The Albanian Besa – Dielli

THE ALBANIAN BESA AND A SHORT HISTORY OF JUDAISM IN ALBANIA

August 10, 2013 by dgreca

By Mal BERISHA*/

It is a great honour and a privilege for me today to be here and speak about a remarkable story of longstanding relations between the Albanian Nation and the Jewish Community in my country, Albania. This relationship is a case study, not only because every life of the Albanian Jews was saved in Albania, during the time of Holocaust but also because the number of Jews, who were fleeing Europe, sheltered and saved in Albania, was doubled and tripled during the W.W.II.

The history of Albanian – Hebrew relations goes back at the time of Romans and continues to be strong, peaceful, and excellent in the course of centuries. There is no pogrom, crime, offense, persecution whatsoever, performed by Albanians as a native population in their country against the Jews in more than two thousand years since the first Jewish settlement is recorded in the country. There are signs of Jewish presence in Albania, such as a Basilica of 5^th century BC in the south-western city of the country, Saranda, a large archaeological excavated area of one of the biggest synagogues of the Balkan region. There are some very well-known Jews who have been related to Albania such as Sabatai Zvi, a famous traveller Nathans of Gaza, Albert Einstein, Herman Bernstein, etc.

In 1930 the United States assigned an Ambassador in Albania named Herman Bernstein – who was a Jew. Born in Lithuania, he had covered the Soviet Revolution for the New York Times. He took a serious interest on the Jewish History in Albania. Among things that he learned and discovered there was the Life of the Messiah False, Sabattai Zvi. In the Middle of the 17^th century a soothsayer born in Izmir, Turkey known as Sabbatai Zvi proclaimed he was the Messiah and convinced thousands of Jews to sell their belongings and go with him to the Promised Land. His story goes on and on but finally he perished in Albania, interned by the sultan where he established a very liberal Muslim – Jewish sect named Bektashi which is still in existence in that country. He died in 1673 as the most famous non-Albanian Jew in Albanian’s history.

There are many newspapers that have published articles about a possibility that Albert Einstein was provided with an Albanian Passport when he left Europe for the United States. It was said that he went to Albania, got the passport and the US Visa and after 3 days he travelled to the United States. There are many Albanians who have given testimony about this fact. However, no records were found about this interesting fact. It might have been concealed for security reasons of that time. This fact makes Albanians also very proud for what they have done.

It is estimated that in the beginning of 1930, Albania had about 1000 Jews located mainly in Vlora, Durresi, Tirana, Berat and Elbasani. In 1945 this number was about 3000. The Jewish population increased in Albania three times while in Europe it was reduced in millions. In Greece for example, the majority of them were consigned to the Germans. Why did Albanians save everyone, contrary to what was happening all over Europe? This is what I would like to explain.

When the Nazi Germans started to persecute Jews in Europe, it was the Albanian King, Ahmet Zogu who instructed all his Consular Missions to grant a visa to every Jew, who, despite the fact that his or her passport had a sign “J” for “Jew” stamped on it, should be allowed to enter Albania for an indefinite period of stay. From 1937 to the end of the war a big number of Jews entered and were sheltered in Albania, staying there or making their way out to other safe countries.

Albania is the only country in Europe where no life of a Jew was lost, no Jew was handed over to the Nazis. They were all sheltered by Albanians simply who pursued BESA, their Code of Honour. There was no government in place, to force them to do that, but they did it and they did not offer asylum to persecuted Jews for monetary gains either..

There are 69 Albanians remembered in the Row of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem.. To better understand why that miraculous behaviour was performed by Albanians it is necessary to explain the most, special, rare, righteous tradition of Albanians which stands above any other moral value and is named BESA.. It is the fundamental part of the Kanun. The Kanun is a very old code among the Albanian society. According to this Code/Kanun explains: “The house of an Albanian belongs to God and to the guest” Every hour of the day and night, a man must be ready to receive a guest with bread, salt, and an open heart. He must offer him a bed, a pillow and a worm hearth. To the delight of the Jewish refugees seeking shelter among Albanians – many of whom were Muslims – from the Nazi killing machine “Guest” meant guests in the country as well guest in the house. Everyone can see himself as a good man when he is addressed as a man of honour.” A man must defend his guest’s honour even if he endangers his own life in doing so.”

