By SAMI REPISHTI
Part One
Sami Repishti: – “In Albania, the communist crimes of the past have not been documented or punished; there has been no ‘spiritual cleansing,’ no conscious confession or denunciation of the ordinary communist criminals!”
Under the Shadow of Rozafa
Memorie.al / During the 1930s and 1940s, with the relentless fascist and communist onslaught on Europe, sooner or later, the “fate” also seized the Albanian nation. Like all young people, I found myself at a crossroads where I had to take a stand, even at the risk of my life. At that moment, I said “no” to the dictatorship, took the path that seemed endless, a sailor in the vast sea, without shores. The rebellious act that nearly killed me simultaneously liberated me. I am an eyewitness to life in the fascist and communist hell in Albania, not as a “politician,” or a “personality” of the macro-political landscape of Albania, but as a student, as a young person who became aware of my role, at that time and in that place, out of love for my homeland and the desire for freedom; simply, as a young person with a pronounced sensitivity, loyal to myself and to a life of dignity.
Along the way, I encountered and got to know better “the human being,” the noble creature, thirsty for freedom, burning for brotherhood, and at the same time, capable of descending into the world where the most complete inhumanity reigns and the most terrifying death prevails. In this underworld, I embraced the victim and loved them passionately. This love for “the human” could overcome even the threat of death. Noble minds have described the suffocating atmosphere that choked us. But an organized undertaking, felt as an urgent and unbearable necessity by all of us, to tear the veil of secrecy and bring forth the light that reveals the crime and the criminal, has been lacking. How is it possible, – a distinguished intellectual from Tirana wrote to me, – that we haven’t heard the horrors of the dictatorship and how is it possible that none of those who knew, especially “members of communist families,” found the courage to speak and denounce themselves or their criminal parent… just like Stalin’s daughter did in the former Soviet Union and Fidel Castro’s daughter in “socialist” Cuba?!
These simple and profound questions resonate throughout the former communist world. It is a negative phenomenon that offends the memory of the victim. It is undoubtedly an expression of the complete degradation of the former “leadership” and of their circle, as well as a degradation of the indoctrinated masses who followed without thinking, either for opportunism or out of fear that destroys everything. Today’s Albania has not publicly accepted the guilt; it lives with a heavy conscience. This fluid situation frightens me. If we refuse to confront the demons of the past, the new generation will suffer the inevitable consequences. This is one reason why I decided to write today, more than four decades after my departure from Albania.
In the communist camps and prisons where I spent ten years of my youth, hatred and the desire for revenge were boiling. In such an environment, the spirits of the young, those who would be representatives of the future, were formed; they were the builders of a future for a nation that has always suffered, for which, poverty and fear were daily bread. Communism in Albania stripped the Albanian of both bodily and spiritual clothing. Here lies our great challenge as prisoners. In those fateful days, a terrifying thought prevailed: today we are “slaves” of the red regime; tomorrow, when the “day of freedom” comes, will we be “free,” capable and ready to take our fate into our own hands? Will we still have the will for a true moral revival? Will we be able to deepen our belief in the sanctity of human life and our conviction in freedom, dignity, and the rights of all, the neighbor, the friend, and the opponent, regardless of the wounds inflicted on our bodies and souls?
Would we be able, especially, to recreate a community of brothers and sisters, free, aware of their role in society, and primarily, liberated from the fear of organized state persecution… of “our state”? The very idea that our care was focused on such thoughts kept us alive, proud, and determined. We had successfully resisted the fascist occupation and the dehumanization of communism, and this was our great victory. In the prisons of fascism and communism, young Albanians, the “burned generation” of those heroic days, were laying the foundations of a free community, liberated from the mentality of persecution by a “monster state.” We were aware that the “day of freedom” would confront us with a society deformed by communist terror, where citizens were transformed into “homo duplex” (the new socialist man), afraid to express their own opinions publicly and forced to suppress their “private lives” and live a “political life” until death.
We had the justified suspicion that the Albanian citizens would be crippled beings, still under the weight of fear, the primordial fear, the fear of animals beaten with unprocessed wood, or dragged by rope to the slaughterhouse…! Because the red regime turned free citizenship into an instrument of “power,” binding it head to toe with the “Party and the state,” and sought to turn it into a “trained dog,” in service of the master. When the master, “Party and state” disappeared, the army of the deceived faced a void that consumed it. Just like with fascist and Nazi dictatorships, communist tyranny in Albania offered the population a “false belief,” which did not nourish the human being, did not liberate him, but deceived him. In the emptiness of a meaningless world, where there is no place for “man,” it is absurd to seek “meaning.”
