1. The author, Neshat H. Bilali, emerges as chronicler, a fascinating narrator, and an exceptional witness to the extraordinary march that took place 65 years ago. With a fresh and clear memory, he reconstructs the odyssey of that tragic life or death journey. It was a journey during which surviving a night would have only meant that the next night they could not be as lucky and could face death. The eminent Albanian-American intellectual, Peter Prifti, would justifiably indicate that “the chronicle of the escape of the Bajraktari group from Albania to Greece, has the character of a lived drama, with heroic, but also tragic events.”
Who were these people (actual individuals in author’s narrative), that left their homeland, their families and began their long migration? Was this a normal economic migration or a totally different one? Did these people consider themselves to be in access and had to look elsewhere for their livelihood so that they had to undertake such a tragic march? It seems that that the author sought to answer these and many other questions in his book.
If the situation that followed the end of World War II is analyzed, when in most of Europe, enthusiastic efforts were being undertaken to heal the wounds of war, in Albania the communists had decided on a cruel fate for the nationalists, the un-submissive or opposing groups. The regime sought to neutralize any form of potential opposition and realize its ambition to fully rein over the population. Thus, persecution of Muharrem Bajraktari (a well known opponent of obscurantism, or more directly the newly created communist feudality, is the most extreme aspect of the regime which sought to change Albania, but without the
people that could potentially oppose their dictatorial system. As the fury of persecution of nationalist forces continued to take a toll, under the leadership of Muharrem Bajraktari, a group of 56 individuals undertook the difficult march to Greece, with the intention of eventually settling in Western Europe or in the far away USA, and to continue the struggle for democracy in Albania and Kosova. At the start of the departure, Bajraktari would advise the fighters:
“The time to depart has come! The ones that will survive, I advise not to forget Albania, and anywhere we end up, we should work for it. The day will come for us to return home and we will be free. Let’s wish everyone a safe journey!”
But luck proved tragic for some of them. A drenching rain soon after the departure seems to have foretold dire times. The individuals that survived the horrors of the journey, eventually found refuge in various countries where they became an integral part of the western democracy. Meantime Albania and Kosova would continue to suffer under a totalitarian yoke: Albania plunged under an extreme communist dictatorship and Kosova under the serbo-communist military rule.
2. Under the circumstances of the tragic journey, no one would have expected to keep a diary. All the fighters sought was to remain alive during those long days and nights. Death knocked in the open sky as if it sought to take away the death-threatened travelers, to claim them permanently, just as it did 21, amongst them the three brothers from Podrimja: Aslan, Latif and Zyber Radosta. That is why the story of the odyssey of heroic tragedy was brought forth later by Neshat H. Bilali (shorter narratives have been published by Miftsr Spahija, Tafe Pervizi, Adem Gjura). The author of this book has provided a more complete testimony of the journey.
The author testifies that only when they arrived in Greece could they think about the losses suffered during the journey. The first estimate was that 22 individuals had been killed. They had hoped that maybe someone had sought sanctuary and would one day appear again, but that hope soon had come to an end. On the latter list was also included Bajram, the brother of M. Bajraktari. They learned later that he had been wounded and captured during an encounter and the police had taken him to a hospital in Shkup. The eventual fate of Bajram Bajraktari is well known: he was brought to Albania and in 1949 was executed in Zalli Kirit, Shkoder.
The testimony of the author is factual, thus giving a shocking history of marchers fighting for life and freedom. The narrative is gentle but frequently solemn. The author seems to want to impress that such an event should not be overlooked, but noted in history. This event relates to the nationalist resistance and experience, and for that matter it is unequalled in the Warld War II Albanian effort.
3. The information contained in Neshat H. Bilali’s book has multiple values. First, it is a testimony for the divisive and brutal period. The information apprises the scope of the resistance of the people who scorned isolation and persecution and did all they could to keep their country outside the communist wasteland. Second, the information is hoped would rekindle the conscience of the people about the nationalist effort and expose the irrational and absurd attacks of communist authorities against the nationalist forces, which had surpassed all imaginable limits. Third, based on the importance of the information, it would deservedly qualify for publicity. And lastly, it is important to indicate that the narrative of the book was written by an individual who partook in the nationalist effort, and who sees the events with an admirable calmness and objectivity, conditions which are rarely present in the realm of memoir writing.
Neshat Bilali’s kook is an expression of the desire and effort to secure acceptance of historical truths, and that being also the absolute reason for the publication of this book. This book, at the same time, seeks to shake off the indifference in our society about that period, when the primitivism of the new system, self proclaimed as new and advanced, had reached absurd limits.
