Members of the Nazi Skanderbeg SS Division with an Albanian Ushtar or gendarme.
The historical and political precedents for the creation of
a greater Sqiperia or Greater Albania was set during World War II when the
Kosovo and Metohija regions along with territory Southwest of lake Skutari from
Montenegro and the western region of Southern Serbia, or Juzna Srbija (now part
of Macedonija), were annexed to Albania by the Axis powers led by Fascist Italy
and Nazi Germany, under a plan devised by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler to
dismember and to destroy the Serbian Nation and people, which the Germans and
Italians perceived as the main threat to the axis powers and to the Third Reich
in the Balkan.
On April 7, 1939, Italian troops invaded and occupied
Albania forcing the Albanian ruler King Zog I Ahmed Bey Zogu, to flee to
Greece. Italy formally annexed into the Kingdom of Italy under the Italian king
Victor Immanuel and established a military government and viceroy. The Italian
began a program to colonize the country when thousands of settlers emigrated to
Albania. An Albanian Fascist Party was established with Albanian Black skirts
based on Italian models. The Albanian Army consisted of three infantry brigades
of 12 000 men.
On October 28 1940, Italy invaded Greece from Albania with
10 Italian divisions and the Albanian Army but were driven back.
Germany sought to assist the Italian-Albanian offensive by
operation Alpine Violet, a plan to move a corps of tree German mountain
divisions to Albania by air and sea. Instead German built up a heavy
concentration of the German Twelfth Army on the northwest Greek Border with
Bulgaria, from where the German invasion was launched.
On April 6, 1941, Nazi Germany and the axis powers invaded
Yugoslavia, Operation Punishment, and Greece forcing the capitulation of
Yugoslavia on the 17th, and Greece on the 23rd. Yugoslavia was subsequently
occupied and dismembered. The Axis powers established a greater Albania or
greater Shqiperia at the expense of Serbia and Montenegro. Territory from
Montenegro was annexed to Greater Albania. From Serbia, the Kosovo and Metohija
were ceded to greater Albania, along with the western part of Southern Serbia
(Juzna Srbija), now part of Macedonia, an area which was part of Stara Srbija
(Ancient Old Serbia). This Kosovo-metohija region and the surrounding territory
annexed to Greater Albania was called "New Albania".
To create an ethnically pure Shqiptar Kosovo, which Albanian
called "Kosova", the Shqiptari (Albanians) launched a widescale
campaigns of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Ethnic Serbs in the Kosovo-Metohija
regions were massacred, and their homes were burned, and survivors were
brutally driven out and expelled in policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide.
The Balli Kombetar (BK or National Union) was an Albanian
nationalist group led by Midhat Fresheri and Ali Klissura whose political
objective was to in incorporate Kosovo-Metohija into a Greater Albania and to
ethnically cleanse the region of Orthodox Serbs
The Abanian Committee of Kosovo organized massive campaigns
of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Orthodox Serbian inhabitants of
Kosovo- Metohuja. A contemporary report described the ethnic cleansing and
genocide of Serbs as follows:
Armed with material supplied by the Italians, the Albanians
hurled themselves against helpless settlers in their homes and villages.
According to the most reliable sources, the Albanian burned many Serbian
settlements, killing some of the people and driving out others who escaped to
the mountains. At present other Serbian settlement are being attacked and the
property of individuals and of communities is either being confiscated or
destroyed. It is not possible to ascertain at the present time the exact number
of victims of those atrocities, but it may be estimated that at least between
30.000 and 40.000 perished.
Bedri Pejani, the Muslim leader of the Albanian National
committee, called for the extermination of Ortodox Serbian Cristians in Kosovo
Metohija and for a union of a Greater Albania with Bosnia and Herzegovina and
the Rashka (Sandzak) region of Serbia, into a great Islamic state. The grand
Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El Husseini was presented to Pejani a plan which
he approved as a being in the interest of Islam. The Germans however rejected
the plan.
On September 3, 1943, Italy capitulated by signing an
armistice with the Allies. The German were now forced to occupy Albania with
the collapse of the Italian forces. The Germans sent the 100th Jaeger Division
from Greece and the 297th Infantry Division from Serbia and the German 1st
Mountain Division to occupy Albania. These troops were organized into the XXI
Mountain Corps which was under the command of General Paul Bader.
