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"The Gold Robbery and the Golden Spoon"/ Author Viron Prodani brings the new book to readers

2025-01-29 10:46:00, Kulturë CNA

"The Gold Robbery and the Golden Spoon"/ Author Viron Prodani brings

Author Viron Prodani has brought another book to readers, "The Gold Plunder and the Spoon of Gold" , a book that reveals documents and data on how the communist system plundered gold and other assets created by Albanian families over the years.

The book documents that in the period from 1945 to 1956, when the communist government first came to power, it "rushed" into looting real and movable property, gold, and other valuables.

To implement this policy, he issued Law No. 20, dated 15.12.1944 "On the prohibition of the export of valuable metals (gold and silver, platinum and precious stones, in any form such as coins, bars, jewelry, etc.) and on the prohibition of the export of agricultural products and manufactured products."

Other laws and decrees of an economic, financial, and political nature followed, and their goal was the annihilation of private property, the political, if not physical, liquidation of the intellectual, wealthy, and middle classes who carried out commercial and productive activities.

Prodani in his book has presented the laws, decrees, decisions, instructions which mention among others: the Extraordinary Tax on War Profits for the period 1939-1944, the One-Time Tax of 1948 and the Seizure of Gold. These laws and decrees were issued in function and implementation of each other with the final aim of extorting the wealth of citizens from the communist system.

"The Gold Robbery and the Golden Spoon"/ Author Viron Prodani brings

Upon taking power, the communist government nationalized the banks and set up such a banking system, in order to collect as much extraordinary tax as possible, to collect from individuals as much gold, other currencies that they had accumulated for years. In 2-3 years, everything that had been created until then in the private sector was undone.

"The Gold Robbery and the Golden Spoon"/ Author Viron Prodani brings

There is a large number of families whose gold and jewelry have been seized and who do not appear on the lists of the Bank of Albania or the Internal Affairs Branches. Likewise, there are families whose gold and jewelry have been seized more than is recorded in the minutes kept.

For this purpose, the creation of the Albanian State Bank on January 13, 1945, gave it the right to keep valuables in gold and silver in safekeeping. Employees of the branches of the Ministry of Interior have exercised controls to discover hidden gold by conducting raids and seizing not only coins and gold, but also other valuable items. In implementing these measures, employees of the branches of internal affairs have exercised physical and psychological violence, up to imprisonment. Prodani continues to list the names of some of the families from whom gold has been seized.

According to the author, the documents present different figures for the seizure of assets. According to the list of the National Bank, gold seized from coins, as well as gold seized from the minutes, turns out to be 3.51 tons. The silver seized for the years 1949-1952 is 930 kg. Seized jewelry, 6,000 pieces (according to the Bank of Albania, until 1954 they are 5,023,572 lek). But these figures should be taken with reservations, since according to the author, a large part has not handed over the gold and some have hidden or buried it, while a part is believed not to have been handed over by the Ministry of Interior to the State Bank.

Prodani emphasizes that the problem of gold theft can only be solved by a Parliamentary Commission that has the right to inspect all documents of the Ministry of Interior. The crime of gold theft by the communist government is sensitive not only for those who were robbed, but for all Albanians. In conclusion, the author asks the question: Where did all this gold go? And the answer comes from Prodani: Have you forgotten that for 45 years you have been eating with a gold spoon?!/ CNA