This is the nature of the kingdom of “evil,” of “wickedness.” Today, the majority of Albanian citizens strive to escape the vicious circle that torments them, only through hedonism, enjoying worldly goods, without regard for moral and spiritual values. And not only in Albania! Everywhere in today’s world, young people are confused, lacking a compass for their lives, and often without ideals…! Some find their way out in terrorism, a path with no exit, as it disrespects the sanctity of human life, without exception! The constant efforts and prejudices promoted by the powerful forces of consumer society to be accepted as “genuine values” are quite effective, and the tendency to be “special,” open to unconventional, non-populist thoughts, is often seen as heresy… or “Don Quixotism”!
Nevertheless, right there lies the essence of a truly meaningful life and the advancement of society. Perhaps, reading the lived experiences of youth like them will enable a better understanding of the world we live in, and will ease the search for an acceptable, authentic, and always noble alternative. Since high school, my “burned” generation chose an alternative that cost much suffering and blood. But it was the only path, the path of honor. Fighting the fascist occupier, opposing the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” defending Kosovo, refusing to applaud the dictator, were not ordinary gestures, even though they were a moral and political duty for everyone. The “burned generation” fulfilled this “duty” with honor and courage. In this struggle against “evil,” which covered our country, that youth, still barely matured, was thrown into the fire of a war that could not be won, and not for their fault…!
In this tragic act, the highest forms of heroism appeared, and the best models of human dignity, especially solidarity in suffering and the determination to remain loyal to oneself. The new Albanian generations have a brilliant legacy to follow! The existence of “evil” in the world, its nature, its origins, and its consequences remain a mystery that frightens me. “Evil,” as an act of the free will of the wrongdoer, makes the perpetrator a guilty and responsible criminal. “Evil,” accepted without contradiction, passive “evil,” makes everyone guilty, because passivity allows the exercise of violence against the innocent and permits the crucifixion of innocence. Silence before crime is a form of passive “evil.” It protects darkness, disregards the injustice it brings, and denies our duty to punish the guilt and the guilty. Through silence, we create the necessary atmosphere for violence and injustice.
With silence, we accept the moral depravity of the violator, which brings only suffering and misery, and we accept the overturning of “good,” of justice, of freedom, and of every human value. In silence, we live immersed in the swamp of sin that we refuse to acknowledge, as a peculiar feature of our lives, now insincere. By remaining silent in the face of “evil,” we commit the act of our moral suicide. Albania still lives today in the swamp of injustice! Even today, it has not found its voice, the voice of human conscience.
In Albania, the communist crimes of the past have not been documented or punished; there has been no “spiritual cleansing,” no conscious confession, and no denunciation of the ordinary communist criminals. As a result, the foundations of a civil society have not been laid, one that can’t allow silence before crime and the free movement of criminals, from the Albanian civil society and from the “state” obliged to protect this society. Albania still lives today in a great moral vacuum that needs to be filled as soon as possible.
A legal cleansing of illegality is essential. This vacuum is particularly evident in school texts for the new generation, for the citizens of tomorrow. The communist worldview in our country, its spirit, mentality, methods, and its poisonous expressions have not been uprooted. They continue to pour poison into society. Even today, Albania follows the example of the former Soviet Union, a country where the Bolshevik legacy survives in every bureaucrat who acts as if he is the law itself, and where citizens submit to arbitrary authority. In this situation, there can be no hope for a response that eases the open wounds because, for the ruling class, there is “no need” for any questioning. The rulers of post-communist Albania have not felt the burden of oppression or the pain caused by the whip of red, for nearly half a century…!
Today, the children of the victims of the red dictatorship remain constantly uncomforted, they find no peace, and they live forever with the fear of the repetition of the red terror and crime against them, today or against their descendants tomorrow. A frightening place like Albania lives the nightmare of a threatening tomorrow, which disturbs and kills the hope for a future that should promise a more peaceful life for all. Some are filled with poison, some with fabulous wealth, while others are removed from ancestral homes, like a cursed people.
The country remains desolate, the homes abandoned. The burning hearts find no solace until a response is found…! Meanwhile, the unpunished criminal lives a comfortable life he does not deserve. Today, Albanian society is deeply traumatized by the partial revelation of incredible crimes, confirmed by credible evidence; it lacks sufficient strength for awareness and renewal. Today, Albania teeters on the balance between the old that is dying and the new that lacks the power to be born!
Why do I write? I am a victim, and denouncing the crime and the criminal justifies my existence! The revelation of the pain suffered elevates the victim to the sphere of the absolute and sheds light on the perpetrator and the spirit of “evil” that causes this pain. Light breaks the chains of bondage in darkness. Light brings freedom! By justifying my existence, I, the eyewitness, accuse the crimes of the communist dictatorship and of any dictatorship, regardless of its color, in the hope that it will never happen again!
Never again should the innocent be arrested, tortured, punished, or executed… never again should bones be broken with a hammer, nor should long nights be spent hanging from rough ropes on the trees of the Security courtyard, or the bars of prison cells, in rain and snow, with a naked and battered body from the “interrogator’s” whip, with a body half-dead from punishment without food, for days on end… never again, never again!
