Xhafer Deva
Xhafer Ibrahim Deva | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 33rd Minister of Internal Affairs of Albania | |
| In office 5 November 1943 – 16 June 1944 | |
| President | Regency Council |
| Prime Minister | Rexhep Mitrovica |
| Preceded by | Kol Bib Mirakaj |
| Succeeded by | Fiqri Dine |
| Head of the local administration in Mitrovica | |
| In office 1941 – 5 November 1943 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 February 1904 |
Xhafer Deva (21 February 1904 – 25 May 1978) was a fascist
In November 1943, he was appointed
After the war, he moved via Italy to
Early life
Xhafer Ibrahim Deva was born in
World War II
The
By 1941, Deva was the first Kosovo Albanian political leader to declare himself ready to collaborate with the Germans in the event of the
The
On April 26 Deva organised a meeting between Albanian representatives from Kosovo and south
Together with Pejani and Ibrahim Biçakçiu, a landowner from Elbasan, he later helped create a national committee of twenty-two Albanian and Kosovo Albanian leaders which declared Albania independent and which elected an executive committee under Biçakçiu to form a provisional government. On 5 November,[17] Deva was appointed Minister of the Interior in the Tirana Government of Rexhep Mitrovica and collaborated with the Germans to oppose the spread of Communist forces in the north,[14] effectively giving him direct command over the forces of the new government.[18]
With the Allied victory in the Balkans imminent, Deva was also involved in a last-ditch attempt to set up an anti-Communist government in Kosovo, and received large caches of weapons and ammunition from SS General Josef Fitzthum and Neubacher's special representative, Karl Gstottenbauer.[1] For similar reasons Deva and other Albanian collaborators agreed to an alliance with Chetniks of Draža Mihailović in mid-1944,[24] when he met with Tihomir Šarković, representative of Mihailović.[25] He and his men also engaged in collecting food and radio equipment from withdrawing German soldiers[23] and attempted to purchase further weapons from them in order to organize a "final solution" of the Slavic population of Kosovo. Nothing came of this as the powerful Yugoslav Partisans prevented any large-scale ethnic cleansing of Slavs from occurring.[26] According to German reports from November 1944, Deva had a force of about 20,000 armed men at his disposal. Historian Jozo Tomasevich writes that this number is likely exaggerated, but concedes that large groups of Kosovo Albanians were active in the region at the time.[23]
Historical review of Deva's role in World War II has become more complicated as, while his atrocities and collaboration with the Axis continue to be acknowledged and condemned, his role in saving Jews within Albania proper has also come to light. In the spring of 1944, the German occupiers again asked for a list of Jews, which had earlier been refused by Albanian collaborationist authorities; upon hearing the grave situation, two of the local Jewish leaders sought the council of
Exile and death
As the war in Albania drew to a close, Deva fled to Croatia and then to Austria in December,
Legacy
Files released after his death showed that Deva was one of 743 suspected fascist
In February 2022, it was announced that the United Nations Development Programme and the European Union would help finance the restoration of Deva's former home in Mitrovica. The decision was condemned by Serbian Culture Minister Maja Gojković, Germany's ambassador to Kosovo, Joern Rohde, as well as Efraim Zuroff, the director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. In response to the criticism, the UNDP and EU decided to withdraw funding for the project.[33][34]
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Elsie 2012, p. 108.
- ^ Fischer 1999, pp. 21–57.
- ^ Fischer 1999, p. 161.
- ^ Ramet 2006, p. 111.
- ^ Hehn 1971, p. 350, official name of the occupied territory.
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, pp. 63–64.
- ^ Lemkin 2008, pp. 260–261.
- ^ Judah 2002, p. 27.
- ^ a b Ramet 2006, p. 141.
- ^ Judah 2002, p. 28.
- ^ Živković 2017, p. 91.
- ^ a b c Bideleux & Jeffries 2007, p. 525.
- ^ Meier 1999, p. 24.
- ^ a b c d e f Elsie 2012, p. 109.
