Marta Markagjoni was born on April 7, 1916 in Orosh, Mirdita. She is Kapidan Gjon Marka Gjoni’s third oldest daughter. Marta was raised according to the customs befitting the daughter of Mirdita’s Kapidan. She received her elementary and secondary education in Shkodra.

Marta was ordered to work four to five hours per day combating crickets in the surrounding fields upon her arrival in the city of Berat in July 1945. The labor was strenuous under the scorching August sun. After the summer, heavier tasks such as ditch digging, demolishing ruined residences, road construction, olive harvesting, and other farm tasks were assigned.

On January 21, 1946 Marta was arrested without a warrant.

On April 26, 1947, the First Division of the Elbasan Military Court convicted her of “acts against the people and state” and sentenced her to seven years in prison. The sentence was reduced to three years’ imprisonment and forced labor by the High Court of Military Justice on May 10, 1947.

Marta’s sentence was reduced to three years as a result of her brother Nikollё‘s intervention with attorneys he knew. In 1950, she was released and sent to the Turan camp in Tepelenë, where her family had been transferred.

1954 saw the relocation of the entire family to the labor camp in Saver-Lushnjё, followed by Gjazё-Lushnjё, where she remained until the fall of communism in 1991.

Marta spent the majority of her adult life, 46 years, in prison and internment camps alongside her grandmother Dava, mother Mrika, brother Nikoll, sister Bardha, sister-in-law Marta, nephew Gjon, and two nieces, Kristina and Çelestinё.

Upon her 1991 release, she relocated to the family home in Shkodra, where she remained until her death on October 3, 2006. Marta never married.

Marta was the very definition of bravery, endurance, and tenacity. To persevere under the brutality of communism, she drew strength from her faith in God and her family. She is another dynastic hero and will remain so forever.