A few case studies should suffice to show how the strong influence of BESA made Albanians offer shelter between 1930 and 1945 to many Jewish Refugees that tried to survive the Nazi persecution. BESA influenced Albanians of the different religions with a majority of Muslims to provide secret shelters for a large number of Jewish Refugees between 1930 and 1945.

Moshe Mandili and his 7 member family were among 120 Jews who travelled from Belgrade to Albania during the Italian occupation that started in 1938. They stayed in Tirana at the Refik Veseli’s Family while Italians were there. Later on, in 1943, Albania was occupied by Germans. Refik Veseli took them to his parent’s house in a village. There, they stayed one year. When they felt that Germans were coming to chase them, they were taken to a cave and saved. This host family took all the risks.

Sulo Mecaj was a farmer in Kruja and lived with his wife and son in a small house he built with his father. In 1943 he opened his house to ten Jews, members of the Battino family. When Sulo received a message that the Germans were going to his house looking for Jews, he told the Jews that when he gives a signal, they should go to the space that he had prepared for them in the attic. Panic surfaced and Sulo tried to reassure the Jews that it was unlikely they would be discovered. One Jew asked, what would happen if the Germans will set the house on fire. To reassure them, Sulo asked his only son to go to the attic with them and suffer their fate if the house is set on fire. Sulo had no choice. It was a matter of honour.

In 1943, the Germans asked the Albanian authorities to summon the Jewish Leaders to present a list of Jews living in Albania. That was the first step to collect them and transfer them to concentration camps. At that time Albania was ruled by Albanians who were forced to comply with the German orders. However, when the Albanian Quisling government signed the initial agreement with the German invaders they included the following provision: “The Germans have no rights to intervene into internal affairs of Albania”. Rafael Jakoel an Albanian Jew was summoned to turn up at the Minister of the Interior Xhaferr Deva who served the Germans. In spite of this he was first of all an Albanian. Rafael was very scared expecting he would be asked to provide a list of the Jews that were sheltered. To his pleasant surprise the Minister told him that he had called him only to

me: Please, handcuff me! Here! Here I am! I cannot, no, I cannotThe Minister was shocked and asked him Why are you doing this? You are not summoned to be arrested here! Yes, Rafael said, but I would rather get handcuffed and executed, than report my compatriots. The Minister pointed out:” No, you don’t have to do this. I summoned you to say, please tell your people to keep a low profile. We have an agreement with the Germans not to intervene to our internal affairs. The Jewish issue in this country is an internal issue. So go, be careful and stay safe! We will never hand over our Jews, neither those who were always here, nor those who took shelter in recent years.

Albanians have a rich and sometimes tragic history. But in their long history of relations with neighbours, invaders, guests, sojourners, minorities, people in need, the story how they saved 100 per cent of Jews during the time of Holocaust is like a jewel in their crown.

Finally I want to quote the memories of one of the Jewish survivor, Irene Grubman:

““Farewell, Albania, I thought. You have given me so much hospitality, refuge, friends and adventure. Farewell, Albania. 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 losing their lives. The gates of your small country remain open, Albania. Your authorities closed their eyes, when necessary to give poor, persecuted people another chance to survive the most horrible of all wars. Albania, we survived the siege because of your humanity. We thank you”.

This is why I wanted to share with you this wonderful story on this Memorial Day of the Holocaust.

* On the HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY 2013

SUNDAY, 20 JANUARY 2013

Speech presented by the London Albanian Ambassador

The Albanian Besa – The Golden Rule

April 19, 2013 by dgreca

By Saimir Lolja/

Faith revelation/

There has been an 80 year old citation for Albania as constituting of 70% Moslem, 20% Eastern Orthodox and 10% Roman Catholic. That religious distribution is nowadays still cited outside Albania. Though such a record is uncertain for its period, at the present it is completely outdated and incorrect. Themselves, Albanians do not care for such a “religious distribution”, because the religious beliefs are personal and the Albanian nationhood is above anything personal. A confirmation comes from the Parragon Encyclopaedia of World Facts 2002 exposing that about 3/4 of the Albanian population is not religious. The census in Albania in 2012 affirmed this too. Seen in its entirety, the Albanian harmony of believers and non-believers is a sacred Albanian value and one of the nationhood pillars.

