The Righteous: Albanian Muslims Hid Jews from the Nazis

[question everything]

The Righteous
A Little-Known Secret was that Albanian Muslims Hid Jews from the Nazis; Now a Survivor Reunites With Her Savior

Johanna Neumann is on a journey more than 70 years in the making . . . a journey that started in Germany. She left Hamburg when she had just turned 8... Her life changed in the violent darkness of November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass. It was when the Nazis launched a vicious assault on Jewish communities - looting homes, destroying businesses, burning synagogues. It was an ominous preview of the horrors to come. Her father feared where his country was headed, so he began preparations to flee. Young Johanna tagged along with him on a devastating errand in the basement of their apartment building:

"He had all of this correspondence and photography, photographs and so on of his youth, of his life," she said. "And he had made arrangements with the superintendent of the house that he could burn his things in the furnace. And you know, like every piece that he burned was like a piece of his life being thrown away. It's a whole life that you're putting on fire." A few months later, little Johanna and her parents were gone, leaving Germany for good.

(snip)

There are a number of extraordinary examples of people around the world who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives hiding Jewish families during the Nazi occupation. But the Pilkus were in Albania, a 70% Muslim country in southeastern Europe. "The gem of this story is that Albania took in refugee Jews," said Deborah Dwork, who has written a book about Jewish refugees during World War II. "Europe 1938, '39, '40, even '41, we see it as a totally closed universe," she said. "and Jews in that closed universe, they were looking for holes, for openings. People began to whisper: 'I hear if you get to Albania, you will be safe.'" Safe, because of a cornerstone of Albanian culture known as Besa - the promise to treat strangers as if they were family . . . and guard them with their lives. "It has to do with a certain sense of honor, an honor code that they take very seriously," said Dwork. "It's not simply to give someone something -a bed for a night, a hot meal. It's really to offer protection, full protection. They judged themselves by that code, and they also knew that their neighbors judged them by that code."

(snip)

According to the International School for Holocaust Studies, Albania did not turn over a single Jew to the Nazis. Instead, when the Germans demanded the Albanians provide lists identifying Jews in their country, the Albanian government not only didn't comply, it even warned Jews to hide and urged its citizens to help. In fact, after the war, there were more Jews living in Albania than there were before. It's an extraordinary record. So how is it that so few people know about it? "Because of the shutters that went down on Albania so soon after 1945 and the draconian Communist regime," said Dwork. "For the next half century, Albania was completely cut off from everyone, even from other Communist countries. And by the time the shutters lifted, what happened half a century ago was not so urgent as people's everyday needs right then and there."

(snip)

The Allies whisked 14-year-old Johanna and her parents out of Albania in September of 1945. "We were told that we cannot even go and say goodbye," Johanna said, "because there was danger that we might get arrested. It was much to my parents real regret. Terrible regret . . .No chance to say 'thank you.'.. After the war, Johanna's family settled safely in the United States. But in newly-Communist Albania, a very different fate awaited the Pilkus. They quickly went from being the protectors to the oppressed. And their life together as a family ended in tragedy when Edip Pilku's father was arrested and executed by the Communist regime.

(snip)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/11/08/sunday/main5574960.shtml?tag=cbsnewsTwoColUpperPromoArea

[Pyrzqxgl]

1. A Friend of mine spent his youth in Western China.

His father was a Christian Missionary. He told me a story once about certain area rascals that regularly
threatened his family & the only folks that would help them were the area Moslem community. The reason they
gave was that "they were both people of the book". That they believed the Christian God & Allah were one and the
same God. I wonder how widespread that belief is?

[DavidDvorkin]

3. I thought that was the standard belief

That Jews, Moslems, and Christians all believe in the same god. Allah is a title, not a name, equivalent to Amighty or Lord.

