By Fatbardha Mulleti Saraçi
Memorie.al / The Pali family was a family from Shkodra originating from the deep area of Dukagjin and all its members had fought in the detachments of Mehmet Shpendi and Gjon Luli, for freedom and independence. It was a happy family with five girls and one boy. But the parents and sisters, the son of this family, experienced endless suffering, full of spiritual pain, and being discriminated and ruined economically.
They did not benefit from the bread pans, nor did they have the pantries of the Democratic Front, which denied them the right to vote. The harmony of this Shkodra family would be broken at the beginning of 1945, when the Slavic-communist government was established, headed by Enver Hoxha. The city of Shkodra was full of prisons, people being shot without trial, many others imprisoned, but even though it was a wild violence, a good part of the people opposed the new regime, with anti-communist resistance. A black shadow had fallen on the city, a lot of sadness and unexpected things were happening, a new suffering was beginning, with pain of the most different kind.
The arrest and punishment of Marije Pal (Thani), with her daughter, Terezina
In 1945, the mother Marije, the lady of this family (she was the sister of the Thani brothers), together with her 18-year-old daughter Terezina, were put in prison. They condemned Mrs. Marije, for having kept the uniform of her brother’s academician, who was shot by the communists, without a trial (the Security officers found it during the search of her house), and they accused her of knowing her brother’s whereabouts another (former captain of the Albanian army), who was on the mountain, with the anti-communist resistance. Every day, the investigator Elez Mesi interrogated Terezina, the daughter of this family, and accused her of having an affair with her uncle in the mountain (?)
Mother and daughter were held for five weeks in the cells of the State Security, under investigation. They sentenced: grandmother Marije to 2 years of imprisonment and Terezina to 5 years. Afterwards, they returned him to conditional freedom, where every moment of his life was controlled by the State Security through its officers and their associates. After the release, the children, where the youngest was 6 years old, were waiting for mother Marije at home. Mrs. Marije’s heart was torn apart by the tragedy that followed her brothers: One brother, Mark Thani, an academician, studying in Padua (Italy) was shot by the communists without trial, another brother, Pal Thani, an officer of the Albanian Army, an academician, (graduated from school in Parma, Italy) surrendered, when amnesty was granted by the communist regime, but died in the interrogator, under torture. The other brother, Dede Thani, was handed over to the Yugoslavs, where he was convicted and served 13 years in prison. But the sufferings of this woman would not end, as they would continue with her daughters…!
Who was Terezina Pali?
The daughter of Marije Kolë Pal, Terezina, was born in the city of Shkodra in 1927. She was a very studious girl, attended the school opened by the Stigmatine Nuns and the state high school of the city of Shkodra. He excelled in lessons, under the influence of the respected high school professor, Qemal Draçini, who tried to educate his students and the young generation of that time, with the spirit of patriotism, and made them with personality, saying no to communism, but this honorable professor, precisely for this reason, in 1946, was arrested by the State Security and died in the interrogator under inhumane torture.
Terezina was a resourceful girl and from the beginning of her education, she was active in the amateur artistic groups of the city of Shkodra, where she met the young Zef Zorba, who was a director of plays, who would later become her husband. At that time, several dramas were staged, with the theme of patriotism, where freedom was openly talked about. During the performances, the hall was filled with shouts: – Freedom! Freedom! But unfortunately this would not last long, since in 1946, the State Security arrested the director Zef Zorba.
Terezina was expelled from school because she attended the funeral of Dom Gaspë Thaçi, who had been the Archbishop of Shkodra. The whole family was under the surveillance of the State Security, as they wanted to discover the whereabouts of Pal Thani (who was actually sheltered in his house, in the old part, while the new part of the house was occupied by an official communist).
Leaving Terezina for Tirana!
