The Inter War Period
Chapter Five
The Inter War Period
Albania was proclaimed an independent state in 1912 and was able to remain neutral during the First World War, but it was a battlefield for the warring nations.(¹) By secret agreement in 1915 the Allies carved up the territory of Albania putting some areas occupied almost totally by Albanians outside the country’s borders. It wasn’t until 1920 that the Albanians were able to force the Italians from their land.
In 1923, the great powers drew new boundaries and separated half the country and half its people from Albania.
In June, 1924, the Government was run by the first democratic statesman of Albania, Bishop Fan S. Noli, and Albania was admitted to the League of Nations the same year. Noli’s government lasted only six months. In December, 1924, the country was taken over by a dictator, A. B. Zogolli, who was known as Zog. He proclaimed himself President in 1924, and in 1928, named himself King.
The period between the World Wars was one of great prosperity for Albanian Jews, but it was also a period of weakening of Jewish traditions. The only synagogue was destroyed and was never rebuilt. The matriarch of the Levi family was going to pay for the rebuilding of the synagogue but died before it could be built. The last Jewish school closed during this period.
Jakoel called the period from 1925 until 1939, the period of rule by King Zog, “A golden age for Jews in Albania,” even though the Jewish community wasn’t officially recognized by the Albanian Government until April 2,1937.
In the 1930s the municipality of Vlora adopted an ordinance requiring that Jewish owned stores be open on Saturday and closed on Sunday. (2) Heavy fines were imposed for violation of this law. The first Saturday after the law was enacted the Jewish shops stayed closed and the fines were imposed. The fine was increased the second week. The decision among those store owners who had limited resources was to remain open on Saturdays but not to sell anything. The more prosperous merchants kept their stores closed and paid the fines.
The Jewish store keepers sued the municipality of Vlora and the Albanian courts agreed with the Jews that they could close on Saturdays, and the courts made the municipality return the collected fines.
In 1927 the “small number” of Albanian Jews lived primarily in Korça, according to the Encyclopedia Judaica. There is a difference of opinion as to the location of the main portion of the Jewish community during the interwar period. Jakoel challenged this and said the majority of the Jews were living in Vlora. In the 1930 census there were 204 Jews living in Albania. According to official records the Jewish population of Albania in 1937 was 120, residing mostly in Vlora and Delvina.In 1928, the Albanian constitution was amended to include a statement of religious freedom. It stated: “All religions and faiths are honored and their liberty of practice assured. Religion can in no way form judicial barriers. Religion cannot be used for political purposes.”
The Albanian state has no official religion. All religions and faiths were honored, and their liberty of practice was assured. Religion was not permitted to form jurisdictional barriers and religious proselytizing was forbidden. The 1939 Revised Constitution stated that all religions are to be respected and their external practices guaranteed by law.
Janina (Ioanina)
Although Janina and nearby Preveza (3) are currently within Greece, their place in Albanian-Jewish history is assured. Janina remained under Ottoman rule from October 9, 1430, until 1913, when the Janina District, which had been a part of Albania, became a part of Greece.
Most Romaniot Jews can trace their family history to Janina. The Greek spoken by the Jews in this area was so archaic that it suggests there is truth to the claim that there was a Jewish community in Janina as far back as the nth century. Janina was capital of its region and a wealthy town in which Jews and others prospered.
There were golden days in Janina but there were also pogroms. For example, there is a newspaper account of large numbers of Jews murdered in Janina on January 29, 1909.
Calculating the size of the Jewish population of Janina is difficult because it varied in size during various periods. The calculation is further complicated by the fact that sometimes the census is reported in terms of families and other times in terms of individuals. The years of the biggest growth were the years when the Ottoman welcomed the refugees from the Spanish Inquisition, who were asimilated into the Romaniot population. The years of the greatest shrinkage of population were during the period between 1912 and 1920, when many Albanians emigrated to the United States, and of course the black day in March, 1944, when the Holocaust arrived in Janina.
In 1831, there was a community of 212 families which increased to 343 families by 1856. With an average of six per family this amounted to 1200 and 2056 respectively. In 1870, there was a shrinkage to 250 families (1500 people) which may be explained by the large number who migrated to Vlora. In the next six years (1876) there was a doubling of population to 3,000. The Jewish population remained at the 3,000 level until the years of great migration to the United States mentioned earlier.
On the eve of the Holocaust there were 1950 Jews living in Janina. In one day, in 1944 (March 24), 1860 Jews were sent to Auschwitz. In 1948, their number was 170. There are less than 100 Jews in Janina today.
The Jews of Janina possessed an old torah claimed to be at least 1500 years old known as the “Safer (book) of Vlora” formerly belonging to the Jews of Vlora. Inscriptions on the torah would indicate there were Jews in that area more than 1500 years earlier. In 1936, the Albanians requested the return of the torah, but the Jews of Janina kept postponing the return. The old torah was burned by the Nazis with the other torahs found in Janina.
The Four Vilayets
To understand the relation of Janina to Albania in general, and to Vlora in particular, it’s necessary to understand the four Vilayets during the period of the Ottoman Empire.
Until 1878 Greater Albania was divided into four “Vilayets” or provinces or districts: Janina, Shkodra, Kosova and Manastir. Janina was the capital of the Vilayet of janina.(4) Not only was Janina in Albania, but it was in the same district as Berat and Vlora. This facilitated movement between Janina and Vlora and ultimately to the emigration which constituted the Third Wave.
By the end of the 19th century the ties between Vlora and Janina were still strong but were weakened from what they had been. The Vilayets had been abolished and Janina was now Greek, even though it was still not completely free of the Ottoman Empire.
At the same time there was a strengthening of the ties between the Jews of Corfu and Vlora. Corfu is very close to Vlora and the ties would have been stronger except for the language difficulty. The Jews of Corfu tended to speak an Italianized version of Greek. Hebrew wasn’t a common language during this period, as the great revival of Hebrew as a spoken language hadn’t yet occurred.
There was a post World War II link between the Jews of Albania and Janina but it was a weak one. Only 10% of the Jews of Janina survived and Hoxha’s isolationist policies contributed, but the final break in the link was when the Jews of Albania emigrated to Israel.
As devastated as they were in Janina, the Janina Relief Fund sent 1,500 pounds of Matzo flour to the Albanians, in 1945. In March, 1953, the Janina Relief Fund provided aid to what they call the “Janina Jews living in Albania.”
After the First World War there was a war between Greece and Turkey. Many Jews from Janina went to Albania to avoid being drafted into the Greek army.
Footnotes:
1. Albania was the last Balkan state to become independent of Turkey.
2. At the same time there were similar court cases in Poland and New York. Those cases went one step further and involved Jewish owned stores opening on Sunday. The Albanian court held that all stores must be closed on Sunday, even though the sabbath for the majority of the population was Friday, the Moslem sabbath.
3. Much of what is written about Janina has application to Preveza, but to a lesser extent.
4. After the defeat of Turkey by Russia in 1878, Albania, still a part of the Ottoman Empire, was fragmented and substantially reduced in size. Part of each Vilayet was ceded to a neighboring country. For our interests the most important change is that Janina was no longer in Albania, and Vlora remained the center of Jewish life in Albania.