The Righteous

A Little-Known Secret was that Albanian Muslims Hid Jews from the Nazis; Now a Survivor Reunites With Her Savior

(CBS)  Tomorrow night marks a painful anniversary for many who survived the run-up to World War II - Kristallnacht. It also provides an opportunity to remember the bravery of the Righteous . . . the citizens of a tiny country who risked their own lives to shelter the most desperate of refugees. Jim Axelrod tells a pair of remarkable stories:

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Johanna Neumann is on a journey more than 70 years in the making . . . a journey that started in Germany. She left Hamburg when she had just turned 8.

She remembers it because, she says, "this was such a dramatic experience."

Her life changed in the violent darkness of November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass. It was when the Nazis launched a vicious assault on Jewish communities - looting homes, destroying businesses, burning synagogues. It was an ominous preview of the horrors to come.

Her father feared where his country was headed, so he began preparations to flee. Young Johanna tagged along with him on a devastating errand in the basement of their apartment building:

"He had all of this correspondence and photography, photographs and so on of his youth, of his life," she said. "And he had made arrangements with the superintendent of the house that he could burn his things in the furnace. And you know, like every piece that he burned was like a piece of his life being thrown away. It's a whole life that you're putting on fire."

A few months later, little Johanna and her parents were gone, leaving Germany for good.

But on this day, Johanna's journey won't take her back to Germany. Instead, she's returning to an unlikely safe haven . . . and a reunion with her improbable family.

Edip Pilku is anxiously waiting to greet the woman he hasn't seen in about 62 years, but he clearly hasn’t forgotten her: "Memories are forever."

"Will we cry or not? Will we kiss or not?" he pondered.

You could say Edip is Johanna's brother . . . at least, that's what they told the Nazis.

"The families surrounding us didn't know that we were sheltering Jews," Pilku said. "My mother had spread the word that they were her relatives from Germany."

"That was the cover story?" Axelrod asked.

"That was the cover story: We're Germans from Germany, and we were her family."

(Left: Johanna Neumann is reunited with Edip Pilku, an Albanian Muslim whose parents protected Neumann's family from the Nazis during World War II.)

There are a number of extraordinary examples of people around the world who risked, and sometimes lost, their lives hiding Jewish families during the Nazi occupation. But the Pilkus were in Albania, a 70% Muslim country in southeastern Europe.

"The gem of this story is that Albania took in refugee Jews," said Deborah Dwork, who has written a book about Jewish refugees during World War II.

"Europe 1938, '39, '40, even '41, we see it as a totally closed universe," she said. "and Jews in that closed universe, they were looking for holes, for openings. People began to whisper: 'I hear if you get to Albania, you will be safe.'"

Safe, because of a cornerstone of Albanian culture known as Besa - the promise to treat strangers as if they were family . . . and guard them with their lives.

"It has to do with a certain sense of honor, an honor code that they take very seriously," said Dwork. "It's not simply to give someone something -a bed for a night, a hot meal. It's really to offer protection, full protection. They judged themselves by that code, and they also knew that their neighbors judged them by that code."

Like their neighbors, the Pilkus adhered closely to Besa . . . and to their Muslim beliefs that also emphasize the protection of others.

"The role of Albanian culture and traditions and the religious influence of Islam came together," Dwork said. .

Although Edip's mother was of German heritage, she embraced Besa and Islam, especially after the Nazis occupied Albania.

Edip proudly tells the story of his mother affecting a thick German accent to throw off the Nazis growing suspicious of Johanna and her family - not once, but twice: "My mother got mad that day, she became nervous and said, 'It is the second time. Are you suspicious to not believe a German woman that she hasn't shelter here? I don't know Jews. You're wasting your time here and if you come again, I'll complain. It's a shame for you to come here!'

"They saluted her and left!"

Through all this, remember, Johanna and her parents were hiding in plain sight.

"And here you are coming in contact with German soldiers. Were you scared? Was it hard for you to look them in the eyes to talk?" Axelrod asked. "You also had to make sure they didn't find out you were Jewish.

