Figure 1.-- |
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Hitler and the NAZIs after the fall of France thought that the War was won. For Hitler this meant that he could now proceeed with one of his most cherished objectives--thecseizure of Lebenraum in the East. This meant the invasion of the Soviet Union. Operation Barbarossa was planed as a massive stroke which would destroy the Red Army with one massive stroke, just as Poland, France, and the other occupied countries had been crushed. The Soviet Union proved a much more difficult undertaking. For the first time, massive German casualties were experienced. The Germans after the huge losses before Moscow (December 1941) found themsleves needing to look for additional manpower. One of the places they looked was amomg Muslims. Here they found willing recruits both in the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, Both the Wehrmacht and SS formed military units with Muslim recruits.
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, played an important role in the formation of several of tese units. His role varied from unit to unit. The Mufti helped form Muslim Waffen SS and Wehrmacht units in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Kosovo-Metohija, Western Macedonia, North Africa, and NAZI-occupied areas of the Soviet Union. He was especially active in Bosnia and Kosovo-Albania where he had contacts made before the War. Defeats in the East created a need for manpower. The Wehrmacht had formed Muslim units in the Soviet Union. Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler had an interest in Islam and decided that the SS should also form Muslim units. The assignment was given to Gottlob Berger, head of the SS Main Office in control of recruiting. Himmler made the Mufti a part of the SS apparatus and give an office in the SS main office (May 1943). From here he was deeply involved in recruiting Muslims for SS units and operations. The Grand Mufti assisted in the formation of Muslim formations in both the Waffen SS and Wehrmacht.
Hundreds of thousands of Muslims fought in the War, many on the NAZI side.
Germany did not have a Muslim population. Several of the countries occupied by the Germans did have Muslim populations. They were a populations that was safe for the Germans to recruit because they were for a variety of reasons hostile to the government of the country they lived. This was especially true in the Soviet Union because of Stalin's athiest campaigns. Yugoslvia was the other country where Muslims were recruited. Here the ethnic and religious animosities meant that again the Muslims were a population that the Germans could recruit. The SS recruited Muslims extensively in the Balkans and here thre Mufti was especially involved. There were two Bosnian Muslim Waffen SS Divisions, an Albanian Waffen SS Division (in Kosovo-Metohija and Western Macedonia), the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS ìSkanderbegî, a Muslim SS self-defense regiment (in the Rashka--Sandzak region of Serbia. Many other units were formed, especially in the Soviet Union. Other Muslim units fighting with the NAZIs included: the Arab Legion (Arabisches Freiheitskorps), the Arab Brigade, the Ostmusselmanische SS-Regiment, the Ostturkischen Waffen Verband der SS made up of Turkistanis, the Waffengruppe der-SS Krim, formations consisting of Chechen Muslims from Chechnya,Ý and a Tatar Regiment der-SS made up of Crimean Tatars, and other Muslim formations in the Waffen SS and Wehrmacht, in Bosnia-Hercegovina, the Balkans, North Africa, and Nazi-occupied areas of the Soviet Union. The Mufti's involvement in the formation of these units varied.
Albania was occupied by the Italians just before the outbreak of World War II (1939). Mussolini used it as a springboard for his aborted invasioin of Greece (1940). This was ultimately a factor in the German invasion of Yugoslavia abd Greece (1941). Albania and Koso were in the Italian occupation zone. After the Italian surrender to the Allies (September 1943), the Germans attempted to occupy the Italian zone. By this stage of the War, Germany was desperately short of man power. The SS thus began recruiting Muslims in Albania.
While the NAZI grand design foir the Caucasus and Middle East collapsed, the Germans still had Muslim populations in the areas they controlled which could be recrited for military service. The losses in Stalingrad creasted a desperate need for additioinal msanpower. It must have discouraged many Muslims from volunteering, but even so quite a number did join the Germans such was their hatred of Stalin and the Communists. Many Turkestanis in particular joined the Germans. The first NAZI Muslim military formations were formed by the Wehrmacht with Hitler's full approval. An imoressed Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler decided to recruit Muslims for the initiall racially pure SS. Several German Muslim units were formed as both combat and labor battalions. They saw combat on the eastern Front, the Balkans, Italy and France. They were widely employed for operations against partisans.
The SS was not precisely an organization prepared to accept cultural diversity. Thre thus were a range of problems the Germans officers assigned to lead the Muslim divisions had with their Muslim recruits. With Muslims the SS had to chang somewhat. This was not an easy adjudstment.
There were mutinies which were severely supressed. Some adjustments were relatively easy, such as eating pork and drinking alcoholic beverages. Himmiler ordered SS officers, "... I hold all commanders and other SS officers, responsible for the most scrupulous and loyal respect for this privilege especially granted to the Moslems. They have answered the call of the Moslem chiefs and have come to us out of hatred for the common Jewish-Anglo-Bolshevik enemy and through respect and fidelity for he who they respect above all, the Fuehrer, Adolf Hitler. There will no longer be the least discussion about the special rights afforded to the Moslems in these circles.... Heil Hitler! (signed) H. Himmler". (August 6, 1943)
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