[BlueMTexpat]

12. That is also what I was taught in my orientation prior to being assigned

to a Muslim country (Morocco) as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Indeed, I never had occasion during my total of eight years+ in residence there (not all as a PCV) to witness anything different from that, although it was true that the only religions recognized there for nationals of the country were Islam and Judaism. Nationals attained both their nationality and religion by birth. Children of a Muslim father were considered Muslim; children of Jewish parents (I believe that Jewish belief is that the heritage passes only through the mother) were considered Jewish. One could attain nationality through marriage only after a specific process (it was not automatic there at least during my stay, although I understand that in many other Muslim countries it is) and after conversion to one of the two recognized faiths.
Generally, there was no intermarriage, although I did know of some few cases where a Jewish woman married a Muslim husband. In such cases, their children's religious status was considered to be that of the father. A Jewish or Christian woman was not required to convert to Islam because her religious status could never trump that of the husband. I knew many Christian women whose husbands were Muslim. The only way that a Jewish or Christian man could officially marry a Muslim woman in that country was if the man first converted to Islam. I knew only a very few cases of Jewish men marrying Muslim women, but several of Christian men who married Muslim women, in all cases after converting to Islam, at least on paper.
Christians were expatriate residents, never nationals. There were churches in the country representing several denominations (Catholic and Prostestant) and Christians practiced their faith openly without problem. They could not be citizens unless they converted to Islam, however. Christian proselytizing was not officially allowed, although it was quietly tolerated so long as it was very, very discreet. If it came to the attention of the authorities, the "guilty" parties were expelled without ceremony and there was no recourse. The proselytizing situation may have changed somewhat for the worse since my years there (various periods from the 60s to the 80s). If it has changed significantly, I would blame that on 1) the rise of Islamic fundamentalism partly as a result of the 1979 Iranian Revolution and 2) US ME policy, especially I-P issues, and more significantly the Gulf Wars of Bush I & Bush II, but most significantly the dreadful wars and policies under Bush II.
The differences among the three major religious systems that arose around Abraham (each also has many subthreads) seem to become Differences in so-called Christian countries especially. That is a sad commentary on our much-vaunted so-called religious "freedom" that seems to glory in dividing and labelling people who actually have many of the same ideals.
Certainly none of the three religions has clean hands historically. Judaism likely has the cleanest primarily because of its minority status and the Diaspora, but even looking at the RW versus the disparate Left (those with whom I most identify and admire) in Israel should make one think about how any religion in excess can corrupt and taint. But Christianity has certainly been used as an excuse for some of the worst excesses, viz. the Holocaust. More troublingly, that trend continues today among our American Taliban. Now, however, the targets are primarily Muslim.

[abq e streeter]

2. fascinating, humbling, inspiring--thank you so much for posting...

[burning rain]

4. Some admirers of Islam will probably have a hard time....

forgiving Albanian Muslims for that.

[question everything]

5. I hope that you meant it as sarcasm

Why would anyone object to this?

During the war in Kosovo several hundreds Muslims were sent to Israel for save place to wait out the war.

[Alameda]

8. Excuse me? What have you been reading?

[AwakeAtLast]

6. I saw the segment on "Sunday Morning" today

It was a terrific story and hearing it from the families was amazing to hear. I'm sure there are thousands of stories we may never hear!

[JPZenger]

7. Thanks for posting

I've read a great deal about people who saved Jewish people during WWII, but I never heard this story before. It should be widely publicized.

There was a reason why more people did not hide Jewish people - many of the Good Samaritans were caught and died in concentration camps.

[Alameda]

9. Muslims & Jewish men both being circumcised made it easier

to hide....anyway, that is what I heard some years ago...no link.....sorry...

[JPZenger]

14. There was a movie about a Jewish German Soldier Trying to Hide His Circumcism

There was a movie a number of years ago about a Jewish soldier who gets drafted into the German Army and tries to hide the fact that he is Jewish. The hardest thing to hide is that he was circumcized. I think it was a German film.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. I am not sure what film you are thinking of, but....

...there is a film, "Europa, Europa," in which the protagonist is a child trying to escape Nazi Germany and is the Hitler Youth Corp and hides his circumcision by tying string and pulling skin forward on his penis. Is that the movie you are thinking of?

[JPZenger]

16. That's it. I should watch that movie again, its been many years

[bertman]

10. Stories like this give me hope for humanity. Rec.

[Recursion]

11. There was never particularly much friction between Muslims and Jews until 1948

Jews in the Islamic world were much safer than Jews in Europe.

[LeftishBrit]

13. Thanks for posting that!