ACADEMIC CONFERENCES

In the framework of civic education and academic research, the Authority for Information on Former State Security Documents (AIDSH) has organized and participated in academic conferences and round tables.

On 30-31 October 2018 – Organization of the first international scientific conference: “The outcast from the power: the eviction/deportation system and the use of forced labor in Albania 1945-1990", in cooperation with the Institute of History, Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism and the Institute for the Integration of Former Political Persecutors, in broad interaction with universities, local, regional and foreign partners.

Among the problems of the Albanian society's relations with the communist past, the discourse on the repressive part of the regime seems to be the most difficult component. Public opinion shows some kind of refusal to engage in debates on the multi-line violence exercised by the communist regime against its political opponents and their families, the prison and deportation system, the suffering of people in these prisons and camps, and the many ill-treatment they suffered in there.

            The force labor has been widely used in communist Albania, shortly after the establishment of the regime. Labour camps for detainees started operating near the penitentiary institutions (prisons). Labor camps were places where the punishment was carried out by doing forced labor such as reclamation, public works construction, mining, agriculture etc. They were often built near the place where prisoners were supposed to work. Such camps were temporary (built with tents or barracks, surrounded by barbed wire and strictly controlled by armed soldiers), while in other cases were permanently located, especially near the mines. The first working camps for prisoners were those of Juba, near Durrës (1946); that of Maliq near Korça (1946); Beden and Lekaj near Kavaja (1948), Valshuk, Berat (1948) and many others. Forced labor was also applied to deportation posts during this period. All exiles regardless of whether they were men, women, the elderly or the children lived in barbed wire places and were forced to work very hard. Such work camps for internees were in Tirana, Tepelena, Cërrik etc.

            Labor camps for prisoners and deported people were the most painful phenomena of this period. A State Department report to the United Nations in 1955 expresses concern about the use of forced labor in prisons and deportation camps in Albania. According to that statement, "forced labor is widely used in Albania since the communist regime came into force in November 1944. A number of laws and decisions that legalized forced work have been published, and the new Albanian Penal Code adopted in May 1952, based on the Soviet Penal Code, performs prominently "corrective work" and deportation engagement in concentration and work camps. Even children who have reached the age of 12 were accountable to the measures for "job-related" camps accused of crimes against the state. In the last 10 years, some 40 political prisons and concentration camps have been operating in time, over which 80,000 men, women and children have passed through, of which 16,000 have been lost. Now there are data that some 10,000 people were serving in political prisons and only 10,000 to 15,000 were in concentration camps. In addition to those punished with hard work, there are a lot of people in Albania, especially young people, who were forced to do "voluntary" work (currently under obligation). Almost all the industrial projects and the railroads construction undertaken by the past regime since 1944 were built with punished people and "volunteers".

  During the 28 years that followed the collapse of the communist regime in Albania, the scholars community has not been very focused on these delicate issues. In Albania, there are no serious studies about forced labor and deportation system; no memories of the communist regime have been built; no genuine scientific activity has been developed on these issues and, last but not least, there is a systematic work underway to gather testimonies and memories of persons who have been in prisons and deportation camps.

On February 19, 2020, the international scientific conference on "Patriots or traitors? Albanian political emigration in 1944-1990", took place in Tirana, in collaboration with the Institute for the Study of the Crimes and Consequences of Communism and the Institute for the Integration of Former Political Persecuted

In the fall of 1944, the city of Shkodra was overwhelmed by numerous crowds in search of a mean of transport that would drive them out of Albania. The majority were wealthy and well-educated Albanians, who held important positions in the administrations established by the Italian and German invaders, but also some of the leaders of the Balli Kombёtar, Legaliteti and other political organizations established during the Second World War in Albania.

            The decisions of the Congress of Permet and of the Second Anti-Fascist National Liberation General Assembly had sealed the seizure of power from the Albanian Communist Party and, along with it, the political direction that Albania would take in the future. For these personalities, the only way to escape the revenge of the new rulers was to settle this journey away from their homeland, which for most of them resulted of no return. This first wave of Albanian political immigration, time after time, were added many more of those which were forced to flee the country to escape communist repression, or because they refused to live among the barbed-wires imposed by the regime.

