Protection for Jews and Persecution of Jews in the Albanian-speaking Area during World War II .An Overview of the Current State of Research
Protection for Jews and Persecution of Jews in the Albanian-speaking Area during World War II. An Overview of the Current State of Research

Summary/Abstract: During the Holocaust, the Jewish population and about 2,000 Jewish refugees found protection and support in Albania, from the Albanian population and from parts of the Albanian government. Very few Jews became victims of German persecution or the war in Albania. About 450 Jews who lived in the German-occupied Northern Kosovo or had fled there were deported and murdered in 1941/42. The Italian occupiers of Kosovo deported 51 Jewish refugees in early 1942 to the Germans. They also were mostly murdered. After the German occupation in September 1943, German forces arrested – mainly through the Albanian SS “Skanderbeg”-Division – almost 600 Jews and deported them to concentration camps, where many were murdered. Few Jews lived in the Italian-occupied western part of today’s Republic of North Macedonia. A substantial number of Jews escaped through the region to Albania, mostly with help from the local population.

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