How did a country as small and poor as Albania in the 1940s emerge from the Holocaust with a larger Jewish population than before the war, a statistic no other European country matched? The country\u2019s resident population of Jews swelled from 200 at the start of World War II to 1,800 to 3,000 by the war\u2019s end.<\/p>\n
At a Sept. 29 event to posthumously honor Albania\u2019s own Oskar Schindler and Albania\u2019s relationship with Israel at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History, attendees who had never before heard this fact learned the answer.<\/p>\n
The family of Kadri Cakrani (pronounced SOCK-rani), an Albanian immigrant with an Oskar Schindler-like history who lived on North Second Street in Philadelphia, knew nothing of their father\u2019s past.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just Dad,\u201d Hope Cakrani Vrato, his daughter, said. But she did remember asking him why, if he was such an important person, her friends didn\u2019t even know who he was.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour friends will read this story. Don\u2019t worry, your friends will read my story in the history book. You\u2019ll see,\u201d Hope quoted him as saying.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791451579_270_Hope-and-Iz.jpeg\")
Hope Cakrani Vrato and Iz Cakrane, the children of Kadri Cakrani, pose next to a photo of themselves as children, holding the tzedakah boxes they received in commemoration of the work done by their father to save Albania\u2019s Jews from the Nazis. (Photo credit: Lisa Vrato)<\/p>\n
That prediction is unfolding as the Cakrani family, with efforts spearheaded by his granddaughter Lisa (Elizabeth) Vrato, shares their discovery with the world. It began when his son, Iz Cakrane (pronounced KAHK-rin), began researching his great-uncle after finding nothing about his father. That\u2019s when he found a letter that an Albanian had posted online written by his father and addressed to his uncle that, he said, he could not believe was real at first.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to urgently transport a big number of people from Berat,\u201d Cakrani, commandant of the Albanian city, wrote. \u201cI am talking about the Jews who are in the hundreds here, and if they are found, they will all be put under the bullet \u2026 They shouldn\u2019t fall into the hands of the Nazi army that is on its way here, because we know what the Nazis will do to them \u2026 Send someone back immediately with my courier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cakrane said that he sent the letter to 25 family members across five states and they were all just as \u201cfloored\u201d as he was; none of them had known anything about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI read it, and I thought, how is this possible?\u201d he told Philadelphia Jewish Exponent. \u201cHow can this be true?\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter sparked research into the family history undertaken by Lisa, who flew to Albania to discover whatever she could. Ultimately, the family pieced together a story of an Oskar Schindler-like figure, who, because of his fluency in German and his position as a military commander, succeeded in keeping hundreds of Jews (about 600 and possibly more) hidden as he stayed one step ahead of the Nazis. When they conducted a sweep of one area, he moved them to another area, his rapport with the SS officers enabling him to keep them fooled.<\/p>\n
Cakrani died in 1972, but the letter wasn\u2019t discovered until 2018, raising the question: Why the secrecy?<\/p>\n
Cakrani did not act alone. The government refused to hand over lists of Jews to the Nazis, and ordinary Albanians, Christian and Muslim alike, sheltered Jews in their homes, as did Cakrani himself.<\/p>\n
Albanian Ambassador to the United States Ervin Bushati told Philadelphia Jewish Exponent that what made Albanians different was an ancient moral code known as besa.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791451580_121_Ervin-Bushati.jpg\")
Albanian Ambassador to the United States Ervin Bushati. (Photo credit: EuropaUlqini\/wikimediacommons)<\/p>\n
\u201cBesa is like a covenant \u2026 It\u2019s keeping your word, keeping your covenant,\u201d he said, adding that hospitality is embedded in that code.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why we try to treat our guests as if they were family,\u201d he added. \u201cSo everyone that seeks refuge or safety in Albania \u2026 we try to do our best and even sacrifice from ourselves or our families to keep that covenant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Albania has maintained its friendliness toward Jews once diplomatic ties with Israel resumed after the fall of communism. Bushati said Albania has become a tourist hot spot for Israelis, with tourism from Israel increasing by more than 700%.<\/p>\n
Highlighting this development, one of the hosts of the event, Gil Kapen, executive director of AJIRI-B\u2019nai B\u2019rith International, said in his talk that Jewish and Israeli tourists \u201ccan visit Albania safely\u201d without worrying \u201cabout being attacked or accosted.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1791451580_906_Gil-Kapen-225x300.jpeg\")
Gil Kapen, executive director of AJIRI-B\u2019nai B\u2019rith International and cohost, delivers remarks. (Photo credit: Lisa Vrato)<\/p>\n
For its strong ties to Israel and warmth toward the Jewish community, Albania was honored by B\u2019nai B\u2019rith at the event, which the Albanian diplomat accepted on its behalf.<\/p>\n
Eventually, Cakrani\u2019s family learned the reason for his secrecy, a secrecy so strict that his daughter assumed he knew nothing of Jews. After receiving a Star of David from her grandfather as a little girl, Lisa asked her mother, \u201cDoes Baba think I\u2019m Jewish? Because look, he gave me this necklace.\u201d Her mother replied, \u201cHe doesn\u2019t know what that is. He got that for you because he thinks it\u2019s pretty,\u201d Lisa said.<\/p>\n
