Archduke Franz Ferdinand, assassination ->

Danubia: A Personal History of Habsburg Europe was a big book. Happily once we get to 1848, the year of revolutions across Europe, the book became much more balanced and more interest­ing. The 53 million people under Habsburg rule spoke German, Hung­arian, Moravian, Polish, Yidd­ish, Czech, Croatian, Slovakian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Serbian, Ukrain­ian and even Italian. Perhaps this was a recipe for disaster.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-1914) was born in Graz Austria, oldest son of Archduke Karl Ludwig and Princess Maria of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, and nephew of Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph (1867–1916).  These Hapsburg men were rulers of three empires: Holy Roman, Austro-Hun­gar­ian and Spanish. 

Habsburg Archduke Franz Ferdinand
1914, Wiki

Franz Ferdinand was educated by private tutors throughout his youth; he began his military career at age 12 and quickly advanced up the ranks becoming a major general at 31. After the emperor's son Crown Prince Rudolf’s suicide in 1889, Franz Fer­dinand's father­ Karl Ludwig became heir to the throne. At Karl Lud­wig's death from typhoid fever in 1896, Franz Ferdinand was suddenly the heir to the throne.

The young man had served in Hungary. So later, as heir to the throne, he was appointed as the In­sp­ector General of the Austro-Hungarian army. [Remember this below, re 1914].

In 1894 Ferdinand first met Countess Sophie Maria Chotek, daughter of a Boh­em­ian aristocrat, and they fell in love. However marr­iage to a Hapsburg required that he/she be a member of a reigning (or ex-) dyn­asty of Europe, and the Choteks weren’t. But the loved-up Franz Fer­dinand re­fused to marry anyone else, and it took a few years and the intervention of other heads of state, including Pope Leo XIII, before the Emperor agreed to the unacceptable marriage.

But Franz Joseph only agreed with rigorous conditions. This morgan­at­ic marriage demanded Sophie and any future children were not allowed her hus­b­and's throne, titles, priv­il­eg­es or inherited property. The couple married in July 1900. And they had 3 Hohenberg children: Prin­cess Sophie, Duke Maximilian & Prince Ernst. In 1909 Sophie became the Duchess of Hohenberg.

Austria-Hungary was a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual empire of groups antagonistic over religion and politics. The only thing the different ethnic people hated more than each other was the Hapsburg dynasty. Franz Fer­­dinand's public per­s­ona was cold and short-tempered, and ?insane due to in­breeding.

Still, Franz Ferdinand understood that the empire was disintegrating. And he DID propose changing the Austro-Hungarian rule with a triple monarchy of Slavs, Germans and Magyars, each having an equal voice in govern­ment. Naturally this idea was unpopular with the ruling elite.

Royal couple travelling to Sarajevo town hall reception

in their open car, blogpost

The assassination, Traderlife

Franz Ferdinand also consid­er­ed a federal government of 16 states, the United States of Greater Austria. Naturally this idea was in direct conflict with the Serbian nat­ionalists who wanted to break off with Bosnia and Herzegovina to form an independent state. Though he didn’t care much about their nat­ionalist ambitions, Franz Ferdin­and supported greater freedom for self-determination. And he ad­vocated for a careful approach with the Serbs, warning his military leaders that harsh treatment could lead to conflict in the region and with Russia. Correct! Meanwhile he maintained an alliance with Germany.

In 1914, Franz Ferdinand and Sophie accepted an in­vitation by Gen Oskar Potiorek, governor of Bosnia-Herzegovina province. In the capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo, he inspected the imp­er­ial armed forces in Bosnia and Herzeg­ov­ina, annexed by Austria-Hungary (in 1908). The annexation angered Serbian nationalists, who believed the ter­r­it­ories should be part of Serbia. So the Archduke knew all about the ter­­­r­­orism organ­ised by the Serbian nationalist organisation The Black Hand but ignored the warnings. Meanwhile a group of young national­ists plot­ted to kill the Archduke!

When the royal train arrived 28th June 1914, a motorcade drove them to the official townhall reception. The royals were in the sec­ond car with the top rolled back, to give the crowds a good view. A Black Hand terrorist agent, Nedjelko Cabrinovic, threw a grenade. Thank­fully the driver saw an object in the air and sped up, causing the grenade to hit the car behind them, damaging occupants and spect­ators. However their driver made a wrong turn and drove toward a young Black Hand Bosnian Serb nat­ion­alist Gavrilo Prin­cip (1894–1918). As the car backed up, Princip fir­ed and shot the royals in their upper bodies. Both died en route to hospital. Ferdinand was buried alongside his wife in Artstetten Castle in Aust­ria. The car in which they were killed is on display at the Museum of Military History in Vienna, along with his bloodied uniform.

The assassination set off a rapid chain of events, giving the Aus­trian hardliners their chance to move against Serbia, ending their independence movement. Of course the situat­ion es­c­al­at­ed. When Austro-Hungary retaliated against Serbia, Rus­sia supported its ally Ser­bia. So Austria needed Germ­any’s as­s­urance that they would join against Russia and its all­ies, France & soon Britain. In July Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the fragile peace between Europe’s great powers collap­s­ed. Then an entangled web of alliances was activ­ated as Russia declared war on Austria-Hungary, Germany declared war on Russia, and France and Brit­ain decl­ared war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. By Aug 1914, The War To End All Wars had begun.

Gavrilo Prin­cip arrested at the assassination scene, BBC

When Franz Joseph died in 1916, he was succeeded by his grandnephew Charles I, who reigned until the collapse of the Austrian Empire following its defeat in Nov 1918. The monarchy ended.

Assassin Gavrilo Princip got 20 years in prison because at 19, he was too young for capital punishment in Hap­s­burg law. He was gaoled in Dec 1914, chained to a wall and died of TB in 1918. Of course Princip didn’t know that the Habsburg Empire end­ed in 1918, however others knew. In 1920 Princip and other revolut­ion­ary heroes were exhumed and brought to Sarajevo, then buried in the Holy Archangels Cemetery. 

The Austrian-Hungarian Empire and today’s national boundaries

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Szeged Synagogue Budapest 1903

Szeged (pop 165,000), 175 ks south of Budap­est, was one of 9 mid-sized cities in a 3-year project called “Rediscover and reveal the conc­eal­ed Jewish heritage of the Danube Region.” It prom­oted Jewish herit­age tourism and education in Hungary, Roman­ia, Sloven­ia, Serbia, Croatia, Germany, Bosnia-Herzeg­ov­ina and Mont­en­egro. Rediscover cost €1.8+ million project, with fund­ing mostly from the European Regional Devel­opment Fund, started June 2018-May 2021. It was realised by partner­ships of local govern­ments, NGOs and Jewish communities in the EU’s Danube Reg­ion, an area along the river to its hinterland, from the Black Forest to the Black Sea.

 Szeged Synagogue

The largest synagogue in Hungary was Dohany St Budapest, designed by the architect Ludwig Förster. Rightly so, since Budapest had a large proportion of the pre-Holocaust Jewish community in Hungary. 

