The Holocaust Memorial in Tirana, Albania honors the more than 6 million lives lost and commemorates the courage of the Albanian citizens who bravely worked to save the Jews from Nazi forces. The memorial is prominently located at the Artificial Lake entrance of the Grand Park of Tirana. Three large curved granite panels set in a gently sloped paved berm, create a solace place for remembrance and reflection. Metal inlayed lettering along the granite pavers quotes the Talmud:

“Whoever saves one life, saves the whole world”

The panels are inscribed - one in English, one in Albanian, and one in Hebrew - with the following message:

From 1933 through 1945, Europe was engulfed by the Holocaust – the destruction of European Jews by the German government and its collaborators. Although they had committed no crimes and posed no threat to the German Nation, the Jews of Europe were systematically herded, brutalized, and murdered solely because of their ethnicity.

When German forces occupied Albania, the people of Albania refused to accede to the German occupiers’ demands to identify and turn over to them their Jewish countrymen and Jewish refugees in Albania. The code of Besa was honored and all Jews who sought protection were accorded it. The Albanian people, Christians and Muslims alike, at risk of death, protected and saved the Jews.

This memorial is to remember and honor the memory of the six million Jews of Europe that were murdered and the citizens of Albania who acted selflessly to protect the Jews when the world would not.