Jewish Refugees | Albanian American Civic League

Chapter Six
Jewish Refugees

Ambassador Bernstein arranged for Austrian and German Jews to settle in Albania. For example, in February, 1939, 100 Jews who came from Vienna were allowed to legally settle in Albania, 60 in Tirana and 40 in Durrës

An additional 95 Jewish families arrived in March, 1939. King Zog allowed the Jews to settle in his country, but he fled for his own life to Greece less than a month later, after the Italians invaded Albania on April 7th, Good Friday.

With the Italian invasion of Albania, in April, and the start of the global war in September, 1939, the refugees had to accept the fact they were in Albania for the duration of the War. Things were so good for the Albanian Jews and they felt so secure, that little attention was paid to the admonitions of the emigrants about the growing horrors in Central Europe.

Things became very confused about where Jews were safe. At one time the escape route was from Albania to Italy and beyond. After the war started there were German Jews who were able to get to Italy, and from there illegally to Albania.

The number of Jewish refugees stranded in Albania was measured in the hundreds, if not thousands. But they were stranded in a country of which Ambassador Bernstein had written, “There is no trace of any discrimination against them (Jews) in Albania because Albania happens to be one of the rare lands in Europe today where religious prejudice and hate do not exist.”

Albanian Government

The Albanian Government adopted various anti-Jewish regulations in the 1938-39 period, even before the Italian invasion. But the Albanian Government had neither the will nor the time to enforce these regulations. The ostensible reason for the regulations was to appease the Italians, who were aware of the Jews in Albania and the fact that they were virtually unrestricted.

The restrictions imposed on Jews included a limitation of tourist visas to 30 days. The tourist visas were “tourist” in name only. That was the way the Jews entered Albania, and once they entered, they sought a way to leave. When it became impossible to leave, the “tourist” became an illegal resident of Albania.

The Albanian counsels abroad were instructed to refrain from issuing tourist visas to Jews but they continued to do so until the start of the World War. Many counsels simply ignored the restrictions. After the World War started some Jews were still able to get visas too enter Albania, although bribes were necessary in some cases.

Financial and Other Support

Although they were stranded in Albania, the Jewish refugees were relatively safe. But most soon saw their available funds dissipated. The local Jewish communities came to their aide through the good efforts of some wealthy Jewish merchants, Isaac Kohan, in Durrës and Rafael Levi, and Rafael Jakoel, in Vlora. The majority of -the funds were provided by Jewish welfare organizations including the American joint Distribution Committee There was even a small amount of aid to the needy refugees from the Albanian Government.

Jews who had been in Albania for several months were permitted to work at their trades and professions and were given residency permits. The official policy was that the refugees must leave Albania when their visas expired, but this rule was honored by its breach. Meanwhile the

Albanian counsels were facilitating the movement of Jews into Albania. In spite of official policy the counsels continued to issue visas.

After the invasion the Italians put pressure on the Albanian Government to expel the foreign Jews and to initiate additional restrictions on Jews. The Albanians resisted this pressure and not a single Jew was expelled.

Italy and the Italian Occupation

Italy was the only country with which Albania had treaty and it was Italy that invaded Albania in April, 1939. This may explain Albania’s reluctance to enter into a treaty since the World War.

The Italians sometimes referred to anti-Semitism as the “German disease” and even when they did the Germans bidding, they did it halfheartedly. In Italy, the Jews were relatively secure until Italy capitulated in November, 1943, and the central and northern parts of the country (including Rome) came under German occupation. Tragically, these were the areas of the greatest concentration of Italian Jews.

The Italians were rarely willing tools of the Germans with respect to the Jewish question. We know from the testimony of people who were there that life in the Italian administered camps in Yugoslavia was bearable and that Italian soldiers assisted Yugoslavian Jews in escaping to Albania. This was at a time when large numbers of Jews from all over Europe were being transported to Poland to the German death camps.

When the Italians arrived in Albania they announced some anti-Jewish rules. Jews were cut off from cultural, social and political activities. In comparison to other occupied countries the restrictions were rather insignificant.

During the period of the Italian occupation of Albania many Jewish refugees led ordinary lives without hiding their identity. They celebrated the Jewish Holy Days and worked for their living at what they could, but things changed rapidly when Italy surrendered and joined the Allies in the autumn of 1943. The Germans came to Albania. Some 800 Jewish refugees from Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Germany, Poland and Austria living in Albania once again faced fear and the need to find a hiding place.

In the last days of the Italian occupation the Italians were ordered to round up the Jews in Albania to concentrate them all in one place, an American agricultural school in Kavaja. We know what usually followed.

The Italian soldiers guarding the Jews were to be replaced by German soldiers. The Italian Commandant, ostensibly, opened the gates of the school and told the Jews to scatter. What makes this story plausible, is the fact that nothing has been found which would indicate there was anything approaching a concentration camp in Albania and we know there was no “transportation” of Jews from Albania to the death camps.

Jakoel said that sometimes he finds it difficult to know how to judge the Italians. When they came they instituted restrictions on the Jews and seemed to want to humiliate them, but they didn’t stop Jews from having gainful employment. The Italians who came in contact with Jews generally treated them without discrimination.

