“Celebrate the good things”
Exhibit at BCRI portrays Muslims who sheltered Jews during the Holocaust In an era when the news is filled with conflict between Jews and Muslims, Muslims and Christians, “it is always good to have heartwarming stories where people go beyond cultural boundaries and help each other.” That was a prime motivation that led Ashfaq Taufique, president of the Birmingham Islamic Society, to bring “BESA: Muslims who Saved Jews in World War II” to the city. The exhibit, which is coordinated by the Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion Museum, will be displayed at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute from March 5 to June 30. The exhibit debuted at Yad Vashem in 2007, after photographer Norman Gershman decided to focus on Albania while doing a photo essay on Righteous Gentiles that saved Jews during the Holocaust. He learned that Albania, as a nation, refused to collaborate with the Nazis even when occupied — and that 70 percent of Albania’s population was Muslim. “French saved Jews, Poles saved Jews, Ukrainians saved Jews, many people saved Jews,” Gershman said. “Muslims? What, are you crazy? That’s the story.” After the war, Albania became a tight dictatorship cut off from the outside world until the 1990s, so the story was little known. As the exhibit opened in 2007, a film crew went to Albania, Bulgaria and IsA 2008 book about the exhibit was published by Syracuse University rael with Gershman to make a documentary, which will be screened Press. at the Birmingham Museum of Art on April 18 at 7 p.m. Taufique was Besa is a code of honor in Albanian culture that demands taking hoping to bring Gershman in for the screening, but Gershman’s health responsibility for the lives of others in a time of need. would not allow it. Before World War II, around 200 Jews lived in Albania. When the
Southern Jewish Life
March 2013
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