Genocide in Kosovo
Albanian Skenderbeg Division
by
Carl K. Savich
The historical and political precedents for the creation of a greater
Sqiperia or Greater Albania was set during World War II when the Kosovo
and Metohija regions along with territory Southwest of lake Skutari
from Montenegro and the western region of Southern Serbia, or Juzna
Srbija (now part of Macedonija), were annexed to Albania by the Axis
powers led by Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, under a plan devised
by Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler to dismember and to destroy the
Serbian Nation and people, which the Germans and Italians perceived
as the main threat to the axis powers and to the Third Reich in the
Balkan.
On April 7, 1939, Italian troops invaded and occupied Albania forcing
the Albanian ruler King Zog I Ahmed Bey Zogu, to flee to Greece. Italy
formally annexed into the Kingdom of Italy under the Italian king
Victor Immanuel and established a military government and viceroy.
The Italian began a program to colonize the country when thousands
of settlers emigrated to Albania. An Albanian Fascist Party was established
with Albanian Black skirts based on Italian models. The Albanian Army
consisted of three infantry brigades of 12 000 men.
On October 28 1940, Italy invaded Greece from Albania with 10 Italian
divisions and the Albanian Army but were driven back.
Germany sought to assist the Italian-Albanian offensive by operation
Alpine Violet, a plan to move a corps of tree German mountain divisions
to Albania by air and sea. Instead German built up a heavy concentration
of the German Twelfth Army on the northwest Greek Border with Bulgaria,
from where the German invasion was launched.
On April 6, 1941, Nazi Germany and the axis powers invaded Yugoslavia,
Operation Punishment, and Greece forcing the capitulation of Yugoslavia
on the 17th, and Greece on the 23rd. Yugoslavia was subsequently occupied
and dismembered. The Axis powers established a greater Albania or
greater Shqiperia at the expense of Serbia and Montenegro. Territory
from Montenegro was annexed to Greater Albania. From Serbia, the Kosovo
and Metohija were ceded to greater Albania, along with the western
part of Southern Serbia (Juzna Srbija), now part of Macedonia, an
area which was part of Stara Srbija (Ancient Old Serbia). This Kosovo-metohija
region and the surrounding territory annexed to Greater Albania was
called "New Albania".
To create an ethnically pure Shqiptar Kosovo, which Albanian called
"Kosova", the Shqiptari (Albanians) launched a widescale campaigns
of ethnic cleansing and genocide. Ethnic Serbs in the Kosovo-Metohija
regions were massacred, and their homes were burned, and survivors
were brutally driven out and expelled in policy of ethnic cleansing
and genocide.
The Balli Kombetar (BK or National Union) was an Albanian nationalist
group led by Midhat Fresheri and Ali Klissura whose political objective
was to in incorporate Kosovo-Metohija into a Greater Albania and to
ethnically cleanse the region of Orthodox Serbs
The Abanian Committee of Kosovo organized massive campaigns of ethnic
cleansing and genocide against the Orthodox Serbian inhabitants of
Kosovo- Metohuja. A contemporary report described the ethnic cleansing
and genocide of Serbs as follows:
Armed with material supplied by the Italians, the Albanians hurled
themselves against helpless settlers in their homes and villages.
According to the most reliable sources, the Albanian burned many Serbian
settlements, killing some of the people and driving out others who
escaped to the mountains. At present other Serbian settlement are
being attacked and the property of individuals and of communities
is either being confiscated or destroyed. It is not possible to ascertain
at the present time the exact number of victims of those atrocities,
but it may be estimated that at least between 30.000 and 40.000 perished.
Bedri Pejani, the Muslim leader of the Albanian National committee,
called for the extermination of Ortodox Serbian Cristians in Kosovo
Metohija and for a union of a Greater Albania with Bosnia and Herzegovina
and the Rashka (Sandzak) region of Serbia, into a great Islamic state.
The grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin El Husseini was presented to
Pejani a plan which he approved as a being in the interest of Islam.
The Germans however rejected the plan.
On September 3, 1943, Italy capitulated by signing an armistice with
the Allies. The German were now forced to occupy Albania with the
collapse of the Italian forces. The Germans sent the 100th Jaeger
Division from Greece and the 297th Infantry Division from Serbia and
the German 1st Mountain Division to occupy Albania. These troops were
organized into the XXI Mountain Corps which was under the command
of General Paul Bader.