When Rafael Jakoel was arrested for helping guerrillas, local Italians testified on his behalf even though they knew the charges were true.

When Italy surrendered the Albanian partisans had a windfall, as several hundred Italian soldiers joined them, bringing a large amount of arms and military equipment. An unknown, but smaller number of Italian soldiers joined the German forces.

The Annexed Territories

In April, 1941, the territory of Kosova,(2) then a part of Yugoslavia and inhabited mostly by ethnic Albanians, was annexed to Albania and put under “Albanian control,” which was really Italian control.

First the Germans imposed laws for persecuting Jews, the same laws they had instituted in the other occupied countries. These were not applicable to Albania proper. For example, Jews in the annexed territories were required to wear a “J” or “Jew” on their clothes. These laws were unknown in Albania proper.

The Jews in the “annexed area” were not as fortunate as the Jews in Albania proper. Life in the annexed territories was not as secure and there were unfortunate incidents of Jews being abused by the local people.

Jews from Serbia and Croatia had fled to this area and these refugees were relatively well treated by the Albanians and Italians, until the Italians began to comply with German demands regarding the Jews. This compares unfavorably with the experience in Albania proper where the Albanians refused to provide lists of Jews and didn’t cooperate in arresting Jews.

In Prishtina, capital city of the annexed territories, the local authorities complied with German demands and jailed 60 Jewish men. A sympathetic doctor, Spiro Lit, convinced the mayor that they must not let the Germans take the 60 Jews to Poland for extermination. He also convinced the German authorities that the Jewish prisoners had typhus and it was necessary to send the Jews to hospitals in Albania to avoid an epidemic. The Jews were taken to Berat, given false documents and spread around Albania, mostly to the friends of Dr. Lito in the cities of Lushnja, Shijak, Kavaja, and Kruja.

The Albanian Minister of Interior gave some instructions to the Prefect of Police of the annexed territories that tells a story with a partial happy ending. The motivation isn’t dear, but some lives were saved.

An order from the Minister dated March 20, 1942, directed: “All the Jews that have been in your region before the separation of Yugoslavia should be transferred within 3 days to Berat. They should not be stopped on their way. If they do not firmly follow the instructions, they should be told they will be deported. The Jews who came after the war started should be kept in prison and you should make a list of their names.”

The Minister apparently changed his mind because 10 days later (April 1, 1942) he revised his instructions: ‘The Jews who came after the war started should not be imprisoned but should be gathered on a field of concentration, because there may be women and children among them. You should coordinate with the military authorities to find a common Ian for the whole of Kosova. For those who have been here before the war, you should stop deporting to Berat until further orders.”

The Prefect of Police didn’t work very fast and on May 20, he notified the Minister: ‘The Jews are gathered in a field of concentration in the central part of our prefecture being always under observation.”

Two days later the Minister again revised his instructions: “About the Jews who were in that region before the war, the men should be sent to Berat. Women and children should be free to stay where they are or go to Berat. If anyone who is supposed to be sent to Berat is ill, wait until his recovery.”

On July 5, some Jews must still have been in prison because the Minister directed: ‘The Jews who are in your prison should be separated into four groups and sent to Kavaja, Kruja, Burrel and Shijak, where they will live under close observation by the police. Every person or family is free to chose who he wants in his group, except that each group should have about the same number of people.”The order doesn’t say “Jews who came after the war started” it just says “Jews who are in prisons.” But in 1942, it was probable that the Jews in prison were those who arrived after the war started and were in the country illegally.

It’s paradoxical that there was concern for the sick, an appreciation of the need to keep families together, and a concern for women and children at the same time they are talking about the field of concentration, and eventually complied with German demands for Jewish prisoners. The’ good result was that those who went to Berat and the four towns mentioned (Kavaja, Kruja Burrel, and Shijak) were in Albania and Albania meant life but not everyone was so fortunate.

There was inconsistencies and a lack of formality that was confusing to the “inmates” of these fields of concentration and to those trying to understand the situation half a century later.

There were barbed wire fences surrounding these fields of concentration and there were Italian guards, yet there was testimony of Jews going to Kavaja to a cinema or a football match or to celebrate Jewish holidays. This inconsistent pattern suggests two things. First, the guards and camp officials either didn’t have firm instructions or were unwilling to carry them out. Second, we can’t generalize from the few reports of experience in these camps as the conditions varied substantially from place to place and from time to time.

In June, 1943, while still under Italian control, the Albanian police chief suggested the jailing of certain Jews: “According to our investigation the Jews listed below are dangerous because they are propaganderizing against the Axis (Rome-Berlin) and they want to organize actions and hold meetings. We think these people should be taken away from here as soon as possible to one of the concentration fields, because their staying here could be dangerous to the regime.”

The order doesn’t say “Jews who came after the war started” it just says “Jews who are in prisons.” But in 1942, it was probable that the Jews in prison were those who arrived after the war started and were in the country illegally.

There was inconsistencies and a lack of formality that was confusing to the “inmates” of these fields of concentration and to those trying to understand the situation half a century later.

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