– Gjon Bruçi –
On the 80th anniversary of the death of the Hero of the People Manush Alimani
In the pantheon of heroism and glory of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War (ANLW) in the district of Shkodra, dozens of heroes and martyrs were raised, whose lives and deeds constitute sufficient material for great artistic works. Among them, on the eve of May 5, Day of the Martyrs, I chose the 20 year-old youth, former Political Secretary of the Communist Youth Committee for Shkodra, Hero of the People Manush Alimani. Just as we remember Manush Alimani, his image is reproduced in our minds with a letter written with his blood in the cell of the German Gestapo, a few days before his execution, a letter which, being authentic in form and content, will remain a fervent message for all generations of Albanian youth in the years to come.
“I am writing to you from the cell of the Gestapo for the last time. I am quite weakened. Ten days of torture, three days and nights without food have worn out my body. But my morale remains high. We are on the verge of victory, so do not despair. Here everyone calls me a ‘criminal.’ There is very little hope for me. My stance before death will be: Long Live the National Liberation Movement! Long Live the Communist Party of Albania! Continue your work without worry for me, for I will know how to endure. Work carefully and prepare for the people’s revenge. Death to Fascism — Freedom to the People! Mali (Manush Alimani).”
This was the epilogue with which our hero concluded his short but exceedingly active and heroic life. For many individuals, a human life is not enough to leave a mark, even within their own community. Manush Alimani, still not having reached 20 springs, in a quarter of a lifetime, elevated himself to the pantheon of national glory. But how did this happen? It happened because in his meteoric life, he chose the true path, the path of the purest human ideals, the path of communist ideals.
Since childhood, he encountered the impoverished life of the citizens of Shkodra, where he was born on October 8, 1924. Orphaned, he went to his relatives in Tirana, where he could continue elementary school, followed by the “Naim Frashëri” high school in Tirana. Clashes with poverty and his natural intelligence quickly united him with the most progressive and revolutionary part of the school youth. In 1942, he was accepted into the ranks of the Communist Youth of Albania, marking the organized beginning of his revolutionary activity, activity that forced him to break away from the high school benches. His political horizon, as a result of reading communist literature, and courage for illegal work with the youth in Tirana, convinced the leadership of the Communist Party of Albania (CPA) to order Manush Alimani to work in his hometown, Shkodra, in April 1943. The activity of this young communist would not pass without catching the attention of the communist militant Vasil Shanto who, in an information report to the Central Committee of the CPA, among other things, wrote: “Mali (Manush Alimani) is very suitable for the youth from all perspectives.”
Yes, the young communist Manush Alimani stood out among his comrades for his high qualities during the National Liberation Movement. Outstanding organizational skills; deep knowledge of the situation and conditions in the city of Shkodra; persuasive and communicative abilities with the people, especially with the youth; readiness to take on the most serious and risky duties and responsibilities; determined and courageous for the cause of the people and the Communist Party of Albania — these qualities made him the closest and most beloved person for the families of Shkodra. And he was only 19 when he was elected Political Secretary of the District Committee of the Communist Youth and a member, and shortly after, Organizational Secretary of the District Committee of the Communist Party for Shkodra, duties which he fulfilled with the dedication of a genuine fighter, remaining one of the most prominent leaders of the youth and Party in the district of Shkodra.
And here comes his final heroic act! This act did not come by chance, nor was it sought by him, but it was the logical consequence of his entire revolutionary activity. It was at the peak of his efforts to organize military actions, to distribute leaflets and communiques, to maintain connections between comrades, and together with them, to face the savage terror of the enemy’s winter operation in 1943-44, when he was suddenly captured by the occupiers’ agents in one of the alleys of his city. It was May 2, 1944, a day when the first flowers were blooming, and a flower of Shkodra’s youth would collide with the dark cells of the Gestapo.
Was it fate?! No! The young communist Manush Alimani, just like his comrades of the same ideal, had anticipated the risks and consequences. But their lives were smaller than the ideal and the Homeland to which they were dedicated.
The occupiers’ agents, the criminals Llesh Marashi and Shaban Elezi, hoping that through the young man suddenly captured, they would reveal all the communists in the city, used all kinds of inhuman tortures that the diabolical mind of traitors could invent. But in vain. The communist Manush Alimani did not reveal anything, not even a name, not even a word, not even an address. After the local criminals, it would be the German occupiers themselves who would face the young revolutionary, the steadfast communist who, with his Promethean resistance, illuminated the dark walls of the cell like fire. Twenty-seven days of inhuman torture could not bend the will and ideals of the youth. The Nazi captain Otto, who tortured him, said to Major Hauzding:
“This is not a man, but iron!”
He had spoken the truth. Manush Alimani was as strong as iron and as steadfast as steel, because he was a communist and communists are made of a special material, they are made of great faith in communist ideals. The Gestapo’s Hauzding would find himself facing a Prometheus who accepted sacrifice, but would never deviate from his path for the freedom of the Homeland. On the twenty-eighth day of torture, the German major Hauzding could not bear it anymore and thrust his bayonet into the chest of the 20 year-old youth without getting any information from him. The shirt stained with the blood of Manush Alimani emerged from the cells of the Gestapo, passing through the alleys of Shkodra as a “banner of inspiration” for the youth of Shkodra, who organized vigorously in the ANLW, until the complete liberation of Shkodra and all of Albania.
* * *
The bust of the hero, which years ago stood in front of the Shkodra Gymnasium, now “has descended” from its pedestal. In that place, unfortunately, have come and been reinstated the Llesh Marashis and Hauzdings. Our hero cannot stand alongside the his murderers and that of the people. Therefore, he has chosen to live in the hearts of the citizens of Shkodra and all of Albania.
* * *
Today, we, the post-war generation and the generations to come, when they become acquainted with these monumental episodes of national history and the lives of their authors, rightfully will ask: “What was that impetus, that moral and spiritual force, that made these young men, like Manush Alimani and his comrades, in the most beautiful age of youthful dreams, leave aside school, family, the joy of life, and look into the hardships of the legal and illegal war against the occupiers and traitors of the country?! What was that force that made these 20-25 year-olds endure the enemy’s tortures and bullets with self-abnegation, and fall on the field of honour with songs and calls on their lips, taking on the role of the mythological Prometheus?!”
And the answer comes naturally, for the generations that follow:
They were not only freedom fighters, but also fighters for partisan and communist ideals, for which, as the people’s poet Dritëro Agolli has written:
“They swore only once / In the ‘First Call’ of the year forty-one: / Oh, we raise the New World over ruins and ashes, / Oh, let nothing remain, neither ashes nor sound!”
The appeal of the heroes and martyrs of the Homeland, the message of the “First Call,” come to us today, more relevant than ever. Only by reviving the partisan and communist ideals can we become interpreters of the fate of the Homeland, can we restore to it the prestige and dignity of the years when it thrived and flourished freely in the sunshine that belonged to it!
Glory to the Hero of the People Manush Alimani!
(Translated from the Albanian original and first published in “Gazeta SOT” on May 2, 2024)
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