In the Szeged Jewish community office, Jewish Heritage Europe/JHE dir­ector Ruth Gruber met President of the Jewish commun­ity and representat­ives of the municipality engaged in the Redis­cover Project. Budapest architect Lipot Baumhorn (1860–1932) designed 23 syn­agog­ues in the old Hungarian lands, now forming parts of Slov­en­ia, Slovakia, Croatia, Serbia and Romania. They included 4 in Budapest.

The domed and multi-turreted New Szeged Synagogue (1903) was very fine indeed. This turn-of-the-century Hungarian blend­ of Art Nou­v­eau and Historicist styles was the Magyar Style. It was Baum­horn’s mag­num opus, built for the 6,000+ Jews who lived in Szeged pre-Holocaust.

NB a new find! The original blueprints and documents for the maj­esti New Syn­ag­ogue were uncovered in 2018 by resear­ch­ers doing the catal­og­uing, indexing and digit­isation of Szeged Community Arch­iv­es. The archives had the draw­ings, plans and documents of Rabbi Imm­anual Löw (1854-1944), Baumhorn and textile designer József Schl­esinger.

Baumhorn designed even the smaller decorative details and the trees to plant in the surrounding garden. He coll­ab­orated with R’ Immán­uel Löw, a published scholar of wildlife and miner­als, and an expert in Biblical symbolism. In Szeged, every painted panel, stained glass, inscription and carving was filled with a symb­olic meaning that Löw analysed. See Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe (1994) by JHE director Ruth Gruber .

Windows of Celebrations in the New Synagogue of Szeged was edited by K Frauhammer and A Szentgyörgyi, and published by EU’s Interreg Dan­ube Transnational Programme. It des­cribed the history of making the synagogue’s stained glass windows and the rich symbolism that artist Manó Róth created after close consultation with Baum­horn and with Rabbi Löw. Note the synagogue’s festive cycles in the windows which address­ed even the smallest design details such as colours and patt­erns.

 Synagogue interior renovated

 Structurae

They estimated the cost to fully restore the inter­ior i.e rewiring, fixing plumbing and restoration of the sumptuous decor­at­ion, at c€6.6 million. The government announced in 2014 that it had alloc­ated €3.1 million and the rest of restoration was carried out with funding from the Szeged Synag­ogue Foundation. Thus the lavishly ornate interior of the grand New Synagogue in Szeged was restored in 2016.

 

Central dome 

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Ark

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The multi-million euro restoration of the exterior centred on the en­orm­ous domed building, and included repair of the external towers, roof and facade. The fence preciou stained glass windows incorporating rich Jewish symbolism were repaired, and the Biblical garden designed by Rabbi Löw, who consulted closely with Baumhorn on many facets of the design and lavish decorative elements, was replanted.

The hardback book included a brief history of the construction of the synagogue, with the news­paper report of the inaugural ceremony in May 1903. Even more importantly, the printed book included beautiful photo­graphs of the windows by János Rómer, print­ed on transparent sheets to sim­ul­ate stain­ed glass in Baum­horn’s Szeged mast­er­piece.

Open-air exhibit in Szeged’s cen­tral Klauzal Sq­uare, Oct 2020.

World Jewish Travel

The synagogue, owned by Szeged Jewish community, is a city landmark oper­ated as a tourist attraction with visiting hours and also a cultural venue for concerts and other events.

As well as the synagogue, Baumhorn designed other buildings in Sz­eged, including the Jewish community complex and the ceremonial hall in the cemetery. The municipal government has been the REDISCOV­ER pro­j­ect’s lead partner has been engaged in local projects. These ranged from organising Jewish heritage it­in­eraries and cultural festivald, to planning an ex­hibition marking Lipot Baumhorn’s 160th birthday in 2020. Some pro­j­ects were postponed because of COVID, but a travelling exhib­ition about the Szeged syn­ag­ogue opened in Budapest at Baumhorn’s Páva St Synagog­ue, now part of the city’s Holocaust memorial museum complex. Baumhorn was also honoured with an open-air exhibit in Szeged’s cen­tral Klauzal Sq­uare in Oct 2020. It was all organised by Hungary’s Museum of Archit­ect­ure and Monum­ent Protection Documentation Centre.

Baumhorn also designed Szeged’s Jewish community headquarters building across the street, as well as the chapel in the Jewish cemet­ery. In fact half of the synagogues Baumhorn designed or renovated still stand, including:
1] Budapest’s Dozsa Gy­orgy ut, now a sports hall;
2] domed synagogue Novi Sad Serbia, now a concert hall;
3] Nitra Slovakia, now a concert hall & Holocaust memorial;
4] Lucenec Slovakia in ruins, re­stor­ed as a cul­t­ural centre;
5] Szolnok Hungary is now a con­cert hall and cultural centre, with a memorial bust of Baumhorn in front; and
6] Braşov synagogue Romania 

The Jewish community headquarters building is across the street from Szeged Synagogue.

Timișoara Romania: Europe Culture capital

Serbian Orthodox Church and Union Square
unique facade, small towers, beautiful bells and icons.
Built in C18th in the Baroque style.

Timisoara is in Western Romania, near the borders with Hungary and Serbia, and 600 km from Bucharest. The Carpathian Mount­ains (where my in-laws came from) lie to the north. The Timiș, Bega and Poganiș Rivers flow through the county and the city was named for the River Timis. From a small fort-town  in Castrum Temesiensis, first recorded in 1212, Timişoara in the C14th became a fortress. The town was sacked by the Tatars, but its citadel was rebuilt and used as the residence of Charles I of Hungary (1309–42)

In the Middle Ages the area was conquered by the Turks and remained in their hands until the Austrians took it in 1716, thus the many fortifications on Liberty Square. After a 1718 treaty, the region was governed from Vienna and colonised with non-Magyars, mostly Swabian Germans. The city withstood a siege by Hungarian revolutionaries in 1848. Occupied by Serb­ia in 1919, it was allotted by the Treaty of Trianon (1920) to Romania.

Banat Village Museum, opened 1967

Includes Village Civic Centre, Alley of Ethnicities and the Living Museum.

Fabric Synagogue, Neo-Moorish

opened c1840

Romania's 3rd largest city became a European Capital of Culture for 2021. After the win was announced, the mayor noted that the budget for the project would be €48.5 mill­ion: €20 m from Local Councils, €5 m from the County Coun­cil, €1.5 m from the European Commission, and the rest from the State. The money went to Multi-plexity, Palace of Culture, Arta Cinema, Dacia Cultural Cen­tre, Studio Art Hub, Art Theatre Hall, Fratelia Community Cult­ural Centre, Freidorf Commun­ity Cen­tre and Iosefin Water Tower Cul­tural Centre.

Timișoara is part of one of the most ambitious cultural projects of the European Union, helping EU-nations to learn about each oth­er’s cultures. And this cultural city has several tert­iary institutions, state opera, phil­harmonic orchestra, ballet and library. There are parks along the navigable Bega Canal and Rose Park is very rom­antic . The National Theatre of Timișoara is und­ergoing res­t­oration. 

