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The story of Albanians saving Jews during the dark days of the Holocaust will have a dedicated place to remember: the Albanian Jewish Museum, which was established with the support of the Albanian American Development Foundation to build a contemporary institution that will bear witness to the unique history of coexistence, faith and hope between Albanians and Jews, especially during World War II.
The Albanian American Development Fund (AADF) has announced the launch of a tender process, inviting qualified companies to apply for the construction of the Albanian Jewish Museum in Vlora. According to AADF, this is a contemporary project in harmony with the historic center of the city. The Jewish Museum of Vlora will tell a unique story dedicated to the coexistence of Jews and Albanians through time, aiming to become a cultural magnet in the historical area of Vlora. With the construction of this museum, new standards will be set for museums in Albania, supporting the creation of the only contemporary museum in Albania and the region in terms of mission, concept, architecture, management and governance, a model of exposure and storytelling, partnership and community engagement. The project construction value amounts to $3 million.
history
The Jews in Albania and their history in our country can be traced back 2000 years. In his book Albania and the Jews, historian Apostol Kotani states: “The honorable Jews probably first came to Albania as captives in Roman ships that landed on the southern coast of Albania in the early 70s. The descendants of these captives also built the first synagogue in the southern port of Saranda in the fifth century.” Until the 15th century, little was known about the Jews in the villages of today’s Albania. Today’s Albanian Jews, mainly Sephardim, found refuge after being expelled from their Albanian villages, which were part of the empire during the division and help of the Ottoman Reconquista, whose heirs make up only a very small part of the Albanian population. During World War II, Albania was one of the few countries in Europe where the Jewish population increased, due to the help given to the Albanians and the fact that no Jews surrendered to the Germans. During the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the Socialist People’s Republic of Albania banned all religions, including Judaism, in accordance with the state’s doctrine of atheism. In the post-communist era, many Jews immigrated to Israel, and today there are very few Jews in Albania.
Deportation
In the 12th century, Benjamin of Tudela denounced them as evil and listed the presence of Jews in his travelogue. In the 13th century, there was a Jewish community in Durres engaged in the salt trade. In 1426, the Ottomans encouraged Jews to establish a settlement in Vlora so that they could participate in commercial activities. The Vronian Jewish community grew as Jews were expelled from Corfu, the Venetian territories, Naples, and the Iberian Peninsula. After the Reconquista, 150,000 Sephardic Jews were expelled from Spain and received help, transportation, and shelter from the Ottomans. In addition to Vlora, a Jewish congregation was established in Berat. And Jewish presence was declared in Elbasan and Leza. In 1520, there were reportedly 609 Jewish families in Vlora, and it is known that a synagogue was built there, the only one in the Albanian village, but it was destroyed in World War I.
Vlora was the center of the Albanian Jewish community, not only because of the location of the synagogue, but also because of its commercial importance and its connections with other commercial cities in the region. Many of the Jews who settled in Vlora were families from the Roman Iot Jewish community of Ioannina, a very old Jewish community that dates back to the Byzantine period and was historically located in parts of Greece, such as Ioannina, Volos, Arta and Kavala. In 1673, the self-proclaimed prophet Sabbatai Zevi was exiled by the Sultan to the Albanian port of Ulcinj in Montenegro, where he died a few years later. The Jewish community of this period was mainly concentrated in Vlora. Vlora Jews were divided into Portuguese, Castilian and Catalan peoples. On March 20, 1914, the newspaper Israel World published an article about the Jews of Vlora, which mentioned the composition of the community and the fact that there were frequent fights among them. Rabbi and philosopher David Leon served as rabbi there, with a salary of 70 florins, which was slightly less than the annual budget of Prince Vider.
Record
The first Jewish census in Albania was conducted between 1923 and 1930, and according to the data from this census, the number of Jews permanently residing in Albania reached nearly 200. In 1934, James MacDonald, the League of Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, asked the Kingdom of Albania whether it would be possible for some Jews from Germany to settle in Albania, and he immediately received a positive answer.
Historians estimate the number of families that benefited from this aid to be around 500 Jewish families. In the same year, Hermann Bernstein, then the US ambassador to Tirana, wrote in the Jewish Daily Bulletin: “There is no discrimination against the Jews in Albania, because Albania is one of the few countries in Europe today where there is prejudice against the Jews. Religion does not exist”. King Zog’s attitude towards the Jews was mainly benevolent, and he even called for the acceptance of the Jews in Albania and the provision of land for them, an appeal he repeated while in England during the war.
war
At the beginning of World War II, there were about 200 Jews in Albania. Subsequently, it became a safe haven for hundreds of Jewish refugees from other countries. At the Wannsee Conference in 1942, Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind of the Holocaust in Europe, estimated that 200 Jews would be killed in Albania. However, the Jews in Albania were protected by the local population, which made it impossible for the Jews in Albania to be killed. Even after the surrender of Italy in September 1943, when the Nazi army occupied Albania, the protection continued.
