Aleksandër (Skënder) Dako was born in Bitola (North Macedonia), the son of the Renaissance man Kristo Dako and the pioneer of Albanian education, Sevasti Qiriazi. He emigrated with his family to the United States of America, where he completed his primary and secondary education. He completed his studies at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Engineering. He returned to Albania in 1940. In 1943, the Dako family was sent to the Nazi camp in Belgrade, from where he managed to be released after a year. In 1945, he participated in the UNRRA (United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) mission for Albania. In October 1946, after the diplomatic relations with the United States of America were severed, he was arrested on charges of being an “American agent” while performing the coordinator duties. The trial took place after two years of detention. On May 5, 1949, by decision no. 58, the Military Court of Tirana sentenced him to “criminal offenses against the people and the state,” to 7 years of hard labor imprisonment and the loss of electoral rights, according to Article 37 of the Penal Code. He was later interned in Tepelena before returning to Tirana in 1970. He passed away in Tirana in 1995. (In the photo: Two parents of Aleksandër (Skënder) Dako)
Text: Encyclopedic dictionary of victims of communist terror – Vol. II , “West Print”, Institute for the Study of Crimes and Consequences of Communism, Tirana, 2013, page 28-29.
Photo: © Xhoxhi L., personal archive
Graphic processing: AHCF