The modern city represents a unique mix of architectural styles and cultural traditions. A principal building is the heroic Roman Catholic Cathedral (1736–73). Near the cathedral there is a monu­m­ent dedicated to those killed during the 1989 revolution. There is also Memorial Museum of Revolution whose exhibits there are unif­orms, historical documents, newspapers, lib­rary, revolut­ion­aries’ person­al belongings and historical films.

The Orthodox Serbian Cathedral (1748, restored 1791), opposite Victory Square, became the spiritual centre for Serbs and Roman­ians. This imposing Baroque building has a unique facade, small towers, bells and icons.

Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral (1936-46) was built in Victory Square with green and red tiles, arranged in a mosaic design. A monument dedicated to those who died during the 1989 Revolution is in front of the cathedral. The Cathedral is home to many art religious objects, including old Romanian icon paintings.

St George Catholic Cathedral, baroque

Opened 1774

An interesting cultural institution is Banat Vill­age Museum. It is a massive cultural open air com­plex; its main ex­hibits are farm buildings c100 years old. Beautiful pottery and wooden cabins were moved to the museum from around the city, so that exciting activities could include folk events.

Romanian National Opera, opened 1875

Burned down in 1880 and rebuilt in 1882

Burned in 1920 and rebuilt in 1923

 The Roman Catholic Cathedral (1736-54) was built in Union Square by Fisher von Erlach, a fine example of Viennese Bar­oque style. The main altar was done by Michael Angelo Unt­er­berger, director of Fine Arts Academy in Vienna. The Opera House (1875) was designed by Viennese architects   Fellner and Helmer who designed concert halls in Buda­pest, Vienna and Odessa. The frescoes in the concert hall were inspired by Romanian history and folk tales. Joseph Strauss began as Musical Director in Timisoara. The city claims to have had the first public water supply in Romania, the first to have street lighting in Europe and one of the first in the world to have horse-drawn trams. The nickname “Little Vienna” seemed appropriate.

The St Catherine of Alexandria Church has a long, remark­able history. In the crypt of this medieval church, King Charles Robert of Anjou's wife Catherine was buried in the C13th. The church was owned by Franciscan monks until it was demolished after 1723, and the new church of St Catherine was built in the Baroque style. From 1887-9 the church was rebuilt, though this time adap­t­ed to the Neo-classical style, while retaining Baroque ele­ments.

Romanian Orthodox Cathedral
built 1936-41
filled with stunning religious objects and paintings

The Chamber of Commerce (1850) worked out of various city build­ings. But in 1930 they began building the palace that became the new headquarters of the Chamber. The Chamber of Commerce & Industry was designed by Laszlo Szekely. Downstairs there is space provided for shops, while offices are located on the first floor and the council chamber and the other 3 floors are resident­ial. The palace has great decorative elements, including a great tri­angular gable roof.

Emperor Franz Joseph I (1830-1916) ruled that Jews across the Austro-Hungarian Empire were to be freed and issued an edict all­ow­ing them to own land and hold any job. Fabric is a historical district, well known for its factor­ies, thus becoming the most populated district in the C19th. It was becom­ing a multicultural neigh­bour­hood, and the build­ing of the Fabric Synagogue 1895-99 was historical - the com­bin­at­ion of Neo-Moorish architectural styl­es with a HUGE floor that seated 3000! The square build­ing, with many towers and cupol­as, was conn­ected to the ex­ter­ior walls through deep semi-circular arches. In 2001 the Jew­ish Com­munity transfer­red it to the Timisoara Philharmonic Soc­iety for their first concert, held in 2005.

Timișoara is also a commercial centre and has developed indust­rial­ly since WW2, including electric motors and electrical apparatus, textiles, farm equipment, chemicals. There are 2 tim­ber centres,  vineyards and wineries.

Map of Romania
Note Bucharest (in the south) and Timisoara (in the west)

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Anti-government demonstrations erupted in Dec 1989 and sparked a re­v­olution, toppling Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu from pow­er and executing him. Luckily many of the old Baroque buildings still make Timisoara special. 

Thank you Albania for great WW2 heroism

Brothers Hamid (left) and Xhemal Veseli,

whose family saved Jews from the Holocaust

honoured in Yad Vashem.

saving Jewish Families of Kavajë.

JGuideEurope

In the late C15th Spanish Inquisition, the Turkish Sultan in­vited Jews to live under Moslem rule in the Ottoman Empire. This br­ought Sephardic Jews to Albania, a small mountainous Balkan country. Jews continued to em­igrate from Greece in C18th-early C19th, settling in Vlora.

In the late Ottoman era, Alb­anian national ideology claimed affiliation with no one religion and aimed for reconciliation between the nation’s faiths. After Albania's independence (1912), the Post-Ottoman government legislated for religious equality under benev­ol­ent dictator King Zog (1895-1961).

After Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, new Jews sought refuge in Alban­ia from Germany and Austria. The Jewish comm­un­ity was well integrated into Albanian society, and in 1937 the com­munity was granted off­icial recognition by Zog.

Pe-WW2, Alban­ian Jews lived in the south. The Jewish comm­un­ity in Alban­ian-majority Kosovo num­b­ered c500. During the war, c2,000 foreign Jews sought refuge; they were tr­eated well by the locals, despite Albania-proper being occupied first by Fascist Italy.

When Italy surrendered in Sept 1943, Germany occupied Albania. The Germans demanded a list of Jews living in Albania, but the Alb­an­ian government refused, reassuring their Jews that they would be prot­ection. However, this could not guarantee safety because only in late 1944 were the Germans driven out of Albania-proper. 

Why were Jewish survival rates in Albania-proper so different from th­ose in Kosovo? Some showed the traditional code of honour, besa, play­ed an important role in Albania’s culture. Others sug­gest­ed the cause was the relative lenience of the Italian occupiers in 1941–3, Germ­any's failure to seek out Jews in Alban­ia in 1943–4 as thoroughly as they had elsewhere, or the Kosovo Albanians' distrust of foreigners. 

Rugged mountaineers led by Dervish abbots, lawyers, gendarmes and peasants

gave the Nazi invaders no rest. February 1, 1944. AP

King Zog actually aided Jewish refugees integrate into Albania since some German and Aust­rian Jews were escaping their countries as the Nazi Party gained pow­er. The Albanian embassy in Ber­lin issued visas to Jews until late 1938! Once USA reduced its visas to Jews in 1938 and It­aly invaded in 1939, Jews had to stay in Albania for the war - luckily!

In Mar 1939 Italian dictator Benito Mussolini ordered King Zog’s acc­eptance of an Italian military prot­ector­ate over Albania. Zog re­fused, and in April, Italy invaded Albania and deposed the King. A new, collabor­ative Albanian National Assem­bly voted in favour of an econom­ic and political union with Italy; the Viceroy General implem­ent­ed laws that prohibited Jewish imm­ig­ration to Albania.

A list of European Jews was compiled at Berlin's Wannsee Conference in Jan 1942, Albania having 200. 

