13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Handschar" (Croatian No. 1)
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Croatian SS Volunteer Division later: |
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|---|---|
 Troop registration |
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| active | March 1, 1943 to May 1945 |
| Country |
.svg){kind=small} German Empire
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| Armed forces |
 Armed SS
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| Branch of service | Mountaineer |
| Type | division |
| structure | See outline |
| Strength | 21,000 men |
| Butcher | Partisan war in Yugoslavia |
| commander | |
| list of | Commanders |
The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS “Handschar” (Croatian No. 1.) was one of the mountain divisions of the Waffen SS during the Second World War . The division consisted of volunteers from the Independent State of Croatia (NDH), was recruited in Bosnia and set up and trained at Mittenwald . The name is derived from the handshar , an Arabic scimitar.
history
Positioning and training
Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler raved about the ideological bond between National Socialism and Islam . The ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood , which was derived from the Koran , seemed to coincide in some points with that of the National Socialists - especially on the Jewish question . In 1943, after the visit of the Grand Mufti Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, a letter was issued in which the word “anti-Semitism” was to be avoided with immediate effect, since the Arabs would also be counted under the term “Semites” and they were not included wanted to equate the Jews: “The use of this word always affects the Arab world, which, according to the Grand Mufti, is predominantly German-friendly. The hostile foreign countries use the hint that we are working with the word 'anti-Semitism' and thereby also want to show that we lump the Arabs with the Jews in the same pot. "
The term “Muselgermanen”, the concept of which was developed by Himmler, was also used for the soldiers in Bosnia-Herzegovina who were recruited for the Waffen-SS in 1941 by al-Husseini, who is considered the founder of Palestinian nationalism . Like Hitler, the Grand Mufti saw an ideological agreement and, during his stay in Berlin, praised Hitler as a "leader admired by the entire Arab world" and hoped that air strikes would be carried out on Tel Aviv . From 1943 al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, was involved in his function as an SS member with the organization and training of Bosniak Wehrmacht units and Waffen SS divisions.
Jeffrey Herf gave details about the ideological connection of the Nazis to the Handschar Division and gave a long speech by Himmler on January 11, 1944 before leadership cadres in Neuhammer , in which the latter emphasized the common goals. Himmler invoked "God" ( you say Allah, it is of course the same thing ). The Führer will free the whole world from the Jews. Herf interprets that in addition to joint propaganda campaigns in the Islamic area, the Handschar was the second cooperation project realized by the Nazis and Islamists. In April 1944 an imam institute was established to train spiritual leaders for the troops. Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig , the German leader of the troops, said the Handschar fighters are beginning to see Hitler as the “second prophet” of Islamic teaching. This topos was also discussed extensively and at a high level in the RSHA in 1943: Himmler's RSHA did a lot to equate Hitler with those warriors whom Allah sent to earth to fight the Jews, namely with regard to the end-time return of a prophet. He and al-Husseini emphasized the common ethnic basis. Al-Husseini derived obedience to the one leader from monotheism , be he religious, political or military; and the emphasis on discipline and obedience, on work and struggle. "Islam" and National Socialism have moved closer together here, says Herf.
The largest Bosniak troop was the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS. It was also called the Handschar Division after the Handschar , an Arab scimitar. Several Bosnian muftis and imams are helping the recruiting effort, and each unit in the division has a young mufti as a spiritual advisor. The officers , however, were almost all “ ethnic Germans ”. The Imam of the Handschar Division was Salih Sabanovic, a graduate of the Zagreb Imam Academy. After 1945 he played a certain role in Munich when the old Nazi fighters from the SS and Wehrmacht as well as the so-called "volunteer movement", e.g. B. Kirimal , planned their Freimann Mosque and in the preparatory committee (“Mosque Building Commission”) received superior headwinds from the CIA and the Muslim Brotherhood under Said Ramadan .
The division was set up on March 1, 1943 as the Croatian SS Volunteer Division . By the end of April 1943, 12,000 men had already been recruited. On October 22, 1943, the division was renamed 13th SS Volunteer (Bosnian-Herzegovinian) Mountain Division (Croatia) before it was given its final name in June 1944.
To the disappointment of the Bosniaks, who had been led to believe that the division would be used to protect their towns and villages, the recruits were sent to Germany and France for long training in the summer of 1943. However, when their units stationed in southern France clashed with the German occupation forces there in September 1943 and were involved in battles for a few villages and small towns, including one in Villefranche-de-Rouergue , the Waffen-SS relocated the Bosnian Division to Silesia .
commitment
From February 1944, the division carried out operations against communist partisans in the Balkans, where it attracted attention with excessive atrocities. In the spring and summer of 1944, they were stationed in northern and eastern Bosnia and committed murder and other crimes against the local Serb population in retaliation. The exact number of victims is not known; it is sometimes estimated to be several thousand.
