Memorie.al / A rare document from 1949 brings back into attention the shocking story of Elma Prishtina, the niece of the well-known personality, former Prime Minister of Albania, and renowned patriot, Hasan Prishtina. Blocked in Albania without family, without property, and without the right to leave, Elma personally wrote a long and painful letter to Prime Minister Enver Hoxha, asking for only one thing: to leave the country where she had no one and could not survive.
Her story begins in 1939, when her father, Ymer Prishtina – Hasan Prishtina’s brother – brought her to Albania shortly before the outbreak of the Italo-Greek war. Originally from Thessaloniki and possessing Greek citizenship, he was forced to acquire Albanian citizenship during the war. But he died at the end of 1942, leaving Elma alone, unprotected, and without any relatives in the country.
After the communists came to power at the end of 1944, Elma remained in Albania as a foreign citizen with valid documents. While her family members were calling for her from Turkey, she obtained a travel permit, sold everything she owned, and prepared to leave. But the road was blocked at the last minute: the Yugoslav Consulate did not grant her a transit visa.
Blocked and without any means of subsistence, she turned to Enver Hoxha himself in September 1949, pleading with him to extend her permit deadline and enable her escape via Italy. The request was never approved. The fate of Elma Prishtina joined hundreds of others whom the ruling communist regime did not allow to leave the country.
Below is her original letter, one of the rarest testimonies of that time – a fragile voice left in the hands of a merciless regime.
The Letter from Hasan Prishtina’s Niece, Sent to Enver Hoxha
General Colonel Enver Hoxha
Tirana
The undersigned Elma Prishtina, housewife and resident in “Misto Mame Quarter,” “Bajram Curri Street” No. 419, takes the honor to present the following:
My late father, Ymer Prishtina, the brother of the late Hasan Prishtina, after King Zog’s departure from Albania in the month of August 1939, took me, his only daughter, and we came here for a visit, after many years of exile; and since the war against Greece began, my father, who had Greek citizenship, as we lived in Thessaloniki where we also have our property, was compelled to take Albanian citizenship, but at the end of 1942 he died, and thus I was left alone and did not have the opportunity to go, after Greece fell, because I was a young girl without any close relative of mine.
When the Party entered here, I continued to stay as a foreign citizen, as evidenced by the residence permit for foreigners that I hold.
Since my people in Turkey have recently requested that I go there, I regularly sought a travel permit, which was granted to me, but I was unable to go because the Yugoslav Consulate would not place the visa for me to pass through Yugoslavia.
In the meantime, hoping that I would go, I sold all my belongings, and today I am left with nothing. Therefore, given that I am just a young girl who does not even know the Albanian language, as I was born in Thessaloniki. And since I now have the opportunity to go to Turkey via Italy.
Therefore, I take the honor to beg you to have the goodness to take the necessary measures to extend my travel permit and to have it stamped so that I may be able to go before winter sets in and be near my people and save my life, since I have absolutely no possibility to live here./Memorie.al
Tirana, November 5, 1949
With respect,
Elma Prishtina
