TIRANA, April 29 /ATA/ – April 29, 1945, marks the day when the U.S. soldiers liberated 31.601 prisoners in the Nazi concentration camp in Dachau, where a number of Albanian citizens were also imprisoned.
The Central State Archive revealed three interesting archival documents to mark liberation of Dachau concentration camp.
A letter signed by the President of the International Dachau Committee (CID), an international organization of the former Dachau concentration camp, dated July 8, 1964 and sent to the then Albania’s Prime Minister Mehmet Shehu, the Albanian state is notified that a monument will be established in tribute to the people who were incarcerated there.
“The monument due to be erected to mark the 20th anniversary of their liberation, will not be an act of hatred, but respect and embodiment. The Memorial is intended to urge the today’s people recall the horrors they are capable of committing if they follows in the footsteps of false prophets, the evils of racism, fascism and war,” the letter reads.
“This is a camp where Albanians also suffered and for its establishment, the financial assistance of Albania is required, as well as of many other countries, whose citizens suffered in this camp. The monument of the former prisoners will be erected on the basis of an international financing, which will be provided primarily by the voluntary contributions from different countries. But we saw fit for Mr. Prime Minister for an official contribution of your Government,” the letter went on saying.
Afterwards, the Committee of War Veterans addressed the request to the Prime Minister of Albania for the allocation of a sum of 500 dollars from the Albanian state budget to support construction of this memorial.
In response to this request, the Ministry of Finance was instructed by the government to allocate 500 dollars from the foreign exchange reserve fund, as a contribution to the construction of this memorial.
Opened in March 1933, the Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (Nazi Party) and it was initially intended to hold political prisoners.
When the U.S. soldiers neared the camp, they found more than 30 railroad cars filled with bodies brought to Dachau, all in an advanced state of decomposition.
The numbered of registered prisoners in Dachau between 1933 and 1945 is estimated at around 188,000, whereas the number of those who perished there remains unknown.
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