From Shpendi TOPOLLAJ
Memorie.al / When you hear the name of Vlashuk Camp for the first time, you think that you are talking about a holiday camp. I don’t know who confuses you more; the word ‘camp’ or ‘Vlashuk’ that sounds soft and almost caressing. The truth is that we are dealing with something completely different: it was a place of forced labor, where the torments were so great, as those who suffered the punishment, among that endless mud, where to drink their blood mosquitoes and leeches, it almost seems like a bad dream! The prisoners of this camp were mainly brought from the one of Ura Vajgurore, where they were put to build the military airport.
The work had been difficult there as well, but this here, for the opening of a large irrigation canal called Vjosë-Levan-Fier, was what it was. A hill beyond, in the form of a escarpment, more than twenty meters deep, was cut in order to concrete the tunnel and then cover it with soil from above.
However, as soon as the rains started, all the effort was in vain, as the soil was soft and the sides very high, there were massive collapses. Not that the prisoners were not bored, but they comforted themselves by saying that; they were lucky that the collapses started when they were sleeping, because if they were caught while they were working, it would be difficult for anyone to escape alive.
Common difficulties and collective work, without talking about the same fate; that almost all of them had been punished in vain, they had tightly bound the prisoners who were from the four corners of the country. And the guards, as if the trouble they were in were not enough, they behaved very badly with them, even hitting and insulting them for no reason.
Good professor Hysni Alimerkon, from Tragjasi who accused him of forming an opposition group, but what about the lawyer Jani Ikonomi from Narta e Vlora, who, working in Peshkopi, where he was respected and respected by everyone, put his candidacy for independent deputy, as he had read so in the communist newspapers and for this alone he spent twenty-five years and now the hour and the minute were at stake:
– Walk, deputy! Give your waist, deputy!
The poor lawyer felt bad, but what could he do. He did what he did with the guards, because they were illiterate in the end, but he had the greatest anger with the Security operative, Ademi, who was from Prongjia in Gjirokastra. This one, being the most educated and with a lot of power, encouraged others to encourage the life of the lawyer.
So Jani had many reasons to hate with all his soul this tar-hearted Security officer, who changed paths every time he met him. Ademi, like most of the cadres who served in the Vlashuku Camp, had taken his family with him, so his house was near the camp.
One day word got out that Ademi had a very sick son, as he had caught a severe cold. It was 1953 and antibiotics were almost impossible to find. They had just entered Albania at retail and were very expensive. Like the clay of Vlashuk, Adam had become. He had completely lost his pulse.
– This pig also had feelings – someone said. – After all, he is a father – waited for another, – who continued – No one can stand a child. Even though Adam himself was merciless, all the prisoners felt very sorry for his son. In the end, what was his fault?
He was taken by the camp doctor, Isuf Hysenbegasi (Starova), who was himself convicted as a participant in the ‘Group of Deputies’, but he had nothing more to do than to apply cold water compresses and gave him aspirin to drink. He understood better than anyone else that the boy’s life, under these conditions, was hopeless.
He himself had a daughter who should now be about nine years old. He had not seen him for a long time, as he and his Italian mother had left Albania, right after his arrest. How good they had been then.
He fell in love with his wife when he was a student in Rome. Then they got married and came to Vlora, where they needed him a lot as autojatre. But then, he was arrested together with his brother, who had died during the torture in the interrogator.
The wife had nothing to support her, so she took her daughter and went to her people. Suddenly someone knocked and the doctor, thinking it might be a convict who wanted to be seen, opened the door. He was happy when he saw Jani Ikonomi.
– Come, lawyer. What good did he bring you?! He was actually looking forward to meeting him with pleasure, since they had something to talk about. – I heard… – said the lawyer – that they didn’t even let him defend himself – I heard that Adam is very sick the boy.
– He is sick and it is not known how he will end. He barely escapes. I don’t know what to do with it. The temperature is melting.
– That’s what I came for – Jani spoke in a calm voice. – Some time ago, the family members brought me three vials of penicillin, which is unexpected. I brought them to do to that child.
The doctor was almost in tears:
– The noble remains noble. And after patting the lawyer’s shoulders with love, he added: – Good luck, man. Then, almost flying, after taking the bag, he went straight to the operative who was trying to connect with the old telephone, to the office of the guard officer, to those of the center.
– Mr. operative – he hurried to speak almost out of breath, – we saved the boy. Adam, confused, did not know what to ask. But the doctor did not leave him in that state for long:
– We found the needles. – How did you find them? We found them and they are wonderful penicillins. In two days the boy will stand up. If his duty had not prevented him, Ademi would have hugged the doctor. But it was enough just to ask the question: – But where…?! – The deputy – escaped the doctor. – His family had brought it to him and he gave it to your son.
Adam remained tight. He also felt ashamed. As senseless, because he didn’t know what else to say, he whispered: – Qerratai…!
