by Bajram Mjeku
Abstract
This historical memoir, presented in diary form, chronicles the tragic experiences of an Albanian family from Graboc (Kosovo) and the broader suffering of the Albanian population in Kosovo between 1945 and 1962, under early Yugoslav communist rule.
The memoir recounts mass killings and massacres of Albanians by Yugoslav Partisan and Chetnik forces in 1945 (including the Drenica massacres, the Tivar massacre of approximately 5,000 Kosovar recruits, and killings in Anamorava), forced surrenders orchestrated by Enver Hoxha, widespread famine, property confiscations, and the labeling of families as “kulaks.”
It documents continuous repression, including arrests, torture, political persecution of the Albanian National Democratic Movement, guerrilla resistance in the mountains, and the deportation policies targeting Kosovar Albanians.
Through personal stories — such as family starvation in locked towers, the killing of relatives, and encounters with both Serbian and Albanian partisans — the text portrays the deep disillusionment of Kosovar Albanians toward both Yugoslav communism and the Albanian regime under Enver Hoxha.
It also records major international and regional events (the founding of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, Stalin’s death, the Hungarian uprising, the building of the Berlin Wall, etc.) as perceived by a family secretly listening to BBC radio.
Notes from the hidden diary
DRENICA, 1945: Serbian partisan-Chetniks, also helped by the Fifth and Sixth Albanian Brigades, killed and massacred about 8 thousand Albanians. The commander, Shaban Polluzha, was also killed. This time too, the Serbs took advantage of the harsh winter to massacre the Albanians. The great mort has begun in Kosovo…
BELGRADE, 1945: Josip Broz Tito, Supreme Commander of the Yugoslav Army, today, February 8, declared a military siege in Kosovo.
TIRANA, 1945: The Supreme Commander of the Albanian Army, Enver Hoxha orders: “The fugitives who have surrendered to your Division, send them to the 52nd Serbian Division”. This refers to the surrender of the boys from Kosovo to the hands of the Serbian Chetniks.
TIVAR, TOBACCO MONOPOLY 1945: At noon on March 31 in Tivar, they say a trap was set. According to a well-conceived plan, Serbian partisans-Chetniks and Albanian partisans massacred about 5 thousand Kosovar recruits. All of them are young. Woe to us…
GRABOC, JANUARY 1945: My family of forty-six members has been suffering from hunger for four weeks now. The partisans-Chetniks locked us in a tower. Today, Remziu, my twin brother, died due to lack of food. We quickly buried him under the control of the partisan-Chetnik unit. When we laid him in the grave, I had the feeling that I had passed into eternity with him.
Ismet K., the farmer’s son, from the Yugoslav Army Headquarters has taken on the task of checking every morning whether we have eaten bread. We are Mocans. When they line us up one by one and when he is in front of me he shouts: “Open your mouth!”. That is not enough. With both hands he forcefully opens my jaws, to see if there are any crumbs of bread left between my teeth.
Yesterday at noon, a good omen happened. Our cousin Emini got permission from the Serbian Headquarters to graze our cattle. They allowed him, because they slaughter a lamb every day. When at noon Emini brought the sheep back from the pasture, a miracle happened. He had chosen the sheep, which had the instinct to walk among the flock. In the scarf wrapped around the sheep’s neck, there were four corn loaves. We ate the bread quickly. Father ordered us to rinse our mouths.
TRAIN STATION IN GRABOC, 1945: The partisan-Chetniks were replaced by Albanian partisans of the Fifth Albanian Brigade. They settled in the train station and its courtyard. In the evening they light a fire and sing Labe polyphony. I begged my father to let us visit them one evening.
They have their own business, we have ours!,- my father refused. I insisted so much tonight that I forced him to go to them. The Albanian partisans received us coldly.
Do you have a problem?!, – asked a certain Veli Kapo, political commissar of the Fifth Albanian Brigade.
Our problem is the Serbs here, we can easily do the rest!, – my father replied. Arqile Milo, the short-legged and plump partisan, stood up. She took the revolver from her belt and put the barrel to my father’s forehead.
The Serbs are our pig-headed Kosovar brothers!, – said the partisan Milo. At that moment another partisan from Shkodra intervened, whose name we never learned, and my father escaped the bullet. It has been three months since Kosovo was placed under military rule.
