Thirty -five years since the beginning of the end of the Communist regime of Albania and forty years since the death of Enver Hoxha, Christos Nikolaidis, with his prime Time camera, follow those who were found in isolation from one moment to another, behind his heavy iron doors. The infamous extermination camp of political prisoners, where they were inhumane torture.

Continuing this route, their steps lead us to Tirana, to the Sigurimi Archives Study Institute – the powerful secret police of the Hoxha dictatorship. In corridors with thousands of metal lockers, former political prisoners are looking for the – now -distracted – files that drafted the regime. On their yellow pages they read the accusations that have been attributed to them, based on alert deposits of informants – fellow villagers, friends or even relatives.

The Sigurimi envelopes open, and the old wounds open

A sharp dive in its black past has been died in recent months by Albanian society, with the tradition of former prisoners and exiled Sigurimi envelopes, the infamous Hoxha regime.

Albania lives its own version of the famous film “The Lives of Others”. Thus, thousands of people who were imprisoned or exiled from 1945 to 1991, including the Northern Epirus, have the right to receive a copy of their file, which is archived by the House.

The issue in this redemptive but at the same time painful process is that every former convict sees informants in the files, that is, the persons who gave Sigurimi, information about his life and often became the reason for arrests, torture, imprisonment and exile. It’s like opening up the old joke again.

The dictatorship of the proletariat, the most brutal and free regime

But let’s take things from the beginning. In 1944, with the departure of the German conquerors, the leader of the First Emergency Hoxha occupies the power after brief civil conflicts between communist and nationalist rebels. It immediately establishes, in the standards of Stalinism, the dictatorship of the proletariat, the most cruel and free regime that Europe saw post -war.

Properties are confiscated, religions are forbidden, churches and mosques converted into warehouses, The other view except that of the state is simply forbidden. And it is strictly persecuted!

A typical case of Northern Epirus is the one of the 84 -year -old Michalis Kapsalidis today. He spent 20 years in Albania prisons for his life because he was considered a suspicious escape in Greece.

Escaped to Corfu on a sambrella

Alexis Balas, president of the Association of Political Prisoners of Heimmarra, managed to escape in 1987 in Corfu from the beach of Himara on a sambrella. “From here is Albania. From there it is freedom, close. That was our hope” says Alexis Balas.

The entire Sigurimi system was based on the informants, those that today the former convicts call Rufians or condemnation. There was a carefully organized system for their recruitment and operational operation

Historical researcher Stavros Dagios, originally from Pogoni in Northern Epirus, has studied Albanian records methodically. As he states, a characteristic case of Northern Epirus, who has all the formal elements of arrest, awarding categories and imprisonment of Greek origin concerns a person whoI spent in Albanian caterpillars 27 whole years, a whole life: Northern Epirus George Papas from the village of Tremouli of Saints Saranda.

George Pappas makes it clear that he has no intention of searching for his envelope, he does not want to remind him of Sigurimi, even today when she does not exist! He knows very well who handed him over, he had the opportunity to see him and beat him in the prisons. It all started in the distant 1963 when a group of three 22 -year -old children decided to escape to Greece, not withstanding the oppression of the regime. At the critical moment, however, one of the group, Spyros, disappeared shortly before the soldiers appeared and captured the other two, who will spend the next 2.5 decades of their life in Hoxha’s caterpillars.

Another Northern Epirus, Christos Tsanos, who spent 7 years in exile, accepts Christos Nikolaidis’ proposal to travel together to Tirana, to pick up his file, as well as his father who stayed in prison for 14 years with the charges of espionage in favor of Greece.

The trip to Tirana is short, the flight lasts less than an hour. But for Christos Tsanos it is a journey-revelation in the painful years of his youth. Sigurimi’s records have been stored in the large building complex of the Ministry of National Defense, in the center of the Albanian capital.

The Sigurimi Archive and Study Authority is an independent authority, operating under the responsibility of the Albanian Parliament. It is housed in the former Evelpidon School. There the envelopes and all records are kept in perfect conditions, are recorded and categorized, while two state -of -the -art laboratories are digitized. After all, the copies delivered to the former convicts are digitally.

The neat warehouses exude an ice cream. There are the documents of the horror of a brutal regime for about 50 years.

Spying him his most trusted friend

There are people who saw in their envelope that the one who was watching their every move, the one who informed state security about their ideas and opinions was not a police officer or an unknown, but a loved one! In the Deropolis Sofaratika we met the retired teacher George Massio, who spent 8 years of his youth in Hoxha, convicted of propaganda against the socialist state.

George Massios saw in his envelope that his most beloved colleague and trusted friend was spying on him.

Mr. Massiou’s file shows something else interesting: Sigurimi officers gave in writing to informants on how to open a conversation to trap him along the way, pushing him into characterizations against the regime.

It may sound funny today, but the suffering of George Massios began with the well -known song “Maria with the yellow”, which also shows the way the informants act. In 1977, Marinella is invited to Albania in 1977 in Albania! The Northern Epirus fills theaters and for many days they mourn its successes. Mr. George discusses the issue with his friend and ruffian.

Such ridiculous accusations were also found in his own research by Stavros Dagios, who reads a reporter report on a new Northern Epirus because he was listening to music from the transistor. Eat 10 years in prison!

Similar jokes were identified in the dossier of Hercules Syrmos’ father, the son of Achilles and the author of books on Northern Epirus originating from Dervitsani. The first reference that makes him an enemy of the Albanian people is typical.

Thousands of missing just … disappeared

But there are also people who, reading their relatives’ envelopes, do not get answers but more questions and questions. They are the relatives of the thousands of missing, those who have simply disappeared, after an arrest and interrogation.

As Panayiotas Nerantzi says, teacher, her father “He was at work and suddenly he never returned home.

Alexis Balas from Himarra does not forget and forgive those who slandered him in their references to state security.

The common ground in Albania, Hoxha, was torture. The infamous Sigurimi had the right to arrest anyone who wished without justification and to hold it for 72 hours. It was the famous abduction, accompanied by inhumane torture.

According to the Soviet Gulag standard

Prisons in Spats began to operate in 1968. Today the facilities have been abandoned. The landscape is creepy. The buildings are ruined, and everywhere there is a heavy atmosphere of pain, just as the stories of the people who left their best years there in miserable and inhumane conditions during the model of Soviet Gulag.

This slaughterhouse smelled thyme, as the poet says, for only 3 days. In 1973, the prisoners stood out demanding better living conditions, carved out some guards, took control of the Gulag and lived for 3 days free, before the army stifling their attitude, their revolt, as it is said in Albanian. It was the first actual challenge of the communist regime, which made an international impression.