Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

2025-06-18 19:26:00, Kulturë Elvi FUNDO

From Ventotene to CNA, Elvi FUNDO

The desire to go to Ventotene has been great for years. I wanted to go there because I had heard a lot about the island where one of my ancestors (Llazar Fundo) was interned in '39, as an anti-fascist, arrested in May of that year in Korça , as a proven communist and anti-fascist, a member of the Comintern, included in the lists of people that the fascists arrested and interned.

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

Why in Ventotene and a little history

Lazar Fundo was one of the Albanian intellectuals, who from the 1920s until the eve of World War II had been engaged in politics, had studied jurisprudence at the Sorbonne. Later in Albania with the Noli government, he led the "Union" society after the murder of Avni Rustemi. We then find him in Berlin at the Reichstag trial with Gjergj Dimitrov, then in St. Petersburg, in Moscow, from where he was sentenced to death by Stalin as a Trotskyist, escaped, ended up in Mongolia. There is an unclear period of time, then he is in Vienna and in the years '38-'39 he is in Korça.

Document - Llazar Fundo was the drafter of the Ventotene Manifesto "For a free and united Europe"
June 28, 09:51

In Korça, the first testimony is given by the dictator Enver Hoxha, who in his work “When the Party Was Born” and in Work 21, emphasizes that he last saw Llazar Fundo in front of the Korça Municipality on April 7, 1939, where Fundo with words and gestures asked for weapons to fight fascism . So he admits that the first anti-fascist to speak to the crowd in Korça and ask for weapons was Llazar Fundo. He further emphasizes and publicly admits that he had given the order for his execution on September 23, 1944, where after being tortured, massacred and dragged, he was forced to open the grave with his own hands and bury himself there.

Historical materials - 80 years since the shooting of Llazar (Zai) Fundo/ Anti-fascist, intellectual, Albanian precursor of the EU
September 23, 12:28

Tragic is the life of an individual, an intellectual , who was not shot by Zog as an anti-Zogist, on the contrary, he was pardoned, he developed communist activity. Not even the Nazis could kill him in the famous Berlin trial. Not even Stalin who sentenced him to death could kill him. Not even the Italian fascists who arrested him in May 1939 killed him, he escaped from internment precisely in Ventotene, where he stayed for almost 5 years.

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

Zai Fundo, photo from Ventotene prison, 1940

He comes to Albania to fight against Nazism for the liberation of his country, is captured and shot without trial by the communists, who called him a traitor without even knowing him.

In fact, Llazar Fundo had no historical connection with Albanian communists like Enver Hoxha because the Albanian Communist Party was founded by Miladin Popovici and Dushan Mugosha with Enver Hoxha at its head on November 8, 1941, while Zai Fundo had been interned for 2 and a half years as a communist in Ventotene, but without any connection to individuals, especially Enver Hoxha, who had founded the Communist Party in Albania that later plunged the country into a bloody dictatorship.

The story of the intellectual who did not align with the AKP/ How Llazar Fundo was tortured and killed on Enver's orders
September 23, 10:16

This introduction, in short, was the motivating part to understand how a man who, as he himself says, idealized communism as Christ and ultimately emphasized that communism surpassed even the devil in evil, ended tragically. From an intellectual, from a polyglot, from an ideologue of the left and the communists, to their victim, with a tragic end.

Enver Hoxha often mentions his assassination with pride in the books he writes. In the book "With Stalin", he emphasizes that the Soviet dictator himself had asked him what happened to Zai Fundo, perhaps the only Albanian he knew, and the answer was clear: We killed him. "Well done," Stalin tells Enver. These are the dictator's testimonies.

3 world dictators against Zai Fundo/ Historian Butka: The prominent Albanian intellectual denounced the communist regime
September 24, 18:08

Others for Fundo

That is why there is a curiosity, there is a cloud over the truths of Llazar Fundo , who in all his complexity, appears to be a stubborn ideologue of the left, who never refused to betray it .

In his memoirs, Sandro Pertini says that I often argued with Zain, but he told me that I was a communist, I have closed my political part, I cannot become a socialist or social democrat. I will go to Albania to fight for the liberation of the country. Sandro Pertini later became president of Italy.

