Serbian official condemns plan to restore Nazi collaborators house in Kosovo

“The latest provocations are reflected in Pristina’s intention to restore the house of known Nazi collaborator Xhafer Deva,” a press release quoted him as saying. “Serbia is consistently opposed to (Kosovo Prime Minister Albin) Kurti’s attempts to revise history and the crimes committed by Albanian fascists in WW 2,” he added.

Xhafer Deva was a politician active during WW2 in Kosovo and Albania, serving as the Albanian Minister of the Interior from late 1943 and in command of government forces including police units who massacred more than 80 anti-fascists in Tirana. He also recruited Kosovo Albanians for the Nazi-backed SS Skenderbeg Division and launched operations against Yugoslav Partisans in Kosovo. Deva fled to Croatia and then to Austria before emigrating to the US where he led Albanian nationalist organizations. Deva died in California. Files released after his death showed that Deva was one of 743 suspected fascist war criminals recruited by the CIA during the Cold War.

Germany’s Ambassador in Pristina Jorn Rohde expressed concern about the plans to restore Deva’s house in Mitrovica.

“Very concerned about restauration plans for Xhafer Deva’s house, a known Nazi collaborator/protagonist of infamous SS Skanderbeg Div. No history whitewashing! Don’t distort the truth about the Holocaust or war crimes committed by the Nazis and local collaborators,” the ambassador wrote in a Twitter post.

Earlier, the Belgrade-based Museum of Genocide Victims called the decision to restore Deva’s house shameful, recalling that the project to restore the house and turn it into a regional culture center is being launched in cooperation with the UNDP, European Union and Kosovo Ministry of Culture.