By Maksim Rakipaj
Part eleven
Memorie.al / Maksim Rakipaj, originally from Përmet, whose family had helped and supported the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, after graduating from the Navy School in Vlora, in 1972 he was appointed an officer in the Merchant Navy, where he served with dedication until in 1977, on the “Durrësi” steamer, he was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in political prison, as part of a “group”, which also included his colleague, Aladin Kapo, the son of Hysni Kapo’s brother. Family biography was also the reason for his punishment. After the end of the war, two of his uncles were sentenced to political prison, his grandfather was declared a kulak and in 1976, his father was expelled from the party. Maksi began serving his sentence in the Ballsh camp and in 1979, he was transferred to the Spaçi camp and then to the Qafë Bari camp. He was released on September 12, 1984, benefiting from a reduced sentence, from an amnesty. After being unemployed for a long time, with many hardships, he got a job as a miner in the Mzezet mine, he worked until 1991. After the 1991s, he started working in the administration of the Municipality of Durrës, he served until 1997 and after that, he returned to the Merchant Navy (the last captain of the transoceanic ship “Vlora”), until he left Albania for Italy, (illegally on a dinghy), where he currently lives for many years. Since the 90s, in addition to various jobs, Maksim Rakipaj has also devoted himself to writing, such as; poetry, prose, fiction or documentary, translations, etc., publishing several books, such as: ‘Prophet – Khalil Gibran’, (translation from English ‘Toena’ 2003), ’20 love poems and a song of sadness’, (translation from Spanish, ‘Toena’ 2003), ‘Alive after the shipwreck’, (published by ISKK, 2014), ‘Bukowski – poetry’, (translation from English, ‘ENEAS’, 2015), ‘Trilusa m’Tirône’, ( translation from Italian, ‘UEGEN’, 2015), ‘Anthology of Arabic-Persian Poetry’ (English translations, ‘UEGEN’, 2015), ‘The Complete Sonnets of Shakespeare’, (English translation, ‘ADA’ 2016′) , ‘Survivor’ (autobiographical novel, ‘2 East, 2 West’ 2018), ‘Nobelists – poetic anthology, (UEGEN 2019), ‘Hymn of happiness’ (‘JOZEF’ 2023), etc. From the creativity of Mr. Rakipaj, Memorie.al is publishing the book “Survivor”, (published in 2022 by “JOZEF” Publishing House in Durrës, directed by Mr. Aurel Kaçulini), where he has described his life chronologically, where the part the main one is that of serving the sentence in camps and prisons, as well as various characters, his co-sufferers that he met in the communist hell, etc.
Continues from last issue
The end of the tale?
In the following days, Bashkimi also shows other feats of Izet P., how he met Franco, how he was dressed in an expensive suit, fancy shoes, coat, republican hat, the money he put in, how quickly he entered Franco’s heart. Franko lost his mind, from the erudition of I…! In what language were they talking?! In Italian?! But we, who already know the level of his Italian, are wondering what the problem is with the ustalars of Izeti, what do they want to achieve with these professors?! Our mind goes that above, they are making a hole for Hysni Kapo. What do they have to do with us?! Bashkimi says at the beginning that I. had an order to confess something of his exploits, only to Aladdin Kapo, and Aladdin is the son of Hysni’s older brother. Aladdin was introduced to I., as we planned together. He told I. that he is with me out of trouble and that he doesn’t open up to me for anything.
From the Aladdin conversations, – I. it was understood that after I., it was the hand and opinion of our investigators, especially the n/head of the Internal Branch of Durrës K. Sh. and of our investigator S. S…! We knew that K. Sh. was Kadri Hazbiu’s brother-in-law. We were afraid. From conversations with high-ranking convicts, we have learned what to expect from an investigator of this type. Under the torture of Enver’s butchers, a person is ready to affirm anything, a kind of experience we have tried ourselves. Leave then the psychological torture, the threats they make, for the treatment that awaits our families. What if we teach this I. P. a good lesson? We have the opportunities, we have a lot of friends here, who are ready for this. We leave this possibility aside.
