By Kristale Ivezaj Rama
Second part
Memorie.al / “I was born in a prison in Shkodër and after two weeks, we were interned as a family in Berat. Finding pleasure in seeing others suffer, especially children! Man, then, begins to doubt these people who have nothing in common with man, except the name man”?!
Continues from last issue
Mr. Simon, you wouldn’t go to jail if you talked like that?
You had to take many things into account. But it was necessary to tell you sometimes who we are. You have many things in hand, but I have the main one. You can put me in prison, give me hard work, but you can’t make me your tool.
Have you had such moments of conflict, when you felt proud of yourself, even in relation to what you say?
I felt most proud of myself when I was called to become a spy. It was a terrible war. We were working, when we look close, the Security Operative is coming and the one who appealed to us. It was raining a little, thinly. There were 5-6 of us, we worked together. And the one who appealed to us comes, and says, – Simon, come on. Of course you would definitely go.
They were stunned, and so was I. I thought I was arrested now. He tells me; – you will receive the preventive measure. We were working at one time, building a cinema. I had never worked in construction, but to change the work of agriculture, I joined it.
“You will receive the preventive measure, – he told me, – and you will send it to the directorate”. I told him, I the preventive measure?! I’m not even a brigadier! I was 26 years old. And he tells me that they asked you. I was wearing boots. I go home to clean up. Sokol comes worried. Everyone was worried. I tell my brother, 99.99% are arresting me.
But after me they can arrest someone else from our comrades. And they will say, so – that’s what Simon said. Simon only when they hang him on the rope because he doesn’t open his mouth. Therefore, do not fall prey to their games and intrigues; tell your friends if they will have bad luck. And I leave. I had a bicycle that we used inside the farm, inside the sector. I take the bike and leave for Lushnje.
When I arrive near the city, I hear a voice calling me: “O Moni, o Moni”? When I turn my head, I see the operative. Once, I pretended not to hear him. He then changed it, not Moni, but: “O Simon”. When he called “O Simon”, I stopped. “Hey,” he said, “where are you going?” I said, I’m going to submit the preventive measure.
– “But why, you like this, unshaven”? – He said. I told him: I’m not going to the parade, I’m going to work and I haven’t noticed whether I’m shaved or unshaven. “Let’s light a cigarette,” he said. – No, I tell him, thank you, I don’t drink it. “Okay, he said, starts then, goes take it.”
I continued on my way. This one, apparently, had gotten into a car. When I was walking, here now, it was the way to go back to the Department of Internal Affairs. And this was right here. While the road to the preventive measure continued straight. When I arrived here, he tells me: “Stop, leave the bike on the sidewalk and follow me.” –
I can’t leave the bike, because I bought it with ALL, I can’t leave it on the street. -“Leave it there – he said, – we will protect it”. – I also have the preventive measure – I told him. – “Leave it there”! When he told me: “walk!” on that 50-meter road that was to the Department of Internal Affairs, I was thinking, now only when someone comes out and they put the bars on me.
When we got close to Dega, he turns and says: “Follow me”. What was going on, I didn’t understand anything? However, all the way I prayed to God, to give me strength, not to get dirty, not to get dirty. Walking behind him, when, he takes me into the hotel. It was the best hotel in Lushnja, it was called “Myzeqeja” hotel.
These waiters, the hotel managers, were all spies. I saw that he winked at the person at the counter. Me behind him. On the second floor, at the end of the corridor, a room. I opened that room and there was a table, two chairs and a minder. – “You will stay here”, he said. He closed the door and said he would come with a friend shortly. Now, I didn’t know what would happen to me. I had no idea. Something bad, yes, but what…! I sat down on that bench in front of the table and calculated the distance between my head and the wall.
I measured it; it was a palm distance from the head to the wall. I thought, in case they will torture me, and I won’t be able to handle it, I will end my life. This lasted an hour. When the key is inserted, the door opens and the head of the Internal Affairs Branch enters, with all the Operative Worker. I stand up. They extend their hand to me. And we sit down. The compliments started, because that’s how they started.
“I am so-and-so, I am the head of the Branch, I received information from the Operative that you are a smart boy, you are a handsome boy. It’s a sin for you to stay in exile and rot…! Since you are the son of Pal Biba, people have faith in you, they can talk. It is a chance; it is a privilege that we give you.
We can take you to Tirana to continue university. We heard that you also play football well; we can introduce you to “Dinamon”. To create a family. And you won’t have to deal with anyone; you will have a direct relationship with me as the head of the Branch. This is the chance! It depends on your hand. You have to use this moment”, he said.
I say to him: Thank you very much for the privilege, but, whether it’s me or my colleagues, we don’t have time to deal with politics, because we have such a heavy job that it doesn’t occur to us to deal with such things. Then, he changed. From compliments, it turned into screams, shouts.
What did they tell you?
“You are the son of a criminal, you too, like him,” and kicked me in the leg bone. My eyes widened. However, I bit my tongue because I didn’t want to give you pleasure. Then I started screaming, not from the pain, but at him.