"Right. Well, I think scared is probably the right word," Neumann said. "I certainly was during the occupation very much afraid that I wouldn't live the next day."

According to the International School for Holocaust Studies, Albania did not turn over a single Jew to the Nazis.

Instead, when the Germans demanded the Albanians provide lists identifying Jews in their country, the Albanian government not only didn't comply, it even warned Jews to hide and urged its citizens to help.

In fact, after the war, there were more Jews living in Albania than there were before.

It's an extraordinary record. So how is it that so few people know about it?

"Because of the shutters that went down on Albania so soon after 1945 and the draconian Communist regime," said Dwork. "For the next half century, Albania was completely cut off from everyone, even from other Communist countries. And by the time the shutters lifted, what happened half a century ago was not so urgent as people's everyday needs right then and there."

As seen in the upcoming documentary, "God's House," photographer Norman Gershman traveled to Albania to document surviving members of families that saved Jews during the Holocaust.

Gershman said, "I had to find out what these people did."

Among them: Edip Pilku. He's pictured holding a plaque indicating his mother and father were honored as "righteous among nations."

"Johanna and her family gave testimony that 'Yes, this family saved our lives.'"

And Johanna says her own parents, who both died in 1961, always wanted to make up for the way they parted with the Pilkus all those years ago.

Edip said their parting was very hard for him, too: "I don't even know how they left. My mother pulled me to the other side as she didn't want me to get sad, I wouldn't know. They left … hastily."

The Allies whisked 14-year-old Johanna and her parents out of Albania in September of 1945.

"We were told that we cannot even go and say goodbye," Johanna said, "because there was danger that we might get arrested. It was much to my parents real regret. Terrible regret . . .No chance to say 'thank you.'"

Finally, decades later, she had her chance. This was Johanna's journey.

"When you saw him again, sixty two years later, can you describe that reunion?" Axelrod asked.

"Well, in a way, it was a little bit strange," Johanna said, laughing, "because I left a little boy, and here was an old man! It was very emotional, there's no question about it."

After the war, Johanna's family settled safely in the United States. But in newly-Communist Albania, a very different fate awaited the Pilkus. They quickly went from being the protectors to the oppressed. And their life together as a family ended in tragedy when Edip Pilku's father was arrested and executed by the Communist regime.

"Here was such a good human being," Johanna said. "He was shot for what? I don't know for what."

Johanna Neumann spent years trying to honor the family that saved hers. Her deepest satisfaction came only recently in a conversation with Edip Pilku's daughter.

"I got my reward," Neumann said. "She said, 'I am so proud to know what my grandparents did.' And that was really my main purpose, because he was executed by the Communists so, 'What do the grandchildren think?'"

One look at Edip Pilku's face tells the whole story:

"I see a very modest son, very proud of his family and proud of what they did and seeking nothing, nothing other than saving people who were desperate," said Gershman.

"These people were courageous," said Neumann. "They were righteous. And they were just wonderful people."


For more info:
"God's House" (documentary)
Eye Contact Foundation
"Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews in World War II" - Photographs by Norman Gershman (Syracuse University Press)
"Flight from the Reich: Refugee Jews, 1933-1946" by Robert Jan van Pelt and Deborah Dwork (W.W. Norton)

[artankasa]

As an Albanian with a muslim background (but who never practiced), I agree that the notion of BESA has nothing to do with islamic influence in Albania, as it pre-dates it. In fact islam has nothing to do with this behavour at all, and it has never influenced the decision making process and the behaviour of albanians.

Albanians has never acted as an islamic people, rather they have always honored their traditions disregarding every religious believes. In fact, I believe that being "bad" believers had a positive influence in their behaviour towards saving the Jewish people in Albania.

So I don't agree here that the real suprise in this news piece stands in the fact that these Jewish people were saved in a muslim nation. There is nothing muslim about the Albanians maybe besides the names they used due to 500 years of Ottoman rule.