I.P., was arrested at the border, together with his wife, when he was trying to escape, he and his wife were sentenced to 25 years. Who knows what they promised him…?! As for the meeting with Minister Agron Tafa, it is clear to us now that it is completely fabricated, like all the others. How can we do it?! Let’s wait until the dwarf named I.P., invents something against us, the criminal K.Sh?! Aladdin falls short. One day he says to me:
– “Listen, I started some letters upstairs, about this story. I wrote to Enver Hoxha, Mehmet Shehu, Rrapi Minos and Abaz Brataj, who are the Prosecutor and Deputy Prosecutor General. I didn’t say anything to you, I was afraid you wouldn’t stop me. I touched on the story of I. P. in two words. I wrote to let us carry out the punishment they have given us, no matter how heavy and undeserved this punishment is. I wrote that someone is playing on our backs, that… What do you mean, I made a mistake?!
– “Wrong or right, I don’t know how to tell you, Aladdin. However, you had nothing else to do. With that letter, you ruined the plans of K. Sh. with friends, but I will be the first to experience it. As Hysni’s grandson, I don’t believe you will be bullied anymore. Don’t worry, you did the right thing. If we dragged it out any longer, there was a risk that we too would be beaten, and we would have to admit that we were also Japanese agents in World War II…”!
…Without ten days passed, the crierof the Ballsh camp approaches me without feeling and whispers in my ear, that someone wants to meet me: “Quick, how are you, come with me”! I have time to tell Aladdin that they are looking for me. Aladdin was cut in the face. I go behind the wire. They open the small door at the gate of the camp and there a policeman is waiting for me: “Come with me”! We walk ten meters and there is a knock on a door. The door opens. In a large office, where there is only a table with a telephone on top and three or four chairs, I am waiting for Buzagaz, the criminal Kapllan Shehu…!
– “Come Maxim. How are you? Did your family come to the meeting? Sit, sit there in the chair”, – while he himself sits a few meters away.
– “Okay, thank you Mr. Kaplan. Yes, they came to me from my family and they are fine”.
– “I enjoy it. It makes me happy to see you well even in good health. Huh, what about us? Are you acclimatized here in Ballsh? That there is also Spaç, there is also Burrel, do you know that or not? There is also exile for your families. Have you heard of a village, called Luf, over there from Puka? O mother, mother, the evil of Spaci…! But we think that no matter how wrong you are, we shouldn’t reject you, that’s why we didn’t send you to Spaç or Burrel, because the party calls you its sons. But you must deserve the party’s trust, Maksim. I want to talk to you openly, without gloves. Do you, Maksim Rakipaj, want to work for the State Security? I love her, yes or no, like men”?!
– “I am very excited Mr. Kapllan, I can’t believe it. You really have”?! – I enter the role immediately, my voice shaking…!
– “Don’t tell me sir. From now on we will be colleagues, friend Maksim. So, you agree that is”?!
– “Of course, I agree, friend Kaplan! Just tell me when will I start, how will I get out of jail, when, what should I do, where will I go? Should I tell them that I will be released from the house”?
– “Slowly slowly…! Who said that you will be freed?! Wait a minute, you’ve only done it a year or so. Oh, here’s Janina! I don’t know if you understood me, or are you making fun of me?! I will clarify it once more, so that we understand. State Security has its people everywhere. Even abroad, in companies, in the army, everywhere. Even in prison. Since you told me that you agree to work with us, come on, start now. Tell me, what’s bothering you?! What about Aladdin? What about the others? You have a lot to say. Come on, give it to me, I’m listening to you.”
– “Now speak openly, Mr. Kapllan. I mean, you want me to become a piece of your spy, like so-and-so, or like that bastard who told me to come here…?! Forget that I can become like them, I betray my friends and friends of suffering and you with friends, get decorations. My answer is: NO. Can I leave now”?
– “How to have fun. From our side they say: “The monastery is beautiful, because there are many monks”. Just…remember it ends there. You will regret being born; I tell you. It’s not your fault, you didn’t see what the investigator means, from that special…! Yes, I will worry about this myself, you will try it very soon. And when you get out, if you ever get out of prison alive, where will you find your father, you won’t find your mother, where will you find a sister, you won’t find your brother, remember well! Fill up!
I get up from my seat and grab the door handle. I put down the glove and, before going out, I say:
– “I expect everything from you. I know what to do. That’s how you killed my uncle, Hysen. Do whatever you want with me. Until now I have lived as I pleased, you have killed me, you have killed even younger people than me. Just remember! You were hurting my people, poor you! I will whip you with my hands and if you are dead, I will come and lay you on the grave”!
I left him stunned and walked out. I couldn’t see out of my eyes; my body was shaking from nerves. The policeman, sitting at the door, spoke to me:
– “Where you are, there is a laundry room.” Here, from the right I walk”!
