Amin el Husseini
the "Handzar" SS division
From Aleksa Djilas, The Nation That Wasn't. Appears in
The Black Book of Bosnia, Nader Mousavizadeh, Ed., Basic
Books, New York, 1996, p. 23.
The creation of a Bosnian Muslim S.S. division is a favorite theme
of Serbian propaganda, however. Indeed, there was such a unit. The
Nazis asked the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, el Husseini, to lend his
support to the project. He accepted, visited Bosnia, and convinced
some important Muslim leaders that a Muslim S.S. division would be in
the interest of Islam. In spite of these and other propaganda
efforts, only half of the expected 20,000 to 25,000 Muslims
volunteered. The S.S. unit was nonetheless formed, named the
"Handzar" (scimitar) division, and was brutal in the
"cleansing" of Serbian regions in eastern Bosnia. But it
never achieved the reputation of a good fighting unit, and failed to
sell the idea of a Muslim Bosnia under a Nazi protectorate.
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