PRISTINA, JUNE 1945: Today, at the old warehouses, I met a friend. We were surprised at each other that we are still alive! He told me that even in the Tobacco Monopoly in Tetovo last year, about 2,800 Albanians were massacred.
GJILAN, WINTER 1944-’45: About 7 thousand Albanians, mainly young men, were killed by the Partisan-Chetniks in Anamorava. Many of them came down to the city to celebrate freedom, but were executed in the prime of their youth. The situation is grave. Even graver when we do not dare to talk about them and remember them even with a flower on their grave. Anamorava is in ruins.
PRISTINA, PROVINCIAL COMMITTEE, 1947: The communists confiscated 63 hectares of land, over 100 hectares of forests, hundreds of cattle and the steam mill in Drenas. They have brought us a decision with the sign: “Kulak families”. Kosovo has been seized by famine. Now we are in the communist camp. We do not know what is happening either in Albania or in Europe.
BELGRADE, 1946: Enver Hoxha visited his Yugoslav counterpart, Josip Broz Tito. What will be decided about Kosovo?, each of us asks.
BELGRADE, 1946: Yugoslavia banned the use of the Albanian flag in the name of proletarian internationalism.
QYQAVICA MOUNTAINS, 1946: Many members of the Albanian National Democratic Movement are staying armed in the mountains. Their leader, Ibrahim Lutfiu, does not surrender to the communists.
KOSOVO, 1947: The year of the great famine began. The communists forced us to hand over the “surplus” to them, until we had no food for ourselves. The Yugoslav government forced our family to hand over 46 thousand kilos of meat within a year.
If all these kilos are stones, it is a disaster!”, the mother exclaimed.
BLINAJË, 1947: About 300 members of the military wing of the Albanian National Democratic Movement set out to cross the border into Albania. They were ambushed by the Yugoslav Army and most were killed. “We were betrayed,” said the few who escaped alive.
GRABOC, 1948: In the mountains of Qyqavica there are still guerrillas of the Anti-Communist Resistance. Their leader Aziz Zhilivoda, talked to my father one-on-one that night. From that night on, we never saw Aziz again. When I asked my father where Aziz was? – he answered briefly: “Mind your own business!”.
GJAKOVO, 1948: Xheladin Hana, a delegate to the Bujan Conference, was killed in the office of the Yugoslav Secret Service. He was killed when he said that the Yugoslav army killed about 80 thousand Kosovars during World War II.
PRISTINA, 1949: My father bought a radio and hid it in the pantry. He said that the box could bring trouble. Every evening he listens to the BBC news. At the end of the news he repeats the refrain:
England is strong! This year, nine members of the Albanian National Democratic Movement were convicted in the District Court in Pristina. Other groups are expected to be convicted as well.
BRUSSELS, 1949: BBC Radio announced the founding of the Western military bloc with the acronym NATO. The organization established a system of collective defense, where member countries agreed to defend each other in the event of an attack by an external party.
LONDON, 1949: Mit’hat Frashëri appeared in the BBC radio studio. He spoke for five minutes about the evil that has befallen Albania from the communists. He also announced the establishment of the “Free Albania” Committee.
GRABOC, 1950: The whole family felt bad today. The wolf pack attacked our English thoroughbred horses. The horses were the last glory of our family. Only Vrançi, who was seriously injured, had survived. Dad took the Parabellum and wrapped it in a cloth so that the crack would not echo and killed it. With heavy steps he returned home, his hair gray.
NEW YORK, 1949: In a room at the “Lexington” hotel, scholar Mit’hat Frashëri died under suspicious circumstances three months after founding the “Free Albania” committee. The Albanian State Security is suspected of his murder in collaboration with the English double agent, Kim Filby.
GRABOC, 1951: Our farmer, Ismet K., has enrolled in school. The Yugoslav regime has banned our family from school. The communists continue to call us “kulaks.”
TIRANA, 1952: Radio Tirana announced today that the Prrenjas Agricultural Cooperative has exceeded the norm by five kilos of potatoes more than last year! From just 17 hectares confiscated from our family’s large property, the Fushë-Kosovo Agricultural Cooperative produced 65 thousand kilos of wheat.