And he thought to himself: “And I, the fool, made fun of him in his eyes others. What a mistake”!
But there was no time for such reasoning. He ordered an armed soldier to follow him and together with the doctor they left the checkpoint and headed for home. The boy writhed in the bracket, amid a scorching temperature. His mother sat by his head and silently cried motherly tears, just as hot.
– Don’t cry, because now we lost it. With a trembling voice, she just asked: – How…?!- We will do these needles and everything will pass. They are penicillin. – Where did you find them, brother doctor? – stammered the woman with a trembling voice, still not believing her ears.
– He gave us one – and Adam didn’t last long. – Well, bless him and his children. Even you, doctor, who fell apart for our son, how could you have your own child. The doctor did not feel. He took it to heart and that’s all. He was busy preparing the needle. At dinner, the operative’s son had a fever. He opened his eyes and began to react. They gave him a couple of spoons of yogurt to eat. The next day word spread throughout the camp that the little boy had escaped.
The convicts felt much more relieved. They started work with new forces. After the third needle, when the prisoners had eaten lunch, Dr. Isufi called Jani Ikonomi in the ambulance. Jani cleaned the shovel and a little excited, went to the doctor’s room.
He knew that you could talk to him about interesting things, but he also enjoyed the fact that the doctor also kept in the room a turtle he called “Ana”, a stork he named “Saip” and a dog he named English abbreviation, “Dog”.
All the prisoners had befriended these animals. The turtle did not come out of the box where the doctor had put it, but Saipi and Dogu, every time the prisoners lined up and started with picks and shovels to the canal, followed them from behind.
And they waited there for hours, until they finished work, to return with them. Even the prisoners would take something out of their mouths to feed these animals that they loved more than those people wearing uniforms.
Jani, as he took a seat on the side of the visiting bed and petted the animals that were happy to notice him, looked the doctor straight in the eyes, as if he wanted to say: “Why did you call me?” – Yesterday – started doctor Isufi, – I didn’t have time to thank you. You saw it, time did not wait. Today I called you to have a coffee together.
– Thank you, doctor – answered the lawyer, who had not tasted the taste of coffee for some time. The doctor continued: – As a doctor and as a parent, I tell you that you have done a great kindness. That boy has his life from you. You saved a child even though his father and friends separated us from our children for life and made us show our parental love… to this dog.
– I did what any of us would do, doctor.
– They would never do this to us, brother. This is why we are much better than them. Then we all know that Adam…!
Jani didn’t let him get further embarrassed: – Don’t spoil the job. Maybe his conscience will kill him after this. – However, he ordered me to tell you how much those needles cost, as it is known, here you also need ten lek. Jan felt a slight blush on his face.
– What would be the meaning of honor, if they paid me for it?
– You are right. But I had orders. Then, drinking coffee, they changed the conversation. From that day they became even closer. One afternoon, someone came running to the doctor and informed him that Bejo Vrazhdo is very ill. This was a brave peasant from Bolena who had been sentenced to fifteen years in prison for harboring his brother who was a saboteur.
As soon as they heard this news, the doctor and Jani, who happened to be there, ran to the silo and found themselves at Bejo’s bed. He didn’t make a sound, but it was clear that he was going through a critical situation. When the doctor put the stethoscope on him, he found that he had caught a severe cold.
You had endured as much as you could, but when they saw that the cough was suffocating, the friends decided to call the doctor. He immediately went to the commissioner, Shyqyri Pojani, who was not really a bad person, but they told him that he had left for Fier. Since the commander was on a course organized by the Ministry and he was being replaced by the operative, the doctor and Jani went to see Adam. To their surprise, this one was holding them back.
– What do you want? – he asked them arrogantly. They, as if ashamed, began to explain that Bejua needed medicine because he was very sick. – Let’s send the assistant doctor to the supply center because we don’t have any medicine at all – the doctor spoke up. The medical assistant was an active NCO, but wanted orders to leave the ward.
– Do you feel sorry for Bejo, who sheltered the enemy of popular power? – the operative complained to the doctor. – “Your dog” hurts me more than him. Let the dog die! When he heard these words, Jani made an effort not to break the operative: – God Adem, he is human…!
– In whose name do you call violent. Don’t cut my navel, your filthy bourgeois who calls me names. I know what to do!
The two “bourgeois”, as they saw that everything was useless, left in despair. The operative could not bear it without telling him once more: – Give it to the deputy! – and laughed heartily.
Doctor Isufi could not sit without saying through his teeth: – It is terrible; but there is something much deeper than this cursed canal that is separating Albanians from each other. Something we will suffer for a long time. Woe to Albania!
In the days that followed, the doctor took Bolenas to the infirmary. He served him as best he could, but he closed his eyes in his hands. There was Jani Ikonomi, who in those days brought him his ration of tea, and a dog, a stork and a… turtle stood silent. Memorie.al
