The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS (1st Croatian) was a mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS, an armed branch of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II. At the post-war Nuremberg trials, the Waffen-SS was declared to be a criminal organisation due to its major involvement in war crimes and crimes against humanity. From March to December 1944, the division fought a counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in the Independent State of Croatia, a fascist puppet state of Germany that encompassed almost all of modern-day Croatia, all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina, and parts of modern-day Serbia.

The division was named (), after a local fighting knife or scimitar carried by Ottoman policemen during the centuries that the region was part of the Ottoman Empire. It was the first non-Germanic Waffen-SS division, and its formation marked the expansion of the Waffen-SS into a multi-ethnic military force. Composed mainly of Bosnian Muslims with some Catholic Croats, and mostly German and Yugoslav Volksdeutsche officers and non-commissioned officers, the members of the division took an oath of allegiance to the German Führer Adolf Hitler and the Croatian Poglavnik Ante Pavelić.

The division fought briefly in the Syrmia region north of the Sava river before crossing into northeastern Bosnia. After crossing the Sava, it established a designated "security zone" in northeastern Bosnia between the Sava, Bosna, Drina, and Spreča rivers. It also fought outside the security zone on several occasions, and earned a reputation for brutality and savagery, not only during combat operations but also for atrocities committed against Serb and Jewish civilians. In late 1944, parts of the division were transferred briefly to the Zagreb area, and non-German members began to desert in large numbers. Over the winter of 1944–45, the unit was sent to the Baranja region, where it fought against the Red Army and Bulgarians throughout southern Hungary, falling back via a series of defensive lines until they were inside the Reich frontier.

Most of the remaining Bosnian Muslims left at this point and attempted to return to Bosnia. The rest retreated further west, hoping to surrender to the Western Allies. Most of the remaining members became prisoners of the British Army. Subsequently, 38 officers were extradited to Yugoslavia to face criminal charges, and ten were executed. Hundreds of former members of the division fought in the 1947–48 civil war in Mandatory Palestine and the 1948 Arab–Israeli War.

Background NDH and Ante Pavelić After the invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941, the extreme Croat nationalist and fascist Ante Pavelić, who had been in exile in Benito Mussolini's Italy, was appointed (leader) of an Ustaše-led Croatian state – the Independent State of Croatia (often called the NDH, from the ). The NDH combined almost all of modern-day Croatia, all of modern-day Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of modern-day Serbia into an "Italian-German quasi-protectorate". NDH authorities, led by the Ustaše Militia, subsequently implemented genocidal policies against the Serb, Jewish and Roma population living within the borders of the new state.

To secure the loyalty of the Bosnian Muslims, Pavelić ordered that property in Zagreb be converted into a mosque that he named the "Poglavnik's Mosque". Despite Pavelić's assurances of equality with the Croats, many Muslims quickly became dissatisfied with Croatian rule. A Muslim leader reported that not one Muslim occupied an influential post in the administration. Although this was an overstatement, Muslims were underrepresented in government positions, with only two of 20 ministerial positions. None of the six state secretaries were Muslim, and there were only 13 Muslim "people representatives" in a total of 206. Fierce fighting broke out between the Ustaše, the Serb-chauvinist Chetniks and pan-Yugoslav Partisans in NDH territory. Some Ustaše militia units became convinced that the Muslims were communist sympathisers, and burned their villages and murdered many civilians. The Chetniks accused the Muslims of taking part in the Ustaše violence against Serbs and perpetrated similar atrocities against the Muslim population. The Muslims received little protection from the Croatian Home Guard, the regular army of the NDH, whom the Germans described as "of minimal combat value". Local militias were raised, but these were also of limited value and only one, the Tuzla-based Home Guard Hadžiefendić Legion, led by Muhamed Hadžiefendić, was of any significance.

Denunciations and request for protection

The Bosnian Muslim elite and notables in various cities and towns issued resolutions or memoranda to the NDH and German authorities that publicly denounced the genocide of the Serbs and the NDH laws targeting them. These were issued in: Prijedor (23 September 1941), Sarajevo (12 October), Mostar (21 October), Banja Luka (12 November), Bijeljina (2 December) and Tuzla (11 December). The resolutions condemned the Ustaše in Bosnia and Herzegovina, both for their mistreatment of Muslims and for their attempts to turn Muslims and Serbs against one another. One memorandum declared that since the beginning of the Ustaše regime, the Muslims had dreaded the lawless activities that the Ustaše, Croatian government authorities and various illegal groups had been perpetrating against the Serbs.

