Sajmir Maloku
Memorie.al publishes some of the unknown stories of Sajmir Maloku, a former military engineer who graduated with a ‘Gold Medal’ at the University of Tirana, who was arrested by the State Security on May 13, 1976, in the presence of 600 himself in a large movie theater in the town of Burrell, accused of being “a possible agent of British Intelligence and of agitation and propaganda against popular power as well as against the communist regime”.
Regarding the real reason for his arrest, Sajmir Maloku testifies: “Because the Albanian Public Television broadcast only 4 hours of television broadcasts per day, in 1970, reading a lot of foreign scientific literature, I managed to build a simple electronic television device. (converters of UHF Band to VHF TV signals). This invention of mine made it possible for the Albanian people in the future to watch freely the shows of the Italian and Yugoslav television stations of the UHF Band, especially in the mountainous and coastal areas of our country.
The first question the investigator asked me in the first investigative session was: “You are a famous Western spy, just like Mata Hari. “Show us your vile enemy activity with the Secret Agencies of 17 Foreign Countries of the West and the World.” This is because the State Security had great doubts about my meetings with foreign tourists over 8 years and the numerous postal correspondences with philatelists of the above countries. Today this investigator is alive.
During a search of our home in Tirana and my hotel closet in Burrell City, State Security found and retrieved the Holy Books of the Bible and Quran in English; many old English books and magazines; some dictionaries and blocks with sketches of modern television antennas; my electronic television equipment with two transistors and a television signal amplifier; etc “.
All these and other events of his life, from: childhood, schooling, youth period with life in Tirana in the early ’70s, pursuit and surveillance by the State Security, graduation, appointment as a military liaison engineer in a department of Burrel, arrest, trial and public unmasking, investigation, prison, etc., Sajmir Maloku has summarized in a book entitled “HOW I SURVIVED IN THE COMMUNIST HELL” (Publication of EMAL in Albanian and English), parts of which he has given for publication exclusively for Memorie.al
How did the idea for me to write my memoirs come about?
There is a famous saying in the world: “A people that does not remember its past is lost and extinct as a nation.” This is because the past of a nation is the teacher of the present and the guide of the future of its people. It is God and I have the moral and spiritual obligation to give for the first time in my life a long and complete account of my terrible sufferings in the infamous communist prisons of Albania and of the main events of my life and biography I Saimir Reshit Maloku.
Inspired by the “Diary of Anne Frank”, I wrote these stories about the horrible and unimaginable events for almost 200 days in the underground cell during the detention in the building of the Communist Police in Albania, where I was alone and in the conditions of the most inhuman tortures. My following testimony is a very serious accusation and a deep autopsy that a former political prisoner makes of the totalitarian communist regime, which ruled in Albania for 47 years.
This is because the forgotten communist past risks being repeated. Communism was and is a rather shameful part of history as well as a dark stain of human society. Communism was also a destructive ideology, which caused tens of millions of innocent victims in Europe, China and the world over the past century. Therefore, the crimes of Communism must be witnessed and unmasked worldwide, as the famous scientist Albert Einstein says: “Learn from yesterday, live today and hope for the future.”
But, surprisingly, in Albania one of the main effects of this totalitarian communist regime, which ruled for 47 years in a row, made many of its citizens lose the ability to witness and confess the truth of horrific communist crimes. This also happened in the former communist countries of Eastern Europe, because the propaganda of these totalitarian regimes was so great and powerful, making the brainwashing of these peoples that they did not believe that they were citizens of Europe and the world. They considered all Western European countries hostile. Anyone who secretly sought or intended to go to these western countries was considered an enemy of the communist regime and the people.
As a result, he was sentenced to many years in prison or shot, while his family was interned in the most remote and lost places of Albania. After World War II, Communism, as a result of this unprecedented policy, divided Europe into two opposing social systems for almost half a century. Also, Albanian Communism divided our people into two opposite classes, antagonistic to each other. He isolated Albania from Europe.
The ultimate limit of the injustices of the communist regime was the one that forced the Albanian people to think rightly what was not and to be educated with the Marxist-Leninist ideology. During the communist regime it was a time when the better you treated people, the worse they did. And the worse you treat them, the more they respect you. This was happening in our country, because the Marxist-Leninist ideology propagated by the Communist Party had stunned and poisoned the brains of the Albanian people.
So people did not reason according to their logic, but from this infamous ideology which was like opium for their lives. As in all former communist countries of Eastern Europe, a totalitarian regime was established in our country. This regime to maintain and strengthen its rule through the State Security and the Police intimidated the people by arresting, imprisoning, interning and shooting all people with progressive, democratic and pro-Western views.
To this end, they used unprecedented violence and torture as well as committed horrific crimes in detention cells and in prisons against imaginary opponents of the regime. But it is better to suffer injustice than to practice it on others. In communism it was extremely dangerous to be right when the government made and enforced wrong laws and actions. This is because the “communist wolf” put on the mask and was removed as if he were a lamb. While as wolves he considered the layer of political persecuted. That is why the communist dictator Hoxha often said in his speeches to the people: “In capitalist countries, people behave like wolves towards each other and are dying of hunger.”
