Albanians And Jews

During the five years that have elapsed since then, the author has taken his research work further, especially by exploring foreign archives, and he now comes forth with a new title published simultaneously in Albanian and English: Albanians and Jews: the protection and salvation. His new take on the subject is firmly based on an extensive update with fresh facts and documentary evidence that are interpreted and presented to a level of expertise that definitely promotes prof. dr. Shaban Sinani to the status of a top authority. The well inclined among local and foreign researchers will find him convenient to refer to, as much as the contesters will find him hard to disregard or argue with. Although as a natural sequel to the first edition this book incorporates a large part of its core factual matter, it is nonetheless an entirely new contribution to the main flow of research and studies conducted about the salvation of Jews in Albania before and during World War II.
Relying on new sources, unavailable five years ago, this book expands the scope of the question by dealing not solely with the protection of Jews in proper Albania, but with their relations with the Albanian nation in general, which has so far been one of the most complex failings prevailing in the relevant local and foreign research work. This necessitated structural changes, the addition of new chapters, the thematic range expansion of chapters retained from the first edition, the verification and certification of previously disputed evidence and assertions, as well as the confirmation of substantial truths. Albanians and Jews: the protection and salvation, while on one hand further extols the Albanian stand toward the Jewish question in keeping with the historical truth, on the other hand does liberate it from the flood of folkloric myths and interpretations that have lately disregarded history in favor of legend.
The aforementioned works by this author deal with some of the top values that do credit to Albania and the Albanian nation. This has earned them the status of international reference books. Being junctures that connect the Albanian culture and civilization to the world culture, they serve as a factor for regaining a dimension that has been underestimated. This book is largely built on archival treasures that for a long time had either been locked up or neglected. Albanians and Jews:the protection and salvation is a scientific monograph about the globally renowned virtues of the Albanian nation as specifically manifested in welcoming and protecting Jews before and during the Second World War. Both of these works by Sinani, the distinguished Albanologist, make the Albanian people feel reassessed; their culture and virtues have already been internationally certified: in the codices case, by UNESCO and, in the case of Jews, by Yad Vashem [Israel], the Memorial Museum of Holocaust [USA] and the American Congress. In Albanian and Jews: the protection and salvation, the author has included tens of illustrations to back up his arguments with facsimiles of original documents, photos and testimonials, as well as hundreds of references to local and foreign authors that have dealt with the subject. Most of the documents and testimonials are presented to the public for the first time; same as new facts altogether, stands and viewpoints about the presence and salvation of Jews in the Albanian territories are voiced for the first time. For the first time sources are not one-sided: only Albanian or only foreign ones. The author has ensured the cooperation of all available specialized Holocaust institutions and colleagues and sources related to the subject naturally complement, verify and certify one-another.
The subject is examined in historical depth, beginning from the Albanians’ first contacts with Jews and identifying a Hebraic stratum in the Albanian culture [Chapter one: the Hebraic cultural presence in the Albanian tradition]; to then continue with the stand toward Jews during the monarchic era; following with the stand maintained by the occupying armies and the Albanian quisling governments, down to the stand that communists held toward Jews. The retrogressive revelation of the Hebraic cultural presence in the Illyrian-Albanian space also serves the purpose of added proof to the Albanian autochthonic continuity in the region by way of traces and testimonies that have left their mark in the ancient Hellenic, Roman and Hebraic cultures.