors, many of whom emigrated to Israel or the United States after the war, spontaneously collaborated on the work and they all assert in it that no Jews were deported in Albania during Nazi and Fascist occupation.
Nor did Mr Ferit Hoxha, the Albanian Ambassador to France, fail to stress in his speech at the ceremony held on the occasion of the publication in France of Neshat Tozaj’s book that his country was the only state in Europe where the Jewish population had increased at the end of the Second World War.
On the other hand, Mr. Isma?l Kadar? and Mr. Avner Shalev, amid other personalities, often publicly declared that the number of the persons who found refuge in Albania compared with the initial Albanian Jewish population must be without any doubt multiplied by ten. Mr. Avner Shalev moreover wrote, that only to speak of the Yugoslavian Jews, around 2000 persons had been welcomed and hidden in Albania, not to speak of Greek and Austrian Jews.
Such was the case for instance of the Professor Albert Einstein whose first wife was a Jewish Yugoslavian lady.
Let me state that this information concerns Albania proper as the territory of Kosovo, annexed territory at the time, despite the exemplary attitude of its local population and local authorities, was witness to tragic deportations perpetrated by the Nazis.
——
A FORGOTTEN HISTORY
By Monsieur Pierre Stambul, Vice pr?sident de l’Union Juive Fran?aise pour la Paix, UJFP.
By means of a novel set in Albania during the thirties and then the war which deals with real events, Neshat Tozaj (*) reminds us of an episode of history largely unknown in France and to Jews all around the world.
Even during the worst periods of Nazi barbarism and genocide, if there had been people steeped in the most abject racism and collaboration in mass crime, there were also those who were not in the least predisposed to the slightest form of “heroism” but who nevertheless resisted the inhumanity morally and with weapons in their hands.
The attitude of the great majority of the Albanian people during the occupation reminds one a little of the French Protestants peasants of Chambon-sur-Lignon who saved hundreds of Jewish children by hiding them among their own children.
The Albanian Jewish community has never been very large. Although an ancient Jewish presence in Albania seems certain, the Albanian Jews probably descend from the Jews taken in by the Ottoman Empire from the XV th century onwards and dispersed within the Empire. An educated urban population in a very rural Albania, they never suffered persecution. The book describes this meeting between two very different worlds, the little Jewish community and the village communities that were founded on the great traditions of hospitality and mutual aid.
When war broke out, whilst the Communist Party was organising the whole nation’s resistance movement and the self-organisation of the villages, this resistance movement was at the same time organising the saving of the Jewish community. What is more, the Albanian villages welcomed and hid Jews fleeing from Eastern Europe. No deportation ever occurred in this country. The book tells of the real brotherhood that developed. It should also be known that the Albanians welcomed Italian soldiers (although they had invaded them) after the capitulation in 1943. […]
The Albania of these tragic years shows that anti-Semitism is not inevitable and that a genuine entente is possible between a nation and a minority that lives within it.
Albania has often been given a very negative image: Stalinism dictatorship, economic ruin, the mafia. Neshat Tozaj gives us back a human, hospitable and generous people who are capable of solidarity. Village mutual aid structures allowed the emergence of a national resistance movement which controlled the mountains of the interior throughout the whole war.
Thank you to the author for having reminded us of this edifying history.
Pierre Stambul
Vice pr?sident de l’Union Juive Fran?aise
pour la Paix. UJFP
(*) ” Ils n’?taient pas fr?res et pourtant…
Albanie 1943-1944 ”
Neshat Tozaj, Editions S.D.E ( Soci?t? des Ecrivains )
——
Back Cover of the book:
Le hasard veut que se rencontrent deux enfants albanais, l’un juif l’autre pas. Sazan et Solomon se lient d’amiti? et d?couvrent les richesses de l’un et de l’autre. Puis vient la guerre et l’occupation nazie, la famille de Solomon est imm?diatement cach?e et prot?g?e. C’est ainsi que par ce r?cit inspir? de faits authentiques l’on apprend qu’aucun Albanais juif ou r?fugi? ne fut d?port? pendant la seconde guerre mondiale dans ce pays. Certains protecteurs particuli?rement humains et courageux sont m?me all?s jusqu’? sacrifier leur vie pour sauver ce qu’ils avaient accueillis. Pour eux c’?tait une question d’honneur.