I entered the camp. Aladdin was waiting for me.
– “E? Who was”?!
– “That shit, Kapllani was”.
– “Maxo is gone, now he is waiting for me.” Wait for me here, I only have a minute to work and I came”.
He also waits for Aladdin with that smiling lips mask: “Hey, how are you? You’re healthy, don’t cry”.
– “tell me once, Captain Shehu, why did you call me?! I don’t think it would break your ass to see me in good health. Now flee from whence you came, and as long as you live, and who ordered you to come here, wait for my vengeance. You belong in prison, not me and my friends. That’s all I had and I don’t want to see the muzzle anymore”.
After a week, I was transferred to Spaç. It was July 1979. I met Aladdin again in Qaf-Bar, in December ’82.
INTERMEXO II
Prisoners of love
1 – L’amour
I have known some co-sufferers who ended up in prison because of love. Exactly. For love! Someone wanted to escape, to go after the woman in Russia, or elsewhere…they sentenced him to 25 years. A young girl fell in love with him in the courtroom. The brothers were party members. They kicked him out of the house. She spent time in prison with her boyfriend. He waited not a little, but a full 25 years. Persecuted, exiled, talked about and abandoned by everyone. When I was released, I found them both together, they were not as young as they were 25 years ago, but they looked so beautiful to me that they both…! In ’92 I met them again, they had just returned from Moscow. They had both gone to meet his first wife, the beautiful Russian, his former wife…!
In Spaç I met A.R., dibran. You graduated from the Sorbonne, for literature. Brilliant, gold medal, from the rare student, who deserved it. Diploma topic, having chosen a study on Miggen, the French jury remained speechless. A., had lived in Paris for several years and was fully integrated into Parisian life. He also had a French girlfriend, let’s call her Irene. Beautiful and rich Irena.
Her uncle, the owner of a television network with the same name, had even made a show about Albanian literature, where the main guest was the talented Albanian…! “Irena’s uncle always told me: – As soon as you finish, you are guaranteed a job on TV”! But it was not easy. As much as A. was careful not to let any other Albanian student find out, the embassy had its own network of informants among the students. Once a week, all Albanian students were obliged to gather at the embassy. A., had finished his studies brilliantly and was expecting to withdraw the gold medal he had won.
But he had made a grave mistake: “…his eyes were darkened by the false splendor of the French bourgeoisie”! (This was the accusation against A.) and had an official marriage with Irena. The spy students had done their job. The ambassador informed the center: “The enemy is taking our boys”! Two days before he received his diploma, A. received an urgent telegram from Albania: “Father very serious, stop I started urgently, so you can find him alive, stop”. Before leaving, he met with Irena. Suspecting a possible trap, he told him: “If I don’t come back and if we can’t get in touch by phone, know that I’m in prison or dead”! He loved his father very much and could not help but answer the call from the family.
In Rinas, surprisingly, his father was waiting for him. Turivarur tells him: “The party started you in France, to study and not to fuck the whores of France, lowly! You blackened our face, in front of the party! Shame on you”!
“Yes, I studied, father, I got a gold medal”!
“Wipe out the mess with the diploma, now”!
All attempts to talk to France were futile. It was the year 1974. The father’s friends secured a meeting with Ramiz Ali. Ramiz’s question; “Why did you get married in France”?! A. replied naively: “The Constitution does not prohibit the marriage of Albanians with foreign citizens, friend Ramiz. As a student, I honored the country with a gold medal. As a young man, I fell in love with Irena… I don’t understand, where is my fault?!
Irena’s family had powerful friends in Paris. They intervened until the French president of that time, Mr. Valery Giscard d’Estaing. The French President sends a friendly letter to his Albanian counterpart, Haxhi Lleshi…! The lonely girl, whom the party forced to divorce in her old age, received a salary for nothing as president. To the letter of the French president, those who directed and commanded everything, even the private life of anyone, returned this answer: “Mr. d’Estaing, we inform you Mr. President se A., a former student at the Sorbonne, is a Don Juan. He is now doing the same in Albania, as the immoral man that he is. He even refuses to come to Paris, to withdraw his diploma… etc., etc.”!
The immediate result of that letter was the arrest and eight-year prison sentence for agitation and propaganda. Today A. lives in France, I haven’t seen him for many years…!
2 – Love and betrayal…!
