The Best WWII Refuge for Jews in Occupied Europe Was…Albania??

The Best WWII Refuge for Jews in Occupied Europe Was…Albania??

By Rich Juro

Yes, the title statement is true.  Here’s the story of the only Nazi-occupied land with a larger Jewish population at the end of WWII than at the beginning.

Albania is a small, mountainous, mostly Muslim country located just across the Adriatic Sea from Italy in Southern Europe. There were Jews living in Albania for centuries. These included Romaniote Jews who came after the 70 C.E. expulsions from the Holy Land, and Sephardic Jews who travelled to the Ottoman Empire after the Inquisition exiled them from Spain in 1492. Most spoke Albanian rather than Yiddish, Hebrew, or Ladino (the language of Sephardic Jews), and, for the most part, lived peacefully with their neighbors. Before World War II there were less than 200 Jews living in the Kingdom of Albania, and some of those had recently come from Germany and Austria when the Nazis gained power. The Albanian Embassy in Berlin continued to issue visas to Jews until the end of 1938, even though all other European countries had ceased to do so.

In early 1939, King Zog (I love that name) was deposed, and Albania was recreated as a protectorate of Italy. Fascists took control, and even expanded the Albania’s territory to include parts   of neighboring Kosovo and Macedonia. In the original borders of Albania, Jews were pretty much left alone. Soon hundreds of Jewish refugees from Yugoslavia, Greece, and even Central Europe, made their way to the new safe haven.

Who protected them? Most of the Italian occupiers were not concerned about the Jews. More important, the Albanian people were not anti-Semitic, and lived according to their long-established customs of hospitality and besa (“word of honor”). The Albanians considered the safety of guests as an ancient and sacred tradition. Besa, literally means “to keep the promise”; once a family was hosted by Albanians, they could trust them with their lives.

Albania Flag

Once Italy surrendered and Albania became directly controlled by German Nazis, many Jews were quietly transported to Albanian ports from where they could travel to Italy. Many others hid in remote mountain villages, protected by their Muslim and Christian neighbors, or joined the Resistance. When the Fascists asked for lists of Jews, the Albanian authorities refused to do so. Moreover, many Jews were given fake documents that allowed them to intermingle among the rest of the population. As a result, during the war the number of Jews in Albania increased tenfold, as nearly 2,000 Jews received refuge. The survival rate was close to 100%!

Jews were not so fortunate in Kosovo, the rest of Yugoslavia,  Greece, or other conquered European nations, where many or most Jews were turned over to German authorities, and died either in local or Polish concentration camps. It should be noted that in nearby Bulgaria, although the nation became aligned with the Fascist powers, the local Jews were protected, primarily by the head of the Bulgarian (Christian) Orthodox Church, and most survived the war. However, Jews in areas of other countries (Macedonia, Greece) controlled by Bulgaria, were not protected and mostly perished in the Holocaust.  Denmark saved most of its Jews by arranging for their safe removal by ship to neutral Sweden. But Albania was the only country conquered by Axis powers that protected its Jews, native or refugees, who were within its borders.

In late 1944, Enver Hoxha led the Communist forces to victory in Albania. He set up a Stalinist dictatorship that became closed to the outside world for 40 years. Hoxha was not anti-Semitic, he was anti-religion. He declared Albania an atheist state and destroyed churches and mosques. Luckily, most Jews had already emigrated from the country as WWII was ending. In 1991, six years after Hoxha’s death, 350 Albanian Jews were airlifted to Israel in “Operation Flying Carpet”, and most of the remaining 60 Jews left in 1997 during a period of political unrest.

The Republic of Albania was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1995.  And at least 70 Albanian citizens are listed at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Museum in Israel, for their role in saving the lives of their Jewish friends and neighbors.

Author’s Note: We recently visited Kosovo, and then drove through Albania and Montenegro to Bosnia and Herzegovina. 10 years ago, we spent a few days in Albania, but had no idea of the history of the Jews in Albania. Our host in Kosovo, former Omahan Rand Engel, mentioned the surprising story of the Albanian Jews to us. I was intrigued, did some research, and this article, with Rand’s help, is the result. I hope you found the topic as interesting as I did.  R.J.