To get the girl away from her hometown, the family decided to send Terezina to her cousins in Tirana, to continue her high school education there, hoping to lose track of her. However, the State Security arrested Terezina in Tirana, in October 1946. They kept the 19-year-old girl for 17 months in the interrogatory, torturing her and keeping her tied, hanging from her arms, without her feet touching the ground. Regarding this, among other things, she said: – “The head of the Internal Branch, with his own hand, beat me with a whip while shooting my back. Chivalrous bravery, for a man, even a ranking officer, to a 19-year-old girl…! Then he ordered me to be tied with a rope, under a straw and handcuffed, to the dungeons of the Inner Branch. They tortured me for days and months, but this is nothing, what they did to the young man, Sami Barbullushi, my uncle Pal Thani, whom they tortured, until his tongue became thick and they strangled him. Likewise, Qemal Dracini, a young high school teacher, an idol of Shkodra’s youth, also suffered.
Terezina had swelling of her legs, when she was sent to the hospital, in a very serious condition, Dr. The defense is horrified. Tears came from the pain he felt, when he saw the girl’s legs swollen beyond measure, disfigured…!
– “Oh, what horror”! – Dr. addressed the policemen full of courage. It was covered and added! – When you bring them to this state, don’t bring them here”!
They left Terezia under torture for six months, but the most difficult thing for the young girl was that she was not allowed to use water, for personal needs, they gave her enough water to quench her thirst. All those months without washing hands, face, without changing, without clothing.
They put him in a room with men, such as: Guljem Suma, Xhemal Naipi, Idris Tahiri from Vorfa, Myrto Dani from Drishti, Mustafa Dragusha who was 70 years old. Think of the difficulty the young girl was put in, in the room with men, both parties felt insulted, by the way of manners.
The most severe torture, Terezina had the psychological one, which Fadil Kapisizi did to her. He was the torturer and executioner of her uncle, Pal Thani. The investigator kept Terezina tied to the window, where her uncle was being tortured; who was beaten and left without water for 14 days, there under torture, until he died and the niece saw the macabre scene of her uncle’s death.
After torture, they returned her to the room, where the other prisoners were, among them Father Mati Prendushi, who took care of her, showing their compassion and once again their respect for the young Shkodra heroine, that the State Security failed to break can.
The trial, where Terezina was sentenced with the other people in the cell!
During the time that Terezina was kept there, the tortures were various: they used electricity on her body, for weeks they kept her prisoner in the dog dungeon, i.e. with a squat posture. In January 1948, after 17 months of the investigator being tortured, the trial took place, bringing the defendants to the dock – Terezina Pali, Zef Zorba, Kolë Kurti, Karlo Suma, Xhabir Dibra, Malik Bushati.
Pretense: Agitation and propaganda. They were sentenced to 5 years of imprisonment. Terezina served the sentence with many female prisoners like her (political prisoners), such as: Agime Pipa, Drita Kosturin, Ana Daja, Dila Zef Doda, Nasibe from Tropoja, Naxhije Hardalli, Bedrije Ashike, Leze Kola, Vitore Kuka, etc. Although in those inhumane conditions, Terezina proved to be a girl with a big heart, very charitable serving her roommate, Bardha Kroçaj and the political convict, but who was sick with ‘TB’ and died in the cell.
Terezina gave a lot of care, full of love and a lot of pain, to her co-sufferer, who died at the age of 18. He stayed by his side, took care of him and didn’t think that tuberculosis could catch him.
Five years continued in the Great Prison, in the Prison of the Church of the Friars, they worked, but always staying in prison was accompanied by the fear of being called to the investigator and under torture! When Terezina was released from prison, she had a lung disease, which forced her to be hospitalized frequently. But life has its share of light and sunshine. The man of the heart, the well-known director, Zef Zorba, after he got out of prison, gave him a lot of love and care.
