History's Secret Heroes: Series 1: Arslan Rezniqi and the Besa Code

History's Heroes

BBC

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 704 Ratings

🗓️ 2 August 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Albania was one of the few European countries to have a larger Jewish population at the end of the war than it had at the beginning. What role did Arslan Rezniqi, a Kosovan Albanian merchant, play in this?

Helena Bonham Carter shines a light on extraordinary stories from World War Two. Join her for incredible tales of deception, acts of resistance and courage.

A BBC Studios Podcast production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Amie Liebowitz Executive Producer: Paul Smith Written by Alex von Tunzelmann

Transcript

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0:00.0	Did you know that you can listen to many of your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds?
0:07.0	Like, you're dead to me, where you can hear the latest episode 28 days earlier.
0:11.6	So catch it before it becomes history.
0:14.6	Good things come to those who don't wait.
0:16.4	Listen to your favourite podcasts first on BBC Sounds.
0:21.7	BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.
0:26.7	Government troops have moved into several towns
0:28.9	in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo
0:30.7	after two days of unrest.
0:33.0	40 people have been injured in clashes
0:34.7	in the south of the country
0:35.8	between ethnic Albanians and the
0:37.9	minority Serb community. After Slobodan Milosevic became president of Serbia in 1989,
0:45.1	he amended the constitution to strip Kosovo of its autonomy. This prompted violent protests.
0:50.7	Internationally concerned began to grow that the Balkans were heading for war.
1:01.3	In May 1990, the United States sent two congressmen to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo.
1:05.5	And they addressed from the second floor of the Grand Hotel in the center of Pristina the thousands of Albanians that had converged to listen to them.
1:09.5	The Serbian troops were there and they began to attack the crowd.
1:13.7	This is Shirley Coyds DiGuardi, from the Albanian-American Civic League.
1:18.5	She's also married to one of the congressmen who was there that day, the Republican Joseph Dioguardi.
1:25.3	From Kosovo, that's when they traveled to Albania.
1:29.6	They were the first U.S. officials to enter Albania in almost 50 years.
	...

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