"The Flower of Vlora", the book of Anna Cohen's Jewish family in Albania

 Anna Cohen in a live interview with Voice of America 

 Born and raised in a small Jewish community in Albania, Anna Kohen has a special connection to her hometown of Vlora. Her new book "The Flower of Vlora", as she herself says, is a gift for future generations of her family, but also a way to honor the Albanian family that sheltered her family during the Second World War, as well as all the Albanians who saved the Jews. In an interview for the Voice of America, Dr. Anna, as she is known in the Albanian-American community, talks about her childhood during communism, the beautiful but also sad memories, as well as about the Romanian Jews, a not very well-known community. 

Dr. Anna, what inspired you to write this book called "The Flower of Vlora"?

I thought about my grandchildren. I wanted them to know where I come from, and the story of my life, because I myself had no memories, no one had told me anything about my maternal grandparents, who were killed and taken during the Holocaust from Janina and Greece. I don't know anything about them. I know the history of my father's family. So I wanted my children and grandchildren to know the whole story. That's why I started writing my story for my grandchildren. And then I realized that this story could have a much larger audience. And so I continued to write memoirs for others.

 Can you tell us about this unusual story of yours crossing Albania and Greece, about your identity as a Jewish child in Albania and then as an adult in the United States?

The cover of the book "The Flower of Vlora"

The story begins in 1938 with my parents. At that time, my grandparents and my father, then a young man, had gone to Albania and found several other Romaniote Jews or the Romaniotes Jewish families who had gone from Janina to Vlora. It was a very small community and they became part of it. When the communists came to power, they could not leave even though they were Greek citizens, so they were trapped in Albania, where our four children were born, after the war.

Tell us a little about your childhood and your years as a young Jewish girl in Albania...

I was a Jewish girl and I was very proud to be Jewish. But on the other hand, my closest friends were a Christian and a Muslim. So the three of us were very good friends. My childhood was beautiful. We enjoyed ourselves. We communicated very well with each other even though we had different beliefs, but still, religion was not practiced in Albania. But we, the Jews of Vlora, practiced our religion secretly, under the nose of the Security of State.

What are the main things you wanted to convey in the book?

 When my parents came from Greece to Albania, it was a time of war. In fact, the father had gone to Ioannina to marry the mother and brought her to Albania. So during the war, they had to hide somewhere and they went to the village of Tre Vellazër, a village with Muslim inhabitants, very close to Vlora. And there they were sheltered by the Lazaj family. And I wanted to honor this family, as if it were my family, and to honor all other Albanians for their generosity, for what they have done for the Jews in Albania.

And your memories focus on the family but also on its challenge during the communist dictatorship. Can you tell us your memories of that period?

When I was finally accepted to the faculty of medicine, I had to go to Tirana, but we were not Albanian citizens, we were Greek citizens. As a foreigner at that time, I had to go to the police and tell them where I was going, that I had to go to Tirana. If I wanted to visit my cousin in Kavaje, I had to go to the police to tell them. It was very difficult for me because I hated going to the police station. This part was depressing. But we lived in a communist country and we had nothing to do.

For this reason, this book will show Americans or citizens of countries who have never lived under communism, who have inherited freedom, how it is possible to live without any freedom, including freedom of speech.

 You consider yourself a daughter of Vlora, as much as you consider yourself a daughter of Jewish parents. What is Vlora for you?

 Vlora is my hometown. I love Vlora and I call it "my Vlora".

Vlora is beautiful and has a history with the Jews that is mentioned in the book and that many people may not know. Jews had come to Vlora since the time of the Spanish Inquisition in 1492, in very early times, and I explain this in the book.

But in short, the book contains my memories of my life and that of my parents, it shows how we left Albania and I believe that everyone will want to know how we left. But besides being my memoir, it is also an educational book. People will read the book and learn about Besa. Then there is also the history of the Jews. Everyone knows that there are Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews, but not much is known about Romaniotes Jews. And Ioannina is one of the cities with the most Romaniotes.

Doctor Ana, tell us a little more about this community, the Romanian Jews...

 I didn't even know I was Romaniotes myself, so when I first came to America and I was telling people I was Sephardic, that I came from Greece, where my parents were from. But then in the 80s, I was reading a book on this topic and I realized that I am Romaniotes. What does this mean? The Romaniotes are a very, very old Jewish community, dating back to the Byzantine period. And they were settled in parts of Greece like Ioannina, Volos, Arta, Kavalla, all these little towns.

I describe their story in detail in the book.

You mentioned the fact that you had Greek citizenship. But even to this day, you do not have Albanian citizenship even though your connection with Albania has lasted your whole life...

 It's very true. I was born in Albania, so I always consider myself an Albanian Jew, an Albanian-Greek Jew. However, we lived in Albania as Greek citizens and I didn't have Albanian citizenship and not many people know that and that was another thing I wanted to include in the book and explain that even though I do so much for Albania and the Albanian people, I am not an Albanian citizen.

But what I do is as a reward for what the Albanian people have done for the Jews in general.

As you mentioned, your connection with Albania continues to this day. Can you tell us how you maintain this connection through your life and activism?

I have been the president of the Albanian-American women's organization Motrat Qiriazi for more than 25 years. I have been connected with the Albanian community (in America) since 1990 and it is a community that I love, a community that I help is a community for which even to this day I organize activities for information programs, educational programs for Albanians and I am in contact with Albanians all over the world.

I cannot forget what the Lazaj family did for my family and what other Albanians did for other Jewish families.

And everyone knows that the number of Jews in Albania after the war was greater than before the war and this was thanks to the generosity of the Albanian people. So I have a very close bond and whenever I get a call for help, I help whether I know the person or not.

 What does your story tell us about identity since you have all these different identities embodied in you as a person?

 In Albania, we lived as Greek or foreign citizens. We left Albania and went to Greece, the Greeks did not recognize either my Greek parents or us as Greeks. So we lived in Athens and were stateless.

It is not a good thing to be stateless, however, we lived as such until we came to the United States. My parents left Greece early and I stayed to finish my dental studies. When I came to America, the first thing I did at the airport was put on the Jewish star and I thought: I have come to a country that will give me the freedom I have never had. I will wear my Jewish star, which I could not do in Greece.

I came to a country where I finally got citizenship. I became a US citizen five years later. So this is the only citizenship I have had in my entire life.

And what message do you want readers to take away from your book?

I want to tell everyone that writing about yourself, and telling your story, not everyone does it. But I did it because I felt that if reading this book inspired people, that would be a great achievement.

Writing the book "The Flower of Vlora" was a challenge, it was a journey and a job done with love.

The book comes out in English in September. Will there be an Albanian version?

By the way, this is the book in English, and it can be pre-ordered through Amazon.com. The Albanian version will be released in time to appear at the book fair in Tirana (in November). The book will be published by the Albanian Institute of International Studies.