By Peter Tase/
The Albanian Communist regime (1945-1990) has sparked a gust of heated debate pertaining to a series of publications that are written in the last 33 years by Enver Hoxha’s henchmen, Qemal Lame (whose political asylum in Germany has emboldened his desire to disinform) and other surrogates that have revived the silhouette of communist concentration camps with their highly varnished autobiographies and stories. In the last three decades Tirana has been saturated with books and memories that further increase the gloominess of its communist past; considering that Karl Jaspers’ Metaphysical Guilt and Responsibility is not taken into account, let alone having the capacity to reveal the deeper truth about themselves. [1]
Even though many years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, metaphysical guilt is not reflected in any works of literature focused on communist Albania, published after 1990 by the top brass of communist regime. Before this dramatic situation and lack of consciousness that makes each co-responsible for every wrong and every injustice in the 45 years of brutal communist rule, especially for crimes committed in their presence or with their knowledge; reminds us Hannah Arendt’s (1906-1975) “the banality of evil,” which brings into the limelight the character in Albert Camus’s novel “The Stranger” (1942), who randomly and informally kills a man, but then afterwards feels no remorse. [2]
In 2022, Dr. Anna Kohen, DDS, born in Vlora, Albania, published a highly acclaimed memoir: “The Flower of Vlora: Growing up Jewish in Communist Albania” (Holocaust Survivor True Stories); a masterpiece that encompasses a series of substantial elements that emanated in a communist society. “Flower of Vlora” is a bouquet of Kohen’s genuine encounters and hardships in post-World War II Albania; where she grew up in a small community of Romaniote Jews that were saved from Nazi forces by a family of Muslim Albanians. Dr. Kohen and her family have experienced personally the hardships of the communist dictatorship; she is perhaps the only writer, foreign and domestic, that has written with candor, courage, wisdom and fortitude about the ruthless communist regime of Albania; intertwining important sequences and events of Albanian history during WWII. While in the aftermath of post – communism, misery of life in Southeast Europe under socialist dictatorships can fade from our collective memory, in Dr. Kohen’s admirable writing style, emerges as the fulcrum of Albanian brutal communist legacy; her suffering representing, serving as a mirror image, of the socio-economic reality that had succumbed thousand, many thousands of families in isolated Shqipëria (the modern name of Albania, called by the local population, meaning “Land of Eagles”).
In the introduction of Dr. Kohen’s book, Saimir A. Lolja (in May, 2021) writes about Jewish families being rescued and sheltered with warmth by Albanian families:
“The story of Jews in Albania and their total salvation by Albanians during WWII—after all, not a single Jew in Albania was murdered by the Nazis—is an example of how Albanians came together to survive the war without giving up their Jewish neighbors to the Nazis as happened in so many other European countries. Albania saving its Jews is worthy of singular praise, and has left a lasting positive legacy for the small country in its international relations. The story of Albania and how it saved its Jews radiates an important lesson about responsibility and humanity… Albanians practicing Besa rescued Jews throughout the Holocaust and at other times in the 20th century. They saved captured soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1917 and the Italian Army in 1943. They cared for Greek citizens and wounded soldiers in WWII and following the Greek Civil War.”
Dr. Saimir A. Lolja, continues: “Albania was a warm sanctuary for Albanians expelled by Serbs from Dardania (Kosovo Polje) in 1998-1999. That Besa is unique to Albania and is not derived from Islam is underscored by Muslim Bosnia, where Jews were not saved during the Holocaust.
In Albania, Jews were dispersed and sheltered in organized safe houses by neighbors who knew what they were doing, who cooperated together, who did not spy on one another, and who were assisted by Albanian officials…Anti-Semitism was well-established in neighbouring Serbia before WWII and encouraged by politicians, military officers, and the Serbian Orthodox Church. It flourished during the war. On January 20, 1942, a meeting of senior Nazi officials took place in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee. Called the Wannsee Conference, it specifically decided to complete “the final solution to the Jewish question.” It decided the number of Jews that should be exterminated in each of the European countries.”
Dr. Kohen, as a prolific writer, highly acclaimed in international audiences has shared with us the hardships of Albanian society with the same passion, style and dedication that draws the antithesis of the Roman god Janus, king of Latium, who was possessed of two faces, one pointing toward the future and one looking backward into the past, and as Benjamin Kunkel, of the New Yorker would say: “it is tempting to imagine that these faces must also have worn contrasting expressions, one brighter and hopeful, the other rueful or even aghast.” In Dr. Kohen’s narrative is revealed Albania’s true and sole face of generosity and Besa; indispensable values – ingrained within the Albanian society – that even a totalitarian regime and today’s smothered transitional democracy are unable to contain.
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