During October 1943–April 1944, the Albanian collaborationist organization Balli Kombëtar with support of Nazi German officers mounted a major offensive in Northern Epirus and fierce fighting occurred between them and the EAOVI. The results were devastating. During this period over 200 Greek populated towns and villages were burned or destroyed, 2,000 Northern Epirotes were killed, 5,000 imprisoned and 2,000 taken hostages to concentration camps. Moreover, 15,000 homes, schools and churches were destroyed. Thirty thousand people had to find refuge in Greece during and after that period, leaving their homeland. When the war ended and the communists gained power in Albania, a United States Senate resolution demanded the cession of the region to the Greek state, but according to the following post war international peace treaties it remained part of the Albanian state.