Amongst Albanians, Islam does not have any ethnic base and they belonged to the Christian spiritual domain before centuries-long subjection to the Ottoman occupation. For Albanians, Islam was the religious endowment of the callous Ottoman invaders. The sword of such occupiers, that cut off heads and inhumanly took the very young boys away from their families to make Janissaries, did not educate love, hospitality, harmony, tolerance, or Besa. It educated only brutality and suppression to the very edge of existence. The Ottoman Empire suppressed Albanians cruelly and by all means, in particular their national education and culture. During the Ottoman occupation, the mainstream of Albanian uprisings came from Albanians with “Moslem” names. From a religious viewpoint, the majority of Moslem Albanians was and is Bektashian, of the most liberal form of Islam. In the 19th century, the Albanian Renaissance leaders were of different faith backgrounds and locations. Yet, they knew that the religion of an Albanian was the Albanianism, and by means of this and Besa they united and enlightened Albanians.

Even before 170 years ago, group conversions to Moslem side occurred. That was typically made by name change only and for the purpose of national endurance in the face of Ottoman occupiers and all-time enmity [even today] from neighbors implemented under their own eastern churches’ flags. A similar situation appeared after 1990 for many Albanians who were forced to change their own names in order to be allowed to work as immigrants in Greece. From a religious viewpoint, Albanians are liberal and this is also affirmed by frequent jumps from one shoreline to another. An example comes from a picture fixed by the Besa Exhibition <http://ifyokoye.com/2008/12/28/besa-muslims-that-sheltered-jews-in-wwii/>. Here, there is an old Albanian woman, a savior of Jews, with a book of Koran
(pretty sure she cannot read its Arabic language) and with a glass of Raki (a strong alcoholic drink) on the other hand.

The social behavior towards the total rescue of Jews during the holocaust, and in similar cases as well, did not come from religious pulses. All religious Albanian domains acted and cooperated to save Jews and the rescuers were from the whole population. This mirrors the 23788 persons from 45 countries and with different spiritual backgrounds that have been recognized [by the end of 2010] as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem for their heroic deeds in saving Jews during the holocaust. Therefore, emphasizing Moslem Albanians and not the Albanian people as a whole in saving Jews does give only a portion of the whole picture and does not fully explain the Albanian social conduct. For those who are in lack of full knowledge of the Albanian history and culture, and the story of Jews rescued in Albania before and throughout WWII, the hearing of “Moslem Albanians saved Jews” simply puzzles or biases their minds. For Albanians, the religion is neither a representative platform nor a unifying one. Therefore, the use of religion (a private belief) to explain such a social behavior for the entire Albanian population does not suit to the Albanian case.

In the period of WWII, the education level of the Albanian population, including the majority of the rescuers, was low and the focus was only on the Albanian language. It was unlikely that people of that time read religious bibles, including Koran printed in non-Albanian languages (e.g. Arabic or Old Turkish in Arabic letters). Hence, it was unlikely that the Albanian rescuers acted to save Jews and Italians inspired on “a Besa found in Koran”; at least, there is no Besa in Koran and no reason to be. The Albanian loyalty to a community was sociological rather than pious. Religious identity was something that came from one’s kinship and family. Inter-faith marriages were not implausible and today they are common.

After WWII, the education spread onto the Albanian population through a communist filter. For half a century, the communist propaganda squeezed the minds of people (including the children of the rescuers) and they got older with minds filled with communist propaganda. After 1990, those children of the rescuers still alive were exhausted and too old to read or understand any religious book. Therefore, any saying such as that “there is no Koran without Besa and no Besa without the Koran” is not accurate. What is correct is that the Kanun and Besa bond together unbreakably.