Additional security forces for the interior were needed, however,
to free up Germans troops for defense of the coastline. The decision
was made to form an Albanian SS mountain division for this purpose.
In April in 1944, recruitment for the Albanian SS division began under
direction of the newly formed Albanian Nazi party, which has been
formed through the efforts of Ernst Kaltenbrunner. Acting upon instructions
of Reichsfuehrer SS Henrich Himmler, the SS main office ordered the
formation of an Albanian volunteer mountain division on April 17,
1944. SS Brigadefuehrern and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitzhum,
who Headed the Higher SS and Police Command in Albania, oversaw the
forming and training of the division.
The SS high Command planed to create a mountain division of 10.000
men. The Higher SS and Police Command in Albania, in conduction with
the Albanian National Committee, listed 11.398 possible recruits for
the Waffen SS mountain division. Most of these recruits were "kossovars",
shqiptar Ghegs from Kosovo Metohija in Serbia. The Shqiptar Tosks
were found mainly in southern Albania. Most of the Shqiptar collaborators
with the nazi forces were theNazi forces were the so-called Kossovars,
ethnic Shqiptars from the Kosmet of Serbia. The Nazi German-sponsored
Albanian gendarmes, special police and para-military units were made
up by Kossovars. The Kossovars were under the direct control of the
Albanian Interior Minister Xhafer Deva.
The Skanderbeg Division was formed and trained in Kosovo and was made
up mostly of muslim Shqiptar Kossovars. There were only a small number
of Albanians from Albania proper in the division. The Skanderbeg Mountain
Division of the Wafen SS was thus essentially a Kosovo or Kosmet Division.
The Division was stationed and operated in Kosovo and other Serbian
regions almost exclusively.
Of the 11.398 recruits listed for the Division, 9.275 were ascertained
to be suitable to draft in the Waffen SS. Of those suitable to be
drafted, 6.491 Albanian were chosen and inducted into the Skanderbeg
Division. To this Albanian core were added veteran German troops primarily
Reichdeutsche from Austria and Volkdeutcshe officers, NCOs, and enlisted
men, transferred from the 7th SS Mountain Division "Prinz Eugen" which
was stationed in Bosnia-Hercegovina. The Kosovo Albanian 21st Waffen
Gebirgs Division der SS "Skanderbeg" consisted in total of 8.500 -
9.000 men of all ranks. The 6.491 Shqiptar recruits were assembled
at depots in Kosovo where the formation and the training of the division
began.
The official designation for the division was 21 Waffen Gebirgs Division
der SS "Skanderbeg" (Albanische Nr 1). The SS Main Office designed
a distinctive arm patch for the division, consisting of a black double-headed
eagle on a red background, the national symbol of Albania. The word
"Skanderbeg", embroidered in white, appeared above the eagle and was
warn on the left sleeve. The right collar patch consisted of a helmet
with a goat's head on top, the helmet supposedly worn by George Kastrioti
Skanderbeg, after whom the division was named. The Shqiptars recruits
in the division wore a white skullcap, the national attire of the
Shqiptar Ghegs. The SS main office also issued gray skullcaps with
the Totenkopf (death's head) insignia sewn on the front below the
Hoheitszeichen (the national symbol of Nazi Germany, consisting of
a white eagle over a Nazi swastika).
Division was named after George Kastrioti, or Gjergj Kastriota, also
as Kastriotis (1405-1468), national hero of Albania, who fought for
the Ottoman Turks. As a child, Kastrioti was given as a hostage to
Sultan Murat II to be brought as a Muslim at Adrianople (Edrine).
Kastrioti became an officer in the Ottoman Turkish army and led the
Turkish forces in many victories over Christian troops. Murat II was
impressed with his valor and bravery in his battle for Islam and gave
him the name Iskander Bey in Turkish, from "Iskander", Aleksander
the Great, or prince Aleksander, and "bey", master. The name was shortened
to Skanderbeg, beg being the local variant of bey. Later Kastrioti
renounced Islam and converted to Christianity and attacked his former
Ottoman Turkish masters. He captured the Albanian capital Kroja from
the Turkish governor and proclaimed a revolt against the Turks in
1442. Sultan Mohammed II sent Turkish armies to defeat the renegade
Kastrioti, but he was able to defeat Turkish forces, wich besieged
Kroja but could not capture it. Kastrioti died in 1468. Kroja surrendered
in 1479 and the Turks occupied Albania.
