– Assoc. Prof. Dr Zaho GOLEMI, alb-spirit.com –
(Dedicated to the martyr from Fushëbardha in Labëria, Latife Veli Nora (1929–1945), and to the entire Albanian nation: the sixteen-year-old partisan martyr of the 6th Assault Brigade who defied her age, prevailing attitudes and the circumstances of her time, fighting and marching 3,700 kilometres on foot from Fushëbardha to Suhagora. Latife Nora was part of the 6th Assault Brigade, which, over 679 days, distinguished itself in battle and victory against fascism. From Fushëbardha, as members of the combat formation of the 6th Assault Brigade, the following shed their blood for the homeland and today bear the honoured title of “martyr”: Alem Zano Shehu, Tahir Reis Xhuvani, Kutbi Çelo Gjeçi, Xhezo Dervish Proda, Muin Myslim Balashi (from Mashkullora, but born in Fushëbardha, and the son of the village hodja) and Latife Veli Nora, the youngest partisan in the brigade. These are names engraved in the history of the National Liberation War and in our national history; they are meteors in the heavens of freedom. Even today, the 6th Assault Brigade, “Hero of the People,” is celebrated in its anthem-like song, “Come out, mother, and look outside, how the 6th Brigade fights,” an epic of freedom written in blood by its 1,700 fighters, of whom 220 fell on the field of honour and 540 partisans were wounded).
Latife Veli Nora – the 16-year-old martyr who completed a 3,700-kilometre combat march from Fushëbardha to Suhagora
Fushëbardha is a village in the Kardhiq region with a history of courage, wisdom and glory. At the beginning of March 1929, a daughter was born into the family of Veli Nora, and she was named Latife. She came from a poor family, but one with patriotic and national traditions. Members of Latife’s clan and family line had continually fought against occupiers whenever the call to arms was sounded. She completed the few years of primary schooling available to her in Fushëbardha of Gjirokastra. The heavy boot of occupation had descended upon her birthplace, as it had upon every village. Although still very young, Latife joined the more progressive and antifascist girls in the struggle against fascism, alongside other girls from Fushëbardha such as Dife Maçi, Rabie Caca, Republika Çarçani, Kano Çarçani, Nevro Çarçani, Këze Kazo, Trëndelina Memushi, Shega Onjea and others. Latife and the girls of Fushëbardha earned the right to be called “fighters for freedom” and became some of the most active participants in partisan formations against the nazi-fascist occupiers.
The vocation of fighting for freedom against the enemy was no longer “only for men”; fighting shoulder to shoulder with fathers and brothers was a tradition inherited across generations. Latife Nora joined combat formations at a young age, formations that brought pride and dignity to Albania. She participated first as a fighter in a detachment and later in the battles to defend the Congress of Përmet, fighting in all the brigade’s battles across Albanian territory, as well as at Medun Castle, Vrusha, Ljeve Reka and as far as Suhagora in southern Bosnia.
On a day in January 1945, while carrying a letter to the headquarters of the partisan brigade, she slipped on frozen snow and fell into a pit, sustaining further serious injuries. When her comrades noticed that she had been delayed, they went to assist her, but her injuries were extremely severe. She was subsequently taken to the partisan hospital, but she was unable to survive them. The heroic girl, whom bullets had failed to strike over hundreds of kilometres, the “partridge” of Fushëbardha, was overcome by injuries sustained in the bitter weather and gave her life in those high mountains, on the battlefield, far from her birthplace, beyond Albania’s administrative borders, but on the land of her Arbëresh forebears. She succumbed to her wounds at Rudo in Bosnia on 17 February 1945, unaware that, many decades later, 17 February would also become Kosovo’s Independence Day. At the head of her grave they placed the cap bearing the star of the sixteen-year-old partisan of the 6th Assault Brigade, and there, for the first time, the song was sung: “Little Latife;/ O sister of the Brigade;/ The girl fell on the snowy mountain;/ The girl fell in Suhagora,/ You fought in Suhagora;/ In mountains covered with snow;/ Everywhere you fought with courage;/ You fell a martyr for freedom…”
Latife was the youngest member of the partisan brigade and never left its ranks throughout all its battles, as far as Suhagora, beyond Albania’s administrative borders, on the far side of Kosovo, where she shed her blood and remained an eternal torch of freedom. Thus, the song dedicated to the martyr of Fushëbardha, this young girl of Labëria, echoed through every village of Labëria.
