III 

112TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. RES. 601 

Commending the people of Albania on the 100th anniversary of the declaration of their independence from the Turkish Ottoman Empire on November 28, 1912, and commending Albanians in Albania and Kosova for 

protecting and saving the lives of all Jews who either lived in Albania 

or sought asylum there during the Holocaust. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

NOVEMBER 27, 2012 

Mr. SCHUMER submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 

Committee on Foreign Relations 

RESOLUTION 

Commending the people of Albania on the 100th anniversary 

of the declaration of their independence from the Turkish 

Ottoman Empire on November 28, 1912, and commending Albanians in Albania and Kosova for protecting 

and saving the lives of all Jews who either lived in 

Albania or sought asylum there during the Holocaust. 

Whereas, in 1934, the United States Ambassador to Albania 

Herman Bernstein wrote that ‘‘there is no trace of any 

discrimination against Jews in Albania, because Albania 

happens to be one of the rare lands in Europe today 

where religious prejudice and hate do not exist, even 

though Albanians themselves are divided into three 

faiths’’; 

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Whereas, in 1938, approximately 300 Albanian Jews lived in 

the Republic of Albania, and more than 1,900 escaped to 

Albania from Nazi-occupied Western Europe and the 

former Yugoslavia during World War II; 

Whereas Albanians in Albania and Kosova, based on their 

unique history of religious tolerance, considered it a matter of national pride and tradition to help Jews during 

the Holocaust, and due to the actions of many individual 

Albanians, the entire native and refugee Jewish community in Albania during World War II survived the Holocaust; 

Whereas Albanians sheltered and protected Jews in Albania 

and in Kosova, even at the risk of Albanian lives, beginning with the invasion and occupation of Albania by 

Italian fascists led by Benito Mussolini in 1939; 

Whereas, after Nazi Germany occupied Albania in 1943 and 

the Gestapo ordered Jewish refugees in the Albanian capital of Tirana to register, Albanian leaders refused to 

provide a list of Jews living in Albania, and Albanian 

clerks issued false identity papers to protect all Jews in 

the country; 

Whereas, in June 1990, Jewish-American Congressman Tom 

Lantos and former Albanian-American Congressman Joe 

DioGuardi were the first United States officials to enter 

Albania in 50 years and received from the Communist 

Party leader and Albanian President Ramiz Alia a thick 

file from the archives containing hundreds of news clippings and personal letters sent by Jews to their Albanian 

rescuers after World War II, but that the Communist 

government prevented from being delivered for 45 years; 

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Whereas Congressman Joe DioGuardi, upon returning to the 

United States in June 1990, sent the file for authentication to Elli Streit in Tel Aviv for delivery to appropriate 

officials at Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, in Jerusalem; 

Whereas Josef Jakoel and his eldest daughter, Felicita, both 

Albanian Jews, led the emigration of almost all Albanian 

Jews to Israel in 1991 as the Communist regime was collapsing; 

Whereas Yad Vashem has designated 69 Albanians as 

‘‘Righteous Persons’’ and Albania as one of the ‘‘Righteous among the Nations’’; 

Whereas, based on the information authenticated by Yad 

Vashem, Jewish-American author and philanthropist 

Harvey Sarner published ‘‘Rescue in Albania’’ in 1997 to 

call international attention to the unique role of the Albanian people in saving Jews from the Holocaust; 

Whereas, in October 1997, the Albanian American Civic 

League and the Albanian American Foundation began 

the distribution of 10,000 copies of ‘‘Rescue in Albania’’, 

with forewords by Congressmen Tom Lantos and Benjamin Gilman, to bring to the attention of the Jewish 

people and their leaders the plight of Albanians in 

Kosova living under a brutal occupation at the hands of 

Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, in order to forestall 

another genocide in Kosova; 

Whereas, in a statement at the ‘‘Salute to Albanian Tolerance, Resistance, and Hope: Remembering Besa and the 

Holocaust’’ held by the Albanian American Civic League 

and the Albanian American Foundation in 2005 on the 

occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the 

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Nazi death camps, Dr. Mordechai Paldiel, then Director 

for the Righteous at Yad Vashem, commemorated the 

heroism of Albanians as ‘‘the only ones among rescuers 

in other countries who not only went out of their way to 

save Jews, but vied and competed with each other for the 

privilege of being a rescuer, thanks to besa’’, the code of 

honor that requires an Albanian to save the life of anyone seeking refuge, even if it means sacrificing one’s own 

life; 

Whereas, in 2006, Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi, Balkan Affairs 

Adviser to the Albanian American Civic League and Executive Director of the Albanian American Foundation, 

published ‘‘Jewish Survival in Albania & the Ethics of 

‘Besa’ ’’ in the journal of the American Jewish Congress 

to document the saving role of Albanians and how that 

role was revealed, in spite of the Communist effort to 

suppress it; 

Whereas, on December 2, 2008, Arslan Rezniqi and his son, 

Mustafa, were the first Kosovar Albanians recognized by 

Yad Vashem’s ‘‘Righteous among Nations Department’’, 

for leading 400 Jewish families from Decan, Kosova, into 

safety in Albania; 

Whereas Arif Alickaj, the Secretary of the Municipality of 

Decan, risked his job and his life helping the Rezniqis 

rescue Jews in Nazi-occupied Kosova by issuing false 

identity papers to ensure their safe passage to Albania 

and who, like so many Albanians from Kosova and Albania, died before Jewish survivors could validate his role 

at Yad Vashem; 

Whereas Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi addressed the 2010 International Oral History Association Conference in Prague, 

and brought Leka Rezniqi, the grandson of Mustafa 

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Rezniqi, to join her in revealing the ‘‘underground railroad’’ between Albanians in Kosova and Albania that was 

essential to the rescue of Jews; and 

Whereas Albania is the only nation in Europe that had more 

Jewish residents after World War II than before World 

War II: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the Senate— 

2 (1) commends the people of Albania and 

3 Kosova for protecting and saving the lives of Jews 

4 who either lived in Albania or sought asylum there 

5 during the Holocaust; 

6 (2) commends Yad Vashem, the Holocaust 

7 Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority, in 

8 Israel for recognizing Albanians, who took action at 

9 great risk to themselves to protect Jews during the 

10 Holocaust, for their humanity, courage, and her11 oism; 

12 (3) reaffirms, on the 100th anniversary of Alba13 nia’s declaration of independence in 1912, its sup14 port for close ties between the United States and Al15 bania and between the United States and Kosova, 

16 which declared its independence in 2008; and 

17 (4) commends the officers, boards of directors, 

18 and members of the Albanian American Civic 

19 League and the Albanian American Foundation for 

20 their unstinting work, since 1989, to bring the plight 

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1 of the Albanian people and the unique historic con2 nection between Albanians and Jews to international 

3 attention. 

Æ 

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