“The Albanian nation will hold you in great honor if Your Excellency finds the opportunity to invite to Albania the famous Albanologist Norbert Jokli, who…”/ Fishta’s unknown letter to Jacomoni

By Kolec Çefa   

Memorie.al / Having carefully read Fishta’s biographers and researchers, I have noticed, with regret, that Fishta’s epistolary has not been studied enough, which speaks of Fishta’s relations with his contemporaries, with scholars and workers of Albanian literature, with patriots and fighters for the Albanian cause, with foreign and local politicians. And, therefore, this epistolary teaches us something, educates us something, inspires us something. Fishta’s rich and precious epistolary contains a mosaic of thoughts and feelings, events and characters, episodes and data, memories and intimacies, which complete, clarify and embellish his biography and multifaceted activity.

There you will find: here and there fragments of artistic or aesthetic prose, there and there things with historical or educational value, there and there interesting judgments or evaluations of literary works, events or characters, there and there striking figures of thought and often selected and joyful humor. For the interest in collecting and publishing Fishta’s letters, Father Mark Harapi S.J. signals to us. As early as March 24, 1941, the esteemed scholar wrote: “… if they are not sought without delay, they may well be lost and never be found again. And indeed, some letters are scattered in already rare bodies; some we consider extinct; some wait the day of publication.

And all existing ones require objective and competent study, since fragments taken out of context have been used, only for discrediting. Meanwhile, my fellow brother and dear friend, Father Pal Dodić, in the article ‘Father Gjergj Fishta OFM, in correspondence with a dear brother’, analyzes 200 personal letters, which he finds interesting, which, unfortunately, have not been published in full. Dodić made a valuable contribution in his work published in ‘Acts of the International Albanological Colloquium, Innsbruck, 1972’”.

Dr. Petrit Kotrri has also done a good and fruitful job with his reports and articles, related to the Fishta epistolary. But in this report I intend to draw attention to the interest of Shkodra intellectuals (because in Shkodra there were many intellectuals who had correspondence with Joklin), to the efforts of the brothers Justin and Kolë Rrota and especially to the interventions of Fishta, to save Joklin from a tragic end, according to an unpublished letter.

Without further ado, I quote from the magazine “Cirka”: “In this case, we cannot fail to express our wish and congratulations, which have also been expressed by other parties that Prof. Norbert Jokli, the world-renowned Albanologist scientist of the University of Vienna, is taken into the service of the Albanian state…! Professor Jokli, who today has been left without a home, without a homeland, must find his home in this Albania, which owes him so many gigantic works that have revealed its importance and beauty, international knowledge” (“Cirka”, 1939, p.56-57).

In “Shejzat” by Prof. Ernest Koliqi, special issue, commemorating (more precisely, the 74th anniversary, since Koliqi was born in 1901, as I made known in a published article and not in 1903, as everyone’s writings, including your invitation, say), Messing has given a Memorandum based on a statement by Kolë Rrota, former Albanian Consul and lecturer at the Universities, regarding the death of Professor Jokli, which deals with the request of Jokli, expressed by Kolë Rrota, to come to an agreement with the Albanian authorities, if it were possible to transfer to Albania, for the appointment of Prof. Jokli as administrator of the Albanian Library, with a monthly salary of 600 gold francs, for his imprisonment and death, for the searches to find the location of the library and the remains of Jokli’s manuscripts.

(Read more: “Shejzat” number of memories). From the many former conversations with Father Justin Rrota, I remember another fact, I think unknown: “When in 1938 the Nazi persecutions against the Jews began in Austria, the Franciscans with Fishta, Justin in collaboration with Kolë Rrota, tried to attract Jokli to Albania. Fishta’s idea, at first, was to keep Jokli in the Franciscan Assembly. A room was also prepared, just as Luigj Gurakuqi was kept in difficult periods of his life, especially during the years 1921-1923. They intended to strip him of Albanian citizenship. Then this variant was changed, Koliqi and others intervened, but events quickly precipitated and Jokli was arrested.”

Many years later, in 1950, in a letter from Kolë Rrota to Justin, we read: “As for the disappearance of the late Prof. Jokli in 1942, I must tell you that at that time I tried with all my heart to save him from the clutches of the Nazis. In short, he ended up in Minsk, just as millions and millions of people were massacred and poisoned with gas.” Even in his correspondence with Kolë, his brother, and with Lamberti, Justin is interested in Jokli’s manuscripts, especially the “Etymological Dictionary” as well as his library.

But let’s return to Fishta. His efforts, in his capacity as an academic, to save Jokli are somewhat known. We are giving an unknown and unpublished letter from Fishta, addressed to Francesco Jacomoni, on September 23, 1939, written on behalf of all Albanian intellectuals, in which, after expressing the highest appreciation for Jokli, he expresses the desire that the opportunity be found for Jokli to come to Albania, in some official capacity, appropriate to his fame, as a distinguished scientist and linguist:

Shkodra, September 23, 1939.

His Excellency, Francesco Jacomoni, Lieutenant Your Excellency,

I think that the best linguist of the Albanian language in Europe is Professor Norbert Jokli, of Jewish nationality who, before the Anschluss, was librarian of the University of Vienna and professor of linguistics at the same university. Now, I am writing from Vienna, that the local authorities have told this distinguished Albanologist to leave, within 30 days, the territory of the Reich. He is now a widower, single, with a very modest fortune. He, of course, must struggle to find a place, wherever he may be, to live. It seems that he wants to go to America.

It would undoubtedly be a great misfortune for the Albanian national language if this scholar, of European fame, whom I know and who, with his unquestionable authority, has long maintained the interest of the most eminent philologists in the Albanian language, were forced to leave Europe. The Albanian nation, today, will consider you a great honor if your Excellency could find the opportunity to come to Albania, assigning him a place there, although not so profitable, nevertheless suitable for his fame as an outstanding scientist and linguist.

I am sure that you will kindly consider this proposal of mine, which I present on behalf of all Albanian intellectuals.

I take advantage of this opportunity to ask you to accept the feelings of the greatest respect and with deep gratitude. / Memorie.al

Your Excellency, devoted and grateful

P. Gjergj Fishta OFM.