Zuroff: Honours for Deva an insult to memory of his victims

JERUSALEM - The director of Jerusalem-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Efraim Zuroff, says the Centre consistently opposes a renovation of the Kosovska Mitrovica house of WWII Nazi collaborationist Xhafer Deva.

In a statement to Tanjug, Zuroff said honours for Deva sent a horrible message to the Kosovo society and were a terrible insult to the memory of his numerous victims.

Zuroff was commenting on the Pristina authorities' announcement that Deva's house will be renovated.

Deva was a Nazi collaborator, he said.

That is why it is very disturbing to learn that renovation plans have been renewed, Zuroff said, adding that Deva symbolised the ethnic Albanians' collaboration with the Nazis and their role in crimes against Serbs and Jews.

He was one of the people who supported an extremist genocidal ideology, Zuroff said, adding that, in February 2022, he had appealed to the EU to halt the renovation project, which it undertook together with the UNDP, and that he had subsequently been informed that the project had been scrapped.

Deva was involved in the establishment of the Skandererbeg SS division, notorious for its crimes against Serbs and Jews.

During WWII, Deva was Mitrovica mayor and interior minister of Albania.

He was decorated by Adolf Hitler in 1944.