Albanci spasavali Jevreje od nacista

[Аврам Гојић]

meni je ovo jako zanimljivo, zajedno sa praksom bese.http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/arts/Muslims-Save-Jews-in-Untold-WWll-Story-111517964.htmlAn untold story of the Nazi Holocaust is on display at a Jewish temple in St. Louis, Missouri. It's aphotography exhibit, featuring portraits of elderly Albanian Muslims - men and women who helped save nearly 2,000 Jews who fled to Albania during World War II.Untold story"Who ever heard of Muslims saving Jews?," asks photographer Norman Gershman. After hearing the story, he decided to visit Albania to meet the surviving families who had sheltered Jews. "I wanted to go to Albania first to discover for myself who are these people."Norman GershmanBasri Hasani sheltered his next-door neighbor and best friend, Moshe Rubenovic, who fought the Nazis throughout Albania and Kosovo. "I am a true Muslim," says Hasani. "My door is always open to anyone in need."For the past six years, Gershman, a fine art photographer whose work is typically displayed in museums, traveled throughout Albania and Kosovo. He photographed most of his subjects in their homes, often with objects that were significant to the people they sheltered.In one photograph, a man stands with three Jewish prayer books that a family left behind after the war."I'll never forget this - when we were at this guy's home and he was looking at us sort of like angrily and he said 'What are you doing here?'" says Gershman. "We said, 'Well, your family saved this Jewish family,' and he looked at us and said, 'So what? Any Albanian would have done the same thing. We did nothing special,' and he meant it."Word of honorThe Albanians have a word for this: Besa. It translates as 'word of honor,' and is a cultural precept unique to Albania."The word Besa in Albanian is kind of protection of when they host a guest, the Albanians, it's a rule, they protect them with their own lives," says Alberto Colonomos, a Jewish man born in 1933 in what was then Yugoslavia. He was 10 years old when his family fled to Albania."There were about 7,200 Jews living in that area. They deported them to the concentration camps and they deported them all the way to Treblinka. They killed them all, nobody came back. But about 50 families escaped a week or two weeks before the deportation."Norman GershmanThe Jewish family that lived with the Kazazi family (pictured) escaped the Nazis during searches by scrambling through connecting doorways to other homes. "Our parents were not very religious, but they believed in the Koran and Besa," the grown Kazazi children say. "Without the Koran there is no Besa. Without Besa there is no Koran."A wealthy man who worked in a tobacco factory took in the Colonomos family. Unlike many Jews in other parts of Europe who survived the war in cellars and attics, Jews in Albania were given Muslim names and treated as honored guests. Colonomos explains that under Besa, Albanians put their guests before their own family."They really hid us with their lives. They knew that the Germans - the consequences if they catch them were very, very stiff. So they would be shot. But when they have that Besa, they will not denounce their guests. They were amazing people."Gershman's black and white portraits have been in over 70 exhibitions around the world. For the rest of the year they are on display - for the first time in the American Midwest - at Temple Emanuel, a Reform Jewish synagogue in St. Louis, Missouri.VOA - D. WeinbergRabbi Justin Kerber hopes the exhibit will help start an interfaith dialogue in his own community that will spread to other parts of the country.Interfaith dialogue"We are really delighted to have it and were really excited to see the interest," said Rabbi Justin Kerber, who has led the congregation for a year and a half. He hopes the exhibit will help start an interfaith dialogue in his own community that will spread to other parts of the country."At this time when there is so much tension in the world and so much attention being paid to Jewish-Muslim conflict or Israeli-Arab conflict, it's really important for everyone to understand that is not the only story," says Kerber. "It's not the way things have always been and I'm really looking forward to growing this relationship with the Islamic Foundation."That hope is shared by Mufti Minhajuddin Ahmed, the Imam and director of Religious Services of the Greater Islamic Foundation of St. Louis, which partnered with Temple Emanuel for a panel discussion on the exhibit's opening night."I think at a time when the Jewish-Muslim relations are very sour to many of the events taking place in the Middle East, this was a very timely and much-needed exhibition that highlights how Muslims have saved Jews and these are the true teachings of Islam," says Ahmed. "This is an opportunity for others to learn that it's a religion that is not born in violence. Rather they are teachings of compassion and kindness."The compassion and kindness - the Besa - of the Albanian Muslims was recognized by Israel in 2007. The Jewish state awarded them one of its highest honors, Righteous Among Nations, which is granted to non-Jews who saved the lives of Jews during the Holocaust.Gershman's photographs of those men and women have been published in a book called "Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews During World War II." A documentary film based on Gershman's trip to Albania will be released next year.

