Zog I of Albania for such modernization was high, though. Although nominally a constitutional monarch, in practice Zog retained the dictatorial powers he had enjoyed as president. Thus, in effect, Albania remained a military dictatorship. In 1938, Zog opened the borders of Albania to Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. Although born as an aristocrat and hereditary Bey, King Zog was somewhat ignored by other monarchs in Europe because he was a self-proclaimed monarch who had no links to any other European royal families. Nonetheless, he did have strong connections with Muslim royal families in the Arab World, particularly Egypt, whose ruling dynasty
Zog nit keyn mol "То не тучи - грозовые облака" ("Those aren't clouds but thunderclouds"), originally from the 1937 film "I, Son of Working People" (story by Valentin Kataev). Hirsch was inspired to write the song by news of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. During World War II, "Zog nit keyn mol" was adopted by a number of Jewish partisan groups operating in Eastern Europe. It became a symbol of resistance against Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jews and the Holocaust. Yiddish in transliteration <poem> zog nit keyn mol, az du geyst dem letstn veg, khotsh himlen blayene farshteln bloye teg. kumen vet nokh undzer