Enver Hoxha: On April 7, 1939, we fell into bondage, into heavy servitude, when fascism, the greatest enemy of our people and of all mankind, invaded our country. The great war was in the making, the great slaughter was being prepared by Hitler and Mussolini. We paid the first toll. The international outlook was gloomy. Europe was arming at a feverish pace, and not a single voice was raised in our defence save the cries of our people betrayed by the government of the time, crying out for weapons to fight the Italians. The betrayal was complete. The intriguing politicians, the speculators were riding high. They extended their hands to the occupiers who made common cause with them in order to suppress the people, to make them slaves, fodder for their guns. The fascists and the traitors worked systematically to quell any resistance, to smother all patriotic feeling, to trample underfoot the honour of our country, to obliterate our customs and language, and to colonize Albania, so that the Italians could strike out from our country at our neighbours and at the Soviet Union. But amidst the black terror, the great resistance was born among our people, who rose to their feet to win back the freedom which had been stolen from them. Barbarous fascism, armed to the teeth with the most modern weapons and aided by the traitors, came up against our brave fighters who had freedom in their hearts, their iron will, and infinite self-sacrifice. The sons of the people, who felt the agonies of their homeland and who bore on their shoulders the sufferings, the hardships and the sorrows of an entire people, stood up to fight. Many of those who, in the first hours of the war, fell martyrs for this people whom they loved so much, fell with a song on their lips, happy because they knew what they were fighting for, and that with their life's blood they would raise a new Albania. This was the battle cry and the people's call to arms sounded by the vanguard; it told them that the country was threatened with death, that they must take up arms and, with merciless and unceasing war, liberate the homeland. The Albanian people heard the call of their sons; the blood flowing in the streets of towns and villages was their own blood, and so the people took up arms. https://wordsmith.social/protestation/quotes#quote5821