Additional security forces for the interior were needed,
however, to free up Germans troops for defense of the coastline. The decision
was made to form an Albanian SS mountain division for this purpose. In April in
1944, recruitment for the Albanian SS division began under direction of the
newly formed Albanian Nazi party, which has been formed through the efforts of
Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Acting upon instructions of Reichsfuehrer SS Henrich
Himmler, the SS main office ordered the formation of an Albanian volunteer
mountain division on April 17, 1944. SS Brigadefuehrern and Generalmajor of the
Waffen SS Josef Fitzhum, who Headed the Higher SS and Police Command in
Albania, oversaw the forming and training of the division.
The SS high Command planed to create a mountain division of
10.000 men. The Higher SS and Police Command in Albania, in conduction with the
Albanian National Committee, listed 11.398 possible recruits for the Waffen SS
mountain division. Most of these recruits were "kossovars", shqiptar
Ghegs from Kosovo Metohija in Serbia. The Shqiptar Tosks were found mainly in
southern Albania. Most of the Shqiptar collaborators with the Nazi forces were
the Nazi forces were the so-called Kossovars, ethnic Shqiptars from the Kosmet
of Serbia. The Nazi German-sponsored Albanian gendarmes, special police and
para-military units were made up by Kossovars. The Kossovars were under the
direct control of the Albanian Interior Minister Xhafer Deva.
The Skanderbeg Division was formed and trained in Kosovo and
was made up mostly of muslim Shqiptar Kossovars. There were only a small number
of Albanians from Albania proper in the division. The Skanderbeg Mountain
Division of the Waffen SS was thus essentially a Kosovo or Kosmet Division. The
Division was stationed and operated in Kosovo and other Serbian regions almost
exclusively.
Of the 11.398 recruits listed for the Division, 9.275 were
ascertained to be suitable to draft in the Waffen SS. Of those suitable to be
drafted, 6.491 Albanian were chosen and inducted into the Skanderbeg Division.
To this Albanian core were added veteran German troops primarily Reichdeutsche
from Austria and Volkdeutcshe officers, NCOs, and enlisted men, transferred
from the 7th SS Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" which was stationed
in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The Kosovo Albanian 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS
"Skanderbeg" consisted in total of 8.500 - 9.000 men of all ranks.
The 6.491 Shqiptar recruits were assembled at depots in Kosovo where the
formation and the training of the division began.
The official designation for the division was 21 Waffen
Gebirgs Division der SS "Skanderbeg" (Albanische Nr 1). The SS Main
Office designed a distinctive arm patch for the division, consisting of a black
double-headed eagle on a red background, the national symbol of Albania. The word
"Skanderbeg", embroidered in white, appeared above the eagle and was
warn on the left sleeve. The right collar patch consisted of a helmet with a
goat's head on top, the helmet supposedly worn by George Kastrioti Skanderbeg,
after whom the division was named. The Shqiptars recruits in the division wore
a white skullcap, the national attire of the Shqiptar Ghegs. The SS main office
also issued gray skullcaps with the Totenkopf (death's head) insignia sewn on
the front below the Hoheitszeichen (the national symbol of Nazi Germany,
consisting of a white eagle over a Nazi swastika).
Division was named after George Kastrioti, or Gjergj
Kastriota, also as Kastriotis (1405-1468), national hero of Albania, who fought
for the Ottoman Turks. As a child, Kastrioti was given as a hostage to Sultan
Murat II to be brought as a Muslim at Adrianople (Edrine). Kastrioti became an
officer in the Ottoman Turkish army and led the Turkish forces in many
victories over Christian troops. Murat II was impressed with his valor and
bravery in his battle for Islam and gave him the name Iskander Bey in Turkish,
from "Iskander", Aleksander the Great, or prince Aleksander, and
"bey", master. The name was shortened to Skanderbeg, beg being the
local variant of bey. Later Kastrioti renounced Islam and converted to
Christianity and attacked his former Ottoman Turkish masters. He captured the
Albanian capital Kroja from the Turkish governor and proclaimed a revolt
against the Turks in 1442. Sultan Mohammed II sent Turkish armies to defeat the
renegade Kastrioti, but he was able to defeat Turkish forces, which besieged
Kroja but could not capture it. Kastrioti died in 1468. Kroja surrendered in
1479 and the Turks occupied Albania.