- ^ Frank 2010, p. 97.
- ^ Filipović 1989, p. 148.
- ^ Pearson 2006, pp. 301–302.
- ^ Pearson 2006, p. 302.
- ^ Pearson 2006, p. 326.
- ^ Fischer 1999, p. 215.
- ^ Živković 2017, p. 1062.
- ^ Elsie 2012, p. 5.
- ^ a b c Tomasevich 2001, p. 154.
- ^ Živković 2017, p. 504.
- ^ Živković 2017, p. 497.
- ^ Yeomans 2006, p. 31.
- ^ Gaon 2005, p. 278; Stafa 2017, pp. 39–40.
- ^ a b Stafa 2017, pp. 39–40.
- ^ Berger 18 November 2013.
- ^ Fischer 1999, p. 237.
- ^ Tomasevich 2001, p. 155.
- ^ Breitman et al. 2005, p. 374.
- ^ Bislimi, Hysenaj & Heil 11 February 2022.
- ^ Liphshiz 12 February 2022.
References
Books
- Berger, Joseph (18 November 2013). "Casting Light on Little-Known Story of Albania Rescuing Jews From Nazis". The New York Times.
- Bideleux, Robert; Jeffries, Ian (2007). The Balkans: A Post-Communist History. London, England: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-96911-3.
- Breitman, Richard; Goda, Norman J.W.; Naftali, Timothy; Wolfe, Robert (2005). U.S. Intelligence and the Nazis. ISBN 978-0-521-61794-9.
- ISBN 978-1-78076-431-3.
- Filipović, Gordana (1989). Kosovo–Past and present. Review of International Affairs.
- ISBN 978-1-55753-141-4.
- Frank, Chaim (2010). "Antisemitism in Yugoslavia". In Petersen, Hans-Christian; Salzborn, Samuel (eds.). Antisemitism in Eastern Europe: History and Present in Comparison. Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang. pp. 67–112. ISBN 978-3-631-59828-3.
- Gaon, Aleksandar (2005). We Survived: Yugoslav Jews on the Holocaust. Vol. 1. Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro: Jewish Historical Museum. ISBN 978-8-69037-519-6.
- ISBN 978-0-300-09725-2.
- Meier, Viktor (1999). Yugoslavia: A History of Its Demise. New York City: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-18595-5.
- Pearson, Owen (2006). Albania in the Twentieth Century, A History: Albania in Occupation and War, 1939–45. Vol. 2. London: I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-84511-104-5.
- ISBN 978-1-58477-901-8.
- Ramet, Sabrina P. (2006). The Three Yugoslavias: State-Building and Legitimation, 1918–2005. ISBN 978-0-253-34656-8.
- Stafa, Monika (June 2017). "Attitude of Collaborative Governments in Defense of the Jews during the War". Anglisticum Journal. 6 (6).
- ISBN 978-0-8047-3615-2.
- Yeomans, Rory (2006). Blamires, Cyprian; Jackson, Paul (eds.). World Fascism: A Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. ISBN 978-1-57607-940-9.
- Živković, Milutin D. (2017). Санџак 1941–1943 [Sandžak 1941–1943] (Doctoral) (in Serbo-Croatian). Belgrade: University of Belgrade. OCLC 1242119546.
Journals
- Hehn, Paul N. (1971). "Serbia, Croatia and Germany 1941–1945: Civil War and Revolution in the Balkans". Canadian Slavonic Papers. 13 (4). University of Alberta: 344–373. JSTOR 40866373.
News reports
- Bislimi, Bekim; Hysenaj, Shkelqim; Heil, Andy (11 February 2022). "A 'Nazi Collaborator's' Former Home Raises Uncomfortable Questions In Kosovo". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
- Liphshiz, Cnaan (12 February 2022). "EU and UN halt funding for Kosovo honoring Albanian Nazi collaborator". The Jerusalem Post. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 12 February 2022.
External links
Media related to Xhafer Deva at Wikimedia Commons
