Dielli | The Sun

Albanian American Newspaper Devoted to the Intellectual and Cultural Advancement of the Albanians in America | Since 1909

VOC Applauds Texas’ Steps To Pass Key Legislation, Commemorating, Victims of Communism

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — This past week the Texas House of Representatives held a hearing on legislation to establish November 7thas the annual “Victims of Communism Memorial Day.” Texas will join 12 other states in recognizing VOC Day to bear witness to those who have died and suffered under communist regimes.Representative Tom Oliverson, the bill’s sponsor, remarked that “more than 100 million innocent people have been killed by communist regimes since the creation of the first communist regime on November 7th, 1917 in Russia. This is the greatest loss of human life of any event in human history, and we must not forget the horrors of communism. Just as the Holocaust memorials remind us to never again indulge the brutality of fascism, so too, this memorial serves as a sobering reminder of the empty promises of communists everywhere, and the brutal legacy of human suffering they leave.”VOC was honored to have Advisory Council member Dr. Elida Dakolitestify before the Texas House of Representatives and bear witness to her family’s experience under the communist regime in Albania.
Texas Representative Tom Oliverson (right) and VOC witness Dr. Elida Dakoli (left).
“When [my grandfather] refused to turn his wealth over to the communist party, he was jailed, his homes were destroyed, and my grandmother and her four young children ages 1-12—including my father—were thrown in the street with nothing. Her brother bravely took my grandmother and the children in, but my grandfather was killed in jail. We still do not know where his grave is. The persecution of my family members went on for four generations.” 

VOC applauds Texas’ steps to establish November 7th as the “Victims of Communism Memorial Day.” The crimes of this evil ideology must never be forgotten. 

For more information and to become involved in VOC’s local educational and advocacy efforts in Dallas, please complete this form. 

Don’t forget to add info@victimsofcommunism.org to your address book or safe sender’s list.

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation is an educational, research, and human rights nonprofit devoted to commemorating the more than 100 million victims of communism around the world and to pursuing the freedom of those still living under totalitarian regimes.

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DioGuardi’s letter to the Mayor of Tepelena is offensive to the Victims of Communism

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1-Mithat-gashi-2-300x197By Mithat Gashi/*

I have the highest regard for former Congressman Joe Dioguardi’s work in defense of Kosova. As a member of Congress and as head of the Albanian American Civic League, Mr. DioGuardi spoke loud and clear in support of the ethnic Albanians of Kosova, and warned the international community long before the breakup of Yugoslavia that the Serbian aggression, headed by Slobodan Milosevic, must be stopped.

Yesterday, I read a letter that Mr. DioGuardi recently wrote to the Mayor of Tepelena, a town in the southern part of Albania, where the communist regime established a concentration camp after WWII. The letter dated July 12, 2018 was published in “Gazeta Dita” I strongly disagree with Mr. DioGuardi’s statement to Mayor Peçi of Tepelena, urging him to not support the establishment of a memorial complex in honor of the victims of communism.

After WWII, thousands of women and children from influential Albanian families were rounded up in military fashion and forced into concentration camps that reeked of human suffering and death. In these barbed wire camps, survivors have reported that in one night 34 infants suffered and died due to inhumane conditions. The only crime that the detainees committed was that they were the children, the fathers, and the grandfathers of people who expressed different political views. These victims were sent to this camp, just like many other camps in Albania, to suffer and their suffering continued for nearly five decades, until the fall of communism.

Among my family members in the Tepelena Camp, I count my mother, Sanije, my aunts Feride, Fatime, and Shpresa, my grandmother, Gjulije, and my uncle, Ahmet Kolgjini.  In addition, my uncle Qemal Gashi’s wife, Lirije (daughter of Muharrem Bajraktari) with her brother and mother were transferred from Berat to the Tepelena Camp. Lirije’s mother died in the Tepelena Concentration Camp. Lirije never found the remains of her mother.

In 1944, the Fifth Brigade of the communist army, headed by General Shefqet Peçi,  marched into Luma, a district in northern Albania, executing people and causing terror.  They burned my grandfather’s home and confiscated his property. In 1945, armed military and police forces rounded my grandfather’s family and deported them to a concentration camp in Berat. My grandfather, Haziz Gashi, had vigorously opposed the communist ideology. For his anti communist stand, he was sentenced to death in absentia as soon as the communist authorities took over the Albania.   Among my family members detained in Berat, I count my father, Haxhi Gashi (11); my uncles,  Ramiz (10) and Gani (23, with wife and infant son); my aunts Dalije (4), Remzije (1); my grandmother Zarije Gashi, and my cousins Gafurr Spahija and Kadishe Spahija. Two of my infant cousins, Lutfi (son of uncle Gani and Kadishe, infant daughter of Prof. Miftar Spahija died in the Berat Camp).

Holocaust museums and memorials have been established all over the world from Argentina to Uruguay.  There are hundreds of such memorials and museums in the United States. Their purpose is to honor the victims and to educate the public of the atrocities committed against humanity.

All internment camps and political prisons in Albania should be turned into museums. Memorials to honor the victims of communism should be erected in every city and those who have committed crimes, Hoxha’s willing executioners, should be brought to justice.

Unfortunately, we cannot erase the past but we are morally obligated to provide justice to the victims through recognition of their suffering. This horrific part of Albanian history should be exposed (and integrated into school curricula) so that Albania’s youth and future generations can also say,  WE WILL NEVER FORGET.

*-Mithat Gashi escaped from Albania in 1986. He is a board member of the Holocaust, Genocide, Interfaith Education Center at Manhattan College.