For the first time ever, a President of Israel visits Albania

Which country? It is a NATO member since 2009 and a candidate for the EU since 2014.

During the Cold War it was one of the strangest communist countries under the charismatic leadership of Enver Hoxha of the world besides North Korea. It was not part of or left the Warsaw Pact and the COMECON. Albania split from the Soviet Union in 1961. Among communist leaning students in the West, Albania had quite a bit of following.

"Isaac Herzog’s visit to Albania Thursday marked the first time an Israeli leader set foot in the only European country that ended World War II with more Jews than it started with.

Albania’s role in saving Jews during the Holocaust was a key theme of the Israeli president’s brief visit, which included a ceremony at the Holocaust memorial in Tirana as well as meetings with descendants of some of the 75 Muslims, Catholics and Orthodox Christians listed by Israel’s Yad Vashem as Righteous Gentiles — those who risked their lives to save Jews from deportation to Nazi death camps following Germany’s occupation of Albania in September 1943. ...

“Albanians hid Jews without regard to where they came from, or whether they were rich or poor,”  ...

estimated that up to 3,000 foreign Jews found refuge in Albania during World War II. ..."

In Albania, which saved Jews from the Nazis, educators teach the Holocaust to a new generation - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Albanian President Bajram Begaj meets Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Tirana, Albania, Sept. 12, 2024.

Albania’s national Holocaust memorial, situated in a Tirana park, has commemorative plaques in Albanian, English and Hebrew.