Photographer Norman Gershman, documenting the work of Albanian Muslims who sheltered Jews during the Nazi Holocaust, shares a most remarkable story about his travels. In one of Gershman’s photographs, 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.”
Phtographs of these 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.
Phtographs of these 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.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) – An untold story of the Nazi Holocaust is on display at a Jewish temple in St. Louis, Missouri. It’s a photography 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.
“Who ever heard of Muslims saving Jews?” asks 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.”
One of the people Gershman met was Basri Hasani, who 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.”
Gershman 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.
The Albanians have a word called Besa, which 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,” 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.”
Gershman’s photographs of these 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.
https://www.catholic.org/news/national/story.php?id=39526
