[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15478]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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 SENATE RESOLUTION 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 KOSOVO FOR PROTECTING AND SAVING THE LIVES OF ALL JEWS WHO 
  EITHER LIVED IN ALBANIA OR SOUGHT ASYLUM THERE DURING THE HOLOCAUST

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

                              S. Res. 601

       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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