During my many trips to Kosova, Macedonia, and Albania, I led delegations of congressmen, human rights activists, and journalists to expose the horrific conditions under which Albanians have been forced to live - under communism in Albania for fifty years since the end of World War II and under hostile Slavic regimes in the former Yugoslavia since the death of Marshall Tito in 1974.

It was my first trip to Albania in June 1990 with Congressman Tom Lantos, himself a Hungarian Jew who survived the Holocaust, that the then Communist Party leader and Albanian President, Ramiz Alia, in order to curry favor with Lantos, handed us a file containing the unpublicized heroic deeds of Albanians in rescuing Jews during World War II. These documents led to the research that resulted in the corroboration by Yad Vashem in Israel that the Albanian people deserved special recognition as a nation for their unique and courageous actions, which saved all Jews who resided in Albania and all who fled the Nazis from other European countries and made it to Albania.

Hon. Joseph J. DioGuardi
Albanian American Civic League
61 Central Ave.
Ossining, NY 10562
Telephone (914) 762-5530
June 1998

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