We find Lazar Fundo in the books of Giacomo Revelli , an Italian historian.

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

We find it in the books of Altiero Spinelli, the one called the father of Europe, where he talks about his friendship with Zai and even the breakup with him . In the books, he recalls that there was a strong debate and in the end, Zai did not sign the Manifesto .

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

While Giacomo Revelli emphasizes that Zai Fundo did not join the federalists. In fact, the evidence shows on all sides that Llazar Fundo was not a simple internee in Ventotene, he was one of the most important , because we often find him in the memoirs of Sandro Pertini, who later became president of Italy, Altiero Spinelli, Italian historians, Giacomo Revelli, Isuf Luzaj and other characters who dedicate entire pages to Zai Fundo's thoughts , his positions.

In Ventotene

Therefore, going to Ventotene, finding evidence, the place where he had been interned, was a spiritual mission and a very important moral obligation . In the group that goes to build or find traces not only of Zai, but also of the Albanians who were in Ventotene, since Zef Malaj was there, there were the Butkallinjtë, the Kryezinjtë and so on and so forth . There is talk of a group of about 100-150 Albanian internees, where Zai Fundo shone above all with his intellectuality, with his strong dialogues, with his debates and with what Altiero Spinelli emphasizes at the end, the cry of Llazar Fundo, “Viva l'Italia libera” at the moment when the megaphones announced the fall of fascism on the island to the prisoners . We see this fact often mentioned in books. But these are part of his life, which had that tragic end that we mentioned above.

Document - How the Korça communist group accused Zai Fundo of being a traitor
February 4, 19:14

In Ventotene there is a TV Klan filming crew, led by journalist Blendi Fevziu, along with director Indrit Kasmi and cameraman Jurgen Malo .

Also the head of the Socialist Party Parliamentary Group, Niko Peleshi, who is not coincidentally on this trip. His father, Aleks Peleshi, 15 years old, was interned in Ponza and then in Ventotene , where he met Llazar Fundo. He stayed there for several months in exile. Aleks Peleshi was only 15 years old when he was interned, after he was caught distributing tracts. In the Fundo family, he was one of the first to knock after the fall of communism and spoke about how he met Zain in Ventotene and then when he was shot in Kolesjan .

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

In the group heading to Ventotene is sculptor Adi Dule, a man who is working with dedication and passion and will soon place the bust of the politician, intellectual, and philosopher from Korçë exactly where Zai Fundo gave his last speech.

"Llazar (Zai) Fundo" Square/ It is proposed to erect a bust of the intellectual
November 3, 12:42

I (Elvi Fundo) as a journalist together with Fatjon Hoxhalli, who helped the group a lot with everything we did in Italy . An excellent driver ensured a smooth journey. Our agenda starts from Naples, about 70 km we go to Fornia, then to Ventotene and back to Tirana.

It was a journey that started from Naples, where we all went together in a van to Formia, to leave the next day for Ventotene . A dinner with many discussions, full of excitement for what we would discover the next day.

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

And from Formia we set off on a catamaran, which would take us to Ventotene in about an hour and 45 minutes. On the way, someone lies down between the seats while Blendi Fevziu does not stop with his equipment, filming everything.

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

In Ventontene we are met by an islander. But by chance we also meet the Italian owners of the island of St. Stephen, which is opposite Ventontene . Everything is organized. A speedboat takes the whole group to take them to the island of St. Stephen.

One of the islands where a prison was built 300 years ago by the Bourbons of Naples, which is often mentioned by Spinelli about the time he spent there, is mentioned in the memoirs, that many of the internees were taken to that prison, while the rest of them were kept in the camp again in Ventotene, according to the photos of these postcards that we found on the island.

An investment was being made in St. Stephen, the prison was being restored. The European Union was investing 80 million to restore this prison in the middle of a desert island .

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

In the first view as you descend among the rocks, a statue of Saint Mary with Christ appears.

On the deserted island that had been a place of suffering, where no one had been able to escape, those who had tried were never found again. There on that rock where the sun scorched, an investment was made to keep alive the memories and pains that the prisoners there had endured for centuries.

