04 September 2019

How Corfu’s Parliament
became an Anglican church
150 years ago in 1869

The Ionian Parliament building in Corfu became Holy Trinity Anglican Church 150 years ago in 1869 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

When I am in Greece, normally attend the local Greek Orthodox Church on a Sunday, and Athens is the only part of Greece where I have intentionally sought out an Anglican church.

However, Corfu has its own Anglican church, Holy Trinity Church, at 21 L. Mavili Street, beside the former House of the Ionian Parliament, which served for many decades as the Anglican church in the city.

There has been an Anglican presence in Corfu since 1814 Corfu, when Corfu and the other Ionian Islands became a British Protectorate.

The High Commissioner, the administrators, and the soldiers and sailors based in Corfu, required a place of worship, and a chapel was built in the Doric style in the Old Fortress and was named Saint George.

Saint George’s remained the garrison church until 1864, when Corfu and the other Ionian Islands were incorporated into the modern Greek state. The Greek parliament in Athens wanted to turn the old fortress into a military base, and Saint George’s became an Orthodox church. Indeed, this was the church where Prince Philip, later the Duke of Edinburgh, was baptised according to the rites of the Greek Orthodox Church in 1921.

Saint George’s Church remained an Anglican church and the garrison church in Corfu until 1864 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Meanwhile, it was accepted that the British community in Corfu needed an alternative place of worship.

The Greek government offered the former Ionian Parliament building, which was no longer needed as an assembly chamber. A Corfiot architect, John Chronis, designed the Ionian Parliament building in 1855 in a neo-classical style with a Doric portico. It replaced an older building used by the Ionian Assembly that had been destroyed by fire in 1852.

This conditional gift was ratified in Greek law by an Act of Parliament in 1869, and the building was given to the ‘British community of Kerkyra (Corfu) of the Anglican faith so long as it might serve as a house of worship of the said persuasion.’

The deed of consecration was signed in 1870. The Ionian Parliament became Holy Trinity Church and the premises to the rear became the parsonage or residence of the Anglican chaplain.

Holy Trinity Church was in a unique position because it belonged not to the British Government nor any church body, but solely and entirely to the Anglican community in Corfu.

The church flourished from 1869, with a permanent resident chaplain until 1940, and for 71 years the church served the island’s many British residents.

With the outbreak of World War II, most British residents left Corfu, and the Commonwealth and Continental Church Society (now ICS) was appointed trustee of the church.

The church was bombed and gutted during World War II, leaving only parts of the outside walls. Although the parsonage to the rear suffered considerable exterior damage from the bombs, it was used to provide shelter for the Maltese community, whose presence prevented pilfering during the war.

They carried out emergency repairs and salvaged what they could from the derelict church. Some of the Maltese were members of the Britannia Association, which held their meetings there regularly until the 1980s.

However, the British community had still not returned to Corfu by 1950, the Mayor of Corfu took advantage of this situation and asked for the derelict church to be handed over to the Municipality of Corfu in order to restore it. Although this was not legal, the then Bishop of Gibraltar and the British Embassy in Athens consented, and the restoration of the building was completed in 1962.

The residence at the back of the former church was recovered for Anglican worship and reopened in 1971 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Later, through negotiations, the residence part of the building was retained, repaired and served many uses as the British Vice Consulate, a community centre for the Roman Catholic Maltese, a place of worship for Anglicans and storage rooms for numerous packing cases belonging to the British Council.

While he was the British Vice Consul, Major John Forte set about bringing some order to this situation. He began getting rid of the packing cases, and posted a notice that Holy Trinity was open daily during the week for public worship from 9 until 1. Chaplain’s visits at the time were infrequent, but by the end of 1970 ICS decided to provide ministry on a more permanent basis.

The consulate had to move and the living quarters became a home for a permanent chaplain. The downstairs rooms that had once been servant’s quarters became living accommodation for seasonal chaplains.

On Easter Day 1971, Holy Trinity Church Corfu reopened on a permanent basis for the first time in 31 years. Major Forte became the churchwarden and remained until 1975.

