Among others, this museum also has stands displaying items and documents unveiling the torture and violence by the communist regime against the politically imprisoned for around 50 years
TIRANA, July 31 – Known for its anti-communism resistance, the city of Shkodra, the biggest in northern Albania, will honour its thousands of politically persecuted, imprisoned and killed people with a museum of communist crimes. The museum, already in its final stage of construction, is situated in the former building of the notorious Sigurimi secret police which also served as a prison for the politically persecuted.
A 50 metre concrete entrance gallery leading to the former prison facilities where 40 cells operated has already been rehabilitated. The museum’s outdoor facilities including the airing yard have been reconstructed and personal items of political prisoners collected. Some audio effects have also been employed.
Among others, this museum also has stands displaying items and documents unveiling the torture and violence by the regime against the politically imprisoned for around 50 years until the early 1990s when the communist regime collapsed.
Mark Gjeka, who is leading the reconstruction works, says the premises of the former prison and the Sigurimi secret police premises have been left untouched. Prisoners’ notes on the walls have also been left unchanged. “This museum will unveil the suffering, torture and executions with or without trials of hundreds of Shkodra citizens who in their efforts to oppose the communist regime and its ideology fell victim to the communist terror and violence,” he said.
While the project initiated three years ago is in its final stage, local authorities have appealed to Shkodra citizens to donate items belonging to their politically imprisoned relatives. ” I appeal to all Shkodra citizens but also to citizens in surrounding areas who preserve in their houses items or documents of their relatives who were imprisoned in Shkodra to bring them to the museum so that its collections is further enriched,” says Shkodra Mayor Lorenc Luka.
The museum of communist crimes built in the facilities of a former prison was supposed to open in late 2012 when Albania celebrated its 100th anniversary of 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.
The northern town of Shkodra known for its anti-communism had 13 prisons with around 3,000 politically imprisoned people during the country’s communist regime. Hundreds of them were executed or died in prisons. In 1946, two years after the communist had taken over, the Postriba village in Shkodra registered the first anti-communist uprising which ended tragically with dozens of insurgents killed and politically imprisoned and persecuted during the whole 46-year communist regime.
The Shkodra museum of Communist Crimes will be the second of this kind after the opening of the pavilion of Communist Terror at the National Museum of History in early 2012.
The museum in Tirana has photographs of mass graves where many of the executed were buried, as well as handcuffs, chains and victim’s clothes and personal belongings.
