Albanian Fascist Party - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Albanian Fascist Party (Albanian Partia Fashiste e Shqipërisë — PFSh) was a fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

movement which held nominal power in Albania

Albania

Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...

from 1939, when the country was conquered by Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, until 1943, when Italy capitulated

Surrender (military)

Surrender is when soldiers, nations or other combatants stop fighting and eventually become prisoners of war, either as individuals or when ordered to by their officers. A white flag is a common symbol of surrender, as is the gesture of raising one's hands empty and open above one's head.When the...

to the Allies

Allies

In everyday English usage, allies are people, groups, or nations that have joined together in an association for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out between them...

. Afterward, Albania fell under German

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

occupation, and the PFSh was replaced by the Albanian National Socialist Party.

The PFSh was a branch of the Italian National Fascist Party

National Fascist Party

The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...

(PNF) with Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

at its head and organized along the same lines and principles, and with its own paramilitary Black Shirts, the Albanian Militia

Albanian Militia

The Albanian Militia was an Albanian fascist paramilitary group formed in 1939 following the Italian invasion of Albania in April 1939, part of the Italian Blackshirts . It was recruited from Italians living in Albania and later on Albanians were also recruited...

. It was never a mass movement, with membership reported at 13,500 in May 1940; however, during the PFSh's time in power, it did realize the vision of Greater Albania

Greater Albania

Greater Albania or Ethnic Albania is an irredentist concept of lands outside the borders of the Republic of Albania that are considered part of a greater national homeland by most Albanians, based on the present-day or historical presence of Albanian populations in those areas...

, expanding the borders of Albania into modern-day Epirus

Epirus (periphery)

Epirus , formally the Epirus Region , is a geographical and administrative region in northwestern Greece. It borders the regions of West Macedonia and Thessaly to the east, West Greece to the south, the Ionian Sea and the Ionian Islands to the west and the country of Albania to the north. The...

and Kosovo

Kosovo

Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...

. It also engaged in some anti-semitism

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

, with Albanian Jews

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

forbidden from joining the party , and therefore excluded from some professions such as education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

; future communist leader Enver Hoxha

Enver Hoxha

Enver Halil Hoxha was a Marxist–Leninist revolutionary andthe leader of Albania from the end of World War II until his death in 1985, as the First Secretary of the Party of Labour of Albania...

also lost his job as a teacher for refusing to join the PFSh.

In early 1943, Maliq Bej Bushati

Maliq Bushati

Maliq Bushati was Prime Minister of Albania during the Italian occupation, from 13 February to 12 May 1943.-References:...

, an anti-monarchist nationalist, reorganized the PFSh as the Guard of Great Albania and worked to distance Albania from Italy, striking fascist symbols from the flag

Flag of Albania

The national flag of Albania is a red flag with a silhouetted black double-headed eagle in the centre. It is the only red and black flag of a recognised sovereign state....

(two fasces

Fasces

Fasces are a bundle of wooden sticks with an axe blade emerging from the center, which is an image that traditionally symbolizes summary power and jurisdiction, and/or "strength through unity"...

, one on each side of the Albanian eagle) and asserting Albanian autonomy in many spheres. However, the Italian surrender led to the country's occupation by Nazi Germany and changed the political situation in the country.

Upon the German takeover, SD

Sicherheitsdienst

Sicherheitsdienst , full title Sicherheitsdienst des Reichsführers-SS, or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. The organization was the first Nazi Party intelligence organization to be established and was often considered a "sister organization" with the...

leader Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Ernst Kaltenbrunner

Ernst Kaltenbrunner was an Austrian-born senior official of Nazi Germany during World War II. Between January 1943 and May 1945, he held the offices of Chief of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt , President of Interpol and, as a Obergruppenführer und General der Polizei und Waffen-SS, he was the...

reorganized the Guard of Great Albania into the Albanian National Socialist Party, which had formal control of Albania. German control over Albania was looser than in other territories; the Albanian Nazi government did not expand systematic persecution of Jews to deportation or killings. Albanian volunteers did, however, form an SS

Schutzstaffel

The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...

division, the 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian)

21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg (1st Albanian)

The 21st Division of the SS Skanderbeg was a Mountain division of the SS set up by Heinrich Himmler in March 1944, officially under the title of the 21. Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS Skanderbeg...

.

After the fall of the Third Reich, Albania descended into civil war; some members of the Albanian National Socialist Party fought against the communists both in Albania and in Kosovo, with the last of these reported to have ceased fighting in 1951.

Ministers Secretaries of the Albanian Fascist Party

1939-1941 – Tefik Mborja
Tefik Mborja
Tefik Selim Mborja was an Albanian politician and lawyer. He served as the general secretary of the Albanian Fascist Party during the Second World War....
1941-1943 – Jup Kazazi
1943 – Kol Bib Mirakaj

Ministers Secretaries of the Guard of Great Albania

1943 – Maliq Bej Bushati
Maliq Bushati
Maliq Bushati was Prime Minister of Albania during the Italian occupation, from 13 February to 12 May 1943.-References:...
1943 – Eqrem Bej Libohova

External links

"The Jews of Albania during the Zogist and Second World War Periods" by Bernd J. Fisher
"Rescue in Albania" by Haroey Samer
States and Regents of the World: Albania

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See also

External links