page_title: German occupation of Albania
section_title: Police
hierarchical_section_title: German occupation of Albania / Collaboration / Police
caption_attribution_description: Information added by Wikimedia users.English: Raupenschlepper Ost (RSO) (literally: "Crawler Tractor East") column passing by Et'hem Bey Mosque in central Tirana, Albania, after taking over the city from the Italians, September 1943.
context_page_description: The German occupation of Albania occurred between 1943 and 1944 during World War II. Before the armistice between Italy and the Allied armed forces on 8 September 1943, Albania had been in a de jure personal union with and was de facto under the control of the Kingdom of Italy. After the armistice and the Italian exit from the Axis, German military forces entered Albania and it came under German occupation, creating the client-state, the Albanian Kingdom.
  The Germans favoured the nationalist Balli Kombëtar over King Zog I's Legalists and the occupation was marked by collaboration between them and the Germans. Albania under German occupation retained control of the areas it had received during Italian rule, including most of Kosovo, as well as Western Macedonia, the town of Tutin in Central Serbia and a strip of Eastern Montenegro. It was the policy of the Balli Kombëtar to have all Albanian populated territories under one state.
context_section_description: Xhafer Deva was the Minister of the Interior and therefore the head of the police and gendarmerie in the country. A native Kosovar Albanian and deemed the most "effective and reliable" by the Germans, Deva's forces were involved in targeting the internal enemies of the state. On 4 February 1944, police units under his authority were implicated in the massacre of 86 residents of Tirana suspected of being anti-fascists and other excesses committed by the Gestapo in collaboration with the Albanian gendarmerie. Large number of Serbs were killed across Kosovo or deported to camps in Albania starting from 1942. Local Albanian fighters (Ballists) saw an opportunity to take their revenge upon their Serbian neighbours for the suffering they had endured over previous two decades (Massacres of Albanians in the Balkan Wars, Colonisation of Kosovo). The Ballists attacked the Serb colonists, burning perhaps as many as 30,000 houses belonging to Serb and Montenegrin settlers. Roma (Gypsies) were also targeted by the gendarmerie and police force.
  To maintain the military occupation in the new German state of Albania, the Wehrmacht and Waffen SS sought to utilise local manpower to maintain law and order, and fight off Yugoslav Partisan and communist Albanian Resistance activity in the region. For their part Albanian leaders hoped to form an "army, which will be able to safeguard the borders of Kosovo and liberate the surrounding regions". Led by German officers, in May 1944, some troops from the division were stationed in the Gjakova area to guard the mines.
caption: German column in Tirane
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