Brave, that. How could you do it?! Weren’t you afraid?
I told him; I am as guilty as your son, who is playing with his friends and does not know what his father is doing. In fact, your son is more to blame, if we’re going to include him, because he gets his father’s caresses at dinner, while I haven’t seen my father and he hasn’t seen me either.
Then, this statement of mine had an effect on him, but before I told him about my son’s work, I said: – Here I am, here, do whatever you want with me. I do not become your spy. That job is over. Here you have me, do whatever you want with me. And then after that, I told the boy’s job. Then he pulled back a little.
However, during the debates that lasted for about 5 hours, I shouted more, as much as he told me: “Keep your voice down”. To be honest, when you are in your right, God gives you strength, they look like flies. Despite the fact that I had defied death and I was not even impressed by death, absolutely, for no moment was there a dilemma, whether I am in pain or not.
Then, after 5-6 hours, he tells me: “Listen here, these conversations we had here, you will not tell anyone. If you tell someone, we have people who know everything about us and we will not bring the car to arrest you, but you will come here yourself to put on the irons. And we will punish with the cut suit 25 years, and you will not get out alive. You know very well that we punish and punish them again inside the prison”.
After that, I said: I have nothing to tell them, because there is nothing nice to tell them. “Then, get up and be free to go,” he told me, having lost all hope that I could accept their offer.
After that psychological pressure, could you go home freely?
I went out, went and got the bike; they had let someone guard it. After I leave for the camp, at the intersection where the road to Berat splits, the Paper Factory was being built in Lushnje, when I see Kurt Kola, who was plastering. And I call them, Kurt. Kurti got off the pier and came to me. By the side of the road the planted cotton was high. I back the bike up and get into the cotton and tell Kurt the whole story, well, that’s what happened to me.
Kurti was someone we had a lot of faith in each other, a lot. And I needed to vent a little. Kurt was confident about this job. We waited for 1 hour or 2 and I left thanking God. That sense of pride, which you said was thanks to my origin, I carried a lot. Because we were kept in exile already, not for dad. We were already held in exile for our stay.
When were you released from exile?
We were released on July 4, 1989. We started in 1945 and ended on July 4, 1989. So 44 years in total. To say it, it is said with one mouth, but how much vicissitudes are inside, only our soul knows.
They told us a story of yours, related to the sea which you saw very late. How did you feel?
Yes, what they told you is very true. I saw the sea for the first time, only in 1990. In high school, I saw it on the map, in geography class. All that coast and I said to myself: will the day ever come to see it, to touch it? I had no idea. We bathed in the canals. When I was released, the first trip was to Durrës.
Tomorrow. I took the bus to Lushnje, and then I bought the ticket and went to Durrës. When we approach Shkozeti, somewhere, I turn my head, because the whole time I was waiting when I see the sea. When I arrived in Shkozet, I could see the sea. Go down. I had no idea about roads, nothing. I get off the train asking, no way, I arrive at the beach. When I see women in swimsuits… I used to see them shyly, secretly. I was wearing pants. I walk and go to the seaside and sit down.
Do you remember what day it was? Was it sunny?
Yeah, it was sunny, sunny. It was a beach day. It was July. I sat there, I lost my mind. I lay on the sand, looking at the sky. It seemed to me that I was seeing the sea above. I got up, touched the water a little, and washed my face.
How old were you
41 – 42 years old. I spent another hour contemplating it. I left for Durrës, I traveled 4 or 5 km on foot that I had no idea. Asking. I arrived at the train station, and left for Lushnje. Then I left for Gjaze that was the name of the sector where we lived, Gjaze. This is my sad story. However, when you are in your innocence…! Today it is easy to talk, but back then, it was very difficult. It was God’s help and the origin of the family!
You should know one thing: We used to be some of the most handsome young people. And you had to sacrifice a lot. I’m saying, the most handsome, not only me, but of the whole camp. We stand out. We were a race, one better than the other. You had to sacrifice your youth, because on the side of the girls, many victims had fallen.
Are there cases of rape against internees?
No, there’s no point. There are no cases of rape, absolutely none. At least as far as I am beginning to understand. In Tepelena, I don’t know what happened because I was small. It is said that the commander of the camp… but I have not heard from my mother, or from my sister. Maybe as highlanders, they covered up these conversations…! Then, no, it didn’t happen.
Where did people go after being released from the camp? Did you have money?
Most of the times when they were released, they stayed in the camp.
How was the living situation?
They lived in brick houses, not plastered. Certainly tight, but they were better than going to the village, because the village was a cooperative, they were better there. For this reason, they were released, but they stayed there.
How many people lived in a small house?
We were: brother, wife and 3 children, me and mother. 7 people in two rooms. The rooms were 3 x 3 m.
Did you have some necessities for living, an oven, a bathroom?
We had a wood-burning stove and we warmed ourselves with wood. To wash… with a jug.
Did you have separate or shared bathrooms with other families?
