The Holocaust in Albania
Liberation laissez-passer for a Jewess.
One of the countries that its Jewish population suffered the least during World War Two was Albania, mainly during the Italian occupation which was not rabid-Nazi towards its own or occupied territory Jewish population or even during the very brief German occupation from 1943-44. The main reason to this was due to its Muslim population which took a positive stand, contrary to the majority of Christian Europe during the war, which did the opposite. Here, the little Muslim country acted according to its traditional cultural belief and acted with their famed code of honor known as Besa, which would be the hospitality and sheltering of those in danger, be it in villages and high up in the mountainous regions of the country, by which they protected the Jews who were looking for refuge during the war. The Jewish people today have a great debt of gratitude to the Albanian nation which, as mentioned above, took a very different path when it came to facing oppression and murder of another race or people with a different religion.
First to occupy the little country was neighboring Fascist Italy, which in 1939 in a short military attack and campaign invaded Albania. This followed by the formation of the Italian protectorate of Albania, which ended in 1943, after the Italian capitulation (add images of a travel documents issued by the Italians). What came later on was a brief but decisive German occupation, spanning for about one year and ending in late 1944.
Albania’s Jewish population was very low, and in 1930 accounted to less than 50 and close to 300 by 7 years later. Most of its Jewish population lived in the southern city of Vlora, and they enjoyed relative freedom and safety under King Zog, the Monarch until 1939, ousted following the Italian invasion of the country that year (one of the only countries to still be issuing visas to Jews under Nazi oppression in Europe was Albania, with its embassy in Berlin issuing visas that managed to offer refuge to both German and Austrian Jews who were seeking safety abroad – see an example added to this article of an Albanian visa inside a German passport).
After the occupation of Yugoslavia in 1941, Italian-controlled Albania annexed Kosovo and its small Jewish population as well, adding more refugees that have already found refuge in the country: Jews from Poland, Yugoslavia, Austria, Germany and more.
It is estimated that from the 500 Kosovo Jews close to 40% where murdered during the war mainly during the German occupation and it is believed that close to 2000 foreign Jews reached Albania and found refuge inside the country, this we can thank the local population which was very protective of its Jewish refugees, mainly due to their honor code. Once in protection, they received food, shelter, clothing and false papers and documents that aided their hiding or even immigration abroad, with the occupying Italians turning a blind eye to all of this, though officially they initiated anti-Jewish laws and regulations but did mostly nothing to implement them proper. This was entirely different to the “second” occupation that followed in 1943, and that is of the Germans and their “humane” attitude to the Jewish question and their plight.
Less than 700 Jews were murdered in Albania during the war but ended up with over 1800 Jews amongst its people, 10 times higher than it started with when the war began.
The document in this article is an amazing piece of evidence to the above mentioned, being a liberation travel document issued to a former Jewish refugee who seeked shelter in the country most likely a short while before the war erupted in 1939.
Albania laissez-passer numbered 107 was issued in Tirana on July 7th 1945 to a Jewish elderly woman named Cheresia Hrabac originally from Austria (!), daughter to David & Anna, and as stated inside the document was given permission to leave the country’s borders to Italy, Firenze.
This is an amazing reminder of the courageous people and their brave stand against fascism and terror: it’s a simple document that holds a very deep emotional story behind it.
Thank you for reading “Our Passports”.
