“On November 13, ’44, Halit Tafani’s partisans killed our father in the yard”, the rare testimony and the names of the 37 people who were executed in … (unknown photos)

Dashnor Kaloçi

Memorie.al/ publishes the rare testimony of Islam Lleshi, former exponent of the Nationalist Youth of Balli Kombëtar during the War, regarding the murder of his father, Muharrem Lleshi on November 13, 1944 by the partisan unit with commander Halit Tafani, and the massacre against 40 well-known Tirana nationalists and intellectuals, who were executed in the basements of the Bristol Hotel after the Germans left the capital…

Around 3 o’clock in the morning, at dawn on November 13, 1944, from outside the yard of our house was heard the voice of Telat Kalos who was our mullah and at the same time the secretary of the National Liberation Council for the neighborhood where we lived, who called our father, Muharram, telling him to come out that he had a word with him. “The father got dressed quickly and as soon as he came out in the yard, before he reached Telati, he was shot with automatic bursts by three partisans who were hiding behind a tree inside our steam room and remained dead on the spot.” The person who testifies is Islam Lleshi, a former exponent of the Youth of the National Front during the Anti-Fascist War and one of the eyewitnesses of the massacres carried out by the partisan forces of Enver Hoxha’s “National Liberation Army” during the days when he fought for the liberation of Tirana in the distant November of 1944. These testimonies, Islam Lleshi gave us shortly before he passed away and among other things he also testified for the first time about the murder of his father, Muharrem Lleshi, one of the victims of numerous massacres carried out by the partisans in the first days of November 1944, which in the history of Albania are otherwise known as the “War for the liberation of Tirana”. What is the truth about this event and was there really a war between the German forces that were installed in those days in the Albanian capital, Tirana, and the partisans of the First Division commanded by Major General Dali Ndreu, whose General Staff Had the National Liberation Army been tasked with liberating the capital? How did the partisans enter Tirana and how did they execute them in their homes with dozens of people, who were on the lists submitted to them by the National Liberation Councils of the neighborhoods? How did the massacre at the Bristol Hotel take place and who were the famous intellectuals who were executed in the basements of that hotel?

The agreement of the Germans with the partisans for Tirana!

Regarding these events, Islam Lleshi, who at that time was an active member of the nationalist detachments of Balli Kombëtar, recalled: they had set up their headquarters at the foot of Dajti Mountain, in the village of Priskë in Tirana, they could not enter the capital, as the Germans had three main points where they were installed; One in the village of Linza east of Tirana, one in the Gendarmerie Command which was located where today is the Bektashi Headquarters, and the other in New Tirana. From the data coming at that time, it was said that the German Command, which was located where today is the building of the State University of Tirana, was waiting for other forces to come from Greece, with a long convoy from Korça to Tirana and would continue in the direction of Shkodra to finally leave Albania. The aim of the German forces was their complete retreat towards Berlin, and they had no plan to fight. They only tried to protect the crossings from which they would retreat and the key points from where they could be hit by partisan or nationalist forces. Based on this, the German command that was in Tirana, had sent word to the partisan headquarters of the First Division, not to harass them and not to create problems, because on November 20 they would finally leave Tirana. To mediate with the partisans regarding these problems, the Germans had appointed Petraq Pekmes (he had his house where today is the neighborhood “Ali Demi”) who at that time was the translator at the German command. After the Germans withdrew their two main points located in Linza and the Kryegjyshata, the partisans entered without a fight up to Bardhyl Street. After that, Mehmet Shehu’s headquarters moved to the house of Abdulla Qyqe, where Petraq Pekmezi went and communicated regularly with them, according to the orders given by the Germans “. This is how Islami Lleshi recalled the siege of Tirana and the agreement that the Germans made at that time with the leaders of the First Partisan Division led by Dali Ndreu and Mehmet Shehu, so as not to hit each other, which was then learned by Petraq Pekmes, the German translator…

