[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 812 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 812

    Commending the Albanian people on the 100th anniversary of the 
 declaration of their independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire on 
 November 28, 1912, and commending Albanians in Albania and Kosova for 
protecting and saving the lives of all Jews who either lived in Albania 
              or sought asylum there during the Holocaust.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           November 15, 2012

 Mr. Rohrabacher (for himself and Mr. Nadler) submitted the following 
   resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Commending the Albanian people on the 100th anniversary of the 
 declaration of their independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire on 
 November 28, 1912, and commending Albanians in Albania and Kosova for 
protecting and saving the lives of all Jews who either lived in Albania 
              or sought asylum there during the Holocaust.

Whereas in 1934, United States Ambassador to Albania, Herman Bernstein, wrote 
        that, ``There is no trace of any discrimination against Jews in Albania, 
        because Albania happens to be one of the rare lands in Europe today 
        where religious prejudice and hate do not exist, even though Albanians 
        themselves are divided into three faiths'';
Whereas in 1938, approximately 300 Albanian Jews lived in the Republic of 
        Albania, and more than 1,900 escaped to Albania from Nazi-occupied 
        Western Europe and the former Yugoslavia during World War II;
Whereas Albanians in Albania and Kosova, based on their unique history of 
        religious tolerance, considered it a matter of national pride and 
        tradition to help Jews during the Holocaust, and due to the actions of 
        many individual Albanians, the entire native and refugee Jewish 
        community in Albania during World War II survived the Holocaust;
Whereas Albanians sheltered and protected Jews in Albania and in Kosova, even at 
        the risk of Albanian lives, beginning with the invasion and occupation 
        of Albania by Mussolini's Italian fascists in 1939;
Whereas after Nazi Germany occupied Albania in 1943 and the Gestapo ordered 
        Jewish refugees in the Albanian capital of Tirana to register, Albanian 
        leaders refused to provide a list of Jews living in Albania, and 
        Albanian clerks issued false identity papers to protect all Jews in the 
        country;
Whereas in June 1990, Jewish American Congressman Tom Lantos and former Albanian 
        American Congressman Joe DioGuardi were the first United States 
        officials to enter Albania in 50 years and received from then Communist 
        Party leader and Albanian President Ramiz Alia a thick file from the 
        government's archives containing hundreds of news clippings and personal 
        letters sent by Jews to their Albanian rescuers after World War II, but 
        that the Communist government prevented from being delivered for 45 
        years;
Whereas Joe DioGuardi, upon returning to the United States in June 1990, sent 
        the file to Elli Streit in Tel Aviv, Israel, for delivery to appropriate 
        officials at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem for authentication;
Whereas Josef Jakoel and his eldest daughter, Felicita, Albanian Jews, led the 
        emigration of nearly all Albanian Jews to Israel in 1991 as the 
        Communist regime was collapsing;
Whereas Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Museum) has 
        thus far designated 69 Albanians as ``Righteous Persons'' and Albania as 
        one of the ``Righteous among the Nations'';
Whereas in February 1995, Congressmen Tom Lantos, Benjamin Gilman, and Jerrold 
        Nadler and former Congressman Joe DioGuardi spoke at a ceremony at the 
        United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, commemorating 
        the addition of Albania to the museum's ``Righteous among the Nations'' 
        installation;
Whereas based on the information authenticated by Yad Vashem, Jewish American 
        author and philanthropist Harvey Sarner published ``Rescue in Albania'' 
        in 1997, to call international attention to the unique role of the 
        Albanian people in saving Jews from the Nazi Holocaust;
Whereas in October 1997, the Albanian American Civic League and Foundation began 
        the distribution of 10,000 copies of ``Rescue in Albania'' with 
        forewords by Congressmen Lantos and Gilman to bring to the attention of 
        the Jewish people and their leaders the plight of Albanians in Kosova 
        living under a brutal occupation at the hands of Serbian dictator 
        Slobodan Milosevic, in order to forestall another genocide in Kosova;
Whereas in a statement at the 2005 Albanian American Civic League and 
        Foundation's ``Salute to Albanian Tolerance, Resistance, and Hope: 
        Remembering Besa and the Holocaust'', on the occasion of the 60th 
        anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps, Dr. Mordechai 
        Paldiel, then Director for the Righteous at Yad Vashem, commemorated the 
        heroism of Albanians as ``the only ones among rescuers in other 
        countries who not only went out of their way to save Jews, but vied and 
        competed with each other for the privilege of being a rescuer, thanks to 
        besa'', the code of honor that requires an Albanian to save the life of 
        anyone seeking refuge, even if it means sacrificing one's own life;
Whereas in 2006, Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, Balkan Affairs Adviser to the Civic 
        League and Executive Director of the Albanian American Foundation, 
        published ``Jewish Survival in Albania & the Ethics of `Besa''' in the 
        journal of the American Jewish Congress to document the saving role of 
        Albanians and how that role was revealed, in spite of the Communist 
        effort to suppress it;
Whereas, on December 2, 2008, Arslan Rezniqi was the first Kosovar Albanian 
        recognized by Yad Vashem's ``Righteous among Nations Department'', for 
        leading 400 Jewish families from Decan, Kosova, into safety in Albania, 
        and his son, Mustafa Rezniqi, who aided him as a teenager during World 
        War II, accepted the award from Yad Vashem for him, posthumously;
Whereas Arif Alickaj, the Secretary of the Municipality of Decan, risked his job 
        and his life helping the Rezniqis rescue Jews in Nazi-occupied Kosova by 
        issuing false identity papers to insure their safe passage to Albania 
        and for whom (like so many other Albanians from Kosova and Albania), 
        Jewish survivors could not be found to validate his role, even 
        posthumously, because of the Communist cover-up for 45 years of the 
        archives documenting the many stories of Albanian heroism;
Whereas Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi addressed the 2010 International Oral History 
        Association Conference in Prague, Czech Republic, and brought Leka 
        Rezniqi, the grandson of Mustafa Rezniqi (who died in May 2008), to join 
        her in revealing the ``underground railroad'' between Albanians in 
        Kosova and Albania that was essential to the rescue of Jews; and
Whereas Albania is the only country in Europe that had more Jews in it after 
        World War II than before it: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) commends the people of Albania and Kosova for 
        protecting and saving the lives of all Jews who either lived in 
        Albania or sought asylum there during the Holocaust;
            (2) commends Yad Vashem in Israel for recognizing Albanians 
        who took action at great risk to themselves to protect Jews 
        during the Holocaust, for their humanity, courage, and heroism;
            (3) reaffirms on the 100th anniversary of Albania's 
        declaration of independence in 1912, its support for close ties 
        between the United States and Albania and between the United 
        States and Kosova, which declared its independence in 2008; and
            (4) commends the officers, board of directors, and members 
        of the Albanian American Civic League and Albanian American 
        Foundation for their unstinting work, since 1989, to bring the 
        plight of the Albanian people and the unique historic 
        connection between Albanians and Jews to international 
        attention.
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