The Albanians in the Skanderbeg Division were mostly
Muslims, of the Bektashi and Sunni sects of Islam. The division contained
several hundred Albanian Catholics, followers of Jon Marko Joni.
The first commander of the Skandereg division was SS
Brigadefuehrer Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitshum, who commanded the
division from April to June 1944. After the Juli 20, assassination plot against
Hitler, Fitzhum was appointed supreme commander in Albania. In June, SS
Stardentenfuehrer August Schmidhuber was appointed division commander, a post
would hold until August 1944. On June 21, 1944, Schmidhuber was promoted to SS
Oberfuehrer and later in the war, he would be promoted to SS Brigadefuhrer. SS
Oberstrumbannfuhrer Alfred Graf commanded the reorganized remnants of the
Skanderbeg Division from August 1944, to May, 1945.
The Shultzstaffel or SS was created in the period 1923-1925
and was initially known as the Stosstrupp (Shock troop) "Adolf
Hitler". On January 16, 1929, Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler leader of
SS, Reichsfuehrer SS. The SS was envisioned as an elite troop of the Party, a
praetorian bodyguard to Hitler and the Nazi leadership. The SS was a formation
"composed of the best physically, the most dependable, and the most
faithful men in the Nazi movement. In 1940, combat units of the SS were formed,
collectively termed the Waffen SS. Approximately 30-40 Waffen SS divisions were
formed during the war, divided into three groupings, Waffen divisions made by
Germans, those made up of ethnic Germans outside the Reich, and those made up
of non-Germans. "Divisions der SS", Divisions of the SS.
On September 27,1939, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler as
Chief of German Police consolidated the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD under an SS Main
Office of Reich Security, or the RSHA. The RSHA was the actual body entrusted
with the overall administration of the final solution at the Jewish Problem,
what became known as the Holocaust. The SS Economic and administrative Main
Office or WVHA, run the concentration camp system. Nazi concentration camp
personnel and guards, although not under the command of the Army or the
Kommandoamt der Waffen SS, nevertheless, wore Waffen SS uniforms and received
Waffen SS paybooks. Reichfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler oversaw a program that
resulted in the extermination of millions of men, women and children. Himmler
was the Architect of genocide and of the Holocaust and the Wafen SS was his
"private army", the black angels".
In June,1944, The Skanderbeg Waffen SS Mountain Division
engaged in large-scale field maneuvers in the area between the towns of Berane and
Adrijevica in Monte Negro (Crna Gora). Garrisons of Skanderbeg division were
established in Kosovo towns of Pec, Jakova, Prizren, and Pristina. Further
training of the division continued in August as new recruits were inducted in
the division. An artillery battalion of the division, consisting of two
batteries, was located in Gnjilane.
The first major action of the division occurred in August,
144 in Kosovo. In September, 1944, the Skanderbeg division occupied the
Southern Serbia (Juzna Srbija) region now part of the communist created
republic of Macedonia, and helped to garrison the region. The Skanderberg
division was ordered into the areas surrounding the towns Skoplje (or Skopje),
Kumanovo Presevo and Bujanovac. Sanderbeg operated in Stara Serbija (old and
Ancient Serbia) region, in the towns of Pec, Gnjilane,Djakovica, Tetovo
Gostivar, and Kosovska Mitrovica, then part of Kosovo Metohija and Southern
Serbia.
In November, 1944, when the German armies in the Balkan were
retreating from Yugoslavia and the Balkans, the Skanderbeg division remnants
were reorganized into Regimentegruppe 21 SS Gebirgs "Skanderbeg" and
was transferred to Skoplje, according to one account of the movements of the
Battle group. This SS Kampfgrupe "Skanderbeg", along with the prinz
Eugen Divisin, defended the Vardar valley. The battle group
"Skanderbeg" and Prinz Eugen held the Vardar area because it was the
sole corridor of escape for the retreating German armies in Alexander Loehr's
Army Group E, which was retreating from Greece and Aegean Islands.
