Rrok Gera was born in Shkodër and was an economist, correspondent member of the Financial Commission of the League of Nations in Geneva, Minister of Finance, and Minister of National Economy, as well as co-director of the magazine “Albanian Economist.” After graduating from Saverian College in Shkodër, he was awarded a scholarship by the Austro-Hungarian government in 1917 and continued his studies at the Commercial Academy in Linz and Vienna, Austria. In 1924, the Albanian government granted him another scholarship to pursue higher studies at the Faculty of International Economic Relations at the University of Vienna. On July 12, 1928, he successfully defended his dissertation, achieving excellent results. Following his internship in Vienna, Gera returned to his homeland. In June 1929, he was assigned to accompany the prominent Austrian Albanologist Friedrich Wallisch, who had come for a study visit to Albania. He later served as deputy commissioner at the National Bank of Albania. On June 18, 1930, he was appointed secretary general in the Ministry of Finance. The League of Nations elected him a corresponding member of its Finance Commission. On October 25, 1935, he was appointed Minister of Finance in the cabinet headed by Mehdi Frashëri. On July 28, 1944, he was again appointed Minister of Finance, this time in the government of Fiqiri Dine, during which he worked on the nationalization project for the shares of the Bank of Albania. However, in September 1944, he resigned and returned to Shkodër to be closer to his family. In January of the following year, he was arrested. During the Special Trial held in Tirana from February to April 1945, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Following the first amnesty, he received a five-year sentence reduction and was released in November 1949. From January 1950 to April 1951, he worked as an account manager at the Fuel Company in Shkodër. However, he was arrested again on April 21, 1951, and spent nearly a year and a half in the cells of the Security in Shkodër and Tirana. In October 1952, the Military Court sentenced him to 20 years in prison, charging him with having “helped in the occupation of Albania by Fascist Italy and sabotaged the resistance of the Albanian people.” He served his sentence in Burrel prison. On May 8, 1958, by decision of the High Court Plenum, Rrok Gera was declared innocent and was released on May 19 of the same year. He passed away suddenly in 1969. (In the photo: Rrok Gera)
Text: Encyclopedic dictionary of victims of communist terror – Vol. II , “West Print”, Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, Tirana, 2013, pages 338-339.
Photo: © https://javanews.al/
Graphic processing: AHCF
