“We have a library that is open to the public, so everybody can come here to study or to read, or just spend some of their free time,” the historian and museum guide told BIRN. In the library, they can also read books about the Communist regime in Albania, as well as literature actually written in and on the prison. Members of the public and tourists who visit the museum can watch short movies in the audio-visual room. The memory of the tens of thousands of political victims of the former regime is kept alive in places like the Site of Witness and Memory in Shkoder. Like many other countries who landed on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain after World War II, the crimes of the communist era still haunt Albania, which today is knocking on the European Union’s doors, after being welcomed into NATO in 2009. It was like the gulags in Russia during the times of Lenin or Stalin,” Mirdita adds. “They had to work in the mines in shifts, every eight hours. The “re-education” of the prisoners in Shkoder would then continue in the labour camps, to which many of them were sent. Fearing the West and its neighbours, Hoxha completely isolated his country from the outside world, following his own Soviet-inspired recipe for the country’s development. Hoxha ruled Albania with an iron fist from 1946 to 1992, still modeling himself on Stalin long after Stalinism was discredited elsewhere in the Eastern bloc. They were beaten regularly as well,” Mirdita explains. “Twice a day, for two hours, prisoners were forced to read books by Enver Hoxha. The interior of the Site of Witness and Memory museum is separated into two parts, divided by a red-painted corridor, which symbols the often bloody torments of the people sent to the interrogations room, the darkest room in the building. Red-painted corridor symbolizes suffering: After they were sentenced, they were then sent to other prisons around the country,” he explains. “First, they stayed here for the interrogation period, when they suffered physical and psychological torture. Mirdita says the former Catholic school operated as an interrogation centre and torture chamber. “During these years, opposition to the communists was still high in Shkoder, maybe not directly against the state, but kept alive inside in people’s hearts and minds,” Mirdita says. Tens of thousands of Albanians were sent to labour camps for political reasons under the communist regime, and at least 6,000 people were executed, most experts believe.
To give it all The easy, fast & fun way to learn how to sing: 30DaySinger.The communists at one times operated no less than 23 prisons in Shkoder, a city with a large Catholic population where communists struggled to gain control during and after the last years of World War II. Today I offer myself up to this I'm living for my dying wish,
Watch: New Singing Lesson Videos Can Make Anyone A Great Singer Break through the undertow,Ĭough the words I can't speak so I stall myself again, then I fall to the surface,Ĭause it's these reasons that belong to me The accompanying music video has the band perform in a crowded subway car, while other people travel throughout the city of Chicago vandalizing and defacing billboards and posters, with the intention of raising social and political awareness. It has been featured on multiple lists of the best Rise Against songs, and peaked at number thirty-seven on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. Despite receiving minimal coverage from music critics who reviewed Siren Song of the Counter Culture, "Give It All" has become one of Rise Against's most widely recognized songs, and is credited as the band's breakthrough single. It was released as Siren Song of the Counter Culture's first single in October 2004. It is a hardcore punk song, with lyrics that are about "being a punk rocker in today's world," according to lead vocalist Tim McIlrath. 1, while a slightly altered version appeared on the band's third studio album Siren Song of the Counter Culture later that year. It was originally recorded for the 2004 compilation album Rock Against Bush, Vol. "Give It All" is a song by American rock band Rise Against.