After Yugoslavia was invaded, the community grew as Jews from Macedonia and northern Serbia, as well as Germany, Austria and Poland came to Italian-controlled Prist­ina in Albanian-annexed Kosovo. 1,000 ref­ug­ees arrived, not experiencing pers­ecution at the level Jews experienced in the German control­led territ­or­ies. The Italians did arrest c150 Jewish refugees and tran­sferred them to Berat, but they were protected by locals.

Albania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Greece

Jewish refugees were taken to Albanian ports on the Adriat­ic where they could travel to Italy. Others hid in remote mount­ains, while some joined resistance movements.  In any case, the Italian laws were ordered in a tepid man­ner so imm­igration of foreign Jews to Greater Albania continued. When Jews were found crossing the border, they were re­leased by the Albanian authorities into shelter. 

Smaller numb­ers of foreign refugees hid in the capital Tirana. But many of these foreign Jews were turned over to the Nazis, and 400 were shipped to Bergen-Belsen.

Soon after Italy surrendered to the Allies in Sept 1943, the Germans invaded and oc­cupied Albania. The Ger­man authorities then be­gan to target all of the Jews living in the Albanian domin­ated reg­ions of Axis-occupied Yugosl­av­ia. The Jewish community in W Macedonia, which had remained safe under Italian occup­ation, was deported.

In Sept the Alb­anian National Committee was est­ab­lished under German sponsorship, recognised by Germany as the official govern­ment. Xhafer Deva, a Kosovo Albanian collaborator with Germany, was then appointed the Minister of Interior. Foreseeing the arrival of German troops from Sep 1943 on, the Jews of Albania-proper hid in the countryside.

Even with the collaborative government, the Albanian authorities wouldn't provide the Germans with Jewish Lists for deport­ing. In June 1944, Jewish leaders sought help from Alb­ania's collabor­ationist Prime Min­ister, Mehdi Frashëri. He refused to hand the list over to the Germans, resenting their  interference in Albanian affairs.

In May 1944, a Kosovo Albanian Waffen-SS Mountain Division was formed to arres­t and deliver hundreds of Jews in Pristina to the Germans. They were deported to Bergen-Belsen death camp where 281 of them were murd­ered.

NB almost all Jews in Albania-proper in WW2 were saved from Hitler’s Final Solut­ion, even when it was under Italian rule, a circumstance that wasn't found in any other Axis-occupied country (except for Denmark and Bulgaria). How was the stark contrast in survival rates in Albania and Kosovo explained? Impressive assistance was given to the Jews by the various governmental agencies, providing Jewish families with false document­ation.

Jewish Museum Berat

Times of Israel

 

Kosovo Albanians tended to be more hostile towards foreigners, an att­itude ?due to the Albanian–Serbian conflict and persecution suf­fered at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Thus most Kosovo Alban­ians wel­com­ed the defeat and partitioning of Yugoslavia, and were very grateful to any power helping them retaliate against local Serbs.

In Albania-proper, when anti-Semitic legislation was adopted by the Italians in 1940, it was applied lightly. Jews felt little need to hide their identities in the Italian period, even marking their holydays in public. The Albanians' tolerance tow­ards the Jews was encour­aged by Albania-proper's religious diversity.

From Oct-Nov 1944, the Yugoslav Partisans, supported by both Western Allies and Soviet Union, and assisted by the forces of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front and the Albanian partisans, retook Ko­sovo as the Germans withdrew. The area was reincorporated in­to Yug­os­lavia.

In Nov 1944 the Nazis were ejected by local communist partisans and Albania became a communist state under Enver Hoxha (1908–1985). Meantime Axis forces in the Albanian-annexed regions of Kosovo and western Macedonia were defeated by the Yugoslav Partisans, reinc­orporating these areas into Yugoslavia.

Hoxha impl­emented a total­it­arian St­al­inist government that outlawed all rel­igious activity in the country, including for the c1,800 Jews in Albania-proper who survived WW2. Most of these survivors emig­rated to Israel; several hundred remained in Albania until the fall of Comm­unism in the early 1990s before doing the same. So stories of Albania in WW2, and under Hoxha, were hid­den. Albanians knew they would endanger families if they talked openly about having saved Jews, destroying docu­ments in case of searches. The war stories could not be told until the 1990s.

Grand Park of Tirana

memorials designed by Stephen Jacobs

One part of Tir­ana's National Historical Museum was dedicated to the Holocaust in Nov 2004. The film Rescue in Alb­an­ia (2009) was rel­eas­ed. Kosovo’s Government er­ected (2013) a plaque honouring their Jews who were killed. Many Albanian Muslims were recognised by Yad Vashem Jer­usalem (2018) as Righteous Among the Nat­ions. Berat’s Jewish History Mus­eum op­ened (2018). And a marble mem­orial (2020) in Tirana’s Lake Park honours heroic Albanians.

The rise and fall of Romanian leader: Nicolae Ceaușescu.

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (1901-65) became a revolutionary post-WWI, joining the then outlawed Romanian Communist Party in 1930 and being sentenced to 12 years’ gaol. A member of the Romanian Communist youth movement in the early 1930s, Nicolae Ceaușescu (1918-89) was im­prison­ed twice for his Communist activit­ies and be­c­­ame an aide of his cell mate, Gheorghiu-Dej. In 1939 Nicolae marr­ied a fellow Communist Elena Petrescu 

Ceausescu spoke forcefully to the Romanian Communist Party,

Bucharest Nov 1989. npr

In Aug 1944 Ceaușescu became Secretary of the Com­m­unist Youth Union (1944–5). He met and loved Elena Petrescu, marrying her in 1946. After the Communists’ takeover in Romania in 1947, he became Minister of Agricult­ure (1948–50) and from 1950-4, Dep­uty Minister of the Armed Forces. Then the party’s De­puty Leader.

Prime Minister Gheorghiu-Dej adopted economic and foreign polic­ies that served Rom­ania’s own national interests eg vigorously pursuing a major ind­us­t­rial­isation prog­ramme. In mid-1960s Gheorghiu-Dej formed warner relations with the People’s Repub­lic of China, now more al­ien­at­ed from the Soviet Union.

When Gheorghiu-Dej died (1965), Ceaușescu became First Secretary of the Communist Party; then President in Dec 1967. He won popular support for his own na­tion­al­ist polit­ic­al course which openly chal­lenged the Soviet Union’s control. Ceau­șescu ended Roman­ia’s active particip­at­ion in the Warsaw Pact mil­itary alliance, cond­emning the in­vasions of Cz­ech­oslovakia (1968) by War­saw Pact forces and of Afgh­anistan (1979) by the Sov­iet Un­ion. But while fol­l­owing an ind­ependent policy in foreign rel­at­ions, at home he was rig­idly orthod­ox about cent­ralised ad­min­­ist­ration. His secret police, Securitate, main­tained total control over all media.

The very expensive Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest

second largest administrative building in the world.

Built when most citizens didn't have enough money for food.

