The SS of Allah

(To Mario Veronesi)
16/03/20

Since the autumn of 1942 Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) and Gottlob Berger (1896-1975) had evaluated the possibility of recruiting Muslims from the Balkans. After Hitler's approval, the SS-Obergruppenführer Artur Phleps (1881-1944) and Amin al-Husayni (1897-1974) Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a friend of Hitler and Mussolini and many hierarchs of Nazi Germany, asked and they obtained permission from the Croatian-Bosnian authorities to proceed with the recruitment operation.

The recruitment campaign was launched in the heart of Bosnia by referring to the Islamist networks JMO and JMM, the two major Bosnian Muslim political components. In Sarajevo the "Young Muslims" of the future president of independent Bosnia-Herzegovina Alija Izetbegovic ensure the influx of new volunteers by opening an active recruiting office.

On February 10, 1943, the "13th Waffen SS Gebirgs-Division der Handschar" was formed, mainly with Muslims from Croatia, which at the time also included Bosnia and Herzegovina and, to a lesser extent, from the Albanian-speaking territories. The appellation "Handschar " derives from the typical Turkish sword, which was depicted as a symbol of division.

By direct order from Himmler, this SS division had "privileges", in reality normal concessions, to allow every Muslim to respect Islamic prescriptions. Prohibition to supply pork and alcohol, replaced by legitimate food and drink to the Islamic religion, concession to practice the religious obligations of Islam: "prayer five times a day, directed towards Mecca, and a religious background: a mullà for regiment and one imam for battalion ".

The recruits were relocated to an area of ​​Hungarian-occupied Yugoslavia, specifically Vojvodina, and trained on a maneuvering field that covered a triangle that spanned the Sava River, the city of Novi Sad and the Danube River. Faced with the risks of desertion, hostility on the part of local populations and, in any case in order not to create tensions at the political level, it was decided that the training of the unit would continue in occupied France, on the Massif Central, a region that somehow recalls the rugged orography of the Yugoslav relief where the division was supposed to operate.

A peculiarity of this division was the characteristic did green. This type of headgear, absolutely out of standard for SS uniformology, was expressly authorized by Himmler. A large quantity of these did he was found in the SS clothing store in Dachau, when the camp was freed in late April 1945.

At the end of January 1944 the division was ready for action, and was transferred to Bosnia to participate immediately in the operation "Wegweiser". On April 11, he took part in the operation "Osterei" during which the cities of Jamja, Uglievik and Priboj were occupied. In June, with the operation "Vollmond", (full moon), was used in very strong fights that drove back the Titian partisans beyond the Drina. In early September she was transferred to the Vukovice Osmaci-Srebrenica area for a rest. Numerous desertions occurred here, which were partially replaced by elements of the dissolved "23rd Waffen-Gebirgs-Division der SS Kama", whose name derives from the traditional Balkan knives, the "Kama".

Under Russian pressure, the division withdrew south of Lake Balaton, where it fought hard defensive fighting. During this period the men of the division became protagonists of dozens of episodes of cruelty against civilians. In November 1944 the division was now in disarray, although a small number continued to fight until May 8, 1945, when they surrendered to Austria to the English troops.

Subsequently delivered and killed by the Yugoslav partisans in the Bleiburg massacre, which happened in mid-May 1945 immediately after the end of the hostilities. Thirty-eight were tried by a military court in Sarajevo between 22 and 30 August 1947, all were found guilty, with ten death sentences, others with prison sentences ranging from five years and life imprisonment. Some committed suicide, including Karl Gustav Sauberzweig on October 20, 1946. Only Desiderius Hampel was saved, who lived quietly in Graz, Austria until his death on January 11, 1981.

To remember, that hundreds of members of the 13th and 23rd SS division, volunteered to fight in the 1948-49 in the Arab-Israeli war. The Syrian government applied for the transfer of approximately 8.000 Bosnian Muslim refugees to Syria, many of whom joined the armed forces of that country. An estimated 1.000 former Bosnian Muslim SS members have fought in Palestine. Only a few survived the post-war period and even fewer saw the dream of witnessing the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the independence of Bosnia in 1992.

Commanders

SS-Gruppenführer Artur Phleps from 13 February 1943

SS-Standartenführer Herbert Von Obwurzer (9 March 1943 - 1 August 1943)

SS-Brigadeführer Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig (1 August 1943 - 1 June 1944)

SS-Brigadeführer Desiderius Hampel (1 June 1944 - 12 May 1945)

Photo: Bundesarchiv