Kolë Prela, professor, nationalist, anti-fascist fighter, deputy of Dukagjin, was born in the village of Pepsumaj of Shoshi. In 1923 he started the Jesuit college. After a long interruption, he graduated from the state high school in 1935. From 1936 to 1949, he completed the Faculty of Literature-Philosophy at the University of Turin. After returning to Albania, he worked as a teacher of literature, Greek and Latin in the high school of Shkodra (1940-1943). He is one of the organizers of the anti-fascist demonstration of February 22, 1942, and one of the first independent nationalists to embrace the political platform of the Peza Conference. In June 1943, he set up the territorial partisan detachment of Dukagjin, coordinated the anti-fascist activity between Shkodra-Dukagjin and the Highlands of Gjakova. In 1944, he was elected in charge of the Economic Section in Shkodër and, for two months, director of the “Normal” school in Elbasan (until November 1945). In the elections of December 2, 1945, he was elected deputy of area no. 11 in the subprefecture of Dukagjin. He was a member of the group of opposition deputies, which demanded political pluralism and free elections. He was arrested on September 14, 1946, after the suppression of the Postriba Movement, on the charge of founding a Christian Democratic party and being associated with the Catholic clergy. On January 14, 1948, he was sentenced to death, by a firing squad, and the confiscation of his movable and immovable property. He passed away in 1948. His grave is still unknown. (In the photo: Kole Prela)
Text: Encyclopedic dictionary of victims of communist terror – Vol. VI , “West Print”, Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, Tirana, 2017, pages 353-354.
Photo: © Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, Tirana.
Graphic processing: AHCF