Latife Nora distinguished herself through courage and intelligence among the partisan fighters and, through her bravery and her blood and that of her comrades-in-arms, wrote her name into one of the most organised and victorious wars fought by the Albanians. She made the most sublime human sacrifice for the freedom of the Homeland and therefore remained immortalised in song and memorial, in the recognition bestowed by the state and society for the supreme act of shedding her blood for the Homeland and for Albania’s freedom. Latife Nora was proclaimed a “Martyr of the Homeland” by Decision No. 65 of 2 October 1979 of the former Executive Committee of the People’s Council of the Gjirokastra district.
The 16-year-old martyr Latife Nora entered the pantheon of the Albanian nation because the history of the country’s freedom has been written in letters of blood. For this reason, her name appears on the Fushëbardha Memorial in the centre of the village and in the Book of Martyrs of the National Liberation War, which commemorates the struggle and the martyrs of that war. The martyr of Fushëbardha and of all Albania is one of the 220 martyrs of the 6th Assault Brigade, “Hero of the People,” and she, together with the other martyrs of the National Liberation War, is commemorated every 5 May for the supreme act of courage and self-sacrifice in the service of the Homeland and nation, bringing honour to the village, the region, Labëria and Albania.
Among the martyrs and heroes of the 6th Assault Brigade were Mustafa Matohiti, Meleq Gosnishti, Lefter Talo, Fato Berberi, Persefoni Kokëdhima, Çelo Sinani, Mitro Xhani and Zaho Koka. Martyr of the Homeland Latife Nora belongs to the entire nation, not only to Fushëbardha and Labëria, but to all Albanian people. Her blood, shed in Suhagora after a 3,700-kilometre combat march with the 6th Assault Brigade, lies deeply embedded in Albania’s freedom. The remains of the martyr Latife Nora rest in the Cemetery of the Martyrs of Gjirokastër. With each passing year, Latife Nora and the legacy of anti-fascism will continue to be elevated, and she will remain a banner of Albanian national consciousness, a shining star upon the pedestal of the nation.
Latife Nora was a brilliant meteor in the heavens of freedom; she was one of 251 Albanian women and girls who mingled their blood with that of their partisan brothers and remained forever as stars among the “Unfading Stars” in the “Heaven of Freedom,” in the pantheon of the Albanian nation’s distinguished figures. Latife Nora was an inseparable part of the courage also embodied by the 110 women and girls and sixty pioneers whose presence made the partisans still more courageous. Particular merit for the brigade’s leadership belonged to commanders Tahir Kadarea, Mustafa Matohiti, Haki Toska, Jaho Gjoliku and others who subsequently assumed command, many of whom fell in the flower of youth. Ten fighters and the brigade itself earned the high title “Hero of the People.” It is a fact that the brigade was created from five battalions: “Asim Zeneli,” “Abaz Shehu,” “Baba Abaz,” “Naim Frashëri” and the “Zaho Koka” Battalion.
It is also a fact that the 6th Assault Brigade fought beyond Albania’s borders. Thus, on the orders of Commander-in-Chief Enver Hoxha, the 5th and 6th Assault Divisions marched beyond the state frontiers. On 29 November 1944, the 6th Assault Brigade crossed the Cem River. It was warmly received in Hot and Gruda, where the inhabitants raised the red-and-black flag, knelt and kissed it with emotion. The Battle of Bioçe began on 3 December 1944 and lasted three days in a bitter winter with heavy snow. Nazi-fascist forces and nazi aircraft attacked the partisans, while their artillery fired from the Podgorica plain, but the 6th Brigade launched its assault, and among its fighters was the girl from Fushëbardha, Latife Nora. The battles continued at Leva Rjeka in Verusha.
