A Holocaust memorial has been inaugurated in Albania

Photo: Noah Gal Gendler, the Israeli Ambassador to Albania, speaks at the dedication of a Holocaust memorial in Tirana (Xhulio Hajdari /Tirana City Hall via AP) (Associated Press).

A Holocaust memorial has been unveiled in the Albanian capital, Tirana, honoring the memory of six million Jewish victims and commemorating the courage of Albanians who shielded Jews from Nazi persecution. Albania's Jewish community, which survived the Holocaust, is today affiliated with the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.

The marble monument has been erected at the entrance of the Grand Park, near Mother Teresa Square. Inscribed in English, Hebrew, and Albanian, it reads: "Albanians, Christians, and Muslims, risked their lives to protect and save Jews."

Albania represents one of the few European nations where the Jewish population grew following the Second World War. While the 1930 census recorded 204 Jewish residents, primarily in Tirana and Vlorë, by 1939, Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria had found asylum in Albania, later joined by those fleeing Croatia and Serbia. 

Albanian citizens protected their Jewish peers and assisted refugees by covertly aiding their departure abroad or sheltering them in safe havens.