[Halvard]

Mene je taj koncept bese oduvek pomalo fascinirao jer je zahvaljujući njemu moja prababa sačuvala živu glavu 1941. godine kada je jedan poznanik prvo pokušao da je siluje, a onda hteo da je prijavi Nemcima kao komunistu. Taj što je hteo da je siluje bio je njen poznanik, Srbin, a Albance koji su joj pomogli nikad pre toga nije videla u životu. Slične priče o posebnom shvatanju časti među Albancima sam čak slušao od ljudi koji su bili u VJ na Kosovu 1998. i 1999. godine.

[Caligula]

... true. Cuo sam/citao o dosta takvih primera.btw, interesantno je i to da spaseni jevreji (zahvaljujuci drzavnoj politici) nisu smeli da napustaju Albaniju (idu u izrael) cini mi se do sedamdeset i neke godine proslog veka.

[dillinger]

lepo.samo, spašavali bi ih i drugi po evropi da su kojim slučajem bili pod italijanskom upravom.

[Frank Pembleton]

Besa je potpuna kategorija za sebe i nema veze sto su u tom slucaju bili jevreji, npr. desavalo se da su u oblasti Istoka i Peci na Kosovu neki albanci cuvali srbima kuce jer su dali besu.Realno besa je i izvor mnogih negativnih stavova, kao sto je krvna osveta itd.Prakticno je u rangu sa onim sto predstavlja Omerta...

[April]

lepo.samo, spašavali bi ih i drugi po evropi da su kojim slučajem bili pod italijanskom upravom.

Istina. I fascinatna tema, inace. Moju profesorku engleskog, iz porodice sarajevskih sefarda spasio je odlazak u logore u Italiji. Ispalo je na kraju da su bosanske sefarde bolje cuvali Italijani od njihovih komsija - to je, inace, tabu tema u Bosni preko 60 godina(bas kao i stradanja beogradskih jevreja); sefardi koji su bezali na italijanske okupirane teritorije(najcesce Mostar) uglavnom su preziveli, a oni koji su ostali kod kuca uglavnom nisu; od 12000 bosanskih Jevreja, 9000 stradalo je u konclogorima.Danas se uglavnom pricaju pojedinacni slucajevi zrtvovanja i zastite, kao sto je legenda o Sarajevskoj Hagadi, ali crna statistika krije mnogo vise istine o mentalitetu naroda.

[pacey defender]

Naslov teme treba da bude "neki Albanci spasavali neke Jevreje od nacista".Molim lepo. Nisu svi Albanci takvi. Nema smisla da označavamo čitav jedan narod.Mislim da je ovo pravi trenutak da još jednom napomenem da su sve strane činile zločine.

[dillinger]

hortijevci su ovde poznati po novosadskoj raciji, ali su na teritoriji mađarske gledali da sačuvaju što više mogu 'svojih' jevreja. dok im naravno nije '44 upao ajhman i sproveo nezapamćen genocid, čak i za ww2 standarde.bugarska je jedina država koja se oduprela nemačkim zahtevima i tamo je jevrejska populacija najmanje propatila. ali su zato one sa teritorije makedonije poslali vagonima u treblinku.albanija važi za jedinu državu koja je kraj rata dočekala sa brojnijom jevrejskom populacijom nego na početku. ali na početku ih je bilo svega nekoliko stotina na tlu cele albanije. dok jevrejima sa kosova famozna besa nije pomogla - svi su završili u beogradskim logorima. jer su se tu ipak nemci pitali.a čak su i rumuni, sa ozloglašenim režimom antoneskua, različito tretirali jevreje na svojoj 'užoj' teritoriji, od onih u besarabiji i bukovini i delovima ukrajine koje su kasnije zaposeli, a na kojima su se ponašali identično kao i ajnzacgrupe.hoću reći - svi su gledali koliko toliko svoje građane da zaštite, dok su na novopripojenim teritorijama bili vrlo revnosni u ispunjenju zadataka.