The Skanderbeg Battle Group along with the Prinz Eugen
Division retreated to the to the Brcko region of Bosnia-Herzegovina by mid-January
1945. At this time the remaining Skanderbeg personnel were incorporated into
the 14th SS Volonteer Mountain Infantry Regiment of the 7th SS division Prinz
Eugen. The remnants of the Skanderbeg Division fought in this formation until
the end of the war, retreating to Austria in May, 1945.
The Skanderbeg division engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing
and genocide against the Serbian Orthodox Christian populations of the regions
under occupation by the division in Kosovo Metohija, Montenegro, and southern
Serbia. Balkan Historian Robert Lee Wolff, in the "Balkans in Our
time", described the genocide committed against Kosovo Serbs by the
Shqiptar 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS Skenderbeg as follows:
In the regions annexed by the Albanians, their so-called
Skanderbeg division, made up of members of the Albanian minority in Yugoslavia,
massacred Serbs with impunity.
Historian L.H. Stavrianos, in "The Balkan Since
1453", described the genocide committed against Orthodox Serbs by the
Shqiptar Skanderbeg Division in these terms: Yugoslav Albanians, organized in
their fascist Skanderbeg Division, conducted an indiscriminate massacre of
Serbians.
The Skanderbeg Division played a role in the Holocaust, the
genocide if European Jewry, by rounding up scores of Kosovo Jews in a group
roughly 500 persons deemed enemies of the Third Reich when the division occupied
Prizren in Kosovo Metohija. The division sought to create ethnically pure
Kosovo, ethnically cleansed of Orthodox Serbs, Jews and Gypsies the
untermenschen (subhuman), who were targeted for extermination.
The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal declared the Shutzstaffel
or SS criminal organization and every individual member of SS was found to be a
war criminal guilty of "planning and carrying out crimes against
humanity". The Shqiptar Kosovars in the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division
"Skanderbeg" committed war crimes and genocide against the Orthodox
Serbian population of Kosovo. The Shqiptar planned and carried out crimes
against humanity in Kosovo. Orthodox Serbians of Kosovo were the victims of
ethnic cleansing and genocide. This genocide would contribute in the Shqiptar
goal and policy to create an ethnically pure, Shqiptar Kosovo, in an attempt to
create a greater Shqiperia or greater Albania. Following World war II, the
Yugoslav Communist dictatorship allowed the policy of ethnic cleansing and
genocide against the Orthodox Serbs to continue, and indeed, gave greater
impetus and legitimacy to the policy.
---
During World War II, the Axis powers dismembered and
occupied Yugoslavia and created a greater Albania by annexing the Serbian
region of Kosovo-Metohija by Nazi Germany, Germany formed a Shqiptar
"Kosovar" Waffen SS Division, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS
"Skanderbeg" which engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing and
genocide against the Orthodox Serbian population of Kosovo. The result was that
the Shqiptars, with the help of Germany, were able to virtually exterminate the
Serbian and Jews populations of Kosovo, thereby creating an ethnically pure,
Nazi German-sponsored Greater Albania or Greater Shqiperia.
Bosnian Muslim SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Husein Efendi Dzozo on
far left, with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, and SS
Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, eating
at a table under a large Nazi swastika and a banner of the SS runes. 1943.
Bosnian Muslim SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Husein Efendi Dzozo, the
divisional imam, second from left, in his Waffen SS uniform, with the Grand
Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el Husseini, with members of the Handschar SS
Division, Neuhammer, Germany, 1943.
Bosnian Muslim SS Hauptsturmfuehrer and divisional imam
Husein Efendi Dzozo second from right. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in center.
Neuhammer Training Center, Germany, November, 1943. Volksdeutsche Waffen SS
Standartenfuehrer Franz Matheis is on the far right. Members of the Handschar
reconnaissance battalion set up the base plate for their mortar.
Bosnian Muslim Waffen SS Hauptsturmfuehrer and divisional
imam Husein Efendi Dzozo is in center. The Grand Mufti is to the right. They
are inspecting Waffen SS troops in Neuhammer, Germany, 1943. German SS officer
Emil Kuhler is on the far left. The two Waffen SS troops in front are
mortarmen.
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