Romanian Muslims' Besa: Jewesh Morals VS Muslims' Morals

The Albanians’ practice of a centuries-old code of conduct called "besa"

Photographer Norman H. Gershman's "Besa: A Code of Honor" exhibits chronicles one of the more unusual, and less-known Holocaust stories; Its 30 black-and-white photos tell the stories of some of the more than 20,000 Albanian Muslims who rescued Jews from the Nazis during World War II.

"There is no evidence of any Jew being turned over to any Nazi,", said Gershman, who is Jewish, from his home in Basalt, Colo, "Seventy percent of the people in Albania are Muslims."

Gershman also said, “"Our purpose is really to inform the West of what Muslims did…These are Muslims. They did it in relation to their religion. They primarily did it without compensation or want of any. "In many cases, Jews were arrested or were refugees, and those (Albanians) living there would give them false passports and dress them in Islamic garb…In many cases, the Albanian rescuers never even knew their real names... There's a culture of besa. It's thousands of years old. It's a code of honor…It's inconceivable for an Albanian to turn their back on someone that needs help, to the point where they will lay their lives down for them…One said, as an example, that there is no Quran without besa, no besa without Quran…They said, 'We were saving God's children,'… ‘If you save a life, you to go paradise,'…'Jews and Muslims are cousins,'…and on and on"

Gershman hopes the exhibit, which will open a five-week run Aug. 23 at the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center, will help chip away at ethnic and religious stereotypes as Muslims rescuing Jews seems improbable in today's world. Gershman also produced a book of photographs and stories of Romanians who had integrated besa into their religion.

Albanian Muslims who rescued Jews during WW2

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