Xhafer Deva
| Xhafer Ibrahim Deva | |
|---|---|
| Minister of the Interior | |
|
In office 5 November 1943 – 16 June 1944 |
|
| President | Regency Council |
| Prime Minister | Rexhep Mitrovica |
| Head of the local administration in Mitrovica | |
|
In office 1941 – 5 November 1943 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
21 February 1904 Mitrovica, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | 25 May 1978 (aged 74) San Francisco, California |
| Nationality |
 Albanian
|
| Political party | Balli Kombëtar |
| Occupation |
Merchant Entrepreneur |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Albanian Kingdom (1943–44) |
Xhafer Ibrahim Deva (21 February 1904 – 25 May 1978) was a Kosovo Albanian fascist politician during World War II. A notable local politician in Kosovo and in Axis-occupied Albania, he took charge German-occupied Mitrovica and worked with the Germans to establish a pro-German Albanian government in Kosovo. Following the capitulation of Italy from the war, he helped form a provisional government under German occupation and set up the Second League of Prizren alongside other Albanian nationalists. On 5 November 1943, he was appointed Minister of the Interior of Albania and was effectively given direct command of the forces of the newly formed Albanian government. On 4 February 1944, police units subordinate to him massacred 86 residents of Tirana suspected of being anti-fascists. Deva was later involved in recruiting Kosovo Albanians to join the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian). He lost his position as Minister of the Interior with the dissolution of the Albanian government on 16 June, and subsequently became leader of the Second League of Prizren and led anti-Partisan operations around Prizren in September. Soon after, he fled to Croatia and then to Austria with the help of the Germans, where he joined other anti-Communist Albanians. After the war, he moved via Italy to Damascus, where he helped publish an exile newspaper entitled Bashkimi i Kombit (Albanian: Unity of the Nation). In 1956, he immigrated to the United States and briefly lived in New York and Boston before moving to Calaveras County, California in 1960. Here, he worked as an assistant supervisor at the mailing department of Stanford University in Palo Alto until his retirement in 1972. During this time, he led the Third League of Prizren and played an active role in organizing anti-Communist resistance until his death on 25 May 1978. Files released after his death showed that he had been recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) while living in the United States.
...
Wikipedia