8/6/2019 Illyria_15-04-2011_p8-9
1/2
By Saimir Lolja
The World War II in Europe be-gan with the invasion of
Albania
by the Italian Army on 7 April 1939. As a result, Albania lost
its inde-pendence to become officially aprotectorate of the Kingdom
ofItaly and existing as an au-tonomous part of the Italian
Colo-nial Empire. The independence of
Albania was de jure reestablishedin October 1943. Albania was
defacto an occupied country by Italianor German Armies that had
unlim-ited authority on it throughout
WW2. The German, Italian andHungarian Armies occupied
ex-Yu-goslavia in the period of 6-17 April1941. From April 1941 to
November1944, most of the Albanian-inhab-
ited areas that had been previously
taken away from Albania and givento the Kingdom of
Yugoslavia
joined Albania.The province of Kosova was or-
ganized in the Prefectures of Mitro-vica, Prishtina, and
Prizren. Thecounty of Ulqinj (in Montenegro)
became part of the Prefecture ofShkodra; the county of Tetova
(inMacedonia) became part of thePrefecture of Prishtina, and so
on.Only the Southern AlbanianProvince of amria (occupied byGreece
in March 1913) did not be-come yet part of Albania through-out
WW2.
Documents from Albanianarchives recently published helpfor an
accurate view of what hap-pened in the province of Kosova
for the duration of WW2. The Pre-
fectures of Albania in the period of WW2 were complementing
seg-ments of the overall salvation ofJews from Albanians during
theHolocaust and cannot be disjoint-edly comprehended. For
instance,the main channel for Jews pouringinto central Albania was
that start-ing from the Prefecture of Pr-ishtina. The Prefectures
of wartime
Albania had not even a Jew wear-ing any badge or sign that
woulddistinguish him or her.
The German Army occupied allItalian sectors after the
capitulationof the Italian Army on 8 September1943. Until that
date, the Italian
Army covered the Kosova region,except Mitrovica sector,
actuallythe mine of Trepe that was cov-
ered by the German Army. Without
that mine, the Reich III militaryindustry could not keep the
warmachine moving on. The head postof the German Army was in
thetown of Vushtri, 27 km away fromPrishtina, the capital of
Kosova.The German and Italian Armieshad an agreement that allowed
theGerman Army to enter the Italiansectors in Kosova anytime
and
without any permission.Within ex-Yugoslavia, Kosova
was part of Serbia. The anti-Semi-tism was well spread in Serbia
be-fore WW2 and supported by poli-tics, Army officers and
SerbianOrthodox Church; it flourished in
wartime. On 20 January 1942, ameeting of senior officials of
theReich III took place in the Berlinsuburb of Wannsee.
It has been known since as theWannsee Conference that
specifi-cally made a decision for complet-ing the final solution to
the Jewishquestion. It assigned the numbersof Jews that should be
extermi-nated in each of the Europeancountries. Within three
monthsand without German interference,the Serbian state and
Chetnikscompleted the task to makeBeograd the first Judenfrei
cityin Europe and liquidated almostall Jews in Serbia.
Jews who could escape theholocaust in Serbia were bringing
with themselves into Kosova thedreadful message of the
holocaustconscientiously performed by Ser-
bian state and Nazis.The resident Jews of Kosova
lived in towns and numbered 409persons (the list is available).
TheItalian Army gathered residentJews of Kosova and those caughtas
escaping the holocaust in ex-Yu-goslavia and other countries
intoits military camp of Prishtina. It isthe same spot of today
where thereis the Faculty of Philology of theUniversity of
Prishtina. The Italian
Army had gathered more than3000 Jews in that camp. Jews inKosova
were in a non-stop danger
by Nazis and Serbian butchers, and
were not free to move in the open.The only survival option was
tomove deeper into Albania.
Albanians did whatever theycould and what their governmental
authority was allowed to help.
