At that time, the Minister of Internal Affairs, through a letter dated 01.10.1953, addressed to the command of camp no. 5 in Tirana and the command of camp no. 6 in Tepelena, and based on the decisions of the Commission of Deportations and Confiscations, ordered the release from internment within October 5 and 10 of that year of a group of persons placed in the Tepelena camp during different periods of time.
The lists contain the data of the internees who would be released from internment by October 5, 1953, whose number reached 204, as well as another group of 38 people who would be released by October 10, 1953.
The documents show that the internees in the Tepelena Camp came from various cities in Albania such as Elbasan, Saranda, Vlora, Himara, Kurveleshi, Gjirokastra, Fieri, Kolonja, Korça, Pogradec, Tepelena, Peshkopia, Kukësi, Përmeti, Kruja, Lezha, Puka, Tropoja, Shkodra.
These lists show that the internees were housed in the Tepelena camp from 1949-1953.
Some researchers believe that it was precisely the high mortality of children in the Tepelena camp, the conditions bordering on cruelty, and the need to consolidate the internment-deportation system that forced senior communist leaders to make the decision at the end of 1953 to close the Tepelena camp.
Source: AIDSSH
