Mosa (right) and Gavra (front) Mandil with local officials in Albania, including the mayor and chief of police of Kavaja, 1942–1943. The Mandils were a Jewish family who eventually made their way to Albania after the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia.
Jewish refugees were required to check in daily at the police station in Kavaja but were otherwise permitted to live freely in Albania. They felt welcomed by Albanian citizens. Albanian cultural traditions and ethical codes known as Besa taught that a person must help somebody in need regardless of their faith or national origin. Albanian villagers brought the Jewish refugees food and blankets. Gavra Mandil would later recall that the warm welcome they received made his family feel “as if we have come to paradise.”
The Mandil family rented an apartment in Kavaja with several other Jewish refugee families. Mosa hung a sign from the upstairs balcony advertising his photography services. Gavra, who was nearly 7 years old, began attending school. Albania’s population was mostly Muslim, although Gavra had both Muslim and Christian classmates. He enrolled under a false identity, pretending to be a Muslim boy named Ibrahim Mele. Gavra learned Muslim prayers so people would not suspect he was Jewish.
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