Partisan massacres in Tirana

But how did the partisans deal with the political opponents and their families that they called “reactionary”, in those days of November 1944 when they entered Tirana? Regarding this, Islam Lleshi said: “Since the First Partisan Division was deployed in Priska, through their people and the National Liberation Councils that existed in every neighborhood, they had received all the names of their political opponents (mainly Balli). of Legality) and their families, which they had listed in exact lists. So, after every advance they made towards the center of Tirana (after the withdrawal of the Germans) entering the neighborhoods, they executed all the people who had them on those lists, which they showed to them and the communist advisers who took them out of their homes. to execute them. The partisans did this point by point with our nationalist family, killing our father, Muharrem, because at that time I was in the Balli Kombëtar squads with a gun in hand, and brother Sulejmani (graduated in Turin for Veterinary Medicine) who was one of the first to join the National Ball and was then arrested by partisans. So around 3 o’clock in the morning, at dawn on November 13, 1944, from the yard of our house was heard the voice of Telat Kalos who was our mullah, and at the same time secretary of the National Liberation Council, who called his father telling him to came out after having a word with him. The father got dressed and as soon as he got out, still without approaching Telati who retreated a few steps back from the place where he called, some automatic bursts of three partisans who were hiding behind a tree of our steam, left the dead father on the spot. After that, the partisans entered the house, terrifying mother Fitneten, two younger brothers, 10-year-old Njazi (before the ’90s, the famous basketball coach of the “Partizani” team), 12-year-old sister Dylberen, and 2-year-old Bardhuli. Also, at home was the daughter of our cousin, Fadil Lleshi (Iqbalja, Mustafa Lleshi’s sister, a close friend of Kajo Karafili) partisan, who was killed in Peza. When the partisans who came in started shouting for weapons, Iqbalia told them that Mustafa Lleshi’s people were in that family. After that, they were stunned and one of the partisans, who was apparently their commander, called out to the others who were checking, saying: ‘Let’s leave’. The next day some of our relatives came to our house and buried our father in the backyard, as for the very situation where the capital was under the hail of guns and bombs, they could not go to Bami cemetery. People who came to our house to comfort him, showed that in those days everywhere in Tirana the partisans had killed and massacred many well-known nationalists and intellectuals. The headquarters of the partisans with commander Halit Tafani who carried out the murder of our father, was located near us at the house of Ferit Vokopola (former deputy of Zog) and after their departure there was found a list of people who were shot where he was part and our father ”. This is how Islam Lleshi remembered the event of the murder of his father Muharrem, at dawn on November 13, 1944

Dozens executed at the Bristol Hotel

But in those days of November 1944, the partisan forces that had taken over from the General Staff of Enver Hoxha’s National Liberation Army to take Tirana, executed in their homes many other nationalists and well-known intellectuals. Regarding this, Islam Lleshi testified: “After killing our father, the partisan forces crossed the boulevard, and executed Anton Mazreku, who had his house no further than 100 m. from us, near the Cinema “Rozafat”. That same night, the partisans executed some well-known nationalists and intellectuals, such as: Aleks Mavraqi, Ismail Petrela, Lluka Xhumari, the brothers, Muntaz and Vesim Kokalari (brothers of Musine Kokalari), the well-known journalist Nebil Çika, a Mirdita woman named Dila (owner of a pub) and some others who had arrested them in those days and kept them tied up in the basements of the Bristol Hotel (where today is the National Museum). The massacre carried out by the communists at the Bristol Hotel was the last in Tirana, because after that day until the departure of the Germans, no nationalist or other person was executed in the capital. It is said that the order to stop the massacres against the nationalists came from Enver Hoxha, who at that time was in Berat together with the provisional government waiting to come to Tirana. Regarding this, in his memoirs (series of works) Enver writes: ‘When we were in Berat Sejfulla Malëshova came to my office with one breath and said to me: Enver in Tirana is killing officers. It’s a big mistake that we will need them tomorrow when we take power. ‘ “I told him if he spoke responsibly,” Enver wrote in his memoirs. As can be seen from the debate that Enver has had with Malëshova, he may have been restrained and gave an order to stop the executions of nationalists in Tirana. Osman Kazazi also escaped from this order, when on the morning of November 13, the partisans went to execute him at the house of Dem Xhepa (a well-known businessman who had financed the communists and a close friend of Myslym Peza). The partisans asked Dema to hand over Osman, but he, having the hot wings of friendship with the communist leadership, resisted and did not take it out, telling them that he would give it to them the next day. “Indeed, Dema took Osmani out the next day, taking him to the partisans who did not shoot him, apparently after the order given by Enver”, recalled Islam Lleshi about the murders that the partisans committed against the nationalists in those days of November 1944 and the massacre in the basements of the Hotel “Bristol”.

