“House of Leaves”, former Communist spying center turned into museum

He is happy that the place where people were spied, has turned today into a museum for everyone.

“The first floor was used to listen to phone conversations, by request of the Prosecutor General. There were only five employees who worked with technicians who places spying devices”, he said.

The House of Leaves was initially built as a maternity, but after the war it was used for torture.

“I don’t feel guilty. I have worked with this system, but there is more spying now than back then. I am happy that people will know that there used to be an institution here which was used to verify information. Every state in the world has its own operative agencies”, Nesti Vako said.

The Albanian Prime Minister, Edi Rama, said that the House of Leaves, the latest museum in Tirana, is a treasure of our collective memory.

“If our state-building effort is sincere, it cannot be successful without allowing youth to have a physical meeting with our national memory in various stations”, Rama said.

Writer Daut Gumeni, imprisoned during the communist dictatorship era, praised the value of these museums: “Even people who fear the past when they see museums adding up, maybe they will overcome fear. The deeper we know the past, the more alive our democracy is”, he said.

The Prime Minister reminded that this building was first built as a maternity to bring humans to life, but then turned into a place where lives were taken.

The “House of Leaves” was used during the dictatorship as the center of the Secret Service, where they carried out spying against citizens. The Minister of Culture, Mirela Kumbaro, said that the project to turn it into a museum started in 2014.

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