[4][5] 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 Serbia and a strip of Eastern Montenegro.

[10] In line with Neubacher's policies towards Albania, reprisals on the civilian population for attacks on the German army were uncommon and certainly not as brutal as in other occupied territories.

[14] In line with the German policy of "non-interference" and a desire to save their own troops for deployment elsewhere[15] an Albanian Army commanded by General Prenk Pervizi was formed soon after the new government was set up.

[15] Many units which had collaborated with the Italians were preserved and subsequently utilised by the Germans in anti-partisan operations, with the staunchly anti-communist Balli Kombetar (National Front) also being used.

[15] By early November the newly established forces were engaged in fighting Macedonian and Albanian Partisan units in the town of Kicevo.

[20] The 21st Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Skanderbeg, established in April 1944,[21] was better known for murdering, raping, and looting in predominantly Serbian areas than for participating in combat operations on behalf of the German war effort.

[16] 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.

[19] On 4 February 1944, police units under his authority were implicated in the massacre of 86 residents of Tirana suspected of being anti-fascists[23] and other excesses committed by the Gestapo in collaboration with the Albanian gendarmerie.

From mid September 1943 to the end of August 1944 an amount equalling 2,647 tons of processed and unprocessed Magnesite were exported to Germany.