[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 601 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

112th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 601

   Commending the people of Albania 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 27, 2012

 Mr. Schumer submitted the following resolution; which was referred to 
                   the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Commending the people of Albania 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, the 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 Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini 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 the Communist 
        Party leader and Albanian President Ramiz Alia a thick file from the 
        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 Congressman Joe DioGuardi, upon returning to the United States in June 
        1990, sent the file for authentication to Elli Streit in Tel Aviv for 
        delivery to appropriate officials at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' 
        and Heroes' Remembrance Authority, in Jerusalem;
Whereas Josef Jakoel and his eldest daughter, Felicita, both Albanian Jews, led 
        the emigration of almost all Albanian Jews to Israel in 1991 as the 
        Communist regime was collapsing;
Whereas Yad Vashem has designated 69 Albanians as ``Righteous Persons'' and 
        Albania as one of the ``Righteous among the Nations'';
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 Holocaust;
Whereas, in October 1997, the Albanian American Civic League and the Albanian 
        American Foundation began the distribution of 10,000 copies of ``Rescue 
        in Albania'', with forewords by Congressmen Tom Lantos and Benjamin 
        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 ``Salute to Albanian Tolerance, Resistance, and 
        Hope: Remembering Besa and the Holocaust'' held by the Albanian American 
        Civic League and the Albanian American Foundation in 2005 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 
        Albanian American 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 and his son, Mustafa, were the 
        first Kosovar Albanians recognized by Yad Vashem's ``Righteous among 
        Nations Department'', for leading 400 Jewish families from Decan, 
        Kosova, into safety in Albania;
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 ensure their safe passage to Albania 
        and who, like so many Albanians from Kosova and Albania, died before 
        Jewish survivors could validate his role at Yad Vashem;
Whereas Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi addressed the 2010 International Oral History 
        Association Conference in Prague, and brought Leka Rezniqi, the grandson 
        of Mustafa Rezniqi, 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 nation in Europe that had more Jewish residents 
        after World War II than before World War II: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate--
            (1) commends the people of Albania and Kosova for 
        protecting and saving the lives of Jews who either lived in 
        Albania or sought asylum there during the Holocaust;
            (2) commends Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' 
        Remembrance Authority, 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, boards of directors, and members 
        of the Albanian American Civic League and the 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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