One grand­iose scheme was a plan to bulldoze thousands of Rom­an­ia’s villages and move their residents into agro-technical centres. But the scheme failed when people rioted, protecting their homes. In 1981 he be­g­an an austerity programme to liquidate his nation’s enormous nat­ion­al debt, rationing food, clothing and fuel. Malnutrition meant Rom­ania had Eur­ope’s highest infant mortality rate.

Yet the Ceaus­e­scus built the sump­t­uous Rep­ublic House, the palace now hous­ing the Romanian parl­iament. Angry resid­ents were evicted from their homes for the palace, causing an even greater pover­ty that Ceausescu had in­flicted.

Rally organised for Nicolae Ceausescu in 1978.

rolandia

Trying to pay off the large foreign debt that his government acc­umul­at­ed in the 1970s, Cea­ușescu order­ed the export of the count­ry’s agr­ic­­ult­ural and in­d­ustrial pro­duction in 1982, res­ult­ing in more shortages of food, fuel and energy.

To increase births, the brutal Ceaușescu banned contracept­ion and abortion. Doct­ors had to monitor women of child bearing age to ensure they were not controlling their fert­ility, so mat­ernal mortality rat­es rose from illegal abortions. Equal­ly tragic, Ceausescu insisted that HIV was not sexually trans­mit­ted so he banned condoms, condemning many young citizens to death.

In 1989 Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev an­nounced his nation would never again interfere in nations’ affairs; in fact the Soviet Union released its satellite states. Dur­ing 1989 those nat­ions threw off Soviet rule; Pol­and, Hungary, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia and East Germany re­placed their communist rulers, mainly by peaceful means.

Seeing what was happen­ing elsewhere, the Romanian population stirred. The first protests in Dec in the western city of Timis­oara were by members of Romania’s Hungarian minority. At first the army went in but as soon the city was burning, martial law was declared and tanks entered the streets. By 17th Dec, demonstrations had spread across central Timis­oara, and security for­ces implemented Ceausescu's shooting orders. A large number of dem­on­st­rators were killed, while others seriously injured and arrested. It didn’t mat­ter; in­side the Romanian Commun­ist Party, it looked great for Ceau­s­escu who’d been elected for a new 5-year term.

In 20 Dec 1989 with Nicolae on a government visit to Iran, Elena Ceausescu despatched her Prime Minister to Tim­isoara to take control. He offered to free those arrested but was met with protestors demand­ing that Ceausescu resign. Work­ers, who were bus­s­ed in to replace the striking dissidents, joined them inst­ead. Ceausescu returned from Iran as western media dissem­inated news of the Timisoara revolt.

How did Ceausescu not know his rule was a nasty pers­onality cult? Convinced by his own self-delusions, he was incapable of und­erstanding that it was only upheld by his oppres­s­ive security services. He still planned to make a pub­lic speech to the people to be broadcast nation­wide, to show that Ceaus­escu retained control. God grief!! C100,000 pro­testers gathered in Bucharest Square carrying Rom­anian flags and huge pict­ur­es of the dictator. Ceau­sescu raised his hand to give his speech but was st­un­ned to note that the jeering didn’t stop! Finally even HE finally realised his legitimacy was over. Romania was the last Communist nation to fall and its last days were very violent.

With protestors closing in and the army unwilling to defend him, the couple dramatically fled Bucharest’s rooftops by helicopter, with sec­onds to spare. But the pilot was unhappy carrying the dictator to safety so he dropped into a field. The Ceausescus flag­ged down a car and told the dri­v­er find them a safe place at an agricultural inst­it­ute. There the driver locked them up and called the pol­ice to take them to Targoviste military base!

On 25 Dec 1989 a mil­itary tri­bunal of military judges met, charg­ing the couple with genocide by starvation and sub­version. The defence lawyers asked  the couple to claim mental incapacity, but both rejected that recommendation. In the end, the trial lasted only two hours!

Newspaper report of the executions

Today 26/12/89

The Ceausescus were dragged crying into a freezing military courtyard, lined up against a toilet block and shot by the 80 guards. The images were shown on television in Romania and elsewhere. What­ever one thinks of the brutally oppressive regime, or of capital punishment, it was terr­ible… as the Europ­ean Court of Human Rights argued.

Once the new government Nation­al Salvat­ion Front took power and arranged free elections, Romania was always headed for a free-market democr­acy. And note that 13 days later Romania out­lawed capital pun­ish­ment. How ironic that Nicolae Ceauses­cu and wife were the last vict­ims. 

Many thanks to The History Guide.  

Sultan Süleyman 1520-66, military genius, patron of the arts and filicide

Süleyman (1494–1566)’s political career began in his teens as a provincial governor and a key participant in his father Selim I’s (r1512-20) rebellion securing dad the throne. But Suleyman was exposed to brutal violence whenever Selim decided to slaughter his own father, two brothers and multiple nephews. Meantime Selim captured lands in Egypt, Syria and Arabian Peninsula, and then he  pushed on to capture Mecca and Medina.

Süleyman, by Titian c.1530 

Wikimedia

 

Selim left his son an emerging empire with a stake in regional and global commerce and a sophisticated cultural identity. And when Süleyman became Sultan in Sept 1520, his kingdom already cov­er­ed the territories of the Balkans, Anatolia, Levant and Egypt. In the first 6 years, Süleyman expanded his empire to take Belgrade & Rhodes. In 1526, he also enjoyed a clear victory against the Hungarian Kingdom and allies at the Battle of Mohács, sparking border disputes among Habsburg Austria, Ottomans, Croatia and Hungary.

Süleyman's empire was multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-confessional. The Ottoman state had little interest in radically changing the practices of local groups, if they were peaceful, so its offic­ials had to have a knowledge of local practices and norms.

In his long reign, Süleyman played a pivotal role in Eur­opean affairs. He pledged assistance to Protestant causes in order to undermine the Habsburgs etc. And he did not hinder Protestantism taking root in Hungary or Transylvania. He formed an alliance with the French against the Habsburgs and transformed much of the Med­it­erranean Sea into an Ottoman lake for decades to come.

The Ottoman world was one in which Islam was privileged and Süley­man’s reign marked an ongoing interest in Islamic religious matters. From then, all Sultans saw themsel­ves as Caliph and head of all Sunni Musl­ims. Süley­man waged 3 major wars against Persia. The first (1534–5) was in Iraq. The second (1548–9) brought the Lake Van area under Ottoman rule. And the third (1554–55) warned the Ot­tomans of the dif­ficulty defeating Persia’s Ṣafavid state. So a formal peace bet­ween the Ottomans and Ṣafavids was signed!

Süleyman's reign continued affecting Europe eg campaigns led to the em­erg­ence of 3 dis­tinct Hung­arys: Habsburg Hungary in north & west; Ottoman Hungary along the middle Danube centred on Buda; and the vassal state, Transylvania.   

Ottoman-Hungarian Wars, Battle 1526

fineartamerica

Beyond military conquest, Süleyman also standardised and cent­ralised legal system for the Ottoman state. He collected and edited the various law books of his forbearers, added statutes to create a more universally applic­ab­le text and specified the punishments for off­en­ces.

