Mitrovica, Europe Brief News – The refurbishment of a pro Nazi government minister’s house that was used during the time of world war two is receiving a lot of criticism.
Germany gave warnings to Serbia of historical whitewashing and the European Union and United Nations ordered to stop the project.
The three floor red brick house in Mitrovica was created in 1930 for Xhafer Deva who served as an interior minister for the pro german government in 1943 and 1944.
The United Nations development program and European Union ask for an apology after they gave orders to convert the historical background of deva into a cultural heritage site.
The prominent figure Joren rohde, Germany’s ambassador said “ he was concerned about the restoration of the house of Deva”
He also shared a twitter message saying “Don’t distort the truth about the holocaust or war crimes committed by Nazis and local collaborators”.
Hajrulla Ceku , Kosovo’s Minister of culture shielded the restoration project in the news right after the EU and UNDP made a call on stopping the work at site”.
Ceku said in a statement “We are restoring the monument but not the history of Xhafer Deva ”. He also was not sure if the Kosovo government would be interested in working on the restoration.
During the time when Deva was serving as a minister for the pro German government, Kosovo was seen as just a part of Albania by germany.
Historian shed light on Deva Character
Historian suggested that security forces who were working under Deva was considered Nazis as their allies. They combined fight against communists and committed violence including a massacre of suspected anti fasist sympathisers.
Durim Abdullahu, as history professor at pristine state university said “ Deva is a war criminal, he committed crimes against his political opponents but personally he never agreed to hand over lists of Kosovo jews despite the persistence of nazi authorties”.
Once the war ended, Deva left Kosovo. He was seen spending his time in various European countries and died in California in 1978.
In Mitrovica , he is still celebrated. A few steps away from his house, a wall is decorated with pictures of important people from the town and Deva can also be seen up there on the wall.
There are exactly three streets that were named after deva in Kosovo. One of them is Pritina which is situated a hundred metres away from the German embassy.
