Rescue in Berat: Stories of the Holocaust in Central Albania

The presentation focuses on a micro historical analysis of the emerging patterns of the Holocaust and WWII in the city of Berat, central Albania. The findings are not unique only because of their exclusiveness; they are remarkable for the ways they challenge academic theories on Holocaust Rescue. Our inquiry into the stories of WWII surpasses the reconstruction of lived experiences in that it becomes a quest for questions, different questions, often anthropologically modeled and contextually informed. As such, these stories sometimes problematize our understanding of major historical events because they bring forward complexity, and they call for a multilayered, a more nuanced analysis of individual and collective acts of rescue.