When communist dictator Enver Hoxha took the reins of power, Cakrani, who opposed him, was forced into exile, fleeing to the United States with nothing more than $7 in his pocket. The man who was born into wealth and privilege to one of Albania\u2019s founding families found himself selling snow cones for a nickel apiece; he rose through the ranks to restaurant owner, and he also worked for the CIA, providing intelligence as part of his work to resist the communist government in Albania.<\/p>\n
Fearing for the lives of the soldiers, relatives and friends back home who might suffer if the government learned of their involvement in his wartime activities, he kept quiet until his death.<\/p>\n
The story about the heroism of ordinary Albanians during the Holocaust is slowly emerging only now for a similar reason, according to Lisa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was suppressed,\u201d she said, adding that after the war, Albania\u2019s Jews immigrated to Israel.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlbania became closed off from the world,\u201d she explained. \u201cThese stories were not able to be told because of the safety of the people in Albania who they would have been taken to jail as enemies, class enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed, many of the attendees at the event had never heard the story of Albania\u2019s Jews during the Holocaust, using some variation of the term \u201cmind-blowing\u201d to describe their reaction.<\/p>\n
Jessica Shapiro, associate deputy mayor for Mayor Cherelle Parker, who attended the event in the mayor\u2019s place, said she had previously known little about Albania\u2019s role during the war. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing a deep dive on the Yad Vashem website and lots of places, and I was blown away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Karen Uslin, who played music at the event by postwar Jewish composers with ties to Philadelphia, said this fact \u201cblows my mind,\u201d especially given that Albania was a small country without \u201ca huge amount of resources and a massive army.\u201d<\/p>\n
Robin Schatz, director of government affairs at the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, is now inspired to visit Albania.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not know the history, and it blew me away,\u201d she said. \u201cI would love to go to Albania now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why is the story of an Albanian who saved Jews during the Holocaust more than 80 years ago still relevant today?<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause to roll back and then defeat the antisemites, we need friends and allies,\u201d Daniel S. Mariaschin, honorary CEO of and senior adviser to B\u2019nai B\u2019rith International and co-host of the event with Kapen, who emceed the event, said. \u201cThis is a reminder of what people who are not Jewish, who have no reason generally for stepping in, can do \u2026 This story can serve as a guidepost to what we can do to fight back against antisemitism today.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo matter when you live, there are always opportunities to see God\u2019s image and likeness in another human being, and to stand up against injustice in favor of that person, and that, in doing so, you become a better person,\u201d said Father Nick Dellerman, rector of Saints Peter and Paul Orthodox Church in Philadelphia, who delivered the interfaith invocation. \u201cThere\u2019s always a point where you need to stand up for somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lisa\u2019s husband Tom Volz said that a story like his wife\u2019s grandfather\u2019s \u201cgives you hope.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people just need to be inspired. People need to know that what they do matters,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cakrani\u2019s children had different views on how their father, whose hallmark was humility, would feel if he knew about the recognition he received that night.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he would be a bit embarrassed, you know, because [of] besa,\u201d Cakrane said. \u201cThere\u2019s a moral code that goes behind it, and the moral code is that you will help those in need, regardless of the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Hope said he would have reacted \u201cwith pride and joy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know about embarrassment,\u201d she added, when asked about her brother\u2019s perspective. \u201cI think he would be so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I could [tell him] you were right. You were right, and this is bigger than what you even thought,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Lisa said she wished she could tell her grandfather, grandfather, a war hero, \u201cthat a family is a chain, and that the legacy is being restored, and that we do for each other, we do for our ancestors, and we do for our descendants. And I\u2019m pleased to be able to just be this vessel in between and try to make both things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dinah Bucholz is a freelance writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How did a country as small and poor as Albania in the 1940s emerge from the Holocaust with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[124231,15901,124232,5061,124233,182,69,71,70,12848],"class_list":["post-302224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-albania","tag-holocaust","tag-holocaust-history","tag-israel","tag-jewish-history","tag-local-news","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-the-weitzman-national-museum-of-american-jewish-history"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}