Albanian Museum Keeps Memories of Communist Terror Alive

"Shkoder suffered very much in the first years of communism, especially from 1956 to 1960, when the city was like a communist prison," the historian and curator of the Site of Witness and Memory Museum, Pjerin Mirdita, told BIRN.

The historian and curator of the Site of Witness and Memory Museum, Pjerin Mirdita, shows visitors some documents. Photo: BIRN/Madalin Necsutu.

The communists at one times operated no less than 23 prisons in Shkoder, a city with a large Catholic population where communists struggled to gain control during and after the last years of World War II.

Tens of thousands of Albanians were sent to labour camps for political reasons under the communist regime, and at least 6,000 people were executed, most experts believe.

"During these years, opposition to the communists was still high in Shkoder, maybe not directly against the state, but kept alive inside in people's hearts and minds," Mirdita says.

Mirdita says the former Catholic school operated as an interrogation centre and torture chamber.

"First, they [the prisoners] stayed here for the interrogation period, when they suffered physical and psychological torture. After they were sentenced, they were then sent to other prisons around the country," he explains.

Red-painted corridor symbolizes suffering:

The interior of the Site of Witness and Memory museum is separated into two parts, divided by a red-painted corridor, which symbols the often bloody torments of the people sent to the interrogations room, the darkest room in the building.

A red-painted corridor in the museum which leads to the political prisoners' cells. Photo: BIRN.

The entrance hall hosts a photography exhibition about the victims, with...