The Bosnian Muslims' dissatisfaction with the Ustaše rule of the NDH and their need for protection were combined with nostalgia for the period of Habsburg rule in Bosnia and a generally friendly attitude towards Germany among prominent Bosnian Muslims. These factors led to a push towards autonomy for the Bosnian Muslim community which was strongly opposed by Pavelić as counter to the territorial integrity of the NDH. By November 1942, the autonomists were desperate to protect the Muslim people and wrote to Adolf Hitler asking that he authorise the creation of an autonomous "political-administrative authority" in Bosnia within the structure of the NDH, led by a Hitler appointee.

Origin

On 6 December 1942, Heinrich Himmler and key Waffen-SS recruiting officer Gottlob Berger approached Hitler with the proposal to raise a Bosnian Muslim SS division. Both the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS were concerned about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the NDH that tied down German military personnel needed elsewhere. A German source noted that by 1943 over 100,000 Bosnian Muslims had been killed and 250,000 had become refugees. In addition, a serious food shortage threatened the region. "The Muslims," remarked Artur Phleps, "bear the special status of being persecuted by all others".

The romantic notions that Himmler had about the Bosnian Muslims were probably significant in the division's genesis. Nonetheless, a memorandum dated 1 November 1942 also indicates that leading Muslim autonomists had already suggested the creation of a volunteer Waffen-SS unit under German command. Himmler was personally fascinated by the Islamic faith and believed that Islam created fearless soldiers. He found their ferocity preferable to the gentility of Christians and believed their martial qualities should be further developed and put to use. He thought that Muslim men would make perfect SS soldiers as Islam "promises them Heaven if they fight and are killed in action." As for their ethnic background and SS requirements, it appears that Himmler accepted the theories advanced by both Croatian and German nationalists that the Croatian people, including the Muslims, were not ethnic Slavs but pure Aryans of either Gothic or Iranian descent.

Himmler was inspired by the noted successes of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian Infantry in World War I. He "endeavoured to restore what he called 'an old Austrian' tradition by reviving the Bosnian regiments of the former Austro-Hungarian Army in the form of a Bosnian Muslim SS Division". Once raised, the division was to engage and destroy Josip Broz Tito's Partisan forces operating in north-eastern Bosnia, thus restoring local "order". Himmler's primary concern in the region was not the security of the local Muslim population, but the welfare of ethnic German settlers to the north in Syrmia. "Srem (Syrmia) is the breadbasket of Croatia, and hopefully it and our beloved German settlements will be secured. I hope that the area south of Srem will be liberated by ... the Bosnian division ... so that we can at least restore partial order in this ridiculous (Croatian) state."

Hitler formally approved the project in mid-February 1943 and Himmler put Phleps, commander of the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, in charge of raising the first SS division to be recruited from a non-Germanic people.

Recruitment On 18 February 1943, Phleps travelled to Zagreb to begin formal negotiations with the NDH government. He met with German foreign ministry envoy Siegfried Kasche and NDH Foreign Minister Dr. Mladen Lorković who represented Pavelić. Pavelić had already agreed to raise the division, but the Waffen-SS and NDH governments had very different ideas of how it would be recruited and controlled. Lorković suggested that it be named the SS Ustaša Division, a Croatian unit raised with SS assistance, with familiar geographically based regimental names such as Bosna, Krajina and Una. This reflected the concerns shared by Pavelić and Kasche that an exclusively Muslim division might aid a Muslim bid for independence. As a compromise, the word "Croatian" was included in its official title and Catholic Croatian officers were recruited. Himmler and Phleps largely prevailed and created the division as they saw fit, leaving the NDH very unhappy with the outcome, particularly regarding its ethnic composition.

Karl von Krempler, a specialist in Islam who spoke Serbo-Croatian, was charged by Himmler and Phleps with organising the division. On 3 March 1943, Phleps met with von Krempler, who was to work with NDH government representative Alija Šuljak. The campaign began on 20 March 1943, when von Krempler and Šuljak began an 18-day recruiting tour through 11 Bosnian districts. With assistance from the SS, recruiting rallies were held in the towns of Živinice and Gračanica. In the meantime the Germans began raising the divisional headquarters staff in Berlin, including Herbert von Oberwurzer, who was transferred from the 6th SS Mountain Division Nord to command the division. Outside the NDH, recruiting was conducted in the southern parts of the German-occupied territory of Serbia that had significant Muslim populations, namely the Sandžak region along the border with the Italian governorate of Montenegro, and the parts of the Kosovo region occupied by Germany. Despite high German expectations and considerable efforts from local collaborators, recruitment from these areas was low. Due to the low number of recruits, to raise an Albanian SS regiment the Germans mobilized the population of Novi Pazar in the Kosovo region on 10 April and 30 May. Eligible males who did not volunteer were rounded up by the Albanian gendarmerie to serve in the regiment. Some Muslims escaped serving in the regiment by fleeing the city.