penkalaa wrote:And your claim that the Handschar is one Bosnian Division is a fact?
That Division was under German command, filled with 10 % Katholic Croatians, 10 % Germans, 10-20 % Sandjak and Albanian Muslims, and the rest of Croatian citizens Muslim faith.( Bosniaks as nation did not exist at this time) And your only conclusion is that this Division must be a Bosnian.
The title "Bosnian Division" is conceptual. There were "Croatian Divisions" in German service, notably the 369th Regiment (and later Division), the 373. Division, etc. These formations were smoothly formed by the German army with close Croatian assistance and without any political overtones. The Handschar Division was a different story. Handschar was Heinrich Himmler's idea from the beginning and he sought to form the division the way he wanted to. That meant fezzes, Muslims, imams, the Mufti, autonomists, and a romanticized image of the old k.u.k. Bosnian regiments, even though these were not all-Muslim. In order to get his way, he ignored the pleas of the German Foreign Office to stop meddling in internal Croatian politics through his support for the Bosnian autonomists. He continued trying to do it "his way" and in doing so alienated Pavelic, Vrancic, Lorkovic, etc. The "bad blood" between the Croatian government and the Handschar Division lasted until the end of the war. One German officer recalled the time when a Handschar element passing through Dugo Selo happened to meet the Poglavnik in late 1944. At the time, the Handschar Division was suffering from large-scale desertion. When Pavelic saw them, he said, sarcastically, "The Handschar Division? It still exists?" (Source: Letter to me from Hugo Schmidt, Handschar officer, dated 29 March 1993.)
penkalaa wrote:how he menage to covince Bosnian Muslims to join Handschar?
After the massacres of Muslims at Foca and other places, the Muslims of eastern Bosnia sought the support of a strong political-military patron. The autonomists hoped the Germans would protect them, and that's why they wrote to Hitler in November 1942 asking for annexation. SS-Brigadeführer Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, the Handschar Division commander, wrote: "The Muslims are the weakest element (in the region). They shall always seek the assistance of those they believe to be the strongest." (Source: IX. Waffen-(Gebirgs-) A.K. der SS, Ic 31/44/g. Kdos. v. 15.6.1944, "Lagebericht Nr. 1." This document can be found in the Politischen Archiv des Auswärtigen Amtes, Signatur R, 101059, Aktenband Inland IIg 404, "Berichten und Meldungen in und über Jugoslawien: 404524). There is also the fact that the Germans arranged for the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini, to visit Sarajevo in April 1943. Unsurprisingly, the SS arranged for him to meet with the autonomists, and this greatly angered Croatian officials, particularly Dr. Pavao Canki.