Major John Forte is known for reviving the game of cricket in Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Major Forte, who died in 2012, is also known for reviving the game of cricket in Corfu after World War II and for helping to prevent L Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, from setting up a university on Corfu in 1968.

Margaret Woodley, who succeeded Major Forte as churchwarden in 1975, was made MBE in 1999 ‘for services to Holy Trinity Corfu’. She died in London in 2013.

Today, Holy Trinity has a vital congregation that continues to reach out to residents and visitors alike in Corfu.

Holy Trinity Church maintains an Anglican presence and outreach in the heart of Corfu (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

How Albania’s Jewish
population increased
during World War II

Two mosaic pavements point to the presence of one of the earliest Balkan-Jewish communities (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

Patrick Comerford

After writing about my visit last week to the archaeological site of Albania’s earliest synagogue in Sarnada, I was reminded of the remarkable story of how almost all Jews in Albania during World War II were saved from the Holocaust.

It is a remarkable record that cannot be claimed in any other occupied country in Europe, and it is all the more remarkable in some people’s eyes because Albania is Europe’s only country with a Muslim majority.

Albania was the only Nazi-occupied country in Europe to see an increase in its Jewish population by the end of World War II. How did this happen? Why was Albania good to its Jews?

The story of the Jews in Albania dates back about 2,000 years. It is said the first Jews may have arrived in Albania as early as 70 CE, following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

By the early second century CE, a considerable number of Romaniote or Greek-speaking Jews had migrated to what is now northern Albania.

The first synagogue in Albania was built in the southern port city of Saranda in the fifth century.

Benjamin of Tudela visited the area in the 12th century, and recorded that the presence of Jews. More Romaniote or Greek-speaking Jews from Greece migrated to Albania, at the end of the 14th century, bringing with them their unique customs and traditions.

When Jews were being expelled from Spain and Portugal by the Inquisition at the end of the 15th century, the Turkish Sultan invited Jews to live under the protection of Muslim rule in the Ottoman Empire, bringing new numbers of Sephardic Jews to Albania. The Jewish communities in Albania were enriched by the arrival of Jews from Italy, especially from Apulia.

By the early 16th century, there were Jewish settlements in most major cities in Albania, including Berat, Elbasan, Vlora and Durrës, and there were Jews too in Kosovo. In Vlora alone, there were 609 Jewish households in 1520.

The charismatic Jewish sectarian leader Sabbatai Zevi was exiled by the sultan in 1673 to the Albanian port of Ulqin, also called Ulcinj and now in Montenegro, and he died there three years later.

Although life for Jews was not always perfect in Albania, it was effectively a safe haven for centuries. Jews continued to migrate from Greece in the 18th and early 19th centuries, arriving in Albania, settling in Vlora.

During the Albanian nationalist revolts of 1911, Ottoman officials accused the Jewish community of colluding with and protecting Albanian nationalist rebels.

The Albanian census of 1930 shows only 204 Jews living in the country at the time. When the Jewish community was granted official recognition on 2 April 1937, it had about 300 members.

Until World War II, the Jews of Albania maintained contact with the Jews of Ioannina and Corfu in Greece, and relied on these larger and more established communities to meet their religious needs periodically, providing a rabbi, cantor, and mohel, the person who performs ritual circumcision.

With Hitler’s rise to power in Germany and increasing antisemitism across Europe, Jews began migrating from their homes in western and central Europe.

By the outbreak of World War II, between 600 and 1,800 Jewish refugees had arrived in Albania, from Germany, Austria, Serbia, Greece, and Yugoslavia, on their way to the US, South America, Turkey, and Palestine.

On the whole, Albania did not discriminate against its Jews and had a liberal process for visa applications. When the US closed its door to European Jews in 1938 and the Italians invaded Albania in 1939, they realised that they would have to stay in Albania for the duration of the war. They were not to know how fortunate a choice this would prove to be.

The Italians introduced some anti-Jewish measures in Albania, but the restrictions were not s harsh or severe as those in German-occupied countries. Jews were allowed to celebrate holidays, did not need to hide their identity, and in Albania proper were not required to wear an initial ‘J’ or the word ‘Jew’ on their clothes.

