When the parish of Shkodër decided to send its envoy to the Italian Parliament for the coronation of Victor Emmanuel III, Kraja did not attend. He was interned with his father and two brothers by the Italian army at Porto Palermo Castle in 1943. That September, after the Italian surrender, he addressed the faithful at Fushë Çela with the sermon, “Ç’ёshtё komunizmi dhe pasojat e tij pёr popullin shqiptar” (“What is communism and what does it mean for the Albanian people”).