Qemal Stafa, activist of the communist movement, participant of the Anti-Fascist National Liberation War, one of the main leaders of the Albanian Communist Party and the Albanian Communist Youth, Hero of the People, was killed while fighting to break the siege by the fascists in an illegal base in Tirana. He was born in Elbasan in 1920. A student at the high school in Shkodra, he embraced communist ideas and participated in the revolutionary youth movement, becoming one of the leaders of the “Besa shqiptare” society. Member of the communist group of Shkodra, spreader of ideas and communist literature, organizer of communist cells. He was ranked among the new realist writers and in his writings he stood up against the social reality of the time. In a series of journalistic writings, he openly presented his revolutionary ideas. He wrote stories, sketches and poems, some of which were published under the pseudonym “Brutus” in the progressive press of the time. His literary legacy was summarized in the volume “Qortimet e vjeshtës” (1961). In January 1939, he was arrested and sentenced to prison as an opponent of the regime. He used the tribune of the trial against communist elements to unmask the regime and propagate communist ideas. He was imprisoned in Mbreshtan in Berat, from where he escaped after the fascist aggression of April 7. He temporarily continued his studies in Italy and went underground after returning to his homeland. He participated in the founding meeting of the Albanian Communist Party, where he was elected a member of the Provisional Central Committee. With the creation of the Albanian Communist Youth organization (22.11.1941), he was elected its political secretary. (In the photo: Qemal Stafa)
Text: Albanian encyclopedic dictionary – Vol. 3 , Academy of Sciences of Albania, “Kristalina-KH”, Tirana, 2009, page 2386-2387.
Photo: © Xhoxhi L., personal archive
Graphic processing: AHCF
