Conference 2014
I Survived Tepelena
With the publishing of the third volume of the “Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Victims of Communism”, the Institute for the Studies of Communist Crimes and Consequences in Albania in collaboration with the Conrad Adenauer Foundation in Tirana has organized a joint*** conference in the ex labor camps in Tepelena. The camp was functional in the years 1945-1954. Present at the conference was the German Ambassador Mr. Helmut Hoffman, Aldo Bumçi member of parliament, ex-political persecuted, family and relatives of those who were in the camp and of course the survivors from the camp. In the facilities were the barracks of the prisoners were a stage was improvised with the paintings of Lek Previzi one of the ex-prisoners of this camp. His work has been summed up in an album containing drawings and portraitures. This album is about the only testimony from this era. Leka’s wife confesses that she was born in this camp and still today her name is “baby” and she is a living symbol of the survival of little children from the labor camps, the majority of whom died during this period. This concentration camp is also known as the “Auschwitz” of Albania. More than 1200 people lived suffered and died in this camp. The Tepelena Concentration Camp one of the most notorious was active for 9 years. This activity labeled “I Survived Tepelena” tries to bring to all Albanians a part of their forgotten history, of how people of our country suffered and died during communism
