Norman H. Gershman

Not many people realize that not just Christians but also Muslims saved Jews from the Nazis during World War II. This book tells the stories of some Muslim Righteous Gentiles in Albania and Kosovo -- mostly Albania. About 2,000 Jews lived in Albania prior to the war. Although Albania was occupied first by the Italians and then by the Nazis, because of the actions of their fellow countrymen almost none of the Albanian Jews were taken. Jewish refugees also flooded into Albania from other countries, mainly Italy, Greece, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, and they received shelter as well.

From this book it appears that for the Albanians and the Muslim Kosovars, sheltering Jews was a matter of course, just something that you were expected to do. Even the then-King of Albania did his part, providing Albanian passports to 400 Viennese Jews so they could get out of the country. When he found out that the Jewish family he had formerly employed as his personal jewelers were destitute and didn't have the funds to emigrate to England like they had planned, he gave back all the jewelry they had made for him.

The author went to Albania and Kosovo and interviewed the people who had personally saved Jews, or, more often, their children or grandchildren, since many of the original heroes have passed on by now. Excellent photographs of each interviewee were included. Unfortunately, the stories were kind of lacking. They were all very short -- each less than a page, most no more than three to five paragraphs long -- and as a result not terribly detailed. When you're working off 60-year-old memories, or someone trying to recall what their long-dead mother or father told them long ago, of course it's going to very hazy. Many times they couldn't even remember the names of the Jewish people they'd helped. I think it might have been better to just have the transcripts of the interviews or something. I desperately wanted to know more, and the book left me feeling unsatisfied -- like getting up from the dinner table still hungry.

I must find more to read about Righteous Muslims.… (mehr)