Kosovo inaugurates ‘Wall of Honor’ statue for 23 Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust

By SYLEJMAN KLLOKOQI and LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — In Kosovo, a statue bearing the names of 23 Albanians who rescued Jews during World War II, has been inaugurated in the capital, Pristina. The “Wall of Honor” statue was placed in a park in the presence of some of the rescuers’ descendants, political leaders, and ambassadors. Some 500 Jews lived in Kosovo, then part of former Yugoslavia, at the start of the war. Many of them were arrested and deported. Almost half of them died. Local Albanians helped scores of Jews to escape, usually taking them to neighboring Albania. The former head of the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial says the Albanian-majority territories were unique for having more Jews at the end of the war than at the beginning.