For all the cultural splendour and military success of Süley­man's rule, it was also brutal like his father’s. Marriage to his second consort Hurr­em Sultan (c1502–58) caused endless controversy because he was the first Sultan since the early years of the Empire to marry. He was deeply devoted to his wife and she amassed great power in her own right. But this mar­riage caused gos­sip that she was a witch who was behind the Sultan’s intrigues. And political intrigue followed him. He was forced to kill his dear friend, long serving grand vizier Ibrah­im (d1536) because he took too many roy­al rights for him­self. Worse still, he ordered his politically popul­ar son Must­afa (d1556) then son Beyzid (d1561) execut­ed.

Süleyman’s rule was a turning point in Ottoman history and across its empire. Histor­ians argued that Sül­eyman repr­es­ented the apogee of Ottoman pow­er and statecraft, and his death st­arted a long decline. Under Süleyman the Ottomans largely reached the limitat­ions of their supply lines and infrastructure, leading to a focus on int­ernal affairs, not territ­orial expans­ion. Although lat­­er Sul­tans did conq­uer more territory, they often found that wars gained little.

The sys­­tem of cent­ral­ised rule finalised under Süleyman was quickly ad­apt to the rap­idly changing world and the crises that later rock­ed Eur­ope. The empire began a control­led decent­ral­is­at­ion in response to the need for tax and chan­ges in war­fare in Eur­ope eg gunpowder.

Süleyman recognised the need for flexib­il­ity and it was this adaptab­ility during crises that made the difference. Where other empires and kingdoms collaps­ed, the Ottoman Empire lasted into the C20th!

Süleymaniye Mosque, built 1550–7

Taghribnews

He was a major patron of the arts whose cultural legacy remains. He often reflected in his poetry on the passing nature of rule, life and power. The NGA book Age of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent (1987) accompanied the first major Turkish art exhibition dev­ot­ed to the Sultan's reign. The sophisticat­ed patron­age of Süleyman and his court nurtured the high standards that typified C16th Ottoman art. See 200+ works of art: manuscripts, jew­elled vess­els, silks and ceramics, created in the Sultan’s imperial studios. And architecture - along with other beautiful buildings in Is­t­anbul, the mosque was already built by the Chief of the Corps of Royal Architects, Mimar Sinan in 1550–7.

Süleyman’s reign lasted 46 years,  the longest in Ottoman history. The elderly Süleyman died in his command tent while leading a military campaign ag­ainst Szigetvár Hungary in 1566.  

Conclusion
He rose to be one of the most powerful, influential mon­ar­chs in European history, the foremost military power, even during the time of powerful rulers: Francis 1 (1494-1547); Henry VIII (1491-1547); Charles V (1500-58); and Ivan IV (1530-84). Suleyman con­quered new lands, exp­anded the Empire, built up Constant­inople as the Empire’s capital and introduced coffee houses. 

Expansion of the Ottoman Empire,

with conquests by Süleyman indicated in green.  Wiki, 

Press to expand

Elgin Marbles - the endless Britain Vs Greece conflict.

The Elgin Marbles aka Parthenon sculptures were a marble frieze Doric temple on the Acropolis Greece, built in c440 BC and dedic­at­­­ed to Goddess Ath­ena. The temple was the centre­piece of an ambit­ious building programme in Athens. But in 1687 the temple, after c2,000 years, was damaged in the Venice-Ottoman Empire War. 

Acropolis of Athens,
world's most striking extant ancient Greek monumental complex

The Marbles were str­ipped from the Acropolis and shipped to UK by Scot­tish nobl­eman 7th Earl Lord Elgin Thomas Bruce, who served as British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire (1799-1803). Elgin’s let­ter granted him permission to take the art objects as a personal gest­ure, after encour­ag­ing the British forces into Ottoman Egypt.

Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Elgin (1766-1841)

Wiki

The collection holds half of the surviving Parth­enon: 247’ of the original 524’ frieze; 15 of 92 metopes; 17 figures from the pedim­ents, and objects from other Acropolis temples. At first the art was publicly ex­hib­ited in Elgin’s Park Lane mansion, at­t­r­acting in­terest from pot­ential buyers. Then, invited by British Mu­seum trust­ees, Elgin chose to sell to the Briti­sh government, to pay his debts. 

Elgin Marbles on display at the British Museum, 1961.
History Today

In June 1816 a Commons’ Select Committee found the Mar­bles had been hon­ourably acquired and would great­ly increase Britain’s art­ist­ic wealth. The Committee set the price at £35,000, not the £74,000 that El­g­in re­qu­ested. The House won the vote for the pur­chase and a sub­sequent Act of Parliam­ent gave the collect­ion in perpetuity to British Museum trustees. 
                       

marble slabs were part of the frieze that ran around the Parth­en­on

The Chronicle

Britain never seriously con­sidered returning the Elgin Marbles sc­ulpt­ures to Athens. Since c1890 successive govern­­ments have argued that:
1.they are more accessible in the British Mus­eum;
2.their return will be a pre­­­c­edent that's reg­ret­ted later;
3.Athens offered less secur­ity than London.

Architect Robert Smirke built the Elgin Room, finally completed in 1832 and later ext­ended into ad­jacent galleries. Bec­ause the marble slabs were actual­ly part of the frieze that ran around the Parth­en­on ins­ide the peristyle, they should have been called the Parth­enon Frieze.

Domestic consensus about keeping the Mar­b­les broke down when Parliament debated their purch­ase. MP Hugh Hammersley urged the Commons for an am­endment, saying Britain holds these mar­bles only in trust till they are demanded by the present, or future owners of Athens City. This was bef­ore the Greeks revolted against the Ottomans and, with Brit­ish assis­t­ance, set up their own state in southern Bal­­kan Pen­in­sula. In 1834 the Bavarian reg­en­cy, assist­ing Greece’s first king Otto, chose Athens as the king­dom’s new cap­ital, insp­ired by old western civil­is­ation!

Elgin’s marbles were acquired in 1801-5, but it was Greece’s entry in­to WW2 that reheated the issue. When Mussolini’s army invaded Greece from Italian-held Albania in Oct 1940, Britain and its Empire st­ood vir­tually alone in the war. The Greeks soon pushed the invaders back into Albania. Still reeling from defeat in France and from the Blitz, the British public could finally be optimistic about this Axis reversal.

Greek dictator Ioannis Met­axas feared pre­cip­itat­ing a German attack, yet keeping Greece in the war was a major British policy. Winston Churchill wanted the war in Albania to become a ma­jor divers­ion against both Italy and Germany. For months British sup­port for the Greek war effort was limited to scarce supplies, and the idea of British con­cess­ions to Greece couldn’t be ne­gotiated until af­ter Germany invaded Greece in Ap 1941. Greek nation­al­ists also laid claim Britain’s Cyprus, with its majority Greek population.

