A 93-year-old Muslim man from Albania who saved Jews during the Holocaust is being honored next month in Poland. In 1943, Xhemal Veseli and his late brother, Hamid, rescued two Jewish families from Italian occupation forces. According to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Xhemal, then 17, walked with elderly Jews for 36 hours straight to safety at his family home.
On November 14th, Xhemal will be honored at an event in Warsaw called “An Evening for the Righteous.” He will be attending with Albania’s foreign minister, Edmond Panariti, whose family also saved Jews from the Holocaust.
“In the remarkably fragmented and aggressive world we live in today, religion sadly often divides us,” said Jonny Daniels, coordinator of the event. But, Mr. Daniels added, testimonies like Xhemal’s “bring us together as Jews and Muslims.”
