We used to eat it with worms”

His family, his wife, his daughters, and one of his sons were persecuted more than anyone. His daughter, Hybe Kupi, in a rare story, shows the family's history of suffering that dates back to 1939, when they were exiled by Italians because of the resistance organized by Abbas Cup in Durres.

The fascists ' interview continued until 1944, when Abbas Cup, who led thousands of legal forces, was forced to leave Albania, taking two sons with him and letting one of them take care of his daughters and his wife. Here begins the next suffering for the Cup family, which by 1991 will not be able to see a day of freedom but only jails and severe exiles from Communists. Furthermore, the full confession of Hyie Cup, the daughter of Abbas Cup.

Full Confession

I can't exactly say that I feel like others don't believe it. I'm going to say that I've lived to make soup from the ground that Italian army or worm rice in the can. Now you believe it? We were kids and we grew up in camp. I got married in camp. I remember my mother used to tell us that we fled to Italy, 1941 was the Italian-Greek War.

We were taken from Himara because Himar was not enough. However, the exile of Italians has been far different from that of Albanians. That was torture. The first interview we've been to the exiled Spille, we found a family of our own, we've been there for a year and a half, 1939- 1940.

Father, after making the resistance in Durres that he never mentioned, could never recall. He fled after Father's flight from 1939, June 539, until 1944 we were exiled. After we arrived from Italy, we were sent to the fortress in Gjirokastra, where we were sent to prison.

In 1941 we were in the hands of the Italians, Father was the general commander of the National Liberation Movement even when the Communists arrived telling Bedri Spahiu, he walked into our house. I remember that I was a little girl in second grade and he used to bring Thracians, and he would fill my bag and tell me who to take it to. The release came when Italy surrendered and then Father left and then Albania was released.

That's where we got caught. My brother was thrown into prison. The brother was 17-18 years old, and Dad took the two brothers with him and took the big one. He took all three of your guys before he left and told him who had a god and who's the bravest of you to stay here with the family. But when you promise to stay with your family, I'll stay with my mother and sisters. White came out the second brother, Dad. He took the other two brothers with him. These went to schools, this poor man from that day until 1990 has seen sunlight.

At first, we went straight to Tepelene, and there were three sisters and mothers. When we went to Tepelena, our brother was in Porto Palermo. He had been in prison for five years and was sent to Porto Palermo. From Porto Palermo he was brought to the Tepelene. First, when we saw Tepelena camp surrounded by wires that we were coming from exile, it was no match for that exile. Maybe and it doesn't make me say it was better that exile but we were treated better. Mom told us we weren't treated like this. We went say the criminal family came, the criminal family came. My mother's name was like a queen. They took us to Camp, where we found.. Those were military bars you can imagine. We were put in there once, and once we were there, my mother, as we were sent to Tepelena for some clothes.

Exile us from Crewe to Tepelene with a suitcase. Three girls and mother four. I don't remember very well that I was still young. The Tepelena Camp I remember. I was 17 years old even when we went there, they were terrified. We told Mom what we were gonna do, we started catching Mom. How are we gonna live here? Mother had one thing that was too strong and very smart. Dad loved him too. From the first moment we entered the Tepelena camp she gave us courage and told us about Dad. As your father s'eka, he was brave and we began to worship his father because we didn't know him. The first day we went to pick up the pot so we could get our food. We had come without bread, nothing. We got a bowl of two or three spoons.

I went there to the pot and they tell me that's the dish you're gonna get. What is that dish? That's what you get, that's what everyone eats. We've been eating this for days. He filled up about three four gargoes in a bowl, and two fingers of small worms appeared on the bowl. That's where he's been left over by the army. I got it. I went home. As soon as I went up there, there were those barangas, a bed down and a bed upstairs. We were upstairs and we all had one place to lie down. As soon as I left the bowl there, I started crying. Did Mom say why she's crying? But that's what it is, my mom was a schoolgirl and she says “but come on, we're gonna get through this shit. Then we got used to pot food. This was a daily meal eatout no, that was bullshit. And he doesn't want it, he doesn't care about anyone. Die anytime you want, that's what you're gonna eat.

We had 60 grams of bread rations. With those 60 grams, we'd be good at sharing dinner. Hunger had reached its climax. I remember myself, I was tall, now I feel like I was cut short. People thought I was 20 years old. As I grew up, my hunger was terrible. I would come home and say how much I would climb to my mother I would say to my mother... Yes, Mother, if we have reserved bread, dry bread, and food with worms. This story lasted seven years. People who haven't had any children usually as far as I can remember in the camp have died old and old, even children. Children who were in the womb. Mothers were in the woods with me. They went every day to the mountain for wood, the strip that pressed for wood on their backs, the fatigue that brought the wood from the mountaintops and without lifting well. When they came to the child for dinner, they were not breast - fed unless they could stand. Even the children had been there all day without a thing, giving it only one drop of water, one drop of water, and they died.

A woman who came there with young children alive did not get her out of the camp, and at least she never happened to go out in a hole on the river bank and have taken the child, whether it's a parent or a police officer has taken her to the bank of the river. Besides what they put in that hole, the kid in my mother's presence that Dad had escaped I can't imagine what they did with that child. Tomorrow that woman would come with us to the mountain for wood. And they went every Sunday by the bank of the river every day, every man for a sign to be laid upon his own grave. These are things that I remember, I think I've lived through? Stay on your mind, with as much bread as we've lived? It's just that I've lived it myself and that I remember.

I got things right in front of my eyes. I fell one day from the mountain with all my wood on my back because the road was perpendicular. I fell into three four bushes. My friends came and the cop picked me up, and I remember that very well, and I said how good it would be for Dad. Young girl to say seven years' time. Right, right in '49 it's been opened in '54, it hasn't met them in exactly seven years. Once the wood was never cut down, the men would go into the river saw the big bodies, put them in the water. I knew this is where my brother Victor's husband works in the Vjosa River. I didn't even get engaged, so I knew Victor working here waiting for those bodies. They cut stone tablets, from a large tablet, and they don't know what they wanted from them. And then we went to Tuana, and we passed the Vjosa Bridge across there were some mountains that I can't remember right now. 4 or 5 mountains I can't imagine right now. When I went to Tepelena and saw the mountain, I said how could I have gone to the top of that mountain every day and held wood. Besides coming down from the mountain with wood, we'd load it down one more time to take the branch to internal affairs.