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The Holocaust’s untold heroes: Exhibit honors Albanian Muslims who saved Jews

Sep 4, 2009 11:28 am By Benjamin

As documented by Mark A. Gabriel, the history of Islamic anti-Semitism is persistent, pervasive, and severe. To the extent that Albanian Muslims — even if they were Muslim merely culturally or by default — protected Jews from the Holocaust, they are worthy and remarkable exemplars. Will other Muslims follow the Albanians’ example in future troubled times?

“Holocaust’s untold heroes” by Hahzada Irfan in the Houston Chronicle, August 28:

Their story is rarely told, but Albanian Muslims took in fleeing Jews during World War II, saving thousands of lives.

When no other European country dared to withstand the wrath of Nazi Germany, it was the Muslims of Albania who saved a large number of Jewish people from extermination.

Careful, Shahzada. Clarify your dates and facts, or have your credibility questioned.

Albania, a Muslim majority country in Europe, opened its borders during World War II and took in thousands of Jews fleeing from different countries…
…(Norman) Gershman…interviewed Albanians who had harbored Jewish people at that time and were still alive and the relatives of those who were not…Everyone had a different story to tell, but one thing was common.

“They were compelled to act the way they had by Besa, a code of honor deeply rooted in Albanian culture and incorporated in the faith of Albanian Muslims…They believed any Albanian would have done the same in a similar situation.”

Even better had they said that any Muslim would have done the same, and then shown why with appeals to the Qur’an, Sunnah, and Islamic history. But unfortunately, that kind of demonstration is more challenging than general reference to “Besa” and to “Albanian culture…incorporated in faith of Albanian Muslims.”

“The Albanian Muslims derived inspiration from their religion to save Jews,” she said.

Then why are they not quoted as saying so, and explaining how they derived inspiration from their religion?

These stories have remained unknown for decades, even to students of the Holocaust. Rob Satloff, director of the Washington Institute of Near East Policy in Washington, D.C., offers an explanation. “First, we — Jews, Israelis, Western historians — didn’t look very hard,” Satloff said. “And second, they — Arabs and Muslims, even those who rescued Jews — often did not want to be found”…Ellen Kennedy, interim director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the University of Minnesota, believes these stories remained untold because many surviving Jews and Albanians were reluctant to share them.

Why were they reluctant? Did they fear ostracism, or worse, retaliation? From whom?

“…They (the Albanians) were so different from those who perpetrate violence in the name of the same religion.”

“When survivors first began speaking about their experiences in the years immediately after the war, they were met with disbelief,” Kennedy said. “The public simply could not imagine that such horrors occurred.”

Not unlike public incredulity at Muslims persecuting Jews and other minorities in the present-day world.

Gershman’s work is an attempt at building bridges between Muslims and people of Jewish faith… Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel, is the sponsor of this traveling exhibition…

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