            In Albania, senior regime leaders called Albanian political immigrants as "traitors of the country" because of the attitudes they held during World War II; their involvement in many operations organized by foreign intelligence services, but also because of open opposition to the totalitarian regime in Albania. In emigration, many of them became prominent voices in academic and social life and did not cease to speak out against Albanian totalitarianism, but also for the Albanian national cause. In the international institutions such as the UN, Amnesty International, the European Parliament, the US Senate, or the Council of Europe would occasionally be sent letters and petitions from individuals or organizations of Albanian political immigration expressing concern about various issues concerning Albania and Albanians.

            Unfortunately, there are few serious academic publications about the history and the activity of Albanian political immigration during 1944-1990. To enable the promotion of a serious scientific debate on the activity and personalities of Albanian political immigration during 1944-1990.

On 17 May 2019, the Authority In association with the Institute of History (Academy for Albanian Studies), the Institute for Studying the Crimes and Consequences of Communism and the Institute of Former Political Persecuted, organized the International Conference “The portrait of ‘people’s enemy’ during the dictatorship of proletariat in Albania (1944-1990)”.

Different theories on totalitarianism define it as an anti-democratic political regime, a oneparty system with no parliamentary life, in which “the individual and society belong to the state, by itself considered not just a moral and spiritual entity representing the whole nation, but also as to assimilate all the civil society branches”. In other words, the most distinctive feature of the totalitarian regimes is the full and detailed control of the ideas, believes and expressions. In order to ensure their power, totalitarian regimes demand to create the uniformity within the state and to insure a blind obedience from society.

            To achieve full uniformity is awfully challenging as long as human society is constituted from individuals with different point-of-views, believes and faiths. Totalitarian regimes need to assure the persuasion of the majority and to fright and/or eliminate in different ways the not wanted political minorities, which can become an obstacle to the leadership. In this process, the violence by several institutions (secret service, imprisonment, forced labor) and the propaganda imposed by the statecontrolled medias and by the mass organizations are the two main pillars that ensure a long-lived dictatorial regime. In a way, the regime needs the “people’s enemy” figure, which is described as the individual which risks the general well-being of society or as the “traitor” which juggles with the state sovereignty.

            The regime imposed in Albania after the WWII was sui generis a totalitarian regime modeled after Stalin’s Soviet State. Albanian Communist leaders applied the same methods and methodologies. Those who lived during the years of the “dictatorship of proletariat” in Albania are nurtured with the concept of the “people’s enemy”. The regime did not hide the fact that “the dictatorship of proletariat” was in its core “violence of the majority against a privileged minority”. This slogan legitimized the violence against real or imaginary political opponents, as well as creating the right amount of public cohesion, which would give life to the power of ACP/ALP leaders.
            This conference aimed to give attention and to open a multi-disciplinary, scientific and public debate to the mechanisms that were used by different state and party bodies to create a gap between real or potential political opponents and the rest of the population; the typology of the “people’s enemy” etc.

On August 28, 2020, the round table "95 years of Martin Camaj, work and persecution" took place, AIDSSH, in cooperation with the Academy of Albanian Studies, the Institute of History, the "Onufri" publishing house, the "Martin Camaj" Association in Germany, the Theater "Migjeni" Shkodër and the German Authority for the Opening of Files (BSTU Germany).

The life, work and persecution of the Albanianologist Martin Camaj were presented in an audiovisual material prepared by the Authority.  The activity aimed to include as many voices as possible in the public debate about Camaj and beyond, about historical figures and their lives during the dictatorship, persecution or involvement, using the expertise of the institutions that have faced similar situations in three decades now, and helped the discussion about the files of persecuted intellectuals, with the typology of the files of the Security from 1944-1955.  Having several voices and points of view in the meeting, making available documents and serving expertise of gas in documents of the secret police, which raises questions about their truth, (not authenticity, but content at the time of creation), when the objective was determined on the platform Security, plan of measures, line of conduct, ethics, the table invited a reflection on the legacy of the communist past and the formation of historical memory for this past

International Conference: "Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances in the Time of Dictatorship and the Authoritarian Past, as well as the Contemporary Context: A Social, Legal and Historical Assessment of Transition and Transformation Policies and Mechanisms" in 2021 Participation of Authority at the European Memory Symposium, organized by ENRS.