Today, only memories remain! The loyalty of friends in the face of pressure from fascist elements and communist “friends,” the superhuman gesture of cousin Zyhdi; the unwavering respect for the tradition for which my father sacrificed his life; the inner peace of religious clerics; the heroism of those who gave their lives for the homeland and freedom; the noble spirit of resistance against the occupier; the persistent, conscious opposition in the face of the oppression of communist tyranny; the nobility of the Albanian woman in suffering and the mobilization of thousands of citizens, especially the youth, ignited the flame of hope for a new, free, and especially promising future.
What more could be expected from a group of young people, still inexperienced and without experience – like our group from the ‘Democratic Youth Organization’ – who gave everything for the future and asked for nothing for themselves?! The activists of the O.R.D. – mostly poor and unpretentious – were distinguished by an inner revolt provoked by the terror exercised in the country and the stance of the communist government of Albania on external issues.
The homeland was falling under a third occupation at a time when oppressed Europe was gaining freedom. Albania had taken the wrong path! By staying true to themselves, Fahri Rusi, Elez Troshani, Qamil Nikshiqi, Ndoc Gjoka, Matilda Gjoka, Xhevat Meta, Eqrem Rusi, Sulejman Qehaja, Sami Repishti (and Father Gjon Shllaku, who advised us) separated themselves from “the others,” accepting suffering and even death.
In this struggle, they gained the spiritual satisfaction of the freedom fighter, those who fulfill their “duty” under extraordinarily difficult conditions, and with a clear conscience in the fight against the red devil and his reign on earth. In the end, they triumphed! Today, memories of the prisons and forced labor camps remain, where idealist youth, the legion of gymnasium students from Shkodra and other cities of Albania who, without pretensions, showed their determination to oppose the red plague, suffered.
Today, the memories of all the brave intellectuals who refused to “sing” along with Nero while Rome was burning, of the disappointed and impoverished citizens and peasants, of the noble and oppressed highlanders, of the elderly without hope of survival in prisons, of the sick who died every day without any medical care… the memories of an entire mass of prisoners, without any relief. Today, memories remain of innocent crowds, imprisoned to fulfill the “labor force” of lunatic five-year plans…!
This has been the “chosen material” for imprisonment, torture, forced labor, and execution. The executioners of Tirana’s Red regime, such as Zoi Themeli, Fadil Kapisyzi, Lefter Lakrori, Nesti Kopali, Nesti Shkurti, Abdyl Hakiu, Idriz Çoba, Ali Xhunga, Kasem Troshani, Xhemal Selimi, Xhevdet Miloti, and the gang of non-commissioned officers and guards, the directors of the prisons and camps (whom I knew), were all ordinary criminals, hired killers who should stand trial for crimes against humanity.
Only then will the world believe the unbelievable and understand how low the “fascist” and “communist” Albanian has fallen in treating the “colorless” Albanian… and brother! These monsters with human faces represented the new communist criminal type, bloodsucking, who plans and executes crime with cold-blooded precision. For the sake of their careers, these ordinary criminals took the initiative to act in the dark cells of the prison, away from the eyes of the world, executing the defenseless victim with their own hands. They were wild beasts, wild beasts…!
The idea of the “final judgment” before the Creator, which takes place without the participation of people, constitutes one of the most appealing aspects of monotheistic beliefs. People forget quickly! However, with the disgraceful fall of communism, Albania has uncovered the presence of “evil” within itself and struggles not to acknowledge it. But it would be a fatal mistake to forget this stubborn fact, and in planning for tomorrow, not to take into account the possibility of the return of the red monster to the stage.
This is something that good people must not forget! Fortunately, in this underworld, there were also people like Jonuz, like that sergeant from Berat, who risked a lot to ease our lives in prisons and forced labor camps. Jonuz’s comrades from all prisons and camps, may they be blessed! They brought the spirit of human kindness to the darkest corners of violence, where torture was hidden. They rekindled my faith in the greatness of the human race. This is what it means to be Human! In this underworld, there was also the student Muhament Fejza and the peasant Muho S. Toshi, who risked their lives and those of their families to facilitate my escape. For these two silent heroes, may my blessings and thanks be upon them!
In conclusion, I express my eternal and boundless gratitude to my parents, Hava and H. Ibrahim, victims of fascist and communist dictatorships, to my sisters Fejzie, Mejreme, Hadie, my brother Vehbi, and other family members in Albania who suffered so much for me, saved me from hunger, and healed the deep wounds of prison! At the same time, I extend my deepest gratitude to my wife, Diana Chipi, for her full support and understanding of my spiritual condition and my views for decades; for my son Daren, for my daughter Ava—and their children—for enabling my return to “normal” life. They have been and remain sources of joy and pride for more than forty years of living in the U.S.A. Memorie.al
September 2003, Baldwin, New York, USA S.R:
Continued in the next issue
