Mustafa Kocerri’s family helped hide Moise and Zhaneta Solomon, a Jewish couple, in a village of Vlora back in 1943.

Their son has kept all the photographs to narrate the story of how his family saved the Solomons.

“This album has so many photographs that take me way back. My father was friends with the Solomon family in Vlora. One day he called my father to his house and asked for help as they felt in danger. He came in the evening and took the couple with nothing else but the clothes they were wearing in order not to be noticed by the occupiers or people who were at the service of the Germans”, says Mustafa Kocerri.

Photographs of the Solomon family during their stay in Vlora by Euronews Balkans

Among the many pictures he showed us, some of them show the place where his father hid the Solomon family in the village of Beshish in Vlora.

The two families lived in Beshish for six months.

“Thanks to the good relations that my father had with the locals, they did not tell on us”, he added.

His father, later on, told him how the two families became close and how much they appreciated the customs of the area.

“Their son Samiko mentions my mother to this day, especially her traditional dishes”, he says.

Mustafa was not born at the time, but the friendship between the two families remains strong. The Hebrew couple continued to live in Albania for several years after the liberation.

After the 90s, Samiko went to Israel, but they never lost touch even after three decades.

“He calls me every week, if he doesn’t then I call him. We consider him as part of the family, as a close relative”, concluded Mustafa.

In an interview for Euronews Albania, Samiko recounts how the family lived fearing for their life if the Germans would find them.

“They got out of Vlora very scared and traveled all night to reach Beshisht. The house was on a hill so we could see any movement by the German army. As soon as they’d approach the area, my parents would flee to the forest”, said Samiko.

He emphasized that he will never forget what the Albanians did for the Jewish people by putting their own lives in danger to protect them.

January 27 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day which commemorates the victims of the Holocaust.