Memorie.al / It was 1941 when Nazi Germany began herding Jews into ghettos, labor camps, and extermination camps. Organized persecutions using public transport often ended with the mass elimination of Jews upon arrival at their destination. The greatest human drama was unfolding.
By the end of 1942, their forced deportation from Germany had only one destination: the extermination camps, Auschwitz or Theresienstadt. Jews could find no rest, not in other parts of Nazi-fascist Europe or the Balkans during the Second World War.
Meanwhile, a small country like Albania became the code for their hope of life. “Go to Albania, you are safe there. “That’s what they told each other when the risk of persecution and execution by the Nazis was imminent. Albania was Europe’s final station, where Jews found their salvation.
It was 1941 when Nazi Germany began herding Jews into ghettos, labor camps, and extermination camps. Organized persecutions using public transport often ended with the mass elimination of Jews upon arrival. The greatest human drama was unfolding.
By the end of 1942, their forced deportation from Germany had only one destination: the extermination camps, Auschwitz or Theresienstadt. Jews could find no rest, not in other parts of Nazi-fascist Europe or the Balkans during the Second World War. Meanwhile, a small country like Albania became the code for the hope of life.
All the Jews who came, both from Albania and the former Yugoslavia, said: “Go to Albania, you are safe there.” – recounts Fatos Qoqja, the son of Beqir Qoqja, who sheltered and protected the Jew Avram Elaif in his home.
That’s what they told each other when the risk of persecution and execution by the Nazis was imminent.
I ask Fatos Qoqja, as he is now also a member of the association of Jews:
Do you think the number of those sheltered in Albania is known, especially since some hid their names and others integrated into the communal life with Albanian families, even resulting in intermarriages?
“They have been verified. In the State Archive, Ramiz Alia handed over the accurate list of Jews,” says Qoqja.
So you believe the lists were submitted institutionally. What is this story of the handover that Ramiz Alia made to the State Archive?
– Yes, but Ramiz Alia did it for political reasons, that’s known, but also out of pride.
Did Alia reveal the number of Jews that are now in the archives? Approximately how many could they be?
“Yes. The lists say two thousand Jews sheltered in Albania were registered, but from observations and events that occurred, it is said their number reached up to six thousand. It has even been widely rumored that many Jews passed through Albania, even Einstein.”
It was the Albanian ambassador in Vienna who made a request to Ahmet Zog to provide Einstein with an Albanian passport, and Ahmet Zog said he must certainly set foot on Albanian soil to be given the passport. Many Jews set foot in Albania and were prominent people. And Einstein was provided with an Albanian passport,” – recounts Qoqja.
“According to evidence we have, about 15 Israelis came and were sheltered in Shijak, starting from 1942 until 1945. They were taken under protection by the civilian population of Shijak and managed to survive. After ’45, most of them were displaced; some reached America, or Israel and some went to other countries,” says Nikolla Sudar.
When did the first arrival of Israeli emigrants in Albania occur?
“The first arrival happened around mid-1942. The Seiti family, who also had the surname Arrësi, took in three Israeli families and made efforts to provide them with documents and Albanian names,” says Nikolla Sudar.
Residents of Shijak – the two brothers Zenel and Riza Seiti (Arrësi), Ali Arbana, Daut Shahini, Skënder Alite, Halil Gashi – kept the Jews in their homes until the country’s liberation, risking themselves and their families.
“One of these families is the Chairman of the Shijak National Liberation Council, Mr. Ali Arbana. He sheltered an Israeli family of three. And he risked a lot because of the position he held.
Another case is the story of a boy who was running, distressed, and entered the city because the Gestapo was chasing him. At a café, a person came out who saw him and spoke to him in Italian. He asked; ‘What’s wrong, son?’
‘The Gestapo is chasing me,’ he said. ‘Come with me’ – he told him and sent him to a Gjirokastër family, the Alite family. Even the third brother (Skënder Alite) of this family had a good friend, a baker, named Daut Shahini. When he found out his house was about to be raided by German control, he took the Israeli boy and took him to his friend Dauti. But here, the house was also raided by a German patrol. A small child came running and warned, ‘Uncle, uncle, the Germans are coming!’
The Germans apparently had received information that the Israeli boy was there. But Dauti, with his wisdom, hid him. He took a hasër (a grain sack), wrapped him in it, and placed him behind the door. The Germans entered and said, ‘Communists, communists, where are they? You have hidden communists!’ ‘No, we are nationalists,’ – replied the family members. However, they searched. Even an officer leaned against the door, but luckily, he didn’t see him.
He was saved, because if he had been found, it would have remained a rare case that would have been discovered…! Albanians and leaders of local communities worked together to facilitate the protection of Jews from final extermination.
Residents of Shijak – the two brothers Zenel and Riza Seiti (Arrësi), Ali Arbana, Daut Shahini, Skënder Alite, Halil Gashi – kept the Jews in their homes until the country’s liberation, risking themselves and their families.
Unfortunately, the story of the Jews who lived in the family of Zenel Seiti, notary and lawyer, and his brother Riza Seiti, has not become widely known.
When communist Albania was isolated from the world and its citizens could not leave its borders, nor could they expect friends to visit from abroad, under the rule of socialist doctrines, its past, memories, and cultural heritage were immensely devalued.
It was 1942 when the brothers Zenel Seiti and Riza Seiti took three Jewish families under their protection. Only the names have remained in memory. The first family consisted of Albina, her son Mishel, and daughter Violeta. The second family consisted of the spouses Hercek and Kate and an elderly man they called Babo. The third family consisted of Jozhi, Ruzhica, and Finica.
Strangely, the descendants of the host family do not even remember the names. Although they belonged to different political convictions or religious beliefs, the “Bread of Life” of the Jews became a symbol of unity.
The Bread of Life came from Israel to Albania until the ’70s. Then the borders closed, and those sweet pieces of bread that blessed the friendship with Albanians no longer arrived until the Hoxhaist dictatorship was overthrown.
Neighboring Balkan countries, Serbia and Greece, did not resist the fear of the Nazis and handed over the Jews who were in their territory. Albanians, with their hospitality and humanism, made the difference.
Fatos Qoqja is the son of the host Beqir Qoqja, the master tailor from Tirana who sheltered and saved the Jew Avram Elaif. He had come from Ioannina, Greece, and Beqir Qoqja provided him with a false passport under the name Gani Qoqja.
Noble citizens like Beqir Qoqja accepted no reward, and his son Fatos Qoqja today proudly keeps in his memory Avram Elaif, his family, and especially his peer Robert Elaif, born and raised in Albania.
Some stories have been taken to the grave. Some have survived but have also faded from memory, because some were not yet born and others were still children in the homes that welcomed them, but all these stories have left a golden trace of love and humanism in the hearts of the Jews who took refuge in our country, Albania…! / Memorie.al