Ce livre passionnant et ?mouvant ?crit dans un style limpide et po?tique, malgr? l’horreur des ?v?nements, nous permet d’aborder une Albanie m?connue.
Neshat Tozaj est n? ? Vlora en Albanie le 1er janvier 1943. Ecrivain, journaliste, juriste et directeur de la soci?t? Albautor (protection des droits d’auteur), Neshat Tozaj est au premier rang de ceux qui d?fendent les droits de l’homme et met son talent au service de son pays et de son devenir.
——
-Few testimonies of Ladies and Gentlemen who found refuge in Albania under the nazi occupation:
“Farewell, Albania, I thought. You have given me so much hospitality, refuge, friends, and adventure. Farewell, Albania. One day I will tell the world how brave, fearless, strong, and faithful your sons are; how death and the devil can’t frighten them. If necessary, I’ll tell how they protected a refugee and wouldn’t allow her to be harmed even if it meant losing their lives. The gates of your small country remained open, Albania. Your authorities closed their eyes, when necessary, to give poor, persecuted people another chance to survive the most horrible of all wars. Albania, we survived the siege because of your humanity. We thank you.”
Irene Grunbaum.
——
…”There is a small country in the heartland of Europe called Albania where I was fortunately born, where hospitality to foreigners is part of their tradition. During the Second World War, not only did the Albanians save all the Jews who were living among them but they dared to share their homes, their food and their lives with them. Albania has its share of Oscar Shindlers, and, indeed, so many that we could never have thanked each glorious one of them.
Let us be reminded that not one – not one – of the Jews living in Albania, or those who sought refuge there were turned over to the fascists – all found a safe haven at great danger to their protectors.”…
Dr. Anna Kohen.
——
“All Israelis that came from Albania were saved thanks to the generous sentiments of the Albanian people that considered it as a moral duty to protect in their own houses every persecuted emigrant… The marvelous and noble attitude of the Albanian people needs to be known because they deserve the world’s and every cultured man’s thankfulness… Even the poor peasants, not only received Jews in their homes, but also shared with them their last piece of bread.’ Another Jew, Nisim Bahar that got saved from the hands of the Nazis that wanted to execute him in Fier, wrote to his sister in law, Zhulia Kantozi: ???I am in Ohrid I have climbed a hill on the lakeside and I see Pogradec. How I missed that country! If I could have wings to fly, I would come to kiss that holy Albanian land that saved my life.”
Samuel Mandili (1945)
——
…”Albania was one of the only European countries that did not turn over a single Jew to the Germans. There simply were no deportations from Albania.
My parents and I, along with many other German and Austrian families, found refuge in Albania and were hidden by Albanians during the German occupation of that country. In 1941, when Germany occupied Yugoslavia, hundreds of Yugoslavian Jews were able to escape to the safety of Albania because the Albanian government opened the border at Kosovo and let as many Jews into the country as were able to escape from the pursuing German army. It is a documented fact that the German general in Belgrade knew the names of all those who had escaped across the border and demanded their return within 48 hours. The Albanian government, instead of turning over even a single Jew, dispersed them in villages and on farms, gave them Albanian names and documents and then reported back to the German general in Belgrade: “We know no Jews. We know only Albanians.”
…Albanians, whether Muslim or Christian, are the most hospitable, generous and kind human beings. It should be emphasized that this was not just an act of their customary, known hospitality, this was an act of personal courage. They simply placed their belief in the necessity to help those in need above their and their family’s safety.