At the end of the war, there were 2,000 Jews in Albania. On April 7, 1939, Italy invaded and annexed Albania. Jews were expelled from the coastal port cities and relocated to the interior of Albania. In 1939, several Austrian and German families took refuge in Tirana and Durres, hoping to eventually go to the United States or South America. Many Jewish refugees also passed through Albania on their way to Palestine. These refugees were treated well by the Italian army and the local population. Families of Jewish refugees began to disperse throughout Albania and integrate into society. Jewish children continued to attend school, but under false names and religious beliefs. The Italians rejected the Final Solution and therefore did not enforce anti-Jewish laws. However, many Albanians joined the SS “Skënderbeu” division.
refugee
Some Jewish refugees were eventually placed in a transit camp in Kavaja, from where they were sent to Italy. At one point, nearly 200 Jews were housed in the Kavaja camp. Some Albanian officials tried to save these Kavaja Jews by issuing identity cards to hide them in the capital, Tirana. In the spring of 1941, with the fall of Yugoslavia, the province of Kosovo was annexed to Albania, forming Greater Albania. Many Jewish families in the newly occupied territories of Greater Albania were placed in the detention prison in Pristina, Yugoslavia. About 100 Jewish men and their families were taken from the Prison in Pristina to Berat, where many of these Jewish refugees were protected by local Albanians. At the request of Germany, Jewish refugees held in the Prison in the annexed territory of Yugoslavia were handed over to German troops. These refugees were then taken to Belgrade and killed.
Germany
In September 1943, Germany recaptured the territory from Italy. In early 1944, the Gestapo forced all Jews in Tirana to register with German officials. As a result, many Jews went to Albanian villages outside the city. When the Germans asked for lists of Jewish families living in Albania, officials refused to give out that information; instead, the Albanians warned the Jews and promised to protect them. In April 1944, 300 Jews, mostly refugees from Kosovo, were imprisoned in Pristina Prison, and hundreds more were imprisoned in the following months. Ultimately, 400 of these Jews were sent to Bergen-Belsen in the summer of 1944, and only 100 survived.
Between 1941 and 1944, nearly 600 Jews from Greater Albania were sent to various concentration camps in Europe. As a result, many historians disagree on the role played by Albanians in the Holocaust. While Albanians may have tried to save Jews in Albania, the government was aware of the roundup and deportation of Jews from the Kosovo region. After 1944, Italy and Germany agreed to place most of Yugoslavia under Albanian jurisdiction. Many Jews from Serbia, Greece, and Croatia fled to this region. On December 29, 1944, Tirana was liberated from German occupation. By the end of the war, Albania had become home to approximately 2,000 Jews, as Albanian citizens risked their lives to provide refuge for Jews fleeing from neighboring countries. Albania was the only Nazi-occupied territory to see an increase in its Jewish population during the Holocaust.
As of January 2011, Israel’s Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem has recognized 69 Albanians as Righteous Gentiles, people who helped or saved Jews from Nazi persecution during the Holocaust.
Communism
During the communist regime in Albania under the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha, the Jewish community was isolated from the Jewish world. Hoxha banned inter-religious ceremonies in order to establish lasting national unity and build a new socialism. In this way, the fate of the Jewish community became inextricably linked to the fate of Albanian society as a whole. All religions were strictly prohibited in the country. The Jewish population numbered about 200. After the fall of communism in 1991, almost all Albanian Jews immigrated to Israel and settled mainly in Tel Aviv. There is almost no history of anti-Semitism among local Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Albania.
Most Albanians are not hostile to them. There are many Jewish Albanians who have contributed to our country, although most of those who took refuge in Albania after the war immigrated to Israel immediately after the fall of communism. Today, more than 160 Jews live in Albania, most of them in the capital, Tirana. An old synagogue was discovered in the city of Saranda, and a new synagogue named “Hekal Shlomo” began serving the Jewish community of Tirana in December 2010. There is a synagogue in Vlora, but it is not yet in use. In December 2010, Chief Rabbi Joel Kaplan was awarded the title of the first Chief Rabbi of Albania by Prime Minister Sali Berisha and Israel’s Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar. A Jewish community center named “Moshe Rabenu” was also inaugurated in Tirana. /Bulletin Panorama
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