On the eve of 23 August, the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Totalitarian Regimes, Sula paid tribute to those who suffered unjustly in the internment and labor camps established in Albania after World War II.

Sula emphasized that early documents show Valias Camp was established in 1945 to house German POWs. Later, the camp was used to punish the so-called ‘internal enemy,’ including family members of escapees and convicts, most of whom were women and children.

Sula noted that by 1950, Valias Camp held 820 internees at its peak, half of them children who never went to school and grew up amid hunger, disease, and fear. Women comprised one in three of the prisoners, and men one in five.

Archival data show that the camp was closed in 1952, and its prisoners were transferred to other camps to serve their sentences.

“The camp was part of a broader system of internment: prisoners were often transferred from Valias to Kamëz, then to Tepelena or Porto Palermo. Wherever the family went, so did the stigma. These facts reveal the true face of the regime: a power that punished not only the individual but the entire family, affecting women and children as well,” Sula said.

Sula launched a documentary produced by the Authority’s staff, “Valias, from Camp to Remembrance”, which she said conveys sensitivity and authenticity.

The film features harrowing testimonies from survivors such as Avni Bazellari, Et’hem Fezollari, Vasil Kokali, Fatime Nurçe, and Lude Bazelli, who were minors when they were interned with their mothers 80 years ago. Their accounts are supported by archival documents from the AIDSSH, CIA, and the U.S. State Department.

Sula emphasized that the wounds of Valias, Kodër Kamza, Tepelena, Porto Palermo, Savra, Grabian, Spaç, and Burrel are not just individual wounds.

“They are wounds of our society, passed down from generation to generation. Researchers and psychologists remind us that trauma is not healed by being hidden, but by being acknowledged. Through this event, we choose to remember, to share, and to confront the truth. We commemorate in order to heal,” she said.

Sula emphasized that since 2017, the Authority has been working to document these sites of memory — from Tepelena and Porto Palermo to Spaç and Maliqi — collecting documents and testimonies and converting them into memory itineraries for younger generations.

/m.m/j.p/sm/