KANUN AND Besa

Besa is an Albanian word. Foreigners say Albania instead of Shqipëria, the language Albanian instead of Shqip, and people Albanians instead of Shqiptarë (in the Albanian language). The Albanian language (Shqip) is the oldest language in Europe and it is at the root of the tree of all Euro-Indian languages. Besa is a noble principle that has originated from the soil of Albanians. It cannot be born on a desert. Besa cannot be found in the Koran and does not belong to it, because it is the fundamental part of the Kanun.

The Kanun, an ethnic code and ancient protocol, has been the foundation of Albanian society for centuries. The Kanun is a collection of Albanian traditional laws and rights that regulate all aspects of conduct within one’s family, village, clan, with members of other clans, and with strangers. In lack of an Albanian state, the Kanun acquires that role; the place of the obedience to the state is taken by Besa, while the decisions made by wise elders are open and free. It survived under ottoman occupation because the ottomans had ever not any universal bill of rights that would regulate equally the relations of all of its subjected peoples. Under ottomans’ millet system, peoples were only defined as spiritual communities, headed by religious hierarchs, legally self-ruled, with their own taxation structure, and vassals to Sultanate that had to pay pro rata taxes and supply soldiers on demand. The ottoman millet system embodied another danger to the nationhood of native Albanians. The author of the known Kanun is Lekë Dukagjini, an Albanian knight, a Catholic prince living about 500 years ago and before Ottomans conquered the Albanian lands. He fought against Ottoman invaders both under the command of George Castrioti Scanderbeg, the Albanian national hero and an European figure, and later after his death in 1468.

Besa has several meanings, ranging from faith, unbreakable trust, treaty, and a word of honor to a sacred pledge and responsibility to keep one’s word to provide welcome and security. It engages stubborn protection of a guest, even to the point of sacrificing one’s own life. Besa is a promise, but not simply a promise. It implies essentially and spiritually not to stay indifferent to someone in need or being persecuted. Besa requires to an Albanian to sincerely open the door to anyone in need. Besa is a moral pledge (first to self) to live honestly and truthfully, and to sacrifice oneself for what is right. Above all, Besa is an Albanian legacy and cannot be taken from or gifted to others. In the past, Albanians have lost a lot in their culture (due to ignorance, indifference, etc.) to Greeks, Slavs, etc. Therefore, Albanians have a natural mission to care of and secure their own heritage, tradition and history. It is expected that the genuine friends of Albanians help in this direction. Any misuse of the Albanian Besa is both wrong and invalid.

The ancient Epos of the Albanian Bravehearts (legendary stories) is full of Besa instances. For example, the story of the “Besa of Konstandin” is still preserved and sung by Arbërshes in Sicilia and Calabria, south of Italy. In this story, Konstandin kept his promise to her mother to bring back his daughter by resurrecting from the grave…. In South Italy, everything is written both in Albanian and Italian; there is an Albanian University, etc. From a religious viewpoint, they are Christian. However, they have the same Besa and Albanian culture and language as all other Albanians. They have always been in the leadership of Albanian national movements. They are an example of the Albanian cultural preservation detached from Islam influence.

The concept of the Guest, and not of that of the foreigner, does exist in the Kanun. For example, The Book 8, Chapter 18 of the Kanun writes: “The house of an Albanian belongs to God and to the guest… Every guest must be given the food eaten in the house…. The guest must give you the weapon to hold as a sign of guardianship, since after you have said Welcome, he must have no fear and know that you are ready to defend him against any danger”. By Kanun, when a person refuses to honor or follow Besa, the society, village or town condemns him. That person has to go away from the place of living, because he has so lost all his credentials. If someone is not able to provide protection for his own guest, then his honor is spoiled, his honor and social position is torn down forever. The shelter given to a friend is associated with the honor word of Besa. When an Albanian gives his word, Besa is sealed. As an oath, Besa is eternal. Besa constitutes the foundation of the Kanun. Besa is a moral code, a norm of social behavior, and an ancient tradition. Besa given to a friend or guest is never sold. When Jews landed in great numbers at the Albanians domains after the Spanish Inquisition of 1492 and Portugal Inquisition of 1497, the Kanun was the governing body of laws throughout Albanians.

