[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 85 (Tuesday, June 27, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Page S6585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page S6585]]
                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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  SENATE RESOLUTION 521--COMMENDING THE PEOPLE OF ALBANIA ON THE 61ST 
 ANNIVERSARY OF THE LIBERATION OF THE JEWS FROM THE NAZI DEATH CAMPS, 
 FOR PROTECTING AND SAVING THE LIVES OF ALL JEWS WHO LIVED IN ALBANIA, 
              OR SOUGHT ASYLUM THERE DURING THE HOLOCAUST

  Mr. SCHUMER (for himself and Mr. McCain) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 521

       Whereas at the start of World War II, approximately 200 
     Jews lived in the Republic of Albania, and approximately 1800 
     Jews escaped to Albania from Western Europe and the former 
     Yugoslavia;
       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 based on their unique history of religious 
     tolerance, Albanians sheltered and protected Jews, even at 
     the risk of Albanian lives, beginning with the invasion and 
     occupation of Albania by Mussolini's Italian fascists in 
     1939;
       Whereas after 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 who traveled to and 
     hid in Tirana;
       Whereas Albanians considered it a matter of national pride 
     and tradition to help Jews during the Holocaust, and due to 
     the actions of many individual Albanians, virtually the 
     entire native and refugee Jewish community in Albania during 
     World War II survived the Holocaust;
       Whereas Albania had more Jewish residents after World War 
     II than before World War II;
       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 Communist 
     archives containing the records of the unpublicized heroic 
     deeds of hundreds of Albanians who rescued Jews during World 
     War II;
       Whereas Joe DioGuardi, upon returning to the United States, 
     sent the file for authentication to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust 
     Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Museum in Jerusalem, Israel;
       Whereas Yad Vashem has thus far designated 63 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 in particular the plight of Albanians living 
     under Slobodan Milosevic in order to forestall another 
     genocide;
       Whereas on May 15, 2005, Jews and Albanians gathered in New 
     York City in a ``Salute to Albanian Tolerance, Resistance, 
     and Hope: Remembering Besa and the Holocaust'' on the 
     occasion for the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the 
     Nazi death camps; and
       Whereas in a statement presented at the ceremony Dr. 
     Mordechai Paldiel, Director of the Department 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 Albanians to save the life of anyone seeking refuge, 
     even if it means sacrificing his own life: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) commends the people of Albania for protecting and 
     saving the lives of all Jews, both native and refugee, living 
     in Albania during the Holocaust;
       (2) commends Yad Vashem in Israel and encourages others to 
     recognize Albanians who took action to protect Jews during 
     the Holocaust for their great courage and heroism; and
       (3) takes this occasion to reaffirm its support for close 
     ties between the United States and Albania.

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