Johanna J. Neumann, Silver Spring, MD
——
ELEMENTS OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY PROTECTED IN ALBANIA DURING THE NAZI OCCUPATION
-Published in the European Jewish Press by Mr. Ashley Perry, Friday, April 14, 2006:
Here is the recent declaration from His Excellency Mr. Mark Sofer, Israeli Ambassador and Ministry’s Deputy Director who led an Israeli Foreign Ministry delegation in Albania in March 2006.
…During his visit, Sofer stressed the historical links and fondness of many Jews to Albania.
“ALBANIA HAS NO HISTORY OF ANTI-SEMITISM”
“Not only in Israel, but all over the world, Jews admire Albania. Not just for the period of World War II, when Albania saved the Jews, but also because the country is well-known for its respect towards us. I can say that Albania has never had anti-Semitism,” he said.
Albania was one of the few countries in Eastern Europe that did not lose any of its Jewish population during World War II to the Nazis, while also offering shelter to other Jews who had escaped into Albania from Serbia, Austria, and Greece.
——
-Abstract of an article published in the Canadian Jewish Press
November 3, 2005
THE LONE HAVEN IN A HOSTILE CONTINENT: THE ALBANIAN HONOUR CODE AND THE SALVATION OF THE JEWS IN WWII
Albania, the only European country with a Muslim majority, managed to do what no other European nation was able or willing to do in the wake of German occupation during the second World War – saving the lives of every last Jewish citizen and refugee within its borders, who were in desperate need of protection from the infamous Nazi killing machine that swept through Europe in the 1940s…
Invitee Arnold Friedman of Toronto’s Jewish Holocaust Centre moved the audience to rousing applause when he declared that among all the powerful and civilized Super-nations of Europe that had the opportunity to do something about the anti-Semitic direction the continent was taking, it was “little Albania that stood up to the tyrants and saved the Jews. I am so proud,” he continued,” to be among you [Albanians], who are the only Europeans with clean hands.”
——
-Excerpt of a documentary by Mr. Norman Gershman available on the “Net”:
RESCUE IN ALBANIA – HOW ALBANIA SAVED ITS JEWS DURING THE HOLOCAUST –
PART 1
Norm Gershman holds a presentation at the AACL HQ where he presents his new documentary on how the Albanian people protected the Jewish residents of Albania and Kosovo during the Holocaust, by sheltering them in their homes and refusing to turn them over to the NAZI’s. Not a single Jew was allowed to be captured by the NAZI occupiers of Albania during the Second World War. Based on the book “Rescue in Albania – How Albania Saved its Jews during WWII”.
AACL/ABI
9 min 36 sec – May 10, 2006
http://www.aacl.com
——
The Jewish photographer Norman Gershman who presented his documentary, his photos and the testimonies he collected, has been working with the Albanian American Civic League and Foundation. He photographed and interviewed all of the Albanians (or their descendants) who saved Jews during the Holocaust, Albanians in Albania and many Albanians in Kosova, Macedonia, and Montenegro who helped Jews get across the border into Albania. Mr. Gershman has just returned from a trip to Kosova and Montenegro. All of his work on this subject will be exhibited at Yad Vashem in 2007.
——
– Abstract of the statement written by Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, Director of the Department for the Righteous, Yad Vashem Institute, about the role played by Albanians in saving Jews during the Holocaust:
Dr. Paldiel wrote this statement on the occasion of the Albanian American Civic League and Foundation’s fifteenth anniversary celebration and “Salute to Albanian Tolerance, Resistance and Hope: Remembering Besa and the Holocaust” in New York City on May 15, 2005 – an event that was attended by leaders and members of the Albanian and Jewish communities in the United States in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps.
Congressmen Tom Lantos, Henry Hyde, and Ben Gilman and Senator Charles Schumer were featured speakers, along with Rabbi Arthur Schneier, Kosova’s Roman Catholic Bishop Mark Sopi, Professor Apostol Kotani and Professor Petrit Zorba.
