Communist crimes museum to open in Shkodra

TIRANA, July 4 – A museum of Communism Crimes built in the facilities of a former prison is underway to open in the northern city of Shkodra in late 2012 when Albania celebrates its 100th independence. The museum is being built under a 57 million lek (Euro 406,000) fund by the Shkodra Municipality and Culture Ministry, preserving all traces of the former prison including cells and proof of inmates imprisoned for their political views against the regime.
While the reconstruction of the building has already finished, the exhibition of items and personal belongings by inmates will complete the museum.
Visiting the prison this week, Culture Minister Aldo Bumci pledged a similar museum will also open in the Spac political prison.
The northern town of Shkodra known for its anti-communism had 13 prisons with around 3,000 politically imprisoned people during the country’s 35-year communist regime. Hundreds of them were executed or died in prisons.
The Shkodra museum of Communist Crimes will be the second of this kind after the opening of the pavillion of Communist Terror at the National Museum of History in early 2012.
The museum has photographs of mass graves where many of the executed were buried, as well as handcuffs, chains and victim’s clothes and personal belongings.