To this end the Government made great expenditures on the great arsenal of communist propaganda. My wisdom and ingenuity gave me the opportunity in life to distinguish the good way from the bad. Always smart people predict disaster before it comes to the people. It is also a brave job to face adversity when it comes. The strong character of man over the years is created only by a difficult life. If life did not suffer, they would not know the value of human joy and happiness.
My greatest misfortune in life was that I was born, raised and suffered during 47 years of Europe’s most hated communist regime. The first tragedy was the great suffering of the people by the communist regime and the second my arrest by the State Security. As a result of this above-mentioned progressive worldview and thought, the innocent victim of the tortures and horrible crimes of the totalitarian communist regime in Albania, I was also Saimir Reshit Maloku, born on July 12, 1946 in Tirana, 41 years old political prisoner and electronic engineer by profession.
I entered the prison 78 kg. and came out 43 kg.
For 23 years I have been a human rights activist and now president of the Albanian Association for the “Fall of Communist Symbols”. It is very difficult for me now at this great age to confess and remember after almost 43 years, many horrible events of my life and the tortures suffered on my body to accept the serious and useless accusations such as: “spy British and Western ”and“ for agitation and propaganda against the popular power ”isolating me during my detention in the basement and worst cell of Albania’s political prisons, in extremely inhumane conditions for almost 200 days alone, where I entered with body weight 78 kg. and I got out of there 43 kg.
I say it is so shocking that neither my mother nor my uncle knew me. The physical and psychological methods of torturing communist executioners affected and damaged my brain and health. It is the old State Security documents that clearly prove how the communist dictatorship demanded at all costs my elimination after the trial together with my father Reshit Maloku, who was severely paralyzed for eight years from a severe arm and leg as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage. , to commit one of the most inhumane crimes known to mankind.
The State Security had planned a second special military trial
That’s because State Security had planned a second special military and covert trial where my father and I would be sentenced to death as a dangerous British intelligence agent group in the coming months. But this criminal plan of theirs failed with shame. Often, when at night, before I fell asleep, I remembered these shocking events, it seemed like a dream to me and as if all the people turned to me and said: “Saimir, do not remember these events of the past. “The communist devil sleeps as you seek to wake him from sleep now after many years.” From that time, even until now in the 28 years of democracy, the communist executioners were not punished by the state bodies of Justice.
These communist executioners justified their horrific crimes in the experience of the Nazi officers of the Nuremberg International War Crimes Tribunal in Germany by saying, “We have enforced the law.” So Nazi and communist executioners are like sons of the Devil. It is known that unpunished crime is a crime that continues even now, because every month, day, hour and minute that I stayed in that underground Investigation cell during my detention was a shocking and terrifying story in itself. The numerous and horrible tortures I suffered in these prisons were a severe blow to my physical and psychological integrity as a human being and the extreme humiliation inflicted on me. This my terrible and very cruel fate I pray to God not to happen to any man in the world.
Also, the State Security and the Communist Courts in complete violation of the Human Rights Convention arrested and convicted me along with tens of thousands of Albanians, because their ideal was today’s western democracy. The State Security, for propaganda, ideological, demagogic and political reasons, incites and inflates the files of political prisoners, as if they were “the scarecrows of the West and the sworn enemies of the people and the Communist Party.” From then until today, the suckers and nostalgics of communism destroyed and burned most of these files. This made the western world and today’s young generation still uninformed about the horrible crimes of the communist regime in Albania. Therefore, it is not too late, even we living and recent witnesses of the horrific crimes in communist prisons, must tell the truth about who our persecutors were who tortured us.
Any concealment of the communist past is to the detriment of Democracy today
This is because any concealment of the communist past is today to the detriment of Democracy and the education of the younger generation. Also, all humanity wants to know what happened and what are the terrible crimes of the communist regime in Albania. During the years of Democracy, the Enverists and nostalgics of communism who were in state institutions prevented what for our people would be called “washing and cleaning of Albanian society and separation from Communism once and for all.”
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birthday of my dear and late father Reshit Maloku, I decided to write about my terrible suffering in the infamous communist prisons of Albania. It’s amazing that I, as electronics engineer and to help people in case of accidents and disasters, did my best as a doctor. Whereas now, at this age I have to perform the role of writer. The people do not say in vain: “The man from grief acquires many professions and tries to do the impossible in life”. How meaningful was the expression of my father, who often said to me: “Mor son, try to read as many books as possible for your own good.”