The Marbles were discussed in The Times by writer H.B Fyfe in Dec 1940 when the British Museum’s objects were hidden in the old Aldwy­ch Tube St­ation. Fyfe wanted a prime minist­erial pledge to return the Mar­bles post-war, tangible proof of Brit­ish gratitude to their Greek ally. By Jan 1941, 9 more Times articles appeared, for or agin Fyfe’s proposal.

Conservative MP Thelma Cazalet-Keir raised the issue in the Commons in late 1940, asking the prime minister for legislation to return the Mar­b­les post-war. Being the interm­ed­iary between the British Mus­eum and Par­l­iament, Treasury undertook to prepare the govern­ment’s reply. In Jan 1941, Fo­r­­eign Secretary An­thony Eden’s view was that the dis­cus­s­ion re­quired a neutral reply. But in its reco­m­mendation to the Treas­ury, the Foreign Office remained open to sympathetic consid­erat­ion of the issue. Yet Lord Privy Seal Clement Attlee brought no legisl­ation.

Melina Mer­couri, Greek minister for Cult­ure campaigned for the Marbles’ return until 1994. Later the rebuilt Acropolis Museum in Athens tried to offset counter-arguments i.e 1] safe-keeping and 2] access­ib­il­ity. The rectang­ular cement core of its Parth­enon Gallery was designed for the missing parts of the frieze!

                             

Parthenon sculptures of Ancient Greece, British Museum.
ARTnews

We cannot judge Lord Elgin by today’s standards. While taking artworks would trigger disgrace now, during Elgin's era it was common for wealthy tourists to collect ancient treasures, inc­l­uding the Parth­enon. As a genuine art lover, Elgin received authority to take what he wished.

In Aug 2013, UNESCO’s Director General for Culture wrote a letter to the Director of the Brit­ish Mus­eum and British Minister for Culture, pro­pos­ing a mediat­ion process. But the UK Government and the British Museum Tr­ustees each declin­ed in 2015; so Athens returned to reclaiming the arte­facts via diplomatic-political means. Greece noted that its nation­al goal, returning the Parthenon Scul­p­tures to Ath­ens, was agreed by UNESCO’s decision in Sept 2021. 

Fragments of the Parthenon frieze remain, in other European museums. Recently Palermo reported that a Goddess Artemis fragment be­l­ong­­ing to the Parthenon’s east­ern frieze on loan from Sic­ily’s Archaeol­og­ical Museum will remain in Ath­ens. And the Vatican will return Marble fragments from the Vatican Museums, "donations from the Pope".

Read William St Clair, Lord Elgin and the Marbles (1967)  and Tessa Solomon in Artnews.

King Edward VII's funeral and 9 kings - 1910

coronation of King Edward and Queen Alexandra, 1901

Wiki

King Edward VII (ruled 1901-10) died on 6 May 1910. After a priv­ate ly­ing in state in Buckingham Palace’s Throne Room, the coffin was taken to Westminster Hall for a public lying in state; thousands of cit­izens queued in the rain to pay their respects. Kaiser Wil­helm II wanted the hall closed wh­ile he laid a wreath; but po­lice feared this may cause dis­ord­er, so the Kaiser was taken in via another entrance. In total half a million people visited the hall to pay respects.

The funeral was held two weeks after the king's death. Crowds of 3-5 million gathered to watch the procession, the route of which was lined by 35,000 soldiers. It went from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where a small cerem­ony was conducted by the Archbishop of Canter­bury be­fore a small group of official mourners: widow Queen Alexandra, son King George V, daught­er Princess Victoria, brother Duke of Conn­aug­ht and nep­h­ew the German Emperor. The remainder of the huge funer­al party wait­ed outside the Hall. Big Ben was rung 68 times, Edward's age. 

The 9 monarchs and the Duke of Cornwall in funeral procession,
High St Windsor. Bridgeman

The march saw a horse­back proc­es­sion plus 11 carriages, proceeding from Westminster Hall via Whitehall and the Mall, Hyde Park Corner to Marble Arch. From there to Paddington Station. Then the Royal Funer­al Train, built for Queen Vic­toria, took mourners to Windsor Castle where a full funeral ceremony was held in St George's Chapel. This pub­l­ic funeral was notable for the important European royalty in attendance.

Edward’s funeral passed in the streets of London on 20th May 1910. See the moving casket, heads of state walking behind the casket, royal carriage and marching military units.

The reigning European monarchs were present during King Edward VII’s burial in 1910. This was a great opport­un­ity and coll­ect­ed the mon­ar­chs for this historical image, possibly the only photo of all 9 kings in existence. The funeral was the larg­est gathering of Euro­pean royalty ever to take place, with representatives of 70 states and the last before many royal families were deposed in and after WW1.

Back L->R: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferd­in­and of Bul­garia, King Manuel II of Portugal, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Ger­many, King George I of Greece, King Albert I of Belgium. 

Front L->R: Kings Alfonso XIII of Spain, George V of Britain, Frederick VIII of Denmark.

wikimedia

King George V was related by blood or marriage to most of Europe’s sov­ereigns; he was a grandson of Queen Victoria and Prince Al­bert, and first cousin of Russian Tsar Nicholas II and Ger­man Emperor Wil­helm II. Here he was seen with two uncles (Kings of Den­mark), brother-in-law and first cousin (King of Norway), first cousin by marriage (King of Spain) and 3 distant cousins, all descended from branches of the Saxe-Coburg family (Kings of Bulgaria, Portugal and the Belgians). And note that Frederik VIII of Denmark was father of Haakon VII of Norway.

The funeral service largely followed the format used for Queen Victoria. The liturgy was based on the Order for The Burial of the Dead, Book of Common Prayer. And Queen Alexandra accepted His Body Is Bur­ied In Peace, from George Frideric Handel's Funeral Anthem. Edward was temporarily buried in Windsor’s Royal Vault un­d­er Albert Chap­el.

Edward’s funeral was the last time all of the great Europ­ean mon­ar­chs met before WW1.  In fact WW1 ended most of the mon­archical lines of Europe for good. Looking at this picture really makes one real­ise how much WW1 was the result of national egos embodied by mon­­archs, rather than a sense of duty to their states. Within 5 years, Britain & Belgium went war with Germany & Bulgaria, and 4 of the 9 monarchies in the photo did not sur­­vive (Bulgaria, Portugal, Germany and Greece). 4 kings were later deposed and 1 was assassinated.

cousins Kaiser Wilhelm, King George, Tsar Nicholas 

Brookings Institution

King, Kaiser, Tsar: Three Royal Cousins Who Led the World to War is a biography of the formative lives of cousins George V, Wilhelm II and Nicholas II, who led their countries into WWI. The three leaders grew up knowing each other since early childhood in a vast extended family, overseen by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Queen Alexandra ordered a mon­um­ent designed and exec­uted by Bertram Mackennal in 1919. It featured tomb effig­ies of the king and queen in white marble mounted on a marb­le sarcophagus, where both bodies were buried after the queen's death in 1925.