Zydi Morava was one of the first friends I made in Spaç, from him I also met Hiqmet Myzyri, Islam Spahi, and many others. Are more. I also met G. H., a famous former boxing champion in Durrës, in the 60s. When he was young, I vaguely remembered him, a more than charming, powerful boy, for 8 consecutive years national champion in his sport and then the coach in a heavy sports team in the Durrës area. It shined there too. An unheard-of team in the lower categories, thanks to his work, came to the first category and very quickly, even the champion of the country.
It was Mr. G., apart from sports, he was also engaged in private woodwork, carpentry, etc. He was earning well. He fell in love and married a beautiful girl, who gave him two daughters. G. adored his wife and daughters. He always behaved with his wife, even after several years of marriage, as in the first days of love. You didn’t let her miss anything, you never raised your voice, you always spoke to her only with caresses. There was one goal: she and their daughters were to be happy forever. G. himself was happy, he didn’t miss anything.
Their economic situation was more than good, two daughters like a star and a beautiful woman who loved him madly. What more is needed to be happy?! Health, money, love… he had everything in excess…! “I begged God to give us life, so that we could live our beautiful dream as long as possible, Max”, the good, unforgettable G…! But he didn’t say it. One day, he came home early, 3 hours before his usual time. He opened the door… and found his wife, in bed with another.
He didn’t speak a word; he didn’t make a gesture. He closed the door and left, never to return. He found another place to sleep. The divorce was done quickly, G. did not have any requests or claims against his ex-wife. He didn’t accuse her of adultery, simply; “character mismatch”. He started alcohol, which he had always called; own enemy. He got drunk every day, starting in the morning. At night, he could barely find his way back to his alcove. When he got drunk, he only sang Russian and Italian songs… and laughed and joked with everyone. It never fought. Not because they were afraid of his fist even abroad, but because everyone loved and respected him…! “Everyone told me: don’t drink because you’ll destroy yourself…! and how can I not drink?! When I’m only drunk, I can live and I can sing… and I can make love? Huh? Go away, everyone, I told them, you don’t know about life”!
One fine day he was at the “Ylli” buffet. As soon as the double brandy he ordered came to the table, a civilian approach him and says in his ear: “Go outside for a minute, because a friend is waiting for you”! Dega’s car was waiting for him outside, to arrest him… “I was worried, I ran away without even drinking that damn double and I paid in advance”! The jury asked for 4 years in prison. “What kind of jury are you, brother? How do you punish the innocent? You did llo-llo-llo, two hours, and you didn’t prove a single charge! You are the judging panel, not the judging panel”!!
For insulting the raft, I’m sorry, the jury, they added two more years. They sentenced him to 6 years. They sent him to Spaç, to serve his sentence. There he fell ill, one of his legs began to atrophy and he began to limp. Earned a disability report, for underground. The help that his mother sent him, from Tirana, from her pension, was few. He could not allow himself to beg cigarettes from others…! He persistently asked to work underground and was allowed. He always worked with a shovel underground, always in a group, with Llambi Gjideden. And so, dragging one leg, he worked like a horse. He always received more than 1,500 old ALL every month. In the last few months, before he was released, he caught a cold. He could no longer work underground. Together with Visar, we took it to eat together, with the help that our families sent us. We served him in turn, taking him to bed, some coffee, cocoa, or hot tea, until he was well and fully recovered.
He was released with the amnesty of ’82. I ordered him to go meet my family. He went, hugged my parents and refused to drink, not even a glass of brandy…! “It got me inside.” When I was released, in ’84, we met longingly. He was united with his second wife, with whom he had a son, who was his own copy. I can’t say that they got along well as husband and wife. He worked in an enterprise in Shkozet. He became alcoholic again. He quit and started drinking alcohol several times, he also got a cure for that. He finally quit drinking, but became withdrawn. He avoided everyone. At the company, he asked to be sent to a construction site as far away from Durrës as possible. They sent him to the surroundings of Shkodra. There he killed himself; he was poisoned by drinking a liter of toxic, around 1986. Before committing suicide, he wrote a letter explaining the reason for this action. He sent the letter to one of our friends from Spaçi, Fadil Hyka.
Even Llambi Gjidede died alone, abandoned, without being able to receive a single installment of compensation, which would have been enough to end his life as a man. And he died as he lived, call it what you will, but not as a man. In an alcove 2 x 2 m., near the cemetery of Durrës….! “To have me close, when they put me on the ground, Makso”! Memorie.al
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