[rezearta00]

Well, I am not sure why within the context of this article you are trying to claim that there is nothing "Muslim" about Albanians and about their behavior. It seems that your preconceptions of Islam (despite your Muslim background) might be leading to this. Whatever the influence of communism in Albanians' religiousity was, Albania at that time was a country with a majority of Muslim population. The article is not arguing that Islam led people to save the Jews. Rather, even the possibility of having people of Muslim origin saving Jews, or indeed, saving lives of people that are of different religion other than Islam, is so inconceivable in the current world system due to the orientalist narratives and discourses that are prevalent. You are right in a sense: Islam might have nothing to do with Albanians' savings of Jews in the same way as it might have nothing to do with the violence in the Middle East. The link between Islam and violence in the Middle East is made just because that religion is prevalent in that region. In the same way as "Besa" might be the reason for saving Jewish people in Albania at that time, local culture or international power politics might be the real reason for the violence in the Middle East.


Western Europeans are as secular as Albanians, but still they are referred to as Christian countries, and the democracy and values in Western Europe and the U.S. have been related to Christianity. While I agree with you that now the majority of Albanians are secular, I still believe that the dissociation that we (Albanians) want to make between Islam and Albania are related to current negative attitudes toward Islam. And of course we don't want to be associated with what is labeled as "evil" and "bad".

[Patriot099]

Comments focus on bravery of others helping jews. Any stories out there helping the vast number of humanity (gypsies, infirmed, etc.) also actively sought by the Nazi's? Alas, I guess they didn't count, along with the "5m Others" who died in the camps. It's time to move on and apply lessons learned from the past to today - sadly it doesn't seem to be happening - oddly, I don't see much altruism towards the senseless suffering, and violence against millions Palestinians. Now there's something to think about.
www.palestinianholocaust.com

[nowhiningallowed]

More information should regularly be published and taught about the heroism of those who went out of their way to save Jews from their death fate. There isn't enough information on this and this should change. The evil of the Nazis and the suffering of Jews is primarily the history represented. The goodness of humanity by these heroes, Christians and Muslims, is hardly spoken about in the context of this part of history. This is shameful.

[lipar1]

More details on Bulgarian efforts to save the Jews:
"In late 1942 the Jews of Salonica were shipped north through Bulgaria, on the way to the death camps, in sealed box cars. The news of this inhumanity was a hot topic of conversation. Then, at the beginning of 1943, the pro Nazi Bulgarian government was informed that all 50,000 Bulgarian Jews would be deported in March. The Jews had been made to wear yellow stars and were highly visible. As the date for the deportation got closer, the agitation got greater. Forty-three ruling party members of Parliament walked out in protest. Newspapers denounced what was about to happen. In addition, the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Krill, threatened to lie down on the railroad tracks. Finally, King Boris III forbade the deportation. Since Bulgaria was an ally of Germany, and the Germans were stretched militarily, they had to wrestle with the problem of how much pressure they could afford to apply. They decided to pass." All this information was suppressed until the fall of the Communism.

[lipar1]

Not only Albanians, but also Bulgarians saved their 50,000 Jews from the Nazis. Not a single Bulgarian Jew was deported to the death camps, due to the heroism of many Bulgarians of every walk of life, up to and including the King and the Patriarch of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.

[sonofsummarex]

Is this why the United States blindly backed the Albanians against the Serbs? I had wondered who was pulling strings on that. Of course it was a great propaganda op that allowed other Moslems to American Christians helping Moslems in their fight against other Christians. It didn't matter that it was strategically insignificant in the larger conflict between Islam and Zionism. Whatever the case, it was a total fraud wasn't it.

[clarifying]

Clearly an evil jooowish plot. You should be ashamed of your anti-semitism, was stormfront to slow today and decided to comment here?

Serbs committed genocide, the only people since WWII to do in Europe, complete with rape and concentration camps in Bosnia, they brutally attacked Croatia (Catholic) and Slovenia (Catholic.) How many stories of rape, mass murders, and ethnic cleansing was the west going to allow by the savage chetniks?

