In Praise Of Muslims

A small country on the shores of the Adriatic Sea, neighboring Greece and the former Yugoslavia, Albania has a majority Muslim population. During the Second World War the country was occupied by Italian and Germans armies. Nearly half of the small Jewish community in Pristina of the Albanian Kosovo region in Serbia perished in the Holocaust. On the other hand, thousands of Jews sought and found refuge in Albania. In many cases Albanians treated well the Jewish refugees and sheltered them in remote mountain villages. More than once, the Albanian authorities even provided them with false identity papers. This shielding and caring attitude has been attributed to the ancient tradition of besa, a code of honor in Albanian culture to provide shelter and safe passage to people who need help and protection. The Holocaust Memorial and Research Center Yad Vashem in Jerusalem recognized 75 Albanian citizens as Righteous Among the Nations for aiding Jews in their hour of need in the Holocaust. Mordechai Lazar and eighteen members of his family in April 1941 fled from Yugoslavia to Albania to escape the Nazi atrocities. They found a hiding place in 1943 in Shengjerg, an isolated village of the Tirana district. Two kind Albanians, Destan Balla and Lime Balla, offered the Lazar family shelter in their small house. The Lazar clan survived the war and immigrated to Israel. In 1992 Yad Vashem awarded to Destan and Lime Balla the title Righteous Among the Nations. Another Righteous Among the Nations, Nuro Hoxha was a respected teacher in the Albanian village Terbac. In 1943 Ilia Solomon, a Jewish friend, asked Hoxha's help to hide from the Germans. Hoxha opened the door of his house and sheltered Ilia and Sarika Solomon, along with the couple's baby Mirela. However, in 1944 Albanian Nazi collaborators arrested Ilia. Hoxha confronted them. He threatened them that, in accordance of the besa custom, the village would take revenge on the collaborators and their families if Ilia was not released. Two days later Ilia was again a free man. Nuro Hoxha helped the Solomon family to survive the Holocaust without any monitary gain and renumeration.