We had a toilet inside the house, we bathed there. I will tell you a beautiful thing, in a beautiful word! It’s a little trite, but I’ll tell you. The godfather took my hair, they say. This one was interned with us in Tepelena and starts to escape. He was caught and spent 23 years in prison in Burrel.
What was his name?
His name was Musa Sina. He is dead, the desolate one. He had a brother, Beqir Sina, a journalist in New York. He had told my mother to cut my hair. Then, the mother was sorry. He was a charming man, with a thin moustache. His brother from America had sent him a suit. When he got out of prison he sent him a package. He wore them. He was out of work most of the time because he was sick.
The toilets had a pit outside. And someone came with a shovel, cleaned the black pit, collected them in a cart and took them away. It paid well for that time. An old man used to do this job. One day, the old man dies. And Musa decides to do this work. After we made the appeal at dinner, he went to the Council’s office. There was the secretary of the party, the chairman of the front, and the head of the sector.
This one knocks on the door. “Hey, Musa, why did you come?” He says: “I found out that Vladimir died, – that was the name of the old man who cleaned the toilet pits.” – I have come to give me work to clean them.” – You’re in good spirits, but you don’t have any frontal lobes. This was a piece of paper showing that you have a good biography. “But why? – says poor Musa – even to eat… I need front triska”?! And…they didn’t give him the job. Because there was no good biography!
To the black hole? Unbelievable. What did you do when the democratic processes started?
In 1991, we came to Tirana. Sokol’s sister-in-law’s cousin gave us a room, a space and we came to Tirana. We stayed there for 3-4 years. In 1991, I fled to Italy with the exodus ships. I had no intention of running away, but a family friend came, he had graduated from university, and his wife urged him to run away.
He had come to the house to welcome us and this conversation came out and he said to me: “Simon, I’m going to Durrës by ship, are you coming too?” Do you think now, at this age, to go on adventures, and run away?! “No, I can’t leave by myself”, he tells me. Well, since he can’t leave by himself, I’ll accompany you, I’m coming, I tell him. This one had a doctor father. There was a telephone in the house, because not everyone had telephones in their homes then.
I tell him, we’re going to your house, we’re interested, and so we don’t eat any bullets in vain. He gets on the phone in Durrës and they tell him that; is passed freely. They really shoot with guns, but they shoot high, in the air. And I hug my brother, Sokol, we board the train and leave. We go to Durrës, people like flies on the ship, “Panamese”, that’s what it was called. You had nowhere to throw the apple seed. We boarded on Wednesday, the ship was pulled a bit by the weight of the people, but it was also loaded with cement. We left in the morning. We arrived at dinner in Brindisi.
How long was the trip?
It lasted a day and a half. We stayed in Brindisi outside. No washing, no food, a real horror. They brought us some raincoats to wrap ourselves in at night. Kind of like a bag, but there were a lot of people. Very difficult. She also passed. They put us in schools for shelter. We spent 2-3 weeks in Brindisi.
Were you granted refugee status?
Initially no. Then they distributed us in the camps, they took us to interviews. I got political refugee status, but it didn’t count. I didn’t have any facilities… in Italy, because in Germany they treated me better. But I also had a good time in Italy. They study you, see that you are serious. They asked me to stay in Udine, but I told them that; I don’t know my country, I don’t know Italy, before my country. I came by chance.
How long did you stay in Italy? Did you work anywhere?
I stayed in Italy for two years. I worked in a Caritas, I found work for Albanians. Then I came back, I couldn’t recognize Italy, and I don’t know how they found out, journalists came from the Netherlands, they even asked me to go to the Netherlands. They were very impressed. How is it possible for a man to be sentenced for 44 years? “Set us up with a job, a house with everything…” they begged me.
He missed his family, his mother. Was the mother alive at the time?
No, the mother died in the camp. She broke up with her husband, that is, with my father, when she was only 23 years old and had three children. With the many vicissitudes he went through, he fell ill with a heart attack. And in 1974 he died, he was 54 years old.
When you returned from Italy to Albania, you started a family, so did you get married?
I got married when I was in Tirana. The brother had taken a Muslim wife. And I enjoyed going out for a walk. In that journey, I only prayed to God that, if you have decided to marry, when I go home you give me the satisfaction of my wife and the satisfaction even when I go to work. Preferably a Catholic woman. And God willing, I found a Catholic woman, a good woman. It’s my pleasure, as I said.
Can you tell us an episode from this moment, so long-awaited in your life?
She also has a beautiful story. A friend tells me that she knew a girl, born and raised in Tirana, but originally from Puka. This made me curious to know him. Not only from Puka, but also from Iballa. However, we have one thing that we are not inside the tribe. I am also interested. Despite being inside a village, we were not a tribe. After a few dates, that first hit was the look. It was beautiful! Then the person starts getting to know each other, talking…!
Thank you very much for the interview Mr. Simon and I wish you a long and happy life with your family.
Thank you./Memorie.al
