Holocaust Memorial of Tirana. Photo: BIRN
April 12, 2023
New museum will celebrate the Albanians who risked their lives to shield Jews from Nazi persecution – and whose story has remained largely untold.
Albania’s government has announced plans to establish a “Besa Museum” in the capital, Tirana, to honour the Albanians who saved the country’s small Jewish community from Nazi persecution during World War II, and celebrate Jewish life in the once isolated Balkan state.
Prime Minister Edi Rama announced the establishment of the museum at a gala event honouring the Albanian “Righteous Among the Nations” during his recent visit to Jerusalem.
During the event, Rama said: “It is another very important moment in Tirana’s history, urban development, and architecture, and I believe we will finally be able to breathe a sigh of relief from a long-standing burden of obligation in relation to our children and visitors to our country, related to perhaps the most glorious page of Albanian history, the rescue of Jews during World War II.”
The museum is to be named “Besa”, Albanian for “promise” or “trust”, which relates to an honour code dating back centuries. It was this idea that saved hundreds if not thousands of Jewish lives during the Holocaust.
The museum will be located in a building once belonging to the influential Toptani family. A typical 19th-century Ottoman Albanian building, it has been designated a Cultural Heritage and Cultural Monument. Other existing Jewish sites in the country include the Jewish Quarter in Vlora and the Solomon Museum in Berat. There is also a memorial to victims of the Holocaust in Tirana’s lake park.
“The rescue of the Jews during World War II is one of the most beautiful pages in the history of the Albanians. Christians and Muslims sacrificed everything to protect them,” Elva Margariti, Albania’s Minister of Culture, said.
“For Albanians this is BESA; it is a value that we will pass on to our children, telling them this extraordinary story. The Besa Museum will be a bridge of communication between generations; a dialogue space for sharing the best values of our peoples.”
One of the leading behind-the-scenes figures in pushing ahead with this project is Kazakh-Israeli businessman and philanthropist Alexander Machkevitch, who heads the Eurasian Resources Group and has business interests in the Balkans.
“I am humbled to be a part of this important project that will memorialize the bravery of Albanians who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The Albanian people, and particularly Prime Minister Edi Rama, have shown great commitment to preserving the memory of these heroic acts, and it is an honour to work alongside them. This project is a testament to the power of solidarity and compassion in the face of darkness, and I hope it will inspire future generations to continue this legacy of kindness,” Machkevitch said.
The Balkans was once home to a small but vibrant and well-integrated Jewish community. However, much like Jews elsewhere in occupied Europe, their communities were all but annihilated by the Nazis and their quisling forces.
However, some Balkan Muslims went to extremes to save their Jewish neighbours even though to help a Jew then meant risking the lives of one’s entire family – a daunting prospect.
Acts of rescue were rare throughout Europe during the Holocaust, and it is estimated that less than one half of 1 per cent of those living under Nazi occupation helped Jews in one way or another.
Summer flowers lie next to the star of David in memory of the victims of the Holocaust 70 years after, at the Jewish cemetery in Iasi, 410 km north of Bucharest, Romania, 29 June 2011. Photo: EPA/RADU ANECULAESI.
Jewish community grew in size during the war
Albania, however, prides itself in being the only country in Europe, and a Muslim majority country, to have far more Jews at the end of World War II than at the beginning.
Although Albania was occupied by both Fascist Italy and later by Nazi Germany, its Jewish population grew tenfold throughout the war from only 200 to almost 2,000.
Some Jews in Albania felt safe enough to continue operating their businesses throughout the occupation, trusting their neighbours would not turn them in. The Albanian embassy in Berlin was also the only European embassy to continue issuing visas to Jews throughout the war, and Albania became a transit point for Jews fleeing to the Americas. Thousands of Jewish lives were saved this way.
The Jews of Albania are descended from Andalucian Jewish refugees known as Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain and Portugal during the 15th century. These Sephardic Jews settled throughout the Balkan Peninsula after being provided safe passage and safe haven by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet Fatih and built flourishing communities in the region.