Do you like Serbs because Belgrade became the first 'Judenrein' city in Europe thanks to local cooperation?

[zogaj111]

As an Australian Albanian I to have grown up hearing these stories from my own father of my grandfather and his brother helping Jewish families as they traveled into northern Albania and residing in our family home in Shkoder until safe passage was guaranteed. I have also grown up with Besa understanding its meaning, connotations and the sense of responsibility to not only yourself but ones family, adherence to this code is a way of life where ones actions no matter how great or insignificant are a reflection of their character.
I am so proud to say that my family has played a part in helping fellow human beings and even prouder still that as an Albanian the world can now have a glimpse into the true nature of the Albanian people.

[sonofsummarex]

Are you also proud that your family indirectly helped these people go on to snatch up Palestine from the Palestinians? Or is that the shame part?

[Patriot099]

....and now on to Albania. Amazing after nearly 70yrs the holocaust industry continues to dredge up "untold" stories. Hard to believe given the industry's wealth and clout something as "important" as this Sunday Morning story has not been revealed decades earlier. Now back to the story. I hope viewers take a critical eye to what they see - this obvious tries to raise to the fore a small example of "jewish-muslim" friendship (I assume Sunday Morning viewers are smart enough to see why given current goings on in the Middle East), an upcoming documentary, and a book written by Deborah Dwork. The one thing that struck me as quite odd was why has it taken 60yrs for the two parties to meet (btw the Communist regime collapsed 17yrs ago) - particularly given the risk the Pilku family took during WWII and the fact they potentially saved the lives of Johanna and her family. Well in my humble opinion the Pilku family and most likely others in that region in Albania were taken advantage of by jewish refugees. Unless of course, there was some financial understanding to bring out the "Besa" in these Albanians (we will never know - or won't be told). Anyway in this Sunday Morning puff public relations piece Mr. Pilku from poor Albania is simply given a plaque for his family's bravery. OK folks, I think we have all had our fill of this eternal and holocaust victimhood stuff. Why inundate Americans with this material for 70yrs? We did not perpetrate this "crime." I don't hear much from Japanese-Americas who've lost all and sent to "interment" camps in the US. Nearly 60m civilians died in WWII - "6m" (most likely less) or "10%" were jews. Let's move on and use lessons from the past and apply to current issues. How about the atrocities and racist treatment against the indigenous Palestinian pop'n by the Israelis - the Israeli govt intentions are not far from what the Nazi's applied towards jews.

[runforfun54]

Oh for goodness sake, give it a rest. What do you do? Scour the internet for stories about Jews -- who have done MORE for humanity than ANY ETHNIC GROUP EVER? There were 6 MILLION Jews murdered in the Holocaust ... as Elie Wiesel said ... not all victims were Jews, but all Jews were Victims. And how dare you call yourself a Patriot. And if you know ANYTHING about history -- which you clearly don't, the Nisei (for your ignorant mind, that would be the Japanese Americans who were interred) have received compensation from the US. And, for the record, they were not put into SLAVE camps, nor were they put into ovens. You are a disgrace to humanity.

[clarifying]

Just to clarify one thing: Besa is an Albanian tradition and precedes Islam by centuries. The Muslim angle was added later in the post 9/11 world, and that's fine as it may help heal the divide but don't confuse them.

Edith Durham went up in Northern Albania (they happened to be Catholics) and wrote extensively about besa (word of honour, oath) and how entire clans vanished trying to keep their honor, families dying to protect the same person that had killed their sons but now asked for help from others, or fathers killing their sons that betrayed or didn't do enough to save a guest.

They have been many cases when people in blood with each other (i.e. if you kill my brother, I must kill you) have dined and fought together when in besa, only to try to kill each other the next day--to keep their honor of course.

Edith Durham was given a glass of water by a highlander and was told that should something happen to her, he was dutybound to avenge her, and that she was under his protection until someone else gave her at least a glass of water /same hospitality.

