Family Of Abaz & Zade Sinani

I was nine years old. We lived in a big house in the village of Lushmja, in southern Albania. My parents took in a Croatian Jewish family of three -- Fritz, Katherine and their daughter, Gertrude. I do not remember their family name. A fourth member of the family was sheltered with our cousin. We gave them false passports, and Gertrude went to school with me. Fritz was a carpenter, and I remember that the family was educated. We always treated Fritz and his family as guests. We never gave them work assignments. We were secular Muslims. In our home we celebrated all the holidays -- Jewish, Muslim and Christian.

At times the situation became dangerous because of German patrols, so we would move the Jews back and forth between our home and our cousins' home. They stayed with us for six months and at the end of the war they left for England. After the war we lost contact with all those we sheltered.

Why did we shelter the Jewish family? We had the biggest house in the village. Any villager would have done the same.

We also sheltered two Italian soldiers during the German occupation. And in 1912, after the war with Turkey, my mother's family sheltered Turkish soldiers.

Why should we be honored? We did nothing special. We did what any Albanian would do. We are all human.

This is a picture of my father. All else has been lost.