However, life was different in annexed territories such as Kosovo, which was brought under Albanian control in 1941. The Germans demanded that the Jews of Pristina were handed over. The Italians refused, but eventually agreed to hand over prisoners. Among those prisoners, 60 Jews were then murdered.

Jewish refugees from other parts of Yugoslavia who had reached Pristina were transported to the older areas of Albania, where they were housed in a camp at Kavaje. Eventually there were 200 refugees in this camp. The conditions there were poor, but the detainees could leave the camp during the day.

About 100 Jewish men from Pristina were taken to Berat, where they were joined later by their families. There, many were aided and protected by local Albanians. Smaller numbers of Jewish refugees found their way to other parts of Albania, including the capital Tirana. Eventually, many of these Jews were turned over to the Nazis, and 400 were deported to Bergen-Belsen.

At the Wannsee Conference in 1942, Adolf Eichmann put the number of Jews in Albania at 200. But Jews in Albania were protected by the local Christian and Muslim people, and this protection continued even after the occupation of Albania by Nazi forces after the capitulation of Italy on 8 September 1943.

When the Germans requested a list of Jews living in Albania, the Albanian government refused, reassuring the Jews that they would be protected in their country. However, this did not remove all potential danger from the Jews of Albania.

In Vlora, the Jewish population was almost wiped out when the Nazis prepared a list and planned to arrest them. However, the partisans came down to the city, that night and began singing and dancing as a symbolic gesture of defiance. The Germans decided to leave that night, and the lives of the Jews of Vlora were saved.

By the end of World War II, Albania had a population of 2,000 Jews. Albania was the only European nation to have had a higher Jewish population at the end of World War II than at the start of the war.

Albania’s first synagogue was built in Onchesmos or Saranda in the fourth or fifth century (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2019)

The story is told throughout Albania that Albert Einstein used Albania as a transit point through Central Europe, that he was sheltered in Tirana and was issued with an Albanian passport by King Zog, which he subsequently used to escape to the US.

The Holocaust exhibition in the National History Museum in Tirana includes a photograph of Einstein, with by a caption repeating this story. The story also appears in a film documentary Rescue in Albania (2009), in many social media posts, and was repeated by Albania’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Edith Harxhi, at an OSCE conference in 2013.

However, according to the Albert Einstein Archives in Jerusalem, there is no evidence to support claims that Einstein ever set foot in Albania or was given an Albanian passport. Einstein’s biographer Walter Isaacson concurs, saying Einstein never visited Albania and used a Swiss passport to travel to the US.

During the regime of Enver Hoxha, all religions were banned in Albania, including Judaism. In the post-communist era, these policies have been abandoned and freedom of religion is permitted. Throughout the years of the Hoxha regime, Albania’s Jewish community remained isolated from the Jewish world.

There are few remaining, practicing Jews in Albania today, with many Jews having moved to Israel. There are around 40 to 50 Jews in Albania, with most in the capital, Tirana.

A new synagogue, Hechal Shlomo, started providing services for the Jewish community in Tirana in December 2010. There is a synagogue in Vlorë, although it is no longer in use. An old synagogue was discovered by archaeologists in recent decades in Saranda, which I visited last week.

Rabbi Joel Kaplan was inaugurated as the first Chief Rabbi of Albania in 2010 by the Prime Minister of Albania, Sali Berisha, and Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel, Shlomo Amar, although his appointment has been contested by many members of the Jewish community who denies Kaplan's status of chief rabbi.

Of course, the story of Albanian Jews during the Holocaust is not complete without recounting the Albanians, both Muslim and Christian, who defied the Nazis and hid hundreds of Jews in their homes, preventing them from being murdered.

‘Besa: A Code of Honour’ – an exhibition in Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Jerusalem – discusses Muslim Albanians who rescued Jews during the Holocaust.

At a time when the world closed its doors, Albania opened its arms in hospitality. Even in the midst of devastation and death, there were heroes and rescuers.