Many spoke Ladino, a language based on elements of Hebrew and medieval Spanish.
Bosnia’s response to the plight of Jews during the Second World War was also worth mentioning. A recently produced film film Sevap/Mitzvah (Good Deed) is based on the true story of Muslim woman, Zejneba Hardaga, and her family who hid the Jewish Kabiljo family in their home in Nazi-occupied Sarajevo and helped them move to Israel.
The Hardagas were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Israel’s Holocaust museum Yad Vashem based on testimony provided by the Kabiljo family. The designation is given to non-Jews who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.
Another Bosnian hero was Derviš Korkut, a Muslim scholar who became known as the “Rescuer of the Sarajevo Haggadah”, as he risked his own life to save the precious illuminated manuscript from 16th-century Andalucia from the Nazi General Johann Hans Fortner who was frantically combing Sarajevo to find it.
US photographer Norman Gershman, from Basalt, Colorado, with one of his large photographic portraits of an Albanian Moslem woman named Lime Balla who saved Jews during the Holocaust of World War II, shown at the opening of an exhibition called ‘BESA – A Code of Honour’ in the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel on 01 November 2007. Photo: EPA/JIM HOLLANDER
Stories of bravery were soon forgotten
However, the stories of Balkan rescuers and heroes long remained relatively unknown due to the political isolation of the countries under communist rule.
In Albania’s case, they were not acknowledged until 1987, when Yad Vashem museum recognized at least 75 Albanians as “Righteous Among the Nations”. Only recently have archives been made more open to foreign researchers and historians, who are working on documenting the Albanian experience during the Holocaust.
At the international level, it was through former US Congressman Joe Di Guardi and Tom Lantos who visited Albania after the collapse of communism in 1990 that the efforts of the Albanian people in this field were first recognized internationally. It was the first US official delegation to visit Albania since 1939.
The Jewish experience in Albania was further internationalized and popularized by Norman Gershman, an American photographer fascinated by their stories, who traveled to Albania and Kosovo between 2003 and 2008 to chronicle the tales of the righteous Albanians and their devotion to the “Besa” code.
In his exhibition, Albanian Muslim Rescuers During the Holocaust, he presented portraits and testimonies of Albanian Muslim rescuers and their descendants. When he asked them why they had rescued Jews, their response was “Besa”. According to one Albanian, “Albanians would rather die than break the Besa.”
In July 2020, an inauguration ceremony was held for the new Holocaust Memorial established in Tirana. The ceremony was attended by Prime Minister Rama, the US ambassador, Yuri Kim, the Israeli ambassador to Albania, Noah Gal Gendler, and representatives of all religious communities in Albania.
However, while more and more attention is being paid to commemorating the Holocaust in the Balkans, Jewish life in the Balkans itself is fading. Sarajevo, once home to a large Balkan Jewish community, is now home to just a thousand or so, with many considering themselves to be Jewish but admitting they know hardly anything about Judaism.
In other Balkan countries, such as Croatia and Serbia, Hitler’s World War II quislings are even being politically and legally rehabilitated on the political far right. There is no longer a young generation or full-blown Jewish life. The Ladino language is almost extinct and all that remains are vague childhood memories among the older generation and a yearning for a bygone era.
Dr. Harun Karcic is a journalist and political analyst covering the Balkans. He has authored numerous articles on geopolitics and religion, particularly Islam, in the post-communist Balkans. He also writes about the role played by foreign powers including Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey. His scope has more recently expanded to include China and Russia as well. He also regularly reports on Muslim minorities in Europe and rising right-wing nationalism.
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BIRN.
source https://balkaninsight.com/2023/04/12/albania-to-honour-heroes-who-saved-jews-from-holocaust/
Categories: Albania, Europe, Israel, Jewish Faith, Jewish Reactions, Jews