The Bosnian SS units operated on the territory of the “ Independent State of Croatia ”, which was nominally controlled by the Ustaše , and fought together with the Croatian armed forces under a joint command that was officially under the German Reich from 1943 onwards.
However, they were not part of the Ustaše or the army of the "Independent State of Croatia", but were set up independently by the German side. Despite the consent of the Croatian collaboration government to the recruitment, these SS units were observed with suspicion, as the government feared Bosniak separatism .
After the military successes of the partisans under Tito in September 1944, Tito issued an ultimatum calling on all Croatian and Bosnian soldiers to join the partisans. Around 2,700 men from the Handschar Division complied with this request. When the Ustaša tried to intimidate the Muslim population with group executions as a countermeasure, the division continued to fall apart. In October the German authorities in Zagreb reported to Berlin that the associations could no longer be used. In December, Himmler had the division dissolved. People who continued to support the Germans were integrated into other units or came to the Reich as “ foreign workers ”. When withdrawing from the Balkans, the Croatian personnel were dismissed. The remainder of the division came later in Carinthia in British captivity.
composition
The division consisted mainly of Bosniak volunteers, but also so-called "ethnic Germans", but there were also a number of members who were recruited under pressure. It comprised around 21,000 men, including personnel from the 23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS "Kama" (Croatian No. 2), which was only partially set up .
structure
- Waffen-Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment of the SS 27
- Waffen-Gebirgs-Jäger-Regiment of the SS 28
- SS-Waffen-Artillerie-Regiment 13
- SS-Gebirgs-Panzerjäger-Division 13
- Croatian SS Panzer Division
- Croatian SS motorcycle rifle battalion
- Croatian SS Cavalry Division
- Croatian SS Cycling Battalion
- SS Mountain Reconnaissance Department 13
- SS tank reconnaissance platoon
- SS Mountain Pioneer Battalion 13
- SS Flak Department 13
- SS Mountain News Department 13
- SS Division Supply Leader 13
- Supply Regimental Staff 13
- SS division supply troops
- SS Administrative Battalion 13
- SS Economic Battalion 13
- SS medical department 13
- SS Mountain Veterinary Company 13
- Division troops 13
Commanders
- July 2 to August 9, 1943: SS-Standartenführer Herbert von Obwurzer
- August 9, 1943 to June 1944: SS-Brigadführer and Major General of the Waffen-SS Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig
- June 1944 to May 8, 1945: SS brigade leader and major general of the Waffen SS Desiderius Hampel
See also
literature
- Holm Sundhaussen : On the history of the Waffen-SS in Croatia 1941-1945. In: Mathias Bernath (Ed.): Südost-Forschungen . No. 30 . Munich 1971, p. 176-1196 .
- George Lepre: Himmler's Bosnian Division: The Waffen-SS Handschar Division 1943–1945 . Schiffer Military History, Atlgen, PA 1997, ISBN 0-7643-0134-9 .
- Georg Tessin : Associations and troops of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen SS in World War II 1939–1945. Volume 3: The Land Forces 6-14 . 2nd Edition. Biblio-Verlag, Bissendorf 1974, ISBN 3-7648-0942-6 .
- Zvonimir Bernwald: Muslims in the Waffen-SS: Memories of the Bosnian Handzar Division 1943–1945 . Ares-Verlag , Graz 2012, ISBN 3-902732-00-8 .
Web links
- youtube.de , ARTE documentation: Turban and swastika , December 2010. Accessed on May 25, 2011.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Klaus Gensicke: The Mufti of Jerusalem and the National Socialists: a political biography of Amin el-Husseinis . In: Publications of the Ludwigsburg Research Center at the University of Stuttgart . tape 11 . Scientific Book Society , Darmstadt 2007, ISBN 3-534-20808-0 , pp. 247 (Reprint 2012).
- ↑ jungle-world.com , Jungle World , Matthias Küntzel : From Zeesen to Beirut. National Socialism and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World . Edition 23/2004. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ^ Hans Hagemeyer : Anti-Semitism. The term should not be used , memo for Dr. Koeppen, NS-Archiv.de, May 17, 1943. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ^ National Socialism and Anti-Semitism in the Arab World , by Matthias Küntzel, Jewish Political Studies Review 17: 1-2
- ↑ stern.de , Der Stern : The Lords of Jerusalem , May 15, 2002. Retrieved May 25, 2011.
- ↑ Jeffrey Herf : Nazi propaganda for the Arab world . Yale University Press, New Haven 2009, ISBN 0-300-14579-9 , pp. 335, p. 200 ff .
- ^ Stefan Meining , A mosque in Germany. CH Beck, Munich 2011, p. 62. Previously an ARD film