Statement by Dr. Mordecai Paldiel:
…The story of the Albanian rescuers is unique in several ways. Firstly, in that the persons saved were mostly not Albanian citizens, but Jews who had fled to that country when it was ruled by the Italians, and now found themselves in danger of deportation to concentration camps when the Germans took over, in September 1943. Secondly, the rescuers who were overwhelmingly of the Islamic faith felt a religious obligation to assist and save those who had sought refuge in their country and were unjustly persecuted; in other words, it was a behavior motivated by the Islamic religion, as wisely interpreted by the rescuers. Thirdly, and this is something uniquely Albanian—an honor code known as Besa; that is, a mark of honor and distinction to be able to be the ones to help others in desperate need. The Albanian rescuers were the only ones among rescuers in other countries who not only went out of their way to save Jews, but vied and competed with each other on the privilege of being a rescuer. This is uniquely Albanian. And thanks to Besa, almost all of the close to 2,000 Jews in the country were saved and survived. Finally, the Albanian example is testimony to an Islamic type of behavior, different from what unfortunately makes the headlines these days. Not of vengeance, hatred and suicide, but of compassion, loving-kindness and help to persons of another faith and origin…
Dr. Mordecai Paldiel
Director, Department for the Righteous.
-Yad Vashem-
——
ALSO AVAILABLE ON THE “WEB”:
-The statement pronounced by Mr. Alfred Moisiu, the President of the Republic of Albania, at oxford on November 9, 2005:
The Lecture of President Moisiu at the Oxford Forum
“THE INTER-RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE IN THE TRADITION OF THE ALBANIAN PEOPLE.”
——
-An article written by Ms. Cloyes-DioGuardi, political analyst and Executive Director of the Albanian American Foundation:
“JEWISH SURVIVAL IN ALBANIA AND THE ETHICS OF BESA”
Congress Monthly, January/February, 2006 edition, pages 7-10. Copyright by the American Jewish Congress, New York, NY.
Article available on: ddata.over-blog.com/xxxyyy/0/19/69/68/jewish-survival-in-albanie.pdf –
or Simbad Site: www. Simbadi.com
Rubrique: Liens Pr?f?r?s: “Jewish in Albania”
——
– Video abstracts of:
SENATOR CHARLES SCHUMER’S ADDRESS AT THE ALBANIAN AMERICAN CIVIC LEAGUE’S HISTORIC DINNER.
March 10, 2006
——
– The resolution submitted by Senators Charles Schumer and John McCain which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.
June 27, 2006
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
RESOLUTION
Commending the people of Albania on the 61st anniversary of the liberation of the Jews from the Nazi death camps, for protecting and saving the lives of all Jews who lived in Albania, or sought asylum there during the Holocaust.
Whereas at the start of World War II, approximately 200 Jews lived in the Republic of Albania, and approximately 1800 Jews escaped to Albania from Western Europe and the former Yugoslavia;
Whereas in 1934, United States Ambassador to Albania Herman Bernstein wrote that, `There is no trace of any discrimination against Jews in Albania, because Albania happens to be one of the rare lands in Europe today where religious prejudice and hate do not exist, even though Albanians themselves are divided into three faiths.’;
Whereas based on their unique history of religious tolerance, Albanians sheltered and protected Jews, even at the risk of Albanian lives, beginning with the invasion and occupation of Albania by Mussolini’s Italian fascists in 1939;
Whereas after Germany occupied Albania in 1943 and the Gestapo ordered Jewish refugees in the Albanian capital of Tirana to register, Albanian leaders refused to provide a list of Jews living in Albania, and Albanian clerks issued false identity papers to protect all Jews who travelled to and hid in Tirana;
Whereas Albanians considered it a matter of national pride and tradition to help Jews during the Holocaust, and due to the actions of many individual Albanians, virtually the entire native and refugee Jewish community in Albania during World War II survived the Holocaust;
Whereas Albania had more Jewish residents after World War II than before World War II; Whereas in June 1990, Jewish-American Congressman Tom Lantos and former Albanian-American Congressman Joe DioGuardi were the first United States officials to enter Albania in 50 years and received from the Communist Party leader and Albanian President Ramiz Alia a thick file from the Communist archives containing the records of the unpublicized heroicdeeds of hundreds of Albanians who rescued Jews during World War II;