Apart from the Albanian officialsin the central administration
inTirana who organized the rescueof Jews from the Prefecture of
Pr-ishtina, the Albanian officials in thePrefecture of Prishtina
mentionedin this instance were: Riza Drini,Prefect of Prishtina
1941-1942; Hy-sen Prishtina, Prefect of Prishtina1942-1944, Preng
Uli, Secretary ofPrishtina Town Hall, 1941-1944,and Dr. Spiro
Lito.
By fearing that sooner or laterthe German Army would
lethallydeal with Jews in the Italian mili-tary camp of Prishtina,
Halim Sh.Spahija, Arsllan Mustafa Rezniqi,Kol Biba, Hysen
Prishtina, PrengUli, Hasan Rrem Xerxa and Dr.Spiro Lito
accomplished a plan.The Prefect of Prishtina, Hysen Pr-ishtina, and
Secretary of PrishtinaTown Hall, Preng Uli, declared thecamp
infected by typhus. Then,Halim Sh. Spahia transported al-most all
infected Jews by trucksor busses to Kruma, Kuks, Burrel,Tirana,
Durrs, Berat, Vlora, etc. Afew Jews did not want to go andthose who
were still there whenGerman Army reached the campin September 1943
sealed their ownfate. Only through official channels,Jews were sent
from the Prefectureof Prishtina to central Albania ingroups of
dozens and hundreds.Since the transfers were in haste,it is common
to see Albanianarchival documents written in Ital-ian or Albanian
languages with listsof names associated with the num-
ber (only the number) of the familymembers accompanying
thatname.
Halim Sh. Spahia and brotherswere businessmen from the townof
Gjakova. They used the buildingsof their business in Kuks,
Kruma,Prizren, Tirana and Durrs tohouse relocated Jews before
theyfound safe houses in the Albaniantowns and villages or safe
ways totravel by sea from Durrs to safercountries. Arsllan Mustafa
Rezniqi
built another house in his court tohouse Jewish families. His
family
rescued 42 Jewish families. In2008, he received the title
ofRighteous Among the Nationsfrom Yad Vashem. Arif Musa Al-ikaj,
was an employee of the Town
The rescue of Jews in Kosova
8#2042 APRIl 15 - 18, 2011
Ex-Yugoslavian Jews in the Italian military camp in Prishtina,
1942,
together with the Italian guard and the Albanian guard (with
white cap).
Arif Musa Alic kaj Halim Sh. Spahia
8/6/2019 Illyria_15-04-2011_p8-9
2/2
Hall of Dean. Like Preng Uli, hemade and issued false passports
ordocuments for Jews of ex-Yu-goslavia by registering them
asBosnian. With such documents,they traveled south to safer
loca-tions in Albania.
Hasan Rrem Xerxa fromGjakova transported with his carJews from
Shkup to Dean anddeeper to Albania. Other Albanianfamilies who
sheltered Jews inKosova until they ensured their safejourney to
inner Albania are thefollowing: the families of BajramVoca and
Sejdi Sylejmani in Mitro-vica, the family of Sabit Haxhikur-teshi
in Prishtina, the families ofRuzhdi Behluli and Riza itaku
inGjilan, the families of Hasan ShalaMullashabani and Asim Luzha
inGjakova, and the Belegu family inPeja.
Those rescuing transfers havebeen mentioned in the
publicationsof Harvey Sarner, Martin Gilbert,Ariel Scheib, Gavra
Mandil, etc.Some typical examples from theCentral Archive of
Albania (CAA)follow. There is a document (F.152,V. 1942, D. 319)
containing a groupof 551 Jews relocated from the Pre-fecture of
Prishtina to Berat in
1942. The document has the namesof 87 individuals and 94 heads
offamilies con la famiglia - associ-ated with their own family. In
adocument of 30 March 1942, the
Internal Ministry of Albania or-dered the Prefects in the
liberatedlands to reposition all Jews of theirdistricts into old
Albania. On 1
April 1942, the Internal Ministryof Albania ordered the
Prefectureof Prizren to send all its Jews to agathering field for
all Kosova andthose, together with 69 Jews in theprison of
Prishtina, were soon re-located to Kavaja, Burrel, Kruja,and
Shijak. On 5 April 1942, agroup of 100 Jews arrived in Berat.Some
days later, 79 Jews from thetown of Peja arrived in Preza,
nearTirana; and so on.
