Sejfi Protopapa | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 20, 1923 |
| Died | April 13, 2014 (aged 91) Wayland, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Nationality | Albanian American |
| Education | University of Perugia (dropped out) Rutgers University University of California |
| Organization | "Free Albania" National Committee |
| Political party | Balli Kombëtar |
Sejfi Protopapa was an Albanian physicist and nationalist fighter with social democratic views who opposed the Albanian Monarchy and Communism.[1][2]
Biography
Early life
Sejfi was the son of a patriotic lawyer originally from the village of Protopapa in Korça. He was educated at first in his hometown and continued his education in Italy at the University of Perugia. However, he dropped out of university to fight at home against the Italian Fascist forces. Sejfi's uncle was not a member of the Balli Kombëtar, but was a sympathiser of the organisation, because he valued the leaders of the Ballist for their education and their well-known patriotism.[3] Despite this, Sejfi joined the Albanian partisans along with his friends in his hometown, such as Kristaq and Margarita Tutulani. Sejfi was not sent to the mountains, but was kept in the city to work as a secretary and typist in the Prefecture, where KPSH activists were stationed.
On 13 September 1943, an envelope was dropped off in the office of the KPSH. With no signs of the letter stating to be confidential or addressed to anyone, Sejfi reviewed the content to find that it was a directive by Shpati (The pseudonym for The Party's Secretary, Enver Hoxha)[3] to all district committees of the KPSH to focus their efforts on eliminating the Balli Kombëtar.[3] At that time, the Mukja Agreement was in place to ensure that both the Partisans and the National Front joined their efforts together to fight the fascist forces.
Feeling shocked and morally uneasy that the KPSH was in the process of breaking the Besa of the Mukje Agreement and commit fratricide on fellow Albanians, Sejfi took the envelope and went straight to Abas Ermenji, the chairman of the Balli Kombëtar for the district of Berat. Ermenji took the letter to be published in the Flamuri Newspaper, the media arm of the Balli Kombëtar. With the Partisans looking to eliminate Sejfi, Sejfi officially joined the Ballist forces and commanded a battalion of 150 to operate in the Roskovec area, between Berat and Fier.
Later life
At the end of 1944, he went to Italy, and after two years emigrated to the USA. There he studied nuclear physics at Rutgers University, and then undertook his master's degree at the University of California. He worked a vast majority of his career at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he was part of the group that invented the hydrogen bomb.[4] He then worked at NASA before ending his career with the Department of Transportation.
References
- ↑ "Ndërron jetë Sejfi Protopapa" (in Albanian). Sot. 2014.
- ↑ "NASA Case File" (PDF). NASA Technical Reports Server.
- 1 2 3 Thanas L. Gjika (2013). "TRE MESIME NGA JETA E 90-VJEÇARIT SEJFI PROTOPAPA" (in Albanian). Gazeta Dielli.
- ↑ "The absurd caricature of Mullet and Protopapa by social realism". Politiko.