The two spouses were married in 1953. The good and sweet Terezin gave birth to two daughters: Lejla (1954) and Lucia (Lali, 1958); which he lovingly raised and educated them, with the best qualities of their ancestors. So even though they were excellent students in high school, they were not given the right to continue to higher schools. But even though he was denied the right to education, their home was and remained a nursery of happiness, as poetry was cultivated there, books and great writers were spoken with passion, classical music was listened to, etc. They were free and at peace with themselves, inwardly they preserved their freedom even though the communist regime continued to be wild and violent.
Zef Zorba’s letter to his wife, Terezina, who was suffering in the Sanatorium
In the archive of the Zorba family, with some relics that miraculously escaped the persecution of the communist regime, there is also a part of a letter from 1973, when Terezina was cured in a hospital (Sanatorium) and her husband, unable to visit her often in the hospital, writes:
– “Dear Terezina, I saw your letter. Look for it, I’ll write…”, the letter continues…! “How many difficult paths we have gone through together. Sometimes I wonder to myself how we got this far. And with what means? Almost always with so little, that at any moment, it seemed to me that everything would be buried. Hard life, but who cares. Both of us have never cared about the lack of work and fatigue, and not now, which have become our clothes, despite the fact that our strength is not what it used to be, and even more and more every day, it comes to you got fat. Besides the will is still young, this is more valuable than anything else…!
Aging: rheumatism, stomach and who else can disturb us sometimes…! But then we will put on the gramophone, the record of Ravel’s symphonic poem “My Mother I Had”, and we will listen to it together…! Yesterday I felt that swans live up to a hundred years and the couple that comes together once in their youth, never part, for the rest of their lives…!
Babi. (Zef Zorba – Terezina’s husband)
I, the author of these lines, had the good fortune to get to know this wise, calm, sweet, simple woman, with all the virtues of an honorable lady from Shkodra. Even at an advanced age, she gave you a gift, her sweet sight, which is gained from a life of much pain.
She remained, that young girl, unsullied by evil and after the 1990s, she saw with amazement how persecutors, called persecuted, and people who had neither been political prisoners, nor exiled, nor exiled, were they equipped with such documents, which they waved around the stands.
Every November 28, we would be together, placing flowers and lit candles, at Vorret e Rrmaj, where many of her fellow sufferers were shot and buried…!
Old age came with many diseases, but there was much care and love. She left the quiet and simple life, like her very being, in the spring of 2004, to the children, to the most painful part of her life, with her daughters and only son.
The touching confession of the other girl, Liza Pali
But in the family of Kola and Marije Pali, the suffering was not over?! But how would the events flow for the other girl, who was a year younger than Terezina, Liza, and what luck would she have?!. She told us about her life during the conversation I had with this honorable lady, in the city of Shkodra, in February 2006.
This is how Liza tells her life: I was born in Shkodër in 1928. I was arrested and put in prison on October 1, 1947, while my older sister Terezina was imprisoned in October 1946, when she was in high school Tirana and accused him of knowing about the Postriba Movement.
In our house lived S.R. (communist and high state official). Then the housing in Shkodër was run by the communists, they put the red officials in the houses of the citizens, while the family members, the owners of the house forced them to live in a room on the lower floors, mostly in the basements or in many cases they kicked them out of the house forever.
They put me to work as a (temporary) cartelist at NIL Productions”, says Liza. “S.R. found out that I was hired the next day. I was immediately fired from my job. They gave me a letter to send to F.K., who worked in the State Security.
– With a friend I took with me and accompanied me, I handed her the letter, while he told me: – You have to take the letter to the Executive Committee, in order to get to work. Your sister is in prison. Do you know why your sister went to prison?
– She doesn’t care, – I answered.
The Security official continued: – If you want to work with us, we will get your sister out of prison. That you are friends with the girls of the Pipa, Kapidani, etc… Families and tell us what they talk about. This conversation took place on September 1, 1947. After I refused to cooperate with the Security, on October 1, 1947, they put me in prison,” remembers Liza Pali.