Whereas Joe DioGuardi, upon returning to the United States, sent the file for authentication to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Museum in Jerusalem, Israel;
Whereas Yad Vashem has thus far designated 63 Albanians as `Righteous Persons’ and Albania as one of the `Righteous Among the Nations’;
Whereas in February 1995, Congressmen Tom Lantos, Benjamin Gilman, and Jerrold Nadler and former Congressman Joe DioGuardi spoke at a ceremony at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, commemorating the addition of Albania to the museum’s `Righteous Among the Nations’ installation;
Whereas based on the information authenticated by Yad Vashem, Jewish-American author and philanthropist Harvey Sarner published `Rescue in Albania’ in 1997, to call international attention to the unique role of the Albanian people in saving Jews from the Nazi Holocaust;
Whereas in October 1997, the Albanian American Civic League and Foundation began the distribution of 10,000 copies of `Rescue in Albania’ with forewords by Congressmen Lantos and Gilman to bring to the attention of the Jewish people and their leaders in particular the plight of Albanians living under Slobodan Milosevic in order to forestall another genocide;
Whereas on May 15, 2005, Jews and Albanians gathered in New York City in a `Salute to Albanian Tolerance, Resistance, and Hope: Remembering Besa and the Holocaust’ on the occasion for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps; and
Whereas in a statement presented at the ceremony Dr. Mordechai Paldiel, Director of the Department for the Righteous at Yad Vashem, commemorated the heroism of Albanians as `the only ones among rescuers in other countries who not only went out of their way to save Jews, but vied and competed with each other for the privilege of being a rescuer, thanks to besa’, the code of honor that requires Albanians to save the life of anyone seeking refuge, even if it means sacrificing his own life: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Senate–
(1) commends the people of Albania for protecting and saving the lives of all Jews, both native and refugee, living in Albania during the Holocaust;
(2) commends Yad Vashem in Israel and encourages others to recognize Albanians who took action to protect Jews during the Holocaust for their great
courage and heroism; and
(3) takes this occasion to reaffirm its support for close ties between the United States and Albania.
——
I can of course send the English version of the book: “they were not brothers and yet… Albania 1943-1944” if any journalist of Albanian literature, publisher, teacher… wished to read it.
I keep also at disposal to the specialists of World War II and the Jewish rescue many documents, testimonies about the subject treated by Neshat Tozaj.
My congrarulations to Ms. Victoria Schonfeld for the quality of her contribution.
Please excuse the length of the message but the subject treated by Neshat Tozaj requires some historical information…
May I add that while reading “They were not brothers and yet… Albania 1943-1944” it is as if we were watching the story on the screen. Considering Neshat Tozaj is also a film script writer, I remain convinced that this book should deserve to become one day a film but this is another story…
Best regards
Claire.
P.S.( It is possible for the readers of French language “lovers” to order “Ils n’?taient pas fr?res et pourtant… Albanie 1943-1944” via Internet on Amazon.fr, alapage.com or La Soci?t? des Ecrivains, French Publishers.)
Yes, I know about the Albanian case. It’s also amazing.
I am working on a web site, which will show all the beauty of the Bulgarian Church getting over the king to win the lives of the jews in Bulgaria during WW II. Hope it will be up and running soon!
After living for a year in Sofia (2005) I learned a great deal about heroism of some of the people and especially the church leaders Kyril and Stefan. I’m glad to learn about Albania’s story, also little known.
I’d like to get a citation for where and when Kyril made his statement threatening to lie down on the railroad tracks.
Also I see the article on Bulgaria follows Chaim Oliver’s book, “We Were Saved,” which I am now reading.