Recognizing A Hidden Hero of the Holocaust: Kadri Cakrani

Floor Speech

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Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as we approach International Holocaust Remembrance Day to remember all the lives lost in this horrific event so many decades ago, and also to acknowledge the efforts of a particular and only more recently recognized hero of this period: Kadri Cakrani.

During World War II, Kadri Cakrani served as Commandant-General in the City of Berat, in Albania. Although his nation was occupied by Axis forces, Commandant Cakrani was able to utilize his position of relative authority to save lives.

Commandant Cakrani rallied soldiers under his command and the local citizenry to help shelter hundreds of Jewish people who would otherwise have been killed by Nazi forces. Cakrani repeatedly lied to Nazi officials, claiming no knowledge of Jews within his area of authority. At the same time, he was coordinating the movement of families from one side of Berat to the other to ensure they were not discovered.

Commandant Cakrani even went so far as to shelter Jews within his own home during this period. In 1943, Cakrani successfully sheltered three U.S. Army nurses (Wilma Dale Lytle, Ava Ann Maness, and Helen Porter) trapped in the area after a plane crash returning them safely to the Allied powers.

The risks that Kadri and those working with him faced while they carried out these brave actions were enormous. Eventually, the rise of Communist leader Enver Hoxha forced Kadri Cakrani to flee the country in November of 1944. Cakrani eventually found his way to the United States, where President Harry Truman granted him political asylum and where he then settled down for the remainder of his life.

Kadri Cakrani passed away in 1972, but his efforts to bend the arc of history towards justice have been only recently rediscovered. Cakrani had safely fled to the United States, but many of the heroes that worked beside him remained behind the Iron Curtain in an Albania under communist rule. As a result, to protect those who would otherwise still be at risk, Kadri did not talk about these accomplishments.

Today, Albania is a free and democratic society. Scholars have pieced together the story of this remarkable man and those who worked beside him for good. On behalf of the residents of the 9th Congressional District of Illinois, I want to share my deepest gratitude to Kadri Cakrani and those who worked with him to save so many lives. These efforts and risks deserve recognition and remembrance, and I am so pleased to be able to share his story. Our world is better off because of the role that Kadri Cakrani played in it while he was here.

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