MOSCOW, 1953: Today, March 5, the communist leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, died. Radio Tirana reports great sorrow in Albania, while great joy erupted in Kosovo.
GRABOC, 1953: In the evening, someone knocked. When I opened the door, I saw a tall man wearing a black raincoat. Under the raincoat, the barrel of an automatic rifle was visible. It was Aziz Zhilivoda. I was stunned, but he said to me:
Take me to the tower and call my father!
My father hugged him for a long time. As soon as they drank coffee, Aziz Zhilivoda said:
They sent me from Albania to organize an uprising. They want to overthrow Tito!
Enver Hoxha deceived you. Tito has become very strong!, – my father said confidently.
I know Sali, – said Azizi and his eyes filled with tears…
SPLIT, CROATIA, 1953: The head of communist Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, and the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mehmet Fuat Köprülü, signed an agreement for the deportation of 40 thousand Kosovar families to the deserts of Anatolia.
EAST BERLIN, 1953: About 170 German workers protested against the communist camp. They were crushed by force of arms by 20 thousand Soviet soldiers. Tanks flooded the streets of Berlin and Potsdam. Soviet soldiers killed 55 people, later shooting over 106 of them.
BELGRADE, 1953: The Yugoslav government issued a decree, through which it banned the wearing of the veil by Muslim women. Some of the Muslim clergy rejected the decision and some of them were sent to prison. “With or without force, we like it!”, said Dad briefly.
WASHINGTON, 1954: Today, October 20, the Westerners offered West Germany full inclusion in Euro-Atlantic structures. They also signed the agreement for NATO entry. Dad smiled and rubbed his hands together for a long time.
GRABOC, 1954: This year, we did not have good fortune, but the family grew. Seven boys and four girls were born.
NEW YORK, 1955: The United States of America report to the UN on Albania states: “Albania has 40 internment camps with 49 thousand people. Young people with biographies unsuitable for the regime are called up to do military training in a labor brigade without the right to bear arms…”.
WARSAW, 1955: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union signed the Warsaw Pact, with the aim of mutual protection of the parties signing the treaty.
BELGRADE, 1956: The Minister of the Interior of the Yugoslav Federation, Aleksandar Ranković, under the pretext of collecting weapons, is terrorizing Albanians. Over 35 thousand Albanians have been tortured during this brutal winter and 103 have drowned from torture. Thousands of families have left for Turkey. The refugees are being taken to Skopje, never to return.
BUDAPEST-WARASWA, 1956: The Soviet army intervened between Hungarian and Polish protesters. The refrain “England is strong”, this time the father replaced with another sentence: “ The communists are not going to last!”
GRABOC, 1957: Hana, our fellow villager, asked her parents to continue her education. All the villagers call her “the dirty whore!”
PRISTINA, NEAR HOTEL “BOZHUR”, 1959: I met the peasant Ismet K. by chance. He said he was enrolled in the Military Gymnasium in Belgrade. “What a pity that you are kulaks and not communists!”, he said.
WASHINGTON, 1961: John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States of America. We heard the news on the BBC radio.
England is doing well. “You won’t change the Queen until I die!”, said my father confidently.
TIRANA, 1961: Suddenly on Radio Kukësi, under the whistle of the noisemaker, we received the news that communist Albania broke all relations with the Soviet Union. The Russian communist leader, Nikita Khrushchev, on the occasion of Communist Party Day on October 30 in the Kremlin, declared relations with Albania to be definitively broken.
BERLIN, 1961: The Soviet Union ordered the erection of the Berlin Wall. Germany is being divided in two like Kosovo and Albania. “The Germans will tear it down one day!”, said my father nervously.
TIRANA, 1961: Albania broke relations with the Soviet Union. It immediately connected with communist China. On Radio Kukësi, Enver Hoxha calls the Chinese brothers, the Kosovars friends.
As long as the Stalin monument is in Tirana, there will be no Albania, – he said in despair father.
FUSHË-KOSOVO, 1962: Ismet K. is enrolled in the Military Academy. While waiting for the train to Belgrade, he stood before me in the uniform of a Yugoslav cadet. They say he fell in love with a Serbian girl from Kragujevac and still expressed regret that I am not a communist!
P.S. In this diary, the memories of three generations of my family are summarized.