BESA the Golden Rule

Besa is the Golden Rule and it is sacred by the Kanun. The Golden Rule or the Ethic of Reciprocity requires to “treat others the way you would like to be treated”, because “Noblesse oblige“. Besa is similar to another example of the Golden Rule: “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn. —Talmud, Shabbat 31a, the Great Principle“.

Only in the 20th century, Albanians exhibited the same social conduct as they did to rescue Jews throughout the holocaust in the following examples: towards soldiers of the Austro-Hungarian Army after its capitulation in 1917; towards soldiers of the Italian Army after its capitulation in 1943; towards Greek citizens and wounded soldiers during WWII and Civil War in Greece after the WWII; and towards Albanians of Kosova expelled by Serbs in 1998-1999. If Besa had been of religious Moslem origin, it would have [frequently and with Albanian dimensions] been encountered in the Near East, Middle East, Far East, Indonesia, Malaysia, Asia, all Africa, Russian Federation, Europe, etc. For a comparison, a very close example is Moslem Bosnia where there existed no rescuing conditions for Jews throughout the holocaust as it was amongst Albanians.

At the same time that Albanians were saving Jews, for the period of September 1943 – November 1944, they were saving ten times more Italian soldiers (more than 25000 soldiers). Those noble deeds had nothing to do with “Moslem” Besa, but they came naturally from the bottom of a hereditary noble spirit. Both for Italians and Jews, the salvation was an Albanian entirety, because they were saved not only by those who sheltered them and organized their allocation to safe houses, but also by neighbors who knew, cooperated and did not spy, and by Albanian officials.

The Albanian newspaper Panorama published the following story on 19 January 2011. It depicted a case of Besa towards Italian soldiers to the heartbreaking extreme. The ex-German soldier (Johann Arendt), who later came to Koplik, Shkodra, after 30 years to retrieve his watch left there, told the following story: “…It was the end of war in Albania, November 1944. The ex-Italian soldiers were extensively helping partisans. German soldiers had orders to find Italian soldiers and kill. They went to a house where they suspected was an Italian soldier. The man (Vehbi Hoti) of the house said: No, there is no Italian inside our house. They took them all out of the house, about 10-12 persons. The Italian (Andrea Fabbrizi)) was among the family, but not distinguished as he had the same clothes. They threatened that all will be killed if the Italian soldier does not come out. Then, a boy came out of the group and said: I am the Italian. One of the German soldiers instantly shot him dead. The German soldiers left. The boy on the ground was the son of the house…”.

Righteously

The communist regime closed Albania, including the story of the rescue of Jews, for 45 years. The result was that the majority of Albanian rescuers and rescued Jews passed away unnoticed and to date Yad Vashem has awarded as “Righteous Among the Nations” only 69 Albanians instead of hundreds.

The story of Jewish rescue in Albania flied out of Albania for the first time when US Congressman Tom Lantos and ex-Congressman Joseph DioGuardi visited Tirana in June 1990. They received from the Albanian President a thick dossier of letters that rescued Jews had mail to their Albanian rescuers in the past 45 years. The letters did not reach the Albanian rescuers because “Sigurimi i Shtetit” had censored them and hid in the archives. Those letters were later sent to Yad Vashem and constituted the base for the book “Jewish Rescue in Albania, Brunswick Press, Cathedral City, California, 1997” by Harvey Sarner.

The Albanian Besa is an Albanian Besa and cannot be relocated or taken away from Albanians. The Albanian Besa is neither for sale nor on sale. Anytime, it is inappropriate the use of an Albanian heritage, the Besa, placed on a platform with only one leg, religiously Moslem, for a non-Albanian purpose and contest. It is inappropriate the accentuation of Albanian Moslems in saving Jews instead of the entire Albanian population, wherein every piece is complementary to other pieces and cannot be understood or presented alone. It is inappropriate the connection of Besa with Koran and not with Kanun. It is inappropriate the presentation of Albanians through divisions of religious beliefs.