While today I write my memories and sufferings of the Albanian people during the communist regime. To get the strength and courage to narrate and remember these very inhuman events suffered in my body, in July 2017 I went to the Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul and the Orthodox Cathedral “Resurrection of Christ” in Tirana. In both of these cathedrals I lit some candles and bowed before the portrait of Jesus Christ, saying, “Please Jesus Christ, Son of God, you yourself have been in terrible handcuffs and torture just like me. You saved my life by giving me one last chance to survive when I was one step away from certain death. Therefore, help me and allow me to confess before You, before my people and my family. Hallelujah. ”
From that day I began to write memoirs of my suffering and the major events of my life. Also, a great encouragement for me to write my stories was given to me by a friend of mine, whose name I will mention at the end of the book. This book helped me a lot therapeutically and medically to remove from my brain and soul the many and great stresses, which left the severe consequences of the terrible tortures during the time of investigation and 200 days detention in the underground cell as well as in savage communist prisons. Also, through old State Security documents I was able to learn the truth about who were more than 120 of my persecutors and their accomplices who followed me, monitored me, and slandered me, my father, and my family as if we were potential British or British Secret Service agents. This designation was the same for the communist regime.
Today’s democracy helped me unmask their criminal activity and the communist regime in our country. Several times I stopped writing my stories because of the great pain I felt from cervical and spinal spondylosis, which was caused by my long time writing and the rheumatic disease that appeared to me during my stay in the cell. underground. This situation I was in was very disturbing because when I was dreaming about the sufferings and tortures I had suffered during my detention, I cried unconsciously, disturbing the sleep of my wife Fatmira Maloku.
I am neither a poet nor a writer, but just a former political prisoner
This, when he looked at me in those disturbing and frightened moments, gripped me tightly and rubbed my neck and head often covered in sweat. She did this until I calmed down. The next day she told me what had happened during the nighttime sleep as well as what words I had said shouting or crying when I was asleep. These unconscious actions of mine showed that physical and psychological torture had to some extent damaged my health. This book is not an art book, because I am neither a poet nor a writer, but a former political prisoner. Therefore, the title of my book is like a true reflection of my sufferings and the horrible crimes of the communist dictatorship in Albania.
Every word, line or sentence and all these stories are written by my hand, mind and brain. They are not fantasying or fictions, but real events of my life and the autopsy of the crimes of the communist regime. All honest people in the world, by telling or writing the truth of events, defend themselves. This is because my truth is the conformity of my events or narratives with the facts and reality based on the old documents of the former Communist State Security, which are in my file. The stories of former political prisoners and my book are like a testament and full testimony we leave to the younger generations today and in the future. They will know what Albanian Communism was, its horrible crimes and the names of our persecutors and their collaborators in our country.
I wrote this book in the language of democracy expressing my thoughts and stories freely and not in the language of communism to put the lock on the mouth which at that time was called the hostile language of agitation and propaganda. At the end of it, they call you a vicious enemy of the people. To write such a book at a time when the Government is in power and the Socialist Party is a brave act where our persecutors roam freely and with high morals. I can also call my book the “Black Book of Communism in Albania”, because I present the bitter truth of my life and that of our people as a result of communist madness and cruelty for almost half a century.
This book is also a memory of communist tragedy
This book is also a memory of the communist tragedy where the “terrible virus of Communism” even today has left very harmful consequences on the Albanian people and politics. Many more years must pass before the virus of Communism is completely eradicated from the Albanian society. My book has a political character, so those politicians, historians or former persecutors who still have nostalgia for the communist past will try to oppose me. This reminds you of the popular expression often used by dictator Hoxha: “Let the dogs leave, the caravan goes forward”. While today it is the nostalgics of communism who shout or “bark” in the media to express their nostalgia for dictator Hoxha.
Unfortunately, the “God of Communism of Albania” is no more, but in the cemetery of the people and not in the Cemetery of the Nation together with the criminal Prime Minister Shehu. Let every man or politician know that when a man dies, they do not say whether he was rich or poor. People value the dead man from the soul. So, he was a good or bad man in life. Most of the population and the younger generation who have supported democracy in our country will welcome my stories. While the nostalgia of communism will annoy me through their media with words from the lowest as they did in my courtroom, where many of them shot me with rotten tomatoes and eggs … So as the people in at the time: “The communists and their militants carried poison and bitterness on their tongues when they insulted and cursed the arrested people.”
Older people, in order to best educate their grandchildren, sigh: “The tree is directed when it is small and not when its trunk is thick.” Therefore, these former communists, Enverists and extremist militants continue to be still nostalgic for dictator Hoxha and the communist regime. It reminds me of an old Italian proverb that says, “Whoever is born of a cat will feed on mice.” These Enverists and nostalgic of communism, to cover and hide before the people and the new generation the cruel crimes of dictator Hoxha and Prime Minister Shehu during 47 years, through the media say: “Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu, have been glorious leaders of the National Liberation War “.
This shows the hypocritical and cunning attitude of these nostalgic communists, whose number is gradually decreasing over the years due to age. A very interesting book came out recently, entitled “Block”, where the author has autopsied the family life of dictator Hoxha and other communist rulers within the Government Bloc. The people called the most nostalgic people of the regime after the dictators like Enverists, Titoists, Stalinists, Hitlerites, Franciscans, etc. It is not in vain that the great ideologues of Humanity say that the world develops on the basis of the 45 law of opposites. And it is this law that has pushed Mankind forward over the years. My fellow sufferers are extremely tired of life and some of them got married at a very old age. This left many of them childless. I got married at the age of 40 and I am like the father and grandfather of my two sons. Memorie.al
Continues tomorrow
