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Besides Himarë/Himara area the Greek army also occupied a large part of today’s southern
Albania and Epirus of Greece (Winnifrith 2002: 136). Foto Bixhili, who describes the period
of the Italian and Greek occupation in one of his last chapters, puts forth the fighting spirit of
Himarë/Himara men and lists the troops that were formed by the local people during the
Second World War. Bixhili also notes the names of some individuals who were taken in
internment by the Italian army. Moreover, he describes the battle between Italian and Greek
troops, the liberation of Himarë/Himara and Albania and the formation of the independent
Republic of Albania. When describing the fighting spirit of Himarë/Himara people, Bixhili
writes:
In the years of the war the Italian Fashists fought against Greeks on the Albanian land
that was occupied by Italians. Himariotes collaborated with the Greek army not as one
of them but as the Albanians on their own land. They were arrested by the Italians as
Albanians who helped Greeks, as Filogreeks (Bixhili 2004: 303, translations mine).
In the continuing part Bixhili (2004: 302-311) describes the invasion of the German army to
Greece which forced the Greek troops to retreat from Southern Albania. Almost all the
Albanian territory came under the control of Italian troops again. Later in 1943, when the Italy
capitulated, the Albanian territory came under control of German troops. Bixhili lists the
names of several local men who died in the battle against the occupation and concludes his
chapter with praiseing of the local people of Himarë/Himara:
This [the period of the Second World War] was a hard period with many
perturbations. The Himariotes, however, had the strength and they fought with their
faith in “nation”, they responded as the son of nobody, as the crafty Byzantine with a
big heart, patiently and as the mature men who had characterised the century […].
(Bixhili 2004: 314, translations mine).
In 1944 part of Southern Albania was liberated by the British troops (see Winnifrith 2002:
136-137). After this event the question of the state-border between Albania and Greece
became a part of the political negotiations again. In 1946 the political discords between
Albanian and Greek politics reached its “peak” when the Greek government ordered
deportation of Chams (Tsams), the Albanian–speaking population and members of Muslim
religion, from Igumenica to Albania (see Winnifrith 2002: 136-137). Dispute about the state
border between Albania and Greece was mainly a political one, whereas in the people’s daily
practice the border was passable and tensions were less observable. This lasted until the end
of the Second World War and the introduction of the communist dictatorship of Enver Hoxha,
who gradually broke off all the contacts with other countries. In 1948, when the contacts with
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