In Albania we still accompany guests to the outside gate, now merely as a nice gesture, but by custom we have to take them to their destination if they need to and while with us, no one can touch them for they will have problem with two families and seen as disgraceful (or "te pa bese" /without bese).

[clarifying]

I found the exact quote from HIGH ALBANIA, by Edith Durham written sometime in 1909:

"A man is answerable, too, for his guest, and must avenge a stranger that has passed but one night beneath his roof, if on his journey next day he be attacked. The sacredness of the guest is far-reaching. A man who brought me water from his house, that I might drink by the way, said that I now ranked as his guest, and that he should be bound by his honour to avenge me should anything happen to me before I had received hospitality from another.

Blood-vengeance, slaying a man according to the laws of honour, must not be confounded with murder. Murder starts a blood feud. In blood-vengeance the rules of the game are strictly observed. A man may not be shot for vengeance when he is with a woman nor with a child, nor when he is met in company, nor when besa (oath of peace) has been given. The two parties may swear such an oath for a few weeks if they choose, for business purposes. There are men who, on account of blood, have never been out alone for years."

[patfishman]

I plan on sharing this story with my 10th grade social studies class. The tragedy at Fort Hood has done nothing for the American Muslim community and this story will show the other side. Thanks Sunday Morning.

[thatguyfromNY]

As an Albanian-American I have known and heard these stories for years. But what is most interesting and what is very rarley spoken of are the Albanian SS Nazi Soldiers that saved Jews from their German Commanders. It is no doubt that Albanians fought on all sides in WWII. Make no mistake, that even the Nazi Albanians saved Jews from persecution in WWII. Albanian Nazi soldiers also saved USA and Great Britain POW's. Some people find this hard to believe but this is the truth and a reflection on the culture and pride of the Albanian people.

[pensacola8-2009]

I have always believed that the goodness in people exist even in the darkest times and places that history happens.

I give my deepest thanks those in Albania.

When I hear the voice of a coward in my daily life condemning Muslims, I will point to this article and give reference that a cowards rarely knows who or what they are talking about.

My grandfather lost his entire family to the NAZI's and I am his living legacy. I will always defend those to were courageous to do the descent and right thing in perilous times.

[Midalucille]

I was very interested in this story of such honorable people. But due to a lack of awareness I could not "hear" all the story. Whomever captions individuals who are not speaking English, forget or perhaps don't know that the same space at the bottom of the screen is used for closed captioning.

[zulmasfcali]

My partner and I are regular CBS Sunday Morning watchers. There has never been an episode that we did not completely enjoy and this story, The Righteous, was no different. A story about human beings being decent, acting humanely, to help someone in trouble for no other reason than being from a certain race. And there are countless stories such as these.

I, like many others, did not know about Albanians--many Muslims--doing their utmost to help Jews who were being persecuted by Nazis. What I do know, which sadly is often overlooked in news stories about the Holocaust is the fact that Jews were not the only ones persecuted by the Nazis. Hundreds of thousands of catholics, homosexuals, gypsies, handicapped, and other non-Jews died in concentration camps and in gas ovens alongside Jews. And this is a fact largely unknown by US Americans, which is too bad because many non-Jews suffered as much but their stories are hidden from people's awareness.

It would be wonderful if someone at CBS Sunday Morning would tackle the story of the forgotten millions of the Holocaust. Their lives and awful deaths no less important that the majority of victims of this awful act.

[Patriot099]

Good point - if we use the stock number of 6m jews died in Nazi internment camps, in the same breath we're told 5m "others" (god forbid the total of this category was equal to or more than jews) also perished. The "Others" are by and large Christian. Something interesting to think about: Gypsies were considered as low as jews and were also rounded up and shipped to camps. Now, if nearly all jews were said to have died in camps, why then were Gypsies spared this fate? Go to Europe today and find large communities still in existence - and they were not given a "homeland" (nor special treatment) post war to migrate.