They were murdered by Albania’s communist regime. Thirty years on, families are still searching for their remains

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. “The Sigurimi would refer to us as ‘cubs of the Americans’,” according to Taip, “and the children of the enemy.” open image in gallery Taip Hoxha has spent three decades looking for the bodies of his family – his brother in particular When Taip’s brother, Ahmet, turned 18 he was arbitrarily arrested and sentenced to 20 years in prison. “We felt lucky to have been given his clothes.” When the communist regime collapsed, Zef began looking for his brother’s body. “I spent so many years looking.” Zef does receive compensation for his brother’s imprisonment: in total, it will be €15,000 over his lifetime, considerably less than he has paid looking for his brother’s body. But Kelvin does not see these aims as contradictory: “You do not need to forget about the past to move on and advance.” It is important for a country to understand its history, as a Hannah Arendt quote in Albania’s museum of secret surveillance, based in Tirana, makes clear: “If we do not know our own history, we are doomed to live it as though it were our private fate.” No one who campaigns for recognition of the communist past believes there is a chance Albania will slide back into totalitarianism.