Israeli and European historians gathered in Albania Tuesday to study how 1,200 Jewish families who lived in the country as well as elsewhere in the region were saved by the local population. Albania was taken over by Mussolini's Italy in 1939 and held until 1943, when Nazi Germany took over until 1944.  It was the resistance fighters who helped liberate Albania who later formed the Communist Party that ruled the country until 1990.

Mordechai Arbell of the World Jewish Congress commented that "Jews have been saved in Albania for almost 2,000 years. The special harmonious life of the religious communities in this country must be an example to the world."