By Dom Nikola Mazreku
The third part
Memorie.al / Marie Gjoka, from a young age faced political persecution, because, at the end of 1946, her brother, Dom Nikoll Mazreku, was arrested and he spent the entire period of the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha and his successor, Ramiz Ali. The other brother, Rrokun, was shot, in the first years of the Enverian communist regime coming to power, even though he was completely innocent! Maria spent a whole life behind prisons and camps, where she went to help her brother, Dom Nikolla, and her husband, who arrested her just a short time after her marriage.
A SISTER WHO WROTE THE PAINFUL TRUTH…! –
(Excerpt from the book “CIRCLE OF BITTER MEMORIES” by Marija Gjoka Mazreku)
Continues from last issue
EXPRESSION OF GRATITUDE TO BELOVED SISTER MARY
(DOM NIKOLL MAZREKU)
By means of these few lines I want to express in writing that great thanks to my sister, Mary, which, on many occasions, in front of different people, I have expressed in words. I tell you with all my mouth that, wanting to point out her sufferings, I emphasize: This is the big prison!
My soul is killed because the consequences of my prison and the shooting of my brother, Rroku, are falling on him. He was denied all his rights, and he was subjected to persecution, contempt and the ominous expression “touching politics”. Well, the children were regular in their work and behavior. The sufferings we went through under the communist persecution are sorrows or wounds, wounds that tear and rumble to the depths of the soul.
When I was appointed parish priest in Kryezi – Pukë from the parish of Tirana, together with my mother I took my sister Marije and brother Rrokun. There, the communist storm broke out over me, like over the entire Catholic Clergy.
Before, they arrested the brother, with blatantly slanderous charges. Soon, after Rroku, I was also beaten for 37 years in prisons and exiles, while Rroku, completely innocent, was shot in my parish on 25.12.1950.
The lonely Nana was old and could not take us back, so the suffering and the consequences of my prisons and exiles weighed on this sister’s life. Although she was 17 years old at the time, I bequeathed her the church, the nunnery and the cell (priest’s house).
By order of Monsignor Vincens Prendush, this has kept the parish church open, has rung the bells for 15 years, and has helped those interested with baptism certificates, extracted from the relevant register.
But the main preoccupation for him was me. He didn’t even take care of his own children without taking care of me. It is true that I have suffered a lot, but, finally, I reached the threshold of freedom.
At the time of my imprisonment, which lasted for 37 years, this venerable sister was very young and, at the beginning and constantly, she needed fraternal support, but here she was left alone to become a master of herself and us.
This shows many cases of sadness and suffering that he went through in that period, to make his body shudder. The injustices, the pressures, the abuses, the contempts, the low traps of the communist devils and how many other black things…!
Add, then, the trips on trucks loaded with planks, trains or other materials, with hundreds of kilometers of road, from Puka to Tepelena, in freezing cold or in suffocating heat.
And this is not a little, but 37 winters and 37 summers. And after my release, my desolate sister, for a long time the ringing of the iron doors of the infamous Burrel prison remained in her ears; with those latches and those padlocks you opened and closed with a bang. Police officers and officers all arrogance, arrogance and threats.
When she left for a meeting, she was warm in her heart that she was coming to meet her people, but when she left, turning her back on them and leaving them to suffer, and then it was a terrible thing for her. She was separated from us, crying like a child.
I want to go a little off topic, noting that many other mothers and sisters have passed through these bitter paths, which have left the streets of prisons with tears of heart and longing, just like my sister. They have also experienced those pressures and massacres, contempt and insults from the communist genocide. I remember all these grandmothers and sisters with deep respect and compassion.
Thus, we prisoners suffered, but our people suffered equally with us, and several times more than us. This sister has suffered a lot for me, who has never been separated from me at any time. Even though the burden of family life weighs on him, with little income, raising six children…!
And her husband, the wise and kind-hearted man, Bibë M. Gjoka, not only did not prevent her from coming to us, but he himself came to the meeting many times and, because of us, he was imprisoned for two years .
When I served my sentence, 25 years in prison and 12 years of exile, I did not remain at the crossroads, because dear sister Marije, together with others, with the desire and kindness of the whole family, came and took me from prison, sheltered me in the house of them and organized my release party the best.
I constantly enjoy respect and service in this family from everyone. My sister is now old and saddened by the death of her two sons at a young age, and the great burden of service falls on the daughter-in-law of the house, Kristina, who is by my side without sparing.
I thank God for the light he gave to our country. But the good memories are not easily erased, when the prisoners were treated mercilessly, when we were forced to follow the norm at all costs through the swamps in water up to our waists, where the rivulets drank even the drop of blood we had left…!
Many were prisoners who died during those tortures. Ah! Oil! Not only did they not return to their lover, but they also remained without a grave, where the nannies, daughters-in-law, children could bring a flower of longing and pain and shed a tear…! Memorie.al
With much respect! Dom Nikola Mazreku
