These are two Albanian families who risked their lives to save Jews from death (Video)

On the morning of January 27, 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau camps still held indoors about 7,000 prisoners. The figures show that over a million deported people were killed there, while about 6 million Jews were exterminated in all death camps throughout Europe.

In some lands the population handed the Jews into the hands of the Nazis while there were such peoples who sheltered and protected the Jews. In contemporary history, it is increasingly being written, that the model of this noble behavior in those dark times for Europe was Albanian.
During World War II, more than 2,000 Jews were saved in Albania.

Annie Altaratz, who lived in Skopje with her family. One day in March 1943, Bulgarian police authorities hand over the order that each Jew must self-dominate and for those hiding them there will be penalties. At the time, a six-year-old girl, Annie, along with her family, under the terror of the Bulgarian police, which co-operated with the Nazis, is forced to abandon her home for a few days, to a family of Macedonian doctors, friends of her parents. But how does history continue?
I was only six and a half years old. A great fear caught me, my sister, and my brother. A friend of our father welcomed us, but only for a few days. Bulgarian police, which then co-operated with the Nazis, controlled every corner for Jews. We felt insecure. I remember it was so cold. What terror we felt. The doctor then took us to a family of Albanians named Meliqi. We were saved by”, reports Annie Altaratz, who survived the Nazi Holocaust.

A Balkan family in Skopje named Melqi took over to send them to Albania. Annie's uncle's family met them in Tirana. But until they reached the border, it was not easy. They had to walk without the moon at night and rest in the day because of police checks.

My father got engaged through a kindness. All the risks he's taken over --” -- shows Ramadan Melic, rescue son Veli Meliqi.

Annie Altaratz and her family were sheltered for several months at the family home that Hamdi Ferhat in Tirana, just in March 1943, at the darkest time of Nazi terror. How, though, does his son remember this event even though his father during the Communist era never dared to speak to his children about this noble conduct toward this endangered Jewish family during World War II?
When Father passed away, he was strictly forbidden to speak for these times. Friendship after friendship has come to Hamdi Ferhat's family.”, says Naim Ferhat (Casap), son of rescuer Hamdi Ferhat.

Countless confessions have been written and continue to be written about the Holocaust and the dramatic survival of these ancient people. As the number of first survivors slowly diminishes, it becomes even more important for future generations to collect as much evidence as possible before it is too late.

This is a story worth young people, for the noble sacrifice we made at the time of World War II”, said Fatos Qoqja, son of Beqir Qoqja.

Jews in Albania escaped the risk of mass extinction and did not experience the tragic fate of their countrymen in Europe. Albanians protected them as much as they kept them in their families for months, until the end of World War II. This happened in many Albanian cities, such as Tirana, Shkodra, Durres, Vlora, Kruje, Skopje, Pristina, etc.

Annie Altaratz that the end has arrived in Albania with her daughters, to thank the Albanians, who were so generous in those difficult times. A documentary film has been prepared to tell this beautiful Albanian story after the last survivors of this man - made massacre for man, above all, have the unique responsibility to continue telling their stories, as long as they can. / TCh