There are few more honorable pages in Albania’s history than its lonely example of heroism in the face of the destruction of European Jewry during World War II.
Nobody asked our grandparents to risk, and often sacrifice, their lives to save people from the Holocaust, yet countless Albanians — Muslims, Christians and atheists — did just that. Thanks to the Albanian code of honor, which demands all of us to offer shelter to strangers in need, Albania was the only country in Europe with more Jews at the war’s end than at its start.
Immediately afterward, we experienced persecution firsthand. After prevailing over our external enemies, we encountered an equally vicious one at home: an oppressive totalitarian regime that jailed, tortured and murdered those it perceived as enemies.