Ambassador John Withers II: Jews in Albania during World War II

In the autumn of 1943, the armies of Nazi Germany invaded Albania, a small, impoverished country on the Adriatic Sea in southwestern Europe. At that moment, if you were Jewish and living elsewhere in Europe, your chance of survival was poor, as the Nazis and their collaborators were systematically murdering two-thirds of the Jews in Europe. But Albania was different. If you were Jewish and living in Albania, your chance of survival was nearly one hundred percent. Indeed, by war's end, it appears that no Jew who had placed himself under Albanian protection was lost to the Holocaust.

Throughout the country, the Albanian people rose to protect the Jews -- not only their indigenous Jewish population, but also the thousands who fled from elsewhere in Europe in search of sanctuary. They sheltered Jewish families in their own homes, created Albanian identities for them, moved them from one location to another to avoid German search parties, and refused to bend to pressure to disclose the whereabouts of their Jewish brethren. German demands to surrender Jews went unheeded as did German commands that Jews assemble in town and city squares for transportation to the death camps.

What moved the Albanians to protect people, so often strangers, at such risk to themselves? They had no military to resist the Germans. They had no government to coordinate their activities. They possessed few personal resources themselves. What they had, instead, was devotion to their ancient heritage: the storied Albanian tradition of "besa" that requires succoring those in need. "Besa" is a word that doesn't translate well into English. It denotes something firmer than a promise, something greater than honor, something rather that marks an individual's worth in the moral courage and personal integrity that guides his way through life. Moved by "besa," Albania saved its Jews.

Speaker Bio

Born on November 1, 1948 in High Point, North Carolina, I spent much of my childhood abroad when my parents joined the Foreign Service in 1957. Our assignments included Laos, Thailand, Burma, Korea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and India. My own career later took me to the Netherlands, Nigeria, Russia, Latvia, Slovenia, and Albania.  

Beyond my diplomatic work, I researched in my private time an incident in my father’s World War II service in which he and his African-American quartermaster company rescued two young Jewish Holocaust survivors from the Dachau concentration camp. I eventually reunited him with one of the men fifty-five years later. The episode, which is the subject of my book "Balm in Gilead: A Story from the War", gained the attention of television, major newspapers, and humanitarian institutions. 

On a separate front, two singular honors were accorded my work as American Ambassador to Albania. In November 2012, in marking the one hundredth anniversary of the country’s independence, the city of Vlora, the cradle of Albanian liberty, made me an honorary citizen for my strong advocacy of Albanian democracy. Three years later, Albania’s capital, Tirana, awarded me the key to the city. I am married to Maryruth Coleman, a Senior Foreign Officer. I retired from the State Department in 2010, and am an avid tennis player, an amateur Chinese cook, and an aspiring writer.

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