During the conversation, the 78-year-old lady Liza’s eyes filled with tears, she turned to me and said: – “If I knew what I would suffer in prison, I would have cooperated, because the communist prison was very difficult, especially for a girl who was approaching the age of 18”.
The accusation against me, continued Mrs. Liza, was: You fought the People’s Power and you slipped letters into the prisoners (how could letters be slipped into that prison, full of guards?!) These were all slander. I just cried, I wasn’t strong like my sister Terezina. I was subjected to all kinds of torture. The first night, until 1 o’clock after midnight, they beat me with kicks and those military boots of theirs, they hit me with such force…! Oh! – I don’t know how to describe the endless pain I went through. On Monday at dinner, the police came (mostly they took us to the investigator in the late evening) and took me to Zoi Themeli, who was the head of Shkodra District Security.
At that time I was left without clothes and water. When I was brought into the examiner’s room, I was covered in blood (imagine what a young girl can feel, when she is in this period of the month of menstruation), which requires proper personal hygiene and body care.
The investigator ordered the guards and they sent me to the tap, I washed myself with cold water. Then he said to the investigator: – Your accusation is serious, that you received the code (code) and you sent it to your uncle in the mountains (this was an absurd accusation). – You will be sentenced to death, while your sister will be sentenced to 25 years. I (says Liza) answered: – I don’t have anything! (And cry, just cry). But he hit the table with all his might and started screaming. His face became like a monster and said – the police are going to jail because of you, because you gave coded letters to your uncle.
– What an absurdity! – says Liza. – They took me down to the basement, they tied me to a pole with a rope, one palm, without touching the ground and left me from Wednesday until dinner, without water, my tongue became thick; I was dry for a drop of water. They left me on the floor of the basement, without any kind of cover, and my body felt the dampness of the earth, the coldness of autumn and the tremors of my heart, in that eternal darkness.
Then they took me to the dungeons, it was the time when the trial of Mr. Fahri Rusi (patriot and member of the “Balli Kombëtar” Shkodër), who was shot. I listened to how they tortured the men and their screams shook my soul, my heart was torn by the pain that those deserts were trying…!
Fear penetrated to the core…! They tied my hands and left me in the corridor. My uncle, Pal Thani, listened to the story of how he had been tortured in the most inhuman way and spoke to the guard:
– I have been without water for 14 days, bring me some grapes to wet my mouth, ask my granddaughters, Terezina and Liza. The desolate uncle, through those words, sent us his message that he knew that his nieces were in prison and under torture, and let me understand that in the last minutes of his life, he was thinking about his beloved nieces, which those tortures were also trying.
That night, my uncle, Pal Thani, the captain of the Albanian Army, who had graduated from the university of Parma-Italy, died under torture and thirsty for a drop of water…!
They took me to dungeon no. 14, where the uncle had died, while the other uncle, Mark Thani, also an academic, graduated in Padua, Italy, was shot, without trial in 1944. The uncle, Ded Thani, who had been Vice/Prefect in Tuz, handed over to the Yugoslav state, they sentenced him to 13 years in prison, the only one who returned, after finishing his sentence and worked as a manual laborer, until he died of cancer, which was slandered by the horrors he had seen and went through prisons himself.
In my body, says Mrs. Liza, I have experienced all kinds of torture, such as: hand and foot binding, they left me without food. They punished me when I didn’t answer the questions of the interrogator, they took off my clothes, left me without blankets, without food, without water, they put electricity in my ears. This current threw me off the chair, on the other side of the room. They did not leave torture without me. These kinds of tortures have been inflicted on fathers and daughters and other women, political prisoners.
What made me cry more and suffer spiritually is an incident in prison, related to the subject’s sister, Terezina. I was called to the investigator F.K. and Zoi Themeli, forced me to write a letter to Terezina, who was in the Church prison. Terezina did not know that I was also arrested. I would write under their dictation, whatever they said, I was obliged to write it.