Another rescuing example is alist of 256 Jewish families,
totaling860 persons, who temporarily shel-tered in Kosova before
being relo-cated to central Albania in the pe-riod 1942-1943.
Thiscomprehensive list comes as acourtesy of the Friendship
Associ-ation Kosova-Israel Dr. Haim
Abravanel. There is another list of55 ex-Yugoslavian Jews that
on thepages 101-102 of the book JevrejiKosova i Metohije, Beograd,
1988
by P. D. Ivanov had been reportedas transported from Prishtina
tothe concentration camp of Bergen-Belsen in 1944.
In fact, the documents in theCentral Archive of Albania
provethat they survived the holocaust by
being relocated into central Alba-nia. This information with
broad
archival references was publishedfor the first time in the book
Jewsin Albania: The Presence and Sal-
vation, Naimi, Tirana, 2009; pages297-301 by Shaban Sinani.
After the capitulation of ItalianArmy on 8 September 1943,
Alba-nia de jure reestablished its inde-pendence on 16 October 1943
anddeclared to be neutral. De facto,the war atrocities, military
opera-tions and fighting continued with-out interruption, though
Reich IIIand its passing Army recognizedthe independence and
neutrality of
Albania. As a flash, things lookedbetter and 185 Jews from
Prishtina,who were safely residing in Beratwent as families back to
Prishtina. When they arrived there, theyfound themselves trapped;
somecould return with time to Berat
while others remained in hiding.Khaim Adizhes (heading the
Jew-ish Community in Prishtina afterthe war) that time was a small
boy
who returned to Prishtina with hisfamily.
According to his testimony, at atime when German Army was
mak-ing massive arrests, Serbian neigh-
bors spied on them. As a result,many Jews were arrested and
therest could escape to inner Albania.
Those arrested were sent to thecamp of Sajmishte near Beogradand
later to the concentration campin Bergen-Belsen. A few of
themsurvived the war and Khaim
Adizhes was one of them. The ar-rests and transportation
toSajmishte camp occurred in Mayor June 1944.
Khaim Adizhes and his familywere not in the Transportenlisteof
August 1944 from Prishtina tothe camp of Sajmishte.
As a conclusion, the salvation ofJews in Kosova was not
differentfrom that in Albania. They werecomplementing parts of the
overallsalvation of Jews from Albaniansand cannot be separately
under-stood. Jews were totally rescued bythe Albanian governments
andpopulation in the entire Albania of
WW2. When the German Army en-tered Kosova in September
1943,almost all Jews of Kosova were al-ready relocated to inner
Albania.
An acknowledgement comes fromthe Encyclopedia Pinkas haKe-hillot
Yavan, Yad Vashem, 1998, p.413-425 in writing that Germansrequested
from the Albanian ad-ministration in Spring 1944 the listof Jews
and permission to act onthem.
The Albanian administrationdid not supply the list and also
de-clared that the Jewish community
was an internal Albanian affair andgave no permission for
actingagainst Jews. Albanians saved Jews
wherever they had jurisdiction onAlbanian lands.
Chameria (amria) was notpart of Albania during WW2 andJews
terribly suffered there, thoughmany could reach Albania and
sur-
vived the holocaust. If amria had been part of Albania, all
Jewswould have been rescued there. Ab-solutely.
9#2042 APRIl 15 - 18, 2011
Dr. Haim Abravanel (second from the left), Arsllan Mustaf a
Reziqi (standing). From the right: Reina (Dr. Abravanels daughter),
Berta(Dr. Abravanels wife) with their granddaughter Shelly (on her
lap), Fatima (Rezniqis wife) and the house help (sitting).Hysen
Prishtina, Prefect of Prishtina, 1943-1944.
Dr. Spiro Lito Preng Uli