At the entrance, on a stone slab that appears in the photo, is a quote by Sandro Pertini, a message from the Italian president, who was one of the prisoners:

"Within these walls, where in the 1800s, the fathers of the movement "For the Unification of Italy" suffered, imprisoned by the fascist regime . "

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

It's the middle of the day and the sun is scorching, but Blendi Fevziu and his team don't stop. Sculptor Dule meditates in the shade, Niko, overcome with emotion, climbs the stairs, enters cell after cell and goes to the terrace.

Somewhere we discover graves that are probably hundreds of years old, there were some old wooden crosses, they had no identity, the stones with the writings were being restored.

A helicopter flew nonstop over the island, removing soil and bringing materials for the brigades working to restore the prison.

We are doing some interviews with Blendin, some videos, and a full report has been prepared, which will be broadcast on the very day of the installation of the bust of Llazar Fundo in Korça.

Then the whole group that stayed for about four hours, in the hot, scorching sun of the island of St. Stephen returns to Ventotene . The small island with almost 3 km long and 800 m wide has its own Manifesto pride. “Il Manifesto di Ventotene” written as the political foundation of the EU by Alterio Spinelli and Ernesto Rosi, but with the contribution of dozens of intellectuals, including many Albanians.

Ventotene

We walk around the small island, after two short streets the central square appears where the municipality is located.

The walls bear photos and notes of the authors of the Ventotene Manifesto.

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

We find a bookstore in front of us. As soon as I introduce myself to the salesperson that I am looking for materials or documents about Llazar Fundo since I am his nephew, he puts four books in my hands, by Altiero Spinelli, Giacomo Revelli, Filomena Gargiulo, and even the Ventotene Manifesto itself.

We go to the municipality, walk around the small island, which has obviously changed a lot since the time when it was a rock with bunkers where anti-fascist prisoners were kept.

For about 5 or 6 hours we collected what materials we could, filmed, we believe we accomplished something, we experienced more strong emotions of a trace of European history, where Albanians have their contribution.

A very great emotion that actually turned you beyond sadness into joy. Find around you an atmosphere of a sense of pride, because where the European Union says it has its first traces, there were once Albanians, intellectuals, philosophers, who are the authors of the first foundations of the EU, interned there.

Zai Fundo, and although he had debates with Spinelli and ultimately refused to sign the Manifesto, is one of its drafters, as Isuf Luzaj says or in the memoirs of Sandro Pertini. So it is these ideologists of the left, these intellectuals who should be the pride of Albania. Today, Albania has been struggling for 30 years to join the EU, but in fact the foundations of that EU have also been laid by the sons of Albania.

Reportage/ In Ventotene where Europe was born

Then the return comes faster towards Formia, maybe we didn't say it out loud, but we would have liked to stay longer on that remote, small island, but with great life and important historical facts on its rocks related to the lives of over 850 internees and prisoners by the fascists, because they were patriots, communists, social democrats, nationalists , etc.

Late in the evening we head towards Naples, to go to Pompeii the next morning. There is no stopping Blendi Fevziu and his team, the videos and posts on social networks continue.

Then it's time to say goodbye. They all return to Albania together and I leave for Germany with the conviction that not only had we done a very good job, but because we would reveal not only to Albanians, but to all of Europe that Albanians are the founders of what is today called the European Union.

Albanians are collaborators of those intellectuals who wrote the Ventotene Manifesto . Albanians may have been left-wing, right-wing, they may have been prisoners, they may have been communists or ex-communists, philosophers, citizens, ordinary people, but they were part of a suffering, exiled by the fascists that laid the deep roots of that Europe that today seems bureaucratic, tired and keeps Albania away from it.

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In Ventotene, 5 hours is not enough, there is much more to see there. I will return with those friends, but also with others to move forward and show that Albanians are the strong, centuries-old root of Europeanism, citizenship, culture and more.

Therefore, going to Ventotene makes us proud and humble to remember these great men of the Albanian nation who exalt us today more than ever with their truth, which they wrote in blood./ CNA