The letter said:
– We have a Security officer, who lives in our rented house, and he told me to send a letter to Terezina, to ask her, what did you accept and what did you not tell?
I wrote the letter, which they forced me to, under their dictation and I wrote the name “Liza”. I cried all night in the dungeon, how could I, sister, do such a thing, my heart ached, my soul, my brain, my whole being died. But Terezina answered the letter, where she wrote: I don’t care about that officer you have there. I don’t have anything; I’m waiting to be released. I am worried about you, do you have wood for the winter and are you in good health?
Terezina
As for another event, again regarding the sister – Terezina. They allowed us to ask for books, especially novels, to read. Terezina asked for the book “War and Peace” by Tolstoy, in Italian, because then there was no variant in the Albanian language. The family members brought the book, but what happened?!
The policeman was furious, as he called it a book of enemies, traitors, and they put Terezina in the dungeon, but the worst part, says Liza, shaking her head and hands, the police forced me to throw buckets of water at her, in that dungeon, where the sister was tortured and cold water was thrown with a bucket, from my hands, on my beloved sister. This happened on the night of the Easter holiday, the celebration of the Renaissance. The police used this method with others, when they forced the young boys to throw water in the dungeon, the older ones, as was the case of Pjeter Z. Saraçi, were isolated by the police and they forced the boys to throw the buckets at him with water, while he was left alone in his underwear…!
The General Prosecutor B.K. came to the prison, opened the small square of the dungeon door and asked me: – What is your name? – Lisa Pali. – Why did you go to prison? I answer: – I made some mistakes. He said in a loud voice: – You have committed a crime that you are among the number one criminals here.
I was kept under torture for five months, until February 1948, while sister Terezina, 17 months (October 1946 – January 1948). In the former German Gestapo prison, I was kept for three weeks, in the Church prison, until I went to trial.
In February 1948, the whole group was put on trial.
Motivation: Agitation and propaganda for the overthrow of the people’s power. (Time would prove what kind of People’s Power this was). I was sentenced to 3 years of imprisonment. Lilo Zeneli (Head of Security), was more reasonable than the others, at the moment when my sister, Terezina, was going to be removed from Shkodra, in the direction of another prison, because it was allegedly not suitable for two sisters to be together.
He asked me: – Why are you crying? Through tears I answered: – I was separated from my sister. He reunited me with my sister. It was a necessity, that we both coped with the suffering better, that the older sister was strong, brave, while I only cried. The prison years passed and I grew up.
The amnesty of 1949 took place, I benefited and was released on May 1, while I completed my sentence in October, in a word, I benefited from a 5-month reduction. I returned home, older sister Terezina, she was still in prison, and she was not caught by any amnesty.
I couldn’t find a job, but I learned tailoring and worked with my uncle’s wife, which earned me a living. I got married in 1959, to Z.B. Dajçi, in 1964, gave birth to a later son and daughter. The strongest pain, continues Liza’s story, I experienced in 1990, when my son left Albania, swimming across the lake (with friends). All that time I stayed with a trembling heart, lest the border guards kill him, as happened to many others.
At the end of the confession with Liza, this honorable woman from Shkodra, I asked her: – What do you know about what other people said about that time? Her answer was: – To live as a humiliated, denied.
The arrest and seven-year sentence of Tonin Pal
But in the Pali family, the suffering would not end and there would be no end, since in October 1949, their only son, Tonin Pali, who was a teacher in the Dukagjin area, was arrested. In the house where Tonini lived (when he was a teacher), the son of that family ran away and escaped from Albania, so they arrested Tonini, because he was allegedly aware of the escape and did not report it. They imprisoned Tonini, and sentenced him to 7 years of imprisonment, which he served in Shkodra prison.
Note: I did not put the names of the investigators and torturers of Mrs. Liza Pali – Dajçi in full, but only the initials, because we do not want their families to feel persecuted and a good part of these descendants are in leadership positions in post-communist governments./Memorie.al
