I've been known to go on (tiresomely I'm sure) about a fascination I have regarding the "righteous Gentiles" as the shorthand phrase goes: those who risked their own lives, their property, reputations, health, you name it - to shelter Jews during World War II. Recently when the Seattle Public Library took a week-longfurlough which meant I didn't get a book delivery, I loaded up on Big Books, as I had many extra weeks to fill with reading, I requested a lot of books on this subject. I've read a few amazing works of fiction that talk about Jews finding shelter and protection inside Europe and being helped to escape and if you haven't read SJ's THE SHANGHAI MOON and Mary Doria Russell's A THREAD OF GRACE, oh you really should. (Ahem, you can link to SJ's page right up there. See where I'm pointing?)

The books I got in the recent delivery include a wonderful book by Mordecai Paldiel who has worked for decades for Yad Vashem; it contains dozens of profiles of rescuers from every country. I read a book of stories of Dutch citizens who saved the lives of numerous children. Then I read BESA. This book of photos and short statements offers tales of Muslims who saved lives during the Holocaust. It talks about a country I know little (okay, nothing) about and a concept I knew nothing about. It's the story of Albanians who saved Jews. It's by Norman H Gershman. It made me cry.

Besa is a way of thinking and believing in Albanian culture. It can mean "honor", it stands for helping those in need. The people profiled in this book - often the children and grandchildren of rescuers, some wives proudly holding portraits of their husbands, or offering a glass to the viewer (the women seem to have outlived most of the men here) - talk about hiding Jews in the open; "everyone knew", they say over and over. We did it because they were our friends. We are all god's children, they say. Sometimes they gave these Jews Muslim names, or hid them in "peasant" or even womens' clothing. They rented houses for them, or shared their homes or moved them to other villages when the Germans were searching. Many of those rescued came from Macedonia, from Slovakia, Greece. Some of those interviewed say they're secular Muslims. Others say they're from the most liberal part of Islam. Something like 70 percent of Albany is Muslim.

One of the best pages offers a photo of smiling Nazlie Alla. Here is what she says in part:

"In the years 1943 and 1944, we sheltered three Jewish families. We had a big house, but we also rented another house where we hid one of the Jewish families....We still correspond. We also sheltered many partisans.
As Muslims we welcomed them all. We welcomed them with bread, salt and our hearts."

Interesting, huh? Many folks will recognize that tradition of bread and salt - it's Russian, it's Polish, it's Jewish, it's "Eastern European". You name it. It's about welcome and hospitality.

For most of those interviewed in this book, it wasn't even an obligation it was unquestioned behavior. As most of the "righteous" will tell you, it's just what you did. It was the right and honorable thing to do.

BESA: MUSLIMS WHO SAVED JEWS IN WORLD WAR II, Norman H Gershman, 2008, Syracuse University Press