04 August 2012

Besa ~ Albanians Sacred Promise to WWII Jews

Laura Koran of CNN writes that Besa Documentary seeks to explain why Albanians saved Jews in Holocaust...
"During one of humanity’s darkest chapters, when millions of Jews, gays, communists and racial minorities were rounded up across Europe, many Albanians put up a fight to save complete strangers. They risked their lives to shelter displaced Jewish families under Italian, and later German, occupation during the Holocaust. Many in the small, predominantly Muslim country in southeastern Europe took refugees into their homes despite the risks and the cost, passing their guests off as family members to keep them safe. At the core of this effort was a concept called “besa,” an Albanian code of honor that holds a person’s oath as sacred. Under besa, a guest in one’s home must be protected at all cost."

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