Mass German Grave Found in Croatia:German Army 39th Division

[sturgeschutz]

I was looking on line and came across this astonishing find pertaining to the German Army's 39th Division which comprised Croatian troops commanded by Germans. Has anyone else have information about this find? Has anyone done any research into the 39th Division? If so, I would be very interested to know more about this Division and its devastating end.
Below is the article that I copied and pasted into this link.
Best regards,
Sturmgeschutz from Beeton, Ontario, Canada.



Hosted by Back to Google NewsMass World War II grave found in Croatia
13 hours ago

ZAGREB (AFP) — A mass grave dating from World War II and containing the remains of up to 4,500 people, including German officers and their Croatian allies, has been found near Zagreb, media reports said Saturday.

Bones were found in six caves at Harmica, in the Zapresic region, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of the capital, close to the border with Slovenia, newspapers and state television said.

The website of the daily Jutarnji List said they included soldiers of the Croation Ustachi regime allied to the Nazis and some 500 German army officers.

It quoted an official of the Croatian branch of the Helsinki Committee human rights organisation, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, as saying they were probably members of the German army's 39th Division, which comprised Croatian troops commanded by Germans.

The division surrendered to communist partisans loyal to Josip Broz Tito near the town of Rijeka in early 1945. They appeared to have been executed and their bodies were thrown into the Harmica caves.

The estimate of the numbers of bodies is based on the testimony of witnesses, and Cicak said that other mass graves could be found in the same region.



Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
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[sturgeschutz]

Just adding some more updates, this one from Radio Netherlands

World War II mass graves found in Croatia
Published: Friday 03 April 2009 18:23 UTC
Last updated: Friday 03 April 2009 18:23 UTC
The authorities in Croatia have uncovered two World War II mass graves with six thousand bodies of German and Croat soldiers. A grave near the Slovenian border contains around 4,500 corpses of the Croat-German Blue Division of the Wehrmacht. The second site, found during construction work near the northern town of Cakovec, contains the remains of 1,500 Croat soldiers who collaborated with the Nazis. All of them were apparently killed by Yugoslav partisans in May and June of 1945, when the resistance settled scores with countless collaborators. Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko estimates that Croatia has more than 800 similar mass graves, with another 600 in Slovenia and 90 in Bosnia.

[sturgeschutz]

Another article with more information, this one from Earth Times.
Croatia explores mass grave of 4,500 WWII German soldiers
Posted : Fri, 03 Apr 2009 11:23:57 GMT
Author : DPA
Category : Europe (World)
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Zagreb - Croatia is investigating a mass grave of German and local soldiers executed in the wake of World War II, the deputy president of the Croatian Helsinki Committee, Ivan Zvonimir Cicak, said Friday. The site at Harmica, 50 kilometres north-west of Zagreb, on Croatia's border with Slovenia, presumably contains 4,500 bodies of German soldiers, including 450 officers, executed by Yugoslav president Tito's partisans, Cicak told the German Press Agency dpa.

The victims were a part of the "Blue division," established by the German command in Croatia in 1944. Commanded by German officers, the division was composed of Croats and German settlers to Yugoslavia.

Details and photographs from the site at Harmica are to be released at press conference next week, Cicak said.

Only a day earlier, Cicak had presented details from another newly-found mass grave, believed to contain some the remains of 1,500 Croat soldiers killed in June 1945.

The grave was accidentally exposed by construction work on the embankment of the Darava river in Gornji Hrascani, near Cakovec in the north-west. The site is slated for additional exploration as soon as authorities secure financing for the job, Cicak said.

During World War II, Croatia was considered an independent state, but was in effect run by Berlin and implemented Nazi laws.

The rest of the then Yugoslav Kingdom was dismembered and more or less directly governed by various occupational forces from the German camp, like Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria.

After claiming victory in Yugoslavia, Tito's Communist Partisan force took brutal revenge not only on German soldiers and the large German minority living mostly in northern Croatia and Serbia, but also on local members of wartime authorities.

Following the war, the new authorities brought ethnic Germans to concentration camps and eventually drove the survivors out. In the end, only a few thousand, out of several hundred thousands living in Yugoslavia, remained.

Last month a grave with hundreds of mummified corpses, also victims of the Partisans, was found in an abandoned mine in Slovenia.

Speaking recently in the wake of that discovery, Croatian Interior Minister Tomislav Karamarko estimated the number of mass graves from the era at more than 1,000.

According to Karamarko, there are 600 mass graves in Slovenia, 840 in Croatia, 90 in Bosnia and "who knows how many more" strewn across the entire region.

Copyright, respective author or news agency

[Tom Houlihan]

Slightly OT, but wasn't the Blue Division made up of Spaniards?

[sebastian]

that is true tom,but my guess is because the 250th blaues division was disbanded in october '43,the croat blue division 392nd was formed in august 43,so there is a strange thing here,there could never be 2 divisions named the same could it?The negociations to disband the spanish 250th began in spring '43,so they could already have taken over the name?The thing that i think could of happened is there where companies of the 250th that went to yougoslavia into the 121nd division to fight titos partizans,could it be that they had some commanding dutys and renamed that again to the blaues division ?

[AHK]

I would think it would have to be 392.ID(kroat); 39.ID must be typo.
Thanks,
AHK