Juifs en Albanie ( Jews in Albania)

Juifs en Albanie

(Jews in Albania)

Au cours de mes investigations sur le "Net" à propos du sauvetage des juifs en Albanie sous l'occupation nazie, j’ai trouvé cette réponse adressé par Claire à divers interlocuteurs, rencontrés sur des forums qui traitent des sujets historiques.

Cher Tous,

Cette page d'histoire ayant été jusqu'à présent peu explorée en France, je comprends parfaitement les interrogations légitimes et la surprise exprimées par certains d'entre vous. Si j'ai en effet insisté sur les documents officiels à disposition ou sur les témoignages collectés entre autres par le Professeur Kotani, c'est qu'il est parfois difficile de faire admettre en terre de France que des Albanais aient pu cacher des juifs ... Et ce pour toutes les raisonsque vous pouvez imaginer et qui n'ont en général aucun rapport avec le sujet traité.

Pour en revenir à la tradition du Besa qui, parmi les coutumes à observer, "oblige" les Albanais à porter secours à tout étranger dans la détresse, elle ne s'applique naturellement pas qu'à la communauté juive mais il se trouve qu'en ce qui concerne la période étudiée, de nombreux juifs purent bénéficier de l'accueil bien veillant réservé à l'hôte en général et donc trouver refuge en Albanie. Ce code d'honneur, commun à plusieurs peuples méditerranéens, fut également largement appliqué par exemple par les Siciliens et les Corses. En revanche il existe bel et bien  une tradition d'accueil et d'hospitalité typique de l'Albanie digne d'être soulignée, tradition deux fois millénaire en partie due à son histoire. En effet en plus de 2000 ans les Albanais durent subir de très nombreuses invasions sans jamais avoir envahi eux-mêmes d'autres territoires sans parler des diverses minorités qu'ils accueillirent au cours des âges dont de nombreux juifs expulsés d'Espagne. J'ai du reste reçu à ce propos de nombreux témoignages d'Italiens qui me disent que leurs grands pères, après la défaite de Mussolini, furent invités à demeurer en Albanie ou à regagner l'Italie sans que jamais aucun mal ne leur fût fait.  Il est toutefois certain que les personnes ayant rendu le plus bel hommage au code d'honneur appelé Besa appartiennent pour la plupart à la communauté juive car elles savent et pour cause de quoi elles parlent. Je puis par exemple, si vous le souhaitez, vous faire parvenir l'intégralité des écrits du Professeur Bernd Fischer ainsi que les témoignages, parmi de très nombreux autres à disposition, de l'écrivain Irène Grunbaum, du Dr. Johanna Neumann ou encore celui du Dr. Anna Cohen dont les familles furent accueillies en Albanie lorsqu'elles étaient enfants.

( Sur le photo: Jozef Fitzhum - SS leader in Albania )
Voici quelques extraits des hommages rendus par les personnes précitées, dans leur langue d'origine car la traduction pourrait en altérer l'authenticité:
"Farewell, I thought. You have given me so much hospitality, refuge, friends and adventure. Farewell. 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 loosing their lives. The gates of your small country remain open, . Your authorities closed their eyes, when necessary to give poor, persecuted people another chance to survive the most horrible of all wars. , we survived the siege because of your humanity. We thank you"
Irene Grunbaum
Having lived in from March 1939 to September 1945, I have to repudiate this erroneous statement. was one of the only European countries that did not turn over a single Jew to the Germans. There simply were no deportations from. My parents and I, along with many other German and Austrian families, found refuge in and were hidden by Albanians during the German occupation of that country. In 1941, when occupied , hundreds of Yugoslavian Jews were able to escape to the safety of 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. One only need go to Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and find the long list of names of those Albanians who have been honored as Righteous Among the Nations. Considering the fact that the population of in those years was not larger than one million citizens, the number of honorees is disproportionately large.
 
Johanna J. Neumann, Silver Spring, MD
 
Dear Friends,
I'm honored to be here today commemorating the biggest tragedy of our nation, the Holocaust. We are also here to celebrate one of the aspects of human behavior - that of helping each other in time of need. We look back on these dark times of civilization with tearful eyes and broken hearts trying to find lighter moments to ease the pain.
There is a small country in the heartland of Europe called 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. 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 , or those who sought refuge there were turned over to the fascists - all found a safe haven at great danger to their protectors.
My family was one of many who were saved. I'm not a survivor but a child of survivors, born in Vlora in southern. My parents, Nina and David Kohen, came from Janina. They were living in Vlora when the Nazis invaded. They fled to the mountains and hid in a small Muslim village called Trevllazer. They took Muslim names, my father David became Daut, my mother Nina became Bule, and my brother Elio became Ali. Everyone in the village knew they were Jews but not one person betrayed them. Ihad a very interesting experience that I would like to share with you: when I was about 5

or 6years

old, I was walking down the street with my mother, and I heard someone shouting, "Bule, Bule!!!" I turned my head to see what was going on, and this woman was running towards us. She ran to my mother and started to kiss and hug her with tears streaming down her face. Later on, my mother told me that she was one of the women from the Muslim village that had saved her life. Other Jews were hiding in people's houses. As you can see, the Albanian people risked their lives for the Jews. I would not be here today delivering this speech if it were not for the courage and generosity of those Albanians.
Until the year 1990, little was known about and the Albanian Jews but when things began to change in the country, an Israeli photographer, Gavra Mandil, remembered the Veseli family who saved his life. Gavra Mandil had taken refuge in after the Nazis invaded, and the Veseli family saved him. He invited Refik Veseli to, and, for the first time, an Albanian Muslim was honored with the title Righteous Gentile. As a matter of fact, if you look at the calendar in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, on the second page in the month of February, is a picture of Gavra Mandil and Refik Veseli. Since then, more and more Righteous Albanians were discovered and honored in . A list of all of their names is posted in the museum.On behalf of the Albanian Jews living in and, I would like to give a message to the Albanian people and the Righteous Gentiles: thank you for saving us, we will never forget you.As Apostol Kotani says in his recent book, The Hebrews of Albania During Centuries, "Sikur te kisha krahe e te fluteroja do te veja te puthja token Shqipetare qe me shpetoj jeten. " If I could have wings to fly, I would come to kiss the holy Albanian land which saved my life."

Thank you ! 

Dr. Anna Kohen

Pour en revenir au roman à caractère historique de Neshat Tozaj , je m'empresse de rassurer les éventuels lecteurs, à aucun moment il n'est question  dans l'ouvrage d'apologie des Albanais. Ce roman nous permet simplement, à partir d'évènements authentiques, d'approcher le sujet évoqué, l'amitié de deux enfants, la Résistance , l'engagement des nombreux juifs ayant trouvé refuge en Albanie auprès des partisans, l'hommage qui leur en est rendu ainsi que la culture du pays.

Bien à vous.

Claire