There was no fighting in Tirana

But was there a war between partisan and German Nazi forces in the city of Tirana in November 1944? Regarding this, Islami Lleshi recalled: “From the end of October until November 17, 1944, when the Germans finally left Tirana, there was no war at all between them and the partisans. All those days life in the capital was quite normal, very quiet and all commercial activities were functioning regularly in all areas of Tirana, both in its center and in the suburbs. Even when the partisans of the First Brigade approached from the outskirts of the capital and controlled the entire Eastern area of ​​Tirana, up to “Bardhyl” Street, the Germans stayed freely without any problems, in the Hotel “Dajti”, (where was their main residence) in New Tirana and along the main boulevard from the current train station to the central building of the State University of Tirana where the German command was located at that time. The calm situation that reigned during the day, changed completely at night, where bomb blasts and gunfire could be heard almost all over Tirana. This was in accordance with a plan made earlier by the partisans who had ordered the communists and illegals in the city to shoot in the air all night in vain, in order for the population of the capital to remember that a great war was taking place and that it was the partisans came to liberate them. After the Germans withdrew from “Bardhyl” Street to the center, where they installed only one tank in a large pit at “Skënderbej” square, the partisans advanced without firing any weapons and approached where today is the Tirana Estrada. There they erected a long barricade with barrels and various tools, blocking the entire boulevard. The only war that took place until November 13 in Tirana between the partisans and the Germans, is that of taking the bunker (tank) that was located in the center of Tirana. This is more than true and there has been absolutely no other war during all those days that communist propaganda has claimed for years that a great war has been waged for the liberation of Tirana. Let a Tirana family come out and say that in those days they saw some partisans killed inside the capital. It is not at all true that 134 partisans of the First Brigade were killed for the liberation of Tirana. They were killed in the suburbs and villages of the capital, such as: Sauk, Selita and in Lapraka at the Aviation Field, in an attempt to enter the city. Only during their withdrawal from Rruga e Kavajës and Durrës Street on November 17, did the Germans execute a civilian person, only after they had been shot. The Germans did this after they had previously announced their withdrawal and that if hit, they would retaliate. “While the destroyed buildings in the center of Tirana, mainly around” Skënderbej “square, etc., were not destroyed as a result of any war, but by the bombing of the Anglo-American allied aviation, which fired against German forces wherever they were”. This is what Islam Lleshi said about those distant events of 1944, which in the history of Albania are known as “the days for the liberation of Tirana”, insisting that there was no war between partisans and Germans inside the city. For which the propaganda of the communist regime for almost half a century has echoed loudly, saying: ‘It has been fought house to house and street to street, where blood has been shed’. “The blood that was shed in the streets of Tirana in those days was that of 40 nationalist intellectuals, who were executed by partisan forces in the basements of the” Bristol “hotel and the streets of Tirana”, concludes his testimony Islam Lleshi, former exponent of the Youth of the National Front, whose father was executed by the communists for no reason on the doorstep of his house at dawn on November 13, 1944./Memorie.al

Lista e të ekzekutuarëve në Tiranë nga njësiet partizane

1. Abdulla Saraçi
2. Muharrem Liku
3. Hamit Greblleshi
4. Muntaz Kokalari
5. Vesim Kokalari
6. Syrja Kokalari
7. Azis Blloshmi
8. Muharrem Lleshi
9. Akil Sakiqi
10. Nazmi Uruçi
11. Hasan Dine
12. Bajram Cuka
13. Boris Beleski
14. Fahri Dabulla
15. Faik Shkupi
16. Ismail Petrela
17. Jusuf Allamani
18. Jorgji Mema
19. Jakup Deliallisi
20. Mehmet Dado
21. Kapllan Deliallisi
22. Shefqet Deliallisi
23. Anton Fekeçi
24. Rifat Tërshana
25. Petraq Pekmezi
26. Selman Ali Korça
27. Aleks Mavraqi
28. Selman Shqefni
29. Minella Kotokoci
30. Ndue Pali
31. Selim Brahja
32. Selim Kelmendi
33. Nebil Çika
34. Lluka Xhumari
35. Rakip Kalenja
36. Ali Panariti
37. Subi Topulli