Prishtina, 23 May 2013
The address of the Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Kosovo, Hashim Thaçi, in the ceremony of the unveiling of the commemoration plaque of the Jews who suffered during the Holocaust in concentration camps in Germany and other parts of Europe and to honour the Jews who lived and who continue to live in Kosovo.
Honourable President,
Honourable President of the Assembly, Mr. Krasniqi
Honourable Ambassador Levi,
Honourable members of the diplomatic corps,
Honourable leaders of diverse religions in Kosovo
Honourable guests from the Week of Tolerance and Reconciliation
Honourable members of the families of rights in Kosovo and citizens
Perhaps it is not proper to talk today on this commemoration day about daily politics, but still, allow me to say a few words for this meeting today from the context of the week we are in.
I hope that this can help us reflect better for the legate of the Holocaust or the Shoah’s unimaginable crimes committed in Europe which changed the course of our societies in the last six decades.
We have recently spent two intensive days in Brussels, two prime ministers, of Kosovo and Serbia, in an effort to achieve peace and reconciliation. The Kosovo-Serbia conflict was the longest and the deepest in the region. Both prime ministers spoke about how to translate in action the agreement on normalization of relations that was widely called as historical by many peace loving people.
It is of utmost importance to start a reconciliation process. Reconciliation between us.
About reconciliation we can learn a lot from the history of the Jewish people. Despite being persecuted, many of them found the inner strength to become leaders in reconciliation.
From Nobel Prize Winners Eli Uiesel and the late Jitzak Rabin to Anna Frank and the late congressman, Tom Lantos – we can all draw lessons as to what can be done after huge tragedies and how to overcome pain for the sake of a better future for our children?
Above all, there must be justice for any reconciliation. Relativism should be stopped and objected and we should strive to seek the truth not only in terms of who the victims were, but also who were the ones to blame. Crimes are committed in every war, but that does not mean that everybody is to blame. Insisting on levelling the blame is as bad a crime as it is forgetting of victims and the reasons why they were victimized.
The second thing is that pain must not turn into hatred. Because we were victims of hatred, in our hearts and our actions we need to have love for one another prevail and love for those who are still victimized around the world.
We also should take care not to let the evil repeat itself. Let us learn, let us remember, let us talk about them who gave everything, including their lives. Therefore, we need to document, like we are doing today in Prishtina, at least by placing a stone somewhere in remembrance of those who are no longer with us.
Kosovo found itself in a weird situation after the Second World War. Being fatigued by poverty and lack of education in their mother tongue, Albanians after the First World War were facing a gross violation of their rights.
It would not be a twisting of history if I said that most of the Kosovars were in search of a change in their ways of life and of freedom on the verge of the Second World War.
The fascist and the Nazi regimes that came as replacements were not supported and therefor brought fresh miseries to the people. At the time when calamities, hatred and destruction reached their peak in the old continent, there was a glim of hope in Kosovo, a very slim but always present. Hundreds of Jews from the entire Balkans were passing through here to go to Albania and other countries. In our areas they found a safe passage. We gave them our Besa that we would provide shelter to the people in the biggest distress at that time.
So, Kosovo succeeded to help at least several hundreds of families, although tragically a small percentage of millions who disappeared, thus passing the big test of humanity and we should never forget this and this makes us feel proud.
However, the Nazi units still managed to catch several dozens of the Jewish citizens of Kosovo and sent them to concentration camps from where they never got back.
We are here today after 70 years to remember our people who went missing to never come back again, names who made the history of the humankind as victims of the Holocaust.
Here in front of me there used to be a synagogue that was destroyed by the communist regime, and that is why we are placing this symbolic stone here to remember the traces of diversity and Jewish traces that were present for ages in Kosovo. For us, the majority population here, this is a moral and political obligation.
In our meetings, negotiations and dialogues – we as leaders have an obligation to orient towards the consensual goal of our society which is our Euro-Atlantic integration.
The European Union has been created so that what happened in the Second World War is never repeated again. We still remember the Jewish victims with dedication to never forget the reason why the European family was created, on whose blood the foundation of the European peace project are rooted and what are the values represented by this community of free European nations which the state of Kosovo will join soon.
Therefore, on behalf of the peace loving people of Kosovo, on behalf of the institutions of Kosovo, on behalf of the people of Kosovo and all the other ethnic communities and on my personal behalf I kneel in honour of those whose blood was shed on the foundations of the free world which we belong to as state of Kosovo.
Glory to them!
Last modified: July 31, 2022