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ABSTRACT
The first Albanian Righteous Among the Nations was recognized only in 1987, 24 years after the programmme's birth - one of the longest periods before the first recognition by Yad Vashem's database. Rescue took many forms and rescuers came from different social classes, professions and religions. The vast majority of the rescued were refugees arriving in 1940-43, when the country was under fascist occupation. The information about Albanian rescuers during the Holocaust is still incomplete, mostly due to the country's decades-long extreme isolation after World War II. Albania experienced the most severe dictatorship and repression in Europe. After the official recognition of the state of Israel in 1949, the Albanian government froze bilateral relations until the 1990s. During the communist period, several scholars from “enemy countries” requested information regarding the Jewish community and other important issues, but the authorities did never respond. In addition, the exchange of information between the rescuers and the rescued was impossible. Albania was the only Eastern Bloc state that did never establish diplomatic ties with Israel and other so-called revisionist countries.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Schneiderman and Maller, “Statistics of Jews,” 597–618.
2. Albanian official statistics reported slightly higher losses and casualties (Zickel and Iwaskiw, Albania, 37).
3. Gjonça, Communism, 20.
4. AQSH, Fond 171, Years 1929–1939, File I-110.
5. “Albania’s King Zog Extends Invitation to Jewish Settlers’.”
6. Elsie, Historical Dictionary of Albania, 218.
7. Gershman, Besa, 6.
8. Straub, “Jews in Albania,” 942–6.
9. Fischer, “The Jews of Albania during the Zogist Period,” 95–101.
10. Sarner, Rescue in Albania, 42; Straub, “Jews in Albania,” 942–6; and Cesarani et al., “Albania,” 104.
11. Sarner, Rescue in Albania, 5; Straub, “Jews in Albania,” 942–6; and Cesarani et al., “Albania,” 104.
12. Jacques, The Albanians, 424.
13. Sarner, Rescue in Albania; Gershman, Besa; Cesarani et al., “Albania,” 104; Straub, “Jews in Albania,” 942–6; Fischer, “The Jews of Albania during the Zogist Period,” 95–101; and Malaj, “Albanian Customary Law, Religion, and the Rescue.”
14. Sarner, Rescue in Albania, 83.
15. “The Righteous Among the Nations,” Yad Vashem, accessed 20 November 2022, https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous.html.
16. Author’s calculations from The Righteous Among the Nations Database (Yad Vashem – The World Holocaust Remembrance Center; accessed 20 November 2022). https://righteous.yadvashem.org/.
17. Sarner, Rescue in Albania, 51; Palmer and Palmer, “Why Traditional Ethical Codes Prescribing Self-Sacrifice Are a Puzzle”; Palmer, “Can Evolutionary Theory Explain Portrayals”; Malaj, “Albanian Customary Law, Religion, and the Rescue.”
18. Nidam-Orvieto and Steinfeldt, “The Rescue of Jews in Albania.”
19. “Besa: A Code of Honour,” Yad Vashem, accessed 20 November 2022, https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/besa/index.asp.
20. See note 18 above.
21. File number: M.31.2/4992, The Righteous Among the Nations Database.
22. Elsie, A Dictionary of Albanian Religion, 35.
23. Skendi, The Albanian National Awakening, 38; di Lellio and Schwandner‐Sievers, “The Legendary Commander.”
24. Palmer and Palmer, “Why Traditional Ethical Codes Prescribing Self-Sacrifice Are a Puzzle”; Elsie, Historical Dictionary of Albania, 224–5.
25. Galaty, “Modeling The Formation and Evolution of an Illyrian Tribal System”; Vickers, The Albanians, 6; Cook, Europe Since 1945, 39; Tarifa, “Of Time, Honor, and Memory”; and Hasluck, The Unwritten Law in Albania; Durham, Some Tribal Origins.
26. Hasluck, The Unwritten Law in Albania, 177.
27. Bernstein, “Jews in Albania.” Herman Bernstein was a writer and former United States Minister to Albania in 1930–1933.
28. Gjeçovi, The Code of Lekë Dukagjini, XIX.
29. Kadare, Broken April, 78. Ismail Kadare is probably the best known Albanian writer. His most influential works were published before 1990; many of his novels, which indirectly criticised the regime, were banned.
30. Doja, “Honor, Besa and Faith”; Palmer and Palmer, “Why Traditional Ethical Codes Prescribing Self-Sacrifice Are a Puzzle.”
31. Durham, Some Tribal Origins; Degrand, Souvenirs de la Haute-Albanie. The Kanun was considered an old and uncivilised tradition by Hoxha’s regime, and its application was ruthlessly suppressed. The Kanun’s endorsement of blood vengeance (gjakmarrja), or the obligation to commit homicide in specific situations, is inconceivable in modern society.
32. See note 18 above.
33. Fischer, Balkan Strongmen, 239–41; Åslund and Sjöberg, “Privatisation and Transition to a Market Economy”; Tarifa, “Albania’s Road from Communism”; and Artisien, “Albania in the Post-Hoxha Era.”
34. AQSH, Fond 14/APSTR, Year 1968, File 492.
35. File M.31.2/13,068, The Righteous Among the Nations Database.
36. Govrin, “Annals of Israeli-Albanian Contacts.”
37. AQSH, Fond 14/APMP, Year 1949, File 1; AQSH, Fond 14/APMP, Year 1950, File 2; AQSH, Fond 14/APMP, Year 1951, File 1; AQSH, Fond 14/APMP, Year 1955, File 1.
38. AQSH, Fond 14/APMP, Year 1956, File 2.
39. AQSH, Fond 14/APMP, Year 1958, File 1.
40. AQSH, Fond 14/APMP, Year 1965, File 1; AQSH, Fond 14/APMP, Year 1966, File 1.
41. AQSH, Fond 10/AP, Year 1967, File 193–1.
42. AQSH, Fond 14/APOU, Year 1967, File 1; AQSH, Fond 657, Year 1970, File 64; AQSH, Fond 489, Year 1973, File 11.
43. Hoxha, Vepra 22, 2.
44. Constitution of the People’s Republic of Albania (1976), Articles: 33, 37.
45. Constitution of the People’s Republic of Albania (1976), Articles: 15, 28.
46. Pano, “Albania in the 1970ʹs.”
47. Govrin, “Annals of Israeli-Albanian Contacts.”
48. Sarner, Rescue in Albania, 91.
49. O’Donnell, A Coming of Age, 242.
50. de Soto, Beddies, and Gedeshi, Roma and Egyptians in Albania, 11. The regime minimised the cultural and ethnic diversities in Albania.
51. Sarner, Rescue in Albania, 72; Young, “Religion and Society in Present‐Day Albania.”
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Visar Malaj
Visar Malaj is associate professor at the Faculty of Economy, University of Tirana, and a ‘CERGE-EI Foundation Teaching Fellow’.
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