When Faith Besa* is true !

When Faith (Besa*)  is true !

The thrilling story of the young boy from Koplik who was shot by Nazi instead of the Italian soldier.

On September 8, 1943, Fascist Italy capitulated, but this cheerful news for the Italians was met with a tragic dilemma for the 100,000 Italian soldiers left in Albania to surrender to Albanian communists (whose reputation regarding the treatment of Italian prisoners was quite shocking to these soldiers) or to surrender to the German army where the latter had received a secret order from Adolf Hitler to execute any warrior traitor.

Those few Italians who were lucky found shelter in the simple houses of Albanian people. Their hospitality was just incredible. Albanians showed an uninfluenced mercy from the wounds of the past that fascists had caused them.

One of the most extraordinary stories of  World War II period in Albania that could make us Albanians more proud than ever  took place in Koplik where the Germans shot down a resident of the area who refused to surrender the Italian soldier home.

This story was confirmed by the historian and ethnologist from Shkodra  Gëzim Uruçi, who became acquainted with this story during his visit to Italy in 1994. There he met an Italian elder who had casually heard Gezim Uruçi  to speak Albanian. The old man says that he was an Albanian after his life was saved by the Faith (Besa*) of an Albanian family. Initially the Germans came to the backyard where the old man at the time hosted the Italian soldier, the Nazi soldiers came accompanied by a translator.

They immediately asked the family to hand over the Italian soldier. After many attempts to persuade the Germans that an Italian soldier was not in their home, the family gives up, but it was not the life of the Italian soldier which was taken..

The son tells to his father that  they had to keep the word (Albanian word;Besa*)  given to the Italian.

The son confirmed to the Germans that he was Italian, and immediately the Germans shot him.

After several months, the English Red Cross, which was picking up all Italian and German slaves in Durres in order to send them to Trieste, the Italian soldier casually meets with the German officer who had ordered the Albanian boy to be shot.

German officer Johan Arend.

German officer Johan Arend.

They began to be friends  by this and after their separation they gave each other their addresses. Gezim Uruçi impressed by this story becomes obsessed to meet  this German, an obsession that encouraged him to go to Germany.

There he found the new address of the German soldier called Johan Arendt, who at that time worked as a teacher at a school in Paderborn.

He first asked him not about the murder but about the Italian. The German replied that if had not been for the Italian, he would never have found it.

Johan Arendi as a teacher.

Johan Arendi as a teacher.

The German Johan Arendt regretted so much the crime he had done that he even didn’t create a family.

Gezim Uruçi learned a new fact from Johan Arend's story.

He had studied in Lucerne in Switzerland and the friendships  that he had created with albanologists and scholars had made Johan Arend know better the virtuous qualities of Albanians.

He knew very well that the boy being who he was not an Italian but the (Albanian) son of the house  who resembled so much with his father, as Arendi says, "like two drops of water."

To defend this nobility of Albanians, Arendi found the most acceptable alternative to execute, as he had to follow the jurisdiction of the German army drafted by the secret orders of the Führer.

Gezim Uruçi visited the German for the second time but this time he found him dead, however, the real surprise  would come from the neighbors of the former German officer who would give Gëzim Uruçi a part of the books and of his documents (according to a testament he had left), including a farewell letter where it was obvious that he was  feeling extreme regret and pity for shooting  the Albanian boy:

"... the years are passing me without a spiritual calm.

For that painful story that happened to me in your country. I am very repentant but I did not have what to do.

Since I was a student in Lucerne in Switzerland I was known by many scholars and Albanians for the amazing traditions and for Albanians keeping their word.

That made me to not shot the entire Albanian family ...

If I do not meet you again, please justify me though I do not deserve it, because it is inexcusable for us to make that absurd war that makes us we feel ashamed ... "

Taken from the documentary of Abc Story.

`````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````

(Besa*- (pledge of honour)  is an Albanian cultural precept, usually translated as "faith", that means "to keep the promise" and "word of honor")
------------------------------------------------------------- Përktheu në anglisht: Elsa Hasanas.