The Albanians chose to save me

2024-01-27 16:27:44Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA MONIKA STAFA
The Albanians chose to save me
Monica Staff

Today is January 27, Holocaust Remembrance Day. This date was chosen because it also marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1945.

The horrors that happened there showed how fragile life is in a world gripped by evil and fascism.

There, and in dozens of other centers like these infamous camps, soldiers and civilians executed 6 million Jews outright of their own free will.

During the exercise of power, the Nazis and their collaborators also killed millions of other non-Jews.

But somewhere, in a small Balkan country, poor, backward too, it became a joyful gateway for every Jew seeking refuge and survival.

Albania!

The title was chosen not without purpose in this time period. Referring to the documents of the era and the language used in them, we honor the efforts of the institutions of the Albanian state but also our representations abroad, who, even without organization and separated from each other, even risking their lives, chose " to save me" life.

Researchers may disagree on facts and partial interpretations, but they all agree that there are two periods of Jewish protection in our country:

-during the reign and during the war.

The parties also agree that the salvation of the Jews in Albania cannot be explained without the presence of two factors:

the solidarity of the people and the attitude of the authorities.

This small state, with many treaties limiting its autonomy, which was among the first to be invaded at the outbreak of the Second World War, made a great challenge, rejecting anti-Semitism as a philosophy and as a legality, by not obeying the anti-Jewish laws of the Allies. big as Italy, and opening various paths to come to the aid of the Jews, to save them from the repetition of "crystal night" and any other form of mass hatred, violence and pogrom.

With hatred and anti-Semitism threatening democracies, we must stand in opposition whenever innocents are targeted.

Like those six million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust, 1.1 million of them in Auschwitz.

Today, about 400,000 survivors still live, almost half of them in Israel.

While the war there is marking another historic era of the two peoples' efforts for peace, we stand by our friends, crying out in unison: "Let Us Remember!"


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