Madeleine Albright, a great international diplomat, writer & female mentor

                                       

Madeleine Albright in orange

Foreign Ministers from around the world, Lisbon, 1997

Maria Korbel (1937-2022) was born in Prague. Her father Josef Korbel was a member of the Czech diplomatic service in Belgrade, then Am­bassador to Yugos­l­avia. In 1938, Czech­os­lovakia was at the epi­cen­tre of Europe’s crises, coveted by Ger­many and pro­t­ected by UK and Fran­ce. It ended with the 1938 Mun­ich Ag­reement, meant to calm Hitler by ac­cep­ting his territ­or­ial de­mands. But Nazi Germany chewed up Czech­oslovakia and in Mar 1939 the family fled to UK. In 1941, Jewish Josef and Anna converted to Catholicism, to save the family.

Once the Nazis left Eastern Europe, the Soviets increased their po­wer. The family returned home after WW2, but pro-Soviet commun­ism threatened. By 1948 they’d settled in Col­or­ado, where her fat­­her taught intern­at­ional relat­ions at Denver Uni. In 1948, he wor­k­ed for the U.N in India, until the Com­m­unists over­threw the Czech gov­ernment.

Madeleine took U.S citizenship in 1957 and studied pol­itical science at Wellesley College, grad­uat­ing in 1959. She earned high­er degrees in in­ternat­ional aff­airs from Colum­bia Uni. She married Jos­eph Alb­right from a news­pap­er publish­ing family; the couple liv­ed in Chic­ago and NY, before mov­ing to Wash­ing­ton DC, and having 3 daughters.

In 1976 Albright received a Ph.D from Columbia and was working for another Eastern European im­mig­rant, Col­umbia Uni academic Zbigniew Brzez­inski, Pres Jimmy Carter’s nat­ional security adviser. From 1978-81 she served as a White House staffer on the National Secur­ity Coun­cil.

Her marriage ended in 1982. So she went to Georgetown Uni, as a Prof of Internat­ional Aff­airs (1982-3). Af­ter Pres Carter, she was an adviser to Democratic candidates, incl­uding to presidential cand­id­ates Walter Mondale, Gerald­ine Ferr­aro (1984 race) and Mich­ael Duk­akis (1988 race).

In Ronald Reagan (1981-9) and Geo­rge Bush's (1989–92) Republican terms, Albright worked for non-profits.

When Bill Clint­on sought the presidential nomination in 1992, Al­b­right was his senior cam­p­aign foreign policy ad­vis­or. After Clinton became President, her pol­it­ical career blossomed; Cl­inton named her U.S ambassador to the United Nations in 1993, a rugged time in glob­al politics. The Cold War had just ended, leaving it unclear what prac­tical steps the world’s last superpower should take.

President Clinton nominated Albright
as Sec­retary of State, Dec 1996
  

She immediately became a major force in world politics, America be­ing the UN's larg­est contributor to U.N activities and budget. She was involved in debates over UN peace-keeping activities and American foreign policy.

Madeleine Albright was nominated to be the first woman Sec­ of State by Pres Clinton in Dec 1996 and unanimously confirmed in Jan 1997. Having spent time in the U.N dealing with brutal fight­ing in Bosnia, Albright was conf­ront­ed by more cr­ises in Yugo­s­l­avia, a na­t­ion split by awful eth­nic and rel­ig­ious dif­ferences. The U.S intervened in Kosovo to pro­t­ect the per­sec­ut­ed Alban­ian minor­ity. In fact Kos­ovo’s war became the heart of the debate over what role Am­er­ica should play in the world.

Soon after her confirmation, Albright's cousin told Washington Post reporters that the family had been Czech Jews, not Catholics as she believed, and that 3 of her grandparents had been murdered in German con­cent­ration camps. This disc­overy brought problems for her pers­on­al sense of id­entity, but how did she not know her own family his­t­ory till her middle age?? That year, Albright flew to Prague and was honoured by Czech Pres Vaclav Havel.

 Albright and Havel, Prague, 1997

Albright strongly supported mil­itary interv­ent­ion. In 1999 she push­ed for North At­l­antic Treaty Organisation bombings in Yug­oslavia, to halt the clean­­sing of ethnic Albanians by Yugoslav and Ser­b­ian forc­es. This Kosovo Con­f­l­ict ended after 11 weeks of air strik­es, when Yugoslav­ia agreed to NATO’s terms. Alb­right was also inv­ol­ved in ef­forts to end North Korea’s nuclear program; in 2000 she became the highest-ranking U.S official to visit. But her talks with Kim Jong Il failed to produce a deal.

Albright and Kim Jong Il, 2000

Albright began a Middle Eastern peace mission in 1997, meeting Isr­aeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, then with Palest­in­ian leader Yasir Araf­at, Syrian Pres Hafez al-Assad (d2000), Egypt­ian Pres Hosny Mubarak, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia and King Huss­ein of Jordan (d1999). She condemned terror­ist activities, urged Netanyahu to make some conces­sions to the Palestinians, and then vowed not to re-meet with Isr­aeli and Palest­inian leaders until they cooperated. In July 2000 Albright returned to the Middle East, but talks between the new Israeli P.M Ehud Barak and Arafat ended.

By Jan 2001, Alb­right's impres­sive career as the highest-ranking fem­ale in the U.S government ended, having sh­owed a combination of scholarly resear­ch and political activity. Then she became chair­man of the board for the National Democ­ra­tic Inst­itute. The Wash­ing­ton Sp­eakers Bureau used this famous pub­lic speak­er to share insight about her career. In 2001 Albright returned to academe.

Meanwhile she was a frequent columnist on foreign affairs issues, and wrote books like The Mighty and the Almigh­ty: Reflect­ions on Am­erica, God, and World Affairs (2006), Memo to the Presid­ent El­ect (2008) and Fascism: A Warning (2018), Madam Secret­ary (2003), Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance & War, 1937–48 (2012) and Hell and Other Destinations (2020).

 
Madeleine Albright died at 84 in 2022.

Conclusion
As the world reordered post-Cold War, Albright was a maj­or fig­ure in inter­national diplomacy. Her vision for U.S policy and the role it played in the world can be described as:

Successes in American dip­lomacy:
1]pro­moting NATO’s expansion into former Soviet nations and the non-prolifer­ation of nuclear weapons from the USSR to rogue nations;
2] using mil­itary intervention under NATO in the 1999 Kosovo crisis;
3]support­ing the expansion of free-markets;
4]wanting to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on Glob­al Climate Change;
5]normalis­ing relations with Vietnam; and
6]improving relations with China and former Soviet nat­ions.

Her failures:
7] not succeeding with a lasting Israeli-Pales­t­inian peace and
8] not developing an ongoing U.S out­reach to North Korea 

Her political views were very sympathetic to me, but her appr­oach to dip­lomacy accepted the not­ion of us­ing military might to support Amer­ican st­rategic inter­ests. In her view, a U.S policy sh­ould have been suf­f­icient, by itself, to ach­­ieve the support of oth­er nat­ions!

Thank you to Office of the Historian, New Yorker, New York Times and BBC.