On the fighting front a new song was born: “In Verusha and on those peaks/ Flower of flowers, Bukuri/ Death overtook you, comrade…“, dedicated to the martyr Bukurie Bazo, who fell on 20 December. The New Year found them still in battle and, on 4 January 1945, marching from the sources of the Tara River into bloody combat and subsequently into the valley of the Lim River. It was war in mountains covered with ice and snow, war against hunger, fought barefoot and poorly clothed, some with shoes and some without, some with greatcoats and some without. Partisans died in the snow with rifles in their hands. The 6th Assault Brigade and the entire 5th and 6th Divisions pursued the nazi-fascist forces with heroic fighting through Montenegro and as far as southern Bosnia, while also conducting military operations in Kosovo and Macedonia, giving concrete embodiment to their courage in the song: “Blood was shed by the oka for this land…”
One of the brigade’s partisans who gave her life for Albanian lands was Latife Nora, and therefore she too remained immortalised in song: “Little Latife;/ O sister of the Brigade;…” The National Liberation War remains the most glorious epic of all the wars our people have waged over the centuries and there is undoubtedly no force capable of erasing this heroic struggle from history, whose rays shine convincingly upon all those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Veterans, descendants, grandchildren of the martyrs and invalids of the partisan war will know how, generation after generation, to defend the National Liberation War, its values and symbols, which in the middle of the last century placed the Albanians alongside the victors.
In recognition of the 6th Assault Brigade’s extensive political and military activity, the Presidium of the People’s Assembly awarded it the “First Class Partisan Star” Order as well as the highest decoration, “Hero of the People,” with the following citation: “For accomplishing its great military and political tasks with outstanding heroism and self-sacrifice, for its distinguished contribution to the liberation of the Homeland from the fascist occupiers and traitors and to the establishment of people’s power. It always fought with rare courage and demonstrated boundless loyalty to the people and the Party, winning brilliant victories over the enemies and always upholding the honour of the National Liberation Army. It also fulfilled with honour and profound internationalist spirit the task assigned to it by the Commander-in-Chief, together with other units of the Albanian National Liberation Army, of assisting in the liberation of the peoples of Yugoslavia. Its lofty example of heroism and self-sacrifice inspired all partisan fighters and today inspires the working people of our country, particularly the youth, in the complete construction of socialist society and the defence of the socialist Homeland,” a citation reproduced here for the reader in its original wording.
The information has been drawn from: the book Për popullin me popullin [For the People, with the People], Tirana, 1968; Dëshmorët e Atdheut [Martyrs of the Homeland], Tirana: Realstamp, 2012; Yje të pashuar [Unfading Stars], vol. III, Tirana, 1972; Fero Golemi, Nga Fushëbardha në Ushtrinë Popullore [From Fushëbardha to the People’s Army], Tirana, 2015; issues of the newspaper Fushëbardha, 2004–2014; issues of the newspapers Labëria, Mbrojtja and Ushtria, 2010–2019; information from museums, including the National Historical Museum; Historiku i Brigadës VI Sulmuese [History of the 6th Assault Brigade], The “8 Nëntori” Publishing House, Tirana, 1989, prepared by the working group Xhule Çiraku, Esat Golemi, Xhemil Frashëri, Resul Bedo, Lame Çekani, Petrit Mamaj and others, with Petrit Bezhani and Refik Kucaj as editors; information from the first attempt to write the history of the 6th Brigade, undertaken as early as 1945; an expanded history of the 6th Assault Brigade from 1961; the book Grusht çelik brigadë e gjashtë [Steel Fist, 6th Brigade], 1973, and the revised history of the 6th Assault Brigade of 1989, as well as periodicals, journals and newspapers held by the National Library.
(Translated by Sava Press from the Albanian original)