Xhafer Deva

Xhafer Ibrahim Deva (sometimes spelt Xhaferr or Jafer) (21 February 1904; † 25 May 1978) was a World War II government Minister of Albania during the period between October 1943 and June 1944.

Biography

Zhafer Deva was born in Mitrovica, Kosova, in 1904. He was educated in Istanbul and Vienna, where he graduated with a degree in engineering. After the capitulation of Yugoslavia in 1941, he worked with the Germans to maintain law and order in Kosova. According to the American scholar Bernd Fischer he had been in communications with the Abwehr for some time. Kosova was re-united with Albania to 1945. In 1943 Deva helped create the Second League of Prizren, and from late 1944 until the end of the war, he was the chairman of the League and led efforts to chase Communist partisans out of Kosova.

In November 1943 he was appointed Albanian Ministёr of the Interior and in December he brought 1200 rather rowdy and brutal "gendarmes" of questionable training from Kosova to Tirana. In his Ministerial capacity Deva was very involved in the recruitment of Albanian men, mostly from Kosova into the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian) under Waffen-SS auspices.

Although Deva was the strongest supporter of Albanian-German collaboration, the Germans were ultimately very disappointed in his performance and accused him of "releasing captured communists for money." At the end of the war the Germans evacuated Albania and Kosova, and the Reich Foreign Ministry helped Deva resettle in Austria. He later moved to Egypt and then lastly the USA.

He died in exile in 1978.

Literature

Noel Malcolm, Kosovo: A Short History, New York University Press; New Update edition (November 2000).
Chris Bishop, Hitler's Foreign SS Divisions (2005)
Bernd Jürgen Fischer, Albania at War, 1939-1945, (Purdue University Press, West Lafayette 1999), ISBN 1-55753-141-2.

Translation

The phrase "Xhafer Deva" occurs as such in the following languages: English, German.

Translation in Albanian: Xhaferr Deva.