God Among the Bunkers: The Orthodox Church in Albania Under Enver Hoxha

During communist rule in Albania, Enver Hoxha had 750,000 concrete bunkers built around the country as look out posts and gun emplacements against a largely imaginary threat of invasion. This worked out as one bunker for every four of the population. During the same period, he attempted to completely eliminate all religious practice and belief in the country. Based on thorough research and personal interviews with survivors, “God Among the Bunkers” describes this persecution and the remarkable stories of courage and resistance among believers. The main emphasis is on the Orthodox Church, but the book also draws examples from the Roman Catholic Church and the Bektashi and Sunni Muslim faiths. An extraordinary story that deserves to be more widely known.