Muslime in der Waffen-SS

The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handar was primarily composed of 15,000 Bosnian Muslims who had volunteered. The division was established on March 1, 1943, and was deployed in northeastern Bosnia against Tito's partisans and Serbian Chetniks. Initial training took place in southern France and then at the Neuhammer training ground on the Queis in Silesia. During the training in southern France, a mutiny occurred in the town of Villefranche-de-Rouergue, led by two Croatian and two Bosnian communists, during which the mutineers shot five German officers. After several hours, the mutiny was suppressed. The author has spent years evaluating numerous documents and interviewing witnesses to this event. He describes, as one of the last survivors, the background of the formation of this division.