•HRES 33 IH 
Whereas in a statement at the 2005 Albanian American Civic 
League and Foundation’s ‘‘Salute to Albanian Tolerance, 
Resistance, and Hope: Remembering Besa and the Holo-
caust’’, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the lib-
eration of the Nazi death camps, Dr. Mordechai Paldiel, 
then Director for the Righteous at Yad Vashem, com-
memorated 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 Civic League and Executive Director of 
the Albanian American Foundation, published ‘‘Jewish 
Survival in Albania & the Ethics of ‘Besa’ ’’ in the jour-
nal 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 was the first 
Kosovar Albanian recognized by Yad Vashem’s ‘‘Right-
eous among Nations Department’’, for leading 400 Jew-
ish families from Decan, Kosova, into safety in Albania, 
and his son, Mustafa Rezniqi, who aided him as a teen-
ager during World War II, accepted the award from Yad 
Vashem for him, posthumously; 
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 insure their safe passage to Albania 
and for whom (like so many other Albanians from 
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•HRES 33 IH 
Kosova and Albania), Jewish survivors could not be 
found to validate his role, even posthumously, because of 
the Communist cover-up for 45 years of the archives doc-
umenting the many stories of Albanian heroism; 
Whereas Shirley Cloyes DioGuardi addressed the 2010 Inter-
national Oral History Association Conference in Prague, 
Czech Republic, and brought Leka Rezniqi, the grandson 
of Mustafa Rezniqi (who died in May 2008), to join her 
in revealing the ‘‘underground railroad’’ between Alba-
nians in Kosova and Albania that was essential to the 
rescue of Jews; and 
Whereas Albania is the only country in Europe that had more 
Jews in it after World War II than before it: Now, there-
fore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) commends the people of Albania and 
Kosova for protecting and saving the lives of all 
Jews who either lived in Albania or sought asylum 
there during the Holocaust; 
(2) commends Yad Vashem in Israel for recog-
nizing Albanians who took action at great risk to 
themselves to protect Jews during the Holocaust, for 
their humanity, courage, and heroism; 
(3) reaffirms on the 100th anniversary of Alba-
nia’s declaration of independence in 1912, its sup-
port for close ties between the United States and Al-
bania and between the United States and Kosova, 
which declared its independence in 2008; and 
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•HRES 33 IH 
(4) commends the officers, board of directors, 
and members of the Albanian American Civic 
League and Albanian American Foundation for their 
unstinting work, since 1989, to bring the plight of 
the Albanian people and the unique historic connec-
tion between Albanians and Jews to international at-
tention. 
Æ 
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