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Tirana Opens Museum Wing Depicting 'Communist Terror'

25.04.2012

According to museum director Luan Malltezi, a similar section opened in 1996, but this has a more complete depiction of the communist terror in Albania.

"We set up a working team of museologists, conducted thorough research at the Ministry of Interior archives and [consulted] with politically persecuted people. This section was rebuilt from the beginning and it has a time line from 1945 -- before Enver Hoxha came to power -- until 1991. It includes murders from before the country’s liberation. Enver Hoxha was criticised for this by his comrades, but still he continued to strengthen his power," Malltezi told SETimes.

There were 23 prisons and 48 deportation camps in Albania. According to partial records kept by the interior ministry, 5,157 people were killed; another 9,052 died in political prisons; 17,900 were imprisoned and 30,383 were deported during this period.

In addition to this wing at the National Museum of History there is also the National Liberation War section.

The exhibit has not escaped the attention of active communist party members. "I have seen this section passing by, driven by curiosity. Of course it has some truth in it, but it depends on how you interpret the facts," party leader Hysni Milloshi told SETimes. "My personal opinion is that society today doesn’t need a section against communism, [rather] one for these last 20 years of pluralism.

Ejsi Hysa, 22, was one of the first to visit the new exhibition. He told SETimes, "I think it is necessary that young people learn what is communism, to comprehend that Enver Hoxha was child of this communism and to understand that no ideology can bring heaven on earth."

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