By Blendi Fevziu
Memorie.al / Josephine Dedet has written a very interesting book about Queen Geraldine, and it is the first book written by a foreigner. In an exclusive account for the show “Opinion,” the French writer revealed interesting untold stories from the Queen’s childhood, her meeting with King Zog, 60 years in exile, and her unique sporting passions. For Dedet, from early childhood, the figure of Queen Geraldine constituted a driving force, as well as a curiosity similar to childhood infatuations with fairy tales of princes and princesses. While years later, friendship and close acquaintance with the royal family of Geraldine Apponyi served her to establish the first contacts.
You will have the chance to read these and other details throughout this interview given to journalist Blendi Fevziu…!
Mrs. Josephine Dedet, welcome to Albania. Is this your first time?
Good afternoon, yes, it is the first time I come to Albania and I am very happy.
You have written a very interesting book about Queen Geraldine, and it is the first book written by a foreigner. According to the information we have, it was published in Albania in the early 2000s and it is very interesting. Why have you been absent from Albania for such a long time?
I was fortunate to know Queen Geraldine personally, and I waited for her to give me her approval in the late 1990s to testify about her life and to open her family’s archives.
How did you find Queen Geraldine?
I met her in South Africa in 1996.
By chance?
Not at all. I knew her since I was a child. I knew her sister, Countess Virginia Apponyi, Hungarian; her brother, Guy Gyro; her French brother, as part of the family lives in France. Since I was a child, I often heard this story spoken of, and it seemed like a fairy tale to me. Later, after having done some studies in history and political science, I understood that it was something more than a fairy tale with fairies, and that Albania was a fascinating country. Geraldine’s story, not only in Albania but in all of 20th-century Europe, was a topic that had never been written about before.
Was Geraldine interesting as a character?
Yes. She was an extraordinary character in my opinion, a woman who came from a great European noble family, who spoke all European languages, but at the same time a very simple woman.
Also modest…!
Yes, very modest, who loved this country very much, Albania, Albanians, her husband. Her love for this country and for her husband intertwined with each other. She wanted to come to Albania and die as an Albanian, as she herself said, even on Albanian soil. She considered this very important.
You spoke about Geraldine as a character, but what was her historical role in the history of Albania?
I think Geraldine had an important role. At the beginning, when she arrived in this country for the first time.
She was only queen of Albania for 11 months…!
That is true, but as you know, there was much criticism of King Zog, criticism regarding the politics of the 1930s. On the other hand, everyone, even in the communist era, thought that Queen Geraldine was beyond any criticism. She had given a beautiful example to the Albanian people with her love for Albania, with her devotion to this people, with what she represented even during her internment. She represented Albania very worthily.
Your book has brought to light for Albanians an unknown side of the royal family’s life. Their life in exile – was the life of the royal family in exile difficult, especially that of Queen Geraldine?
Yes, they suffered a lot during the time they were in internment. Geraldine and King Zog suffered greatly from this forced exile and lived in quite difficult conditions. In a way, they were fortunate to witness closely the whole life of Europeans; that is, after they left Albania in 1939, they found themselves in France. At first, they traversed all of Europe which was at war and arrived in France in 1940, at the time of the exodus. Like all the French, they took to the roads of southern France under German bombardments.
They were on the last ship that left France…?
Correct. They boarded the last ship that left France to go to England, where King George awaited them. After arriving in England, they found themselves, like all Londoners, under German bombardments. They also experienced those difficult days for the English.
They went to King Farouk in Egypt after the war, and all the episodes about the Cold War or the story of the American secret agent have been recounted.
The well-known story of Zenel Shehu and other envoys of King Zog to Albania…!
Then came the internment in Madrid, and that was a joyful period in Geraldine’s life.
Why?
She met many royal families there and was a close friend of the Queen of Bulgaria, Queen Giovanna.
Who was the daughter of Victor Emmanuel of Italy, the one who had taken the crown of the King of Albania?
Exactly. They were reconciled in Egypt thanks to King Farouk; the Italian sovereign formally apologized to the Albanian king for taking that crown and for what had happened. In the end, Queen Geraldine and Queen Giovanna of Bulgaria, who was the daughter of the King of Italy, became close friends. Life in Madrid was perhaps the most pleasant period of her life, before she settled in South Africa, where they had many difficulties. I met her when she was in South Africa. In Johannesburg.
Was the relationship between Queen Geraldine and King Zog true love or just a formal marriage, as sometimes happens in such unions?
In its beginnings, it must have been a formal marriage, but it cannot have continued that way. King Zog was looking for a bride who should not be Italian, or Yugoslav. He wanted an Austrian…!
To maintain the balance?
He was afraid of his neighbors who coveted Albania. So he absolutely did not want to marry an Italian or a Yugoslav in order to protect Albania. He wanted to marry an Austrian, because Austria was a neutral country and he spoke German very fluently. He had lived in Vienna in his youth.
Even during World War I?
