[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 601 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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'';
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;
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 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 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
Resolved, That the Senate--
(1) commends the people of Albania and Kosova for
protecting and saving the lives of Jews who either lived in
Albania or sought asylum there during the Holocaust;
(2) commends Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes'
Remembrance Authority, in Israel for recognizing 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 Albania's
declaration of independence in 1912, its support for close ties
between the United States and Albania and between the United
States and Kosova, which declared its independence in 2008; and
(4) commends the officers, boards of directors, and members
of the Albanian American Civic League and the Albanian American
Foundation for their unstinting work, since 1989, to bring the
plight of the Albanian people and the unique historic
connection between Albanians and Jews to international
attention.
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