"Handschar", Izetbegovic and Beger

[Lars Gyllenhaal]

Dear George,

Thank you very much indeed for your kind reply.

If you google for "largest division" and +Waffen-SS you will notice that a number of sites state that "Handschar" was the largest. But you will also note that they state that the figure 26,000 men was reached. As you don´t believe in this figure I guess we can discard the idea about it being the largest.

Still, it must have been among the top ten in size I reckon. This following site states that it was the third largest: http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/022.shtml

I suggest we, i.e. all "Handschar"-interested, all search for best possible peak strength figures so that we might be able to discern just how unusual "Handschar" was.

Cheers,

Lars

[lato716]

Here is a book in french about the Handschar division :

LA HANDSCHAR
Histoire d'une division de Waffen-SS bosniaque
de Amandine Rochas
Préface de Jean-William Dereymez

Cet ouvrage décrit la genèse et les brèves années d'existence de la Division Handschar dans la Yougoslavie des années 1940, composée pour l'essentiel de musulmans bosniaques et d'Allemands, mais aussi de Croates et d'Albanais ; ce fut la première élaborée sans tenir compte de facteurs raciaux ou ethniques. Voici un des rares écrits en français mettant en évidence les raisons de cette création par les autorités nazies, les causes de son relatif succès parmi les musulmans de l'ancienne Yougoslavie et les difficultés qu'elle rencontra loin de son milieu d'origine.

http://www.editions-harmattan.fr/index. ... e&no=23656

[George Lepre]

Hi Lars -

I considered several different ways of determining the Handschar Division's size compared to other SS divisions.

Every month, each Waffen-SS formation reported its personnel strength to Himmler. The numbers were then assembled in a document titled "Staerke der SS." For example, you can find the December 1943 statistics in the NARA microfilms (Records Group 242, Microcopy T-175, Roll 141, ff2668918).

One could simply look at a list such as this and find each division's strength. But what does this really tell us? Not too much, when one considers what each formation was doing at the time. In December 1943, for example, Handschar was still in training at Neuhammer so it wasn't taking any casualties. Meanwhile, a German SS Division that according to the KStN should have been larger than Handschar might be sustaining 50-100 KIAs per day in Russia, and thus contained fewer men during that month.

I suppose the only way to judge would be to obtain the KStN for each division and find out how many of its slots were actually filled, and then compare them. How the article you named could possibly conclude that Handschar was the third largest (or any other position) without using the KStNs is beyond me....

Best regards,

George