Many Austrian and Austro-Hungarian women had been presented to him, and when he saw Geraldine’s photograph, he immediately fell in love with her. She was very beautiful at that time, and he really liked her appearance; at the same time, she was intelligent and thoughtful. She seemed wonderful to him, and he invited her to the New Year’s Eve ball in Tirana.
That was the first meeting, after having only seen her in photographs?
She knew nothing about Albania when she received the invitation. Her family received the invitation and was distrustful. Albania was an unknown country. The Kingdom was new. Geraldine belonged to a very important Hungarian noble family. At first, they wanted to make sure that everything would go well, that she would not be forced to accept, and that she would leave of her own free will and could return to her family whenever she wanted. And everything went very well, because when she arrived in Albania, in Durrës, she fell in love at first sight with Albania, and when she saw King Zog in the evening, it was love at first sight. Their love story was truly unexpected.
And it remained so for the 22 years they lived together?
Yes, for 22 years, and in South Africa, when I met her, she had photographs of King Zog and would not even let me take them to copy them; she kept them always with her – her husband was everything in her life. Albania and her husband were life itself to her.
It’s an unbelievable story. Geraldine was Queen of Albania for only 11 months, but she was quite well known by the international media. I mean there are books talking about her, many articles in magazines, television documentaries. Why did she become so famous?
I think she was very beautiful; that helped her on the media side, but besides her beauty, she conveyed something else that Albanians immediately understood and sensed – that she immediately assimilated their culture. She learned to speak Albanian very quickly. She inaugurated the first radio station in the Albanian language. Albanians felt that she adapted immediately and that she understood them without judging them, but by accepting them.
She was said to be one of the most beautiful queens in Europe. Was that true?
Yes, I think so, even from the photographs I have seen.
Was she still beautiful when you met her?
Yes. She was a very beautiful elderly lady, although she had experienced hardships in her life, she still radiated. There was something shimmering about her that gave her brilliance. She conveyed calmness and simplicity. She was beautiful until the end of her life, Josephine.
You wrote the book in the 1980s and early 1990s?
More precisely in 1996-1997.
So it was published then, and you published it in French, Hungarian, and Albanian. Is this the revised version?
Yes, this is the third edition of my book, and with each edition I have added information. I have revised it, enriched it with new anecdotes, with new testimonies. After the first publication, many people who were witnesses of that era contacted me and with their testimony gave me new information.
Has your book been successful?
Yes, it has been successful in France, as we brought out a new edition at the same time as Prince Leka’s wedding. Now it will also come to Albania. In Hungary, it came out a year ago and is a bestseller. Hungary, as you know, is the birthplace of Queen Geraldine.
Yes, and she is quite well known there. You have come for Prince Leka’s wedding. What is your impression of this wedding and of the guests at this wedding?
I think the wedding went very well. It was at the same time formal but also simple and moving. The Prince was surrounded by the affection of European royal families. There was also Queen Sofía of Spain, the King of Morocco, and the former Empress of Iran?
There were many personalities?
Yes, there were also representatives from the English royal family. Yes, there were representatives from all European royal families.
I have a question. It’s quite interesting. At the wedding of King Zog with Geraldine in 1938, only the Italian royal family was present. Why, at Prince Leka’s wedding, were there guests from all royal families?
At King Zog’s wedding, the witness was the Prince of Turkey.
Yes, the son of Sultan Abdul Hamid?
Correct, who was married to King Zog’s sister. At Prince Leka’s wedding, there were guests from many royal families because they are all cousins and relatives of Geraldine. Because when she was in exile, Geraldine often met royal families. She had friendships with the Romanovs of Russia, the Kings of Spain, Egypt, Italy. She has cousins in all royal families. The genealogical tree is in the book.
She also had connections in the United States?
Yes, Geraldine’s mother was American. She was born in Brooklyn, New York. She never lived in America, but she felt American, and her language was English.
And the final question. You are visiting Albania for the first time after having written so much about it, about Geraldine’s life and other things. How does Tirana seem to you?
I feel as if I am discovering things and at the same time recognizing them. Because when you write and describe places, you travel with your imagination, and then Queen Geraldine had told me so many things about her Albania – which was Albania of the 1930s, then Albania of the 2000s, when she had returned. She had spoken to me so much, described to me in detail the atmosphere, the environment, the people, the places, the character of Albanians, everything she wanted from Albania, and she transmitted to me this attraction for her country. So here I found myself facing the discovery of things, but at the same time I was saying: yes, I know these things, I know everything, and it is a very beautiful sensation.
Will you return to Albania?
I hope so. The wedding was a good opportunity to visit it for the first time, and I hope that Albanians, who have always welcomed me, who welcomed my book…!
… yes, the book is very popular in Albania!
I have always been welcomed by Albanians, who are so open and so curious about their history and their past, and I highly value this connection with Albanians.
Thank you very you for the interview.
Thank you.
You are welcome anytime in Albania. / Memorie.al
