[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 173 (Thursday, November 8, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2366-E2367]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  LANTOS RECOGNIZES YAD VASHEM CEREMONY HONORING ALBANIANS WHO SAVED 
                   JEWISH LIVES DURING THE HOLOCAUST

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 8, 2007

  Mr. LANTOS. Madam Speaker, I would like to call the attention of my 
colleagues in the Congress to a ceremony that was held on November 1 at 
Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes Remembrance Authority in 
Jerusalem. This ceremony, which recognized the unique role that 
Albanians played in saving every Jew who either lived in Albania or 
sought asylum there during World War II, marking the opening of ``Besa: 
A Code of Honor/Albanians who Rescued Jews during the Holocaust.'' This 
exhibit by Jewish American photographer Norman Gershman documents the 
heroism of the rescuers and their families--65 percent of whom were 
Muslim--who saved more than 2,000 Jews from the ravages of the Nazi 
Holocaust.
  Few people are aware that all Jews who lived in Albania during World 
War II or sought asylum there were saved from likely death during the 
Holocaust. Approximately 200 Jews lived in Albania during the early 
1930s, while nearly 2000 Jews resided there by the end of the war--
making Albania the only nation that can claim that every Jew within its 
borders was rescued from the Holocaust. When the Italian fascists 
invaded Albania in 1939, followed by the German Nazis in 1943, the 
Albanian population hid Jews; furthermore, Albanian government 
officials refused to comply with the order to provide a list of Jews 
living in Albania. While many Albanian citizens hid Jews on their own 
initiative, the rescue operation became more coordinated as the danger 
increased and ``national liberation councils'' in towns where Jews were 
hiding moved them from place to place--either with false passports or 
disguised as Albanian peasants. Albanians living in Kosova, Macedonia, 
and Montenegro, then part of the former Yugoslavia, were instrumental 
in gaining safe passage for Jews into Albania.
  Not only were the Albanians isolated from centuries of 
institutionalized anti-Semitism, Madam Speaker, but they also have a 
history of religious tolerance based on the Kanun (a set of customary 
laws developed in the 15th century and passed down through the 
generations). Its underpinning moral code of besa, which is celebrated 
in the Yad Vashem photo exhibition, emphasizes a sacred promise to keep 
one's word as well as to provide hospitality and protection. As the 
Western concept of ``foreigner'' does not exist within the Kanun,

[[Page E2367]]

Albanians did not see Jews as ``foreigners'' but rather as ``guests'' 
who needed to be protected even at great risk to their hosts.
  Information about the safe haven that many Albanians provided to Jews 
who were being persecuted during the Holocaust was suppressed by the 
communist regime of Enver Hoxha, who controlled the country for five 
decades. When former Congressman Joe DioGuardi and I became the first 
U.S. officials in 1990 to enter Albania in 45 years, Albania's new 
leader, Ramiz Alia, showed us never-before-seen archives with letters, 
photographs and newspaper clippings about Albanians who saved Jews 
during World War II. Congressman DioGuardi sent this material to 
Israel, where the documents were authenticated by Yad Vashem. In 
cooperation with former Congressman Ben Gilman and the Albanian 
American Foundation, Albania was added to the ``Righteous among 
nations'' section of the U.S. Memorial Holocaust Museum in 1995.
  The Yad Vashem exhibit was created with the help of the Albanian 
American Civic League and financial support from the Righteous Persons 
Foundation, the Jewish Communal Fund, the New York State Department of 
Education, the McBride Family Foundation, and the Albanian American 
Foundation. It will be on display for two months at Yad Vashem before 
traveling to museums and Holocaust memorial sites around the world. It 
will be displayed on January 27, International Holocaust Remembrance 
Day, at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
  Madam Speaker, as a Holocaust survivor who survived certain death due 
to the kindness of strangers, I am immensely grateful to the Albanian 
people for their bravery, selflessness and generosity in risking their 
lives to hide and protect so many Jews during one of the world's 
darkest hours. I am delighted that this exhibition is finally giving 
Albania the recognition it deserves for the vitally important role its 
citizens played during World War II. I am grateful to my former 
colleague and friend Joe DioGuardi and the Albanian American Civic 
League for their efforts in ensuring that this information becomes 
publicly available. Madam Speaker, I wish to formally recognize the 
opening of this remarkable memorial and encourage all of my colleagues 
to visit it where possible.

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