The Albanians in the Skanderbeg Division were mostly Muslims, of the
Bektashi and Sunni sects of Islam. The division contained several
hundred Albanian Catholics, followers of Jon Marko Joni.
The first commander of the Skandereg division was SS Brigadefuehrer
Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef Fitshum, who commanded the division
from April to June 1944. After the Juli 20, assassination plot against
Hitler, Fitzhum was appointed supreme commander in Albania. In June,
SS Stardentenfuehrer August Schmidhuber was appointed division commander,
a post would hold until August 1944. On June 21, 1944, Schmidhuber
was promoted to SS Oberfuehrer and later in the war, he would be promoted
to SS Brigadefuhrer. SS Oberstrumbannfuhrer Alfred Graf commanded
the reorganized remnants of the Skanderbeg Division from August 1944,
to may, 1945.
The Shultzstaffel or SS was created in the period 1923-1925 and was
initially known as the Stosstrupp (Shock troop) "Adolf Hitler". On
Januari 16, 1929, Hitler appointed Heinrich Himmler leader of SS,
Reichsfuehrer SS. The SS was envisioned as an elite troop of the Party,
a praetorian bodyguard to Hitler and the Nazi leadership. The SS was
a formation "composed of the best physically, the most dependable,
and the most faithful men in the Nazi movement. In 1940, combat units
of the SS were formed, collectively termed the Waffen SS. Approximately
30-40 Waffen SS divisions were formed during the war, divided into
three groupings, Waffen divisions made by Germans, those made up of
ethnic Germans outside the Reich, and those made up of non-Germans.
"Divisions der SS", Divisions of the SS.
On September 27,1939, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler as Chief of
German Police consolidated the Gestapo, Kripo, and SD under an SS
Main Office of Reich Security, or the RSHA. The RSHA was the actual
body entrusted with the overall administration of the final solution
at the Jewish Problem, what became known as the Holocaust. The SS
Economic and administrative Main Office or WVHA, run the concentration
camp system. Nazi concentration camp personnel and guards, althout
not under the command of the Army or the Kommandoamt der Waffen SS,
neverthless, wore Waffen SS uniforms and received Waffen SS paybooks.
Reichfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler oversaw a program that resulted in
the extermination of millions of men, women and children. Himmler
was the Arhictect of genocide and of the Holocaust and the Wafen SS
was his "private army", the black angels".
In Jun,1944, The Skanderbeg Waffen SS Mountain Division engaged in
large-scale field maneuvers in the area between the towns of Berane
and Adrijevica in Monte Negro (Crna Gora). Garrisons of Skanderbeg
division were established in Kosovo towns of Pec, Jakova, Prizren,
and Pristina. Further training of the division continued in August
as new recruits were inducted in the division. An artillery battalion
of the division, consisting of two batteries, was located in Gnjilane.
The first major action of the division occurred in August, 144 in
Kosovo. In September, 1944, the Skanderbeg division occupied the Southern
Serbia (Juzna Srbija) region now part of the communist created republic
of Macedonia, and helped to garrison the region. The Skanderberg division
was ordered into the areas surrounding the towns Skoplje (or Skopje),
Kumanovo Presevo and Bujanovac. Sanderbeg operated in Stara Serbija
(old and Ancient Serbia) region, in the towns of Pec, Gnjilane,Djakovica,
Tetovo Gostivar, and Kosovska Mitrovica, then part of Kosovo Metohija
and Southern Serbia.
In November, 1944, when the German armies in the Balkan were retreating
from Yugoslavia and the Balkans, the Skanderbeg division remnants
were reorganized into Regimentegruppe 21 SS Gebirgs "Skanderbeg" and
was transferred to Skoplje, according to one account of the movements
of the Battle group. This SS Kampfgrupe "Skanderbeg", along with the
prinz Eugen Divisin, defended the Vardar valley. The battle group
"Skanderbeg" and Prinz Eugen held the Vardar area because it was the
sole corridor of escape for the retreating German armies in Alexander
Loehr's Army Group E, which was retreating from Greece and Aegean
Islands.
The Skanderbeg Battle Group along with the Prinz Eugen Division retreated
to the to the Brcko region of Bosnia-Herzegovina by mid-january 1945.
At this time the remaining Skanderbeg personnel were incorporated
into the 14th SS Volonteer Mountain Infantry Regiment of the 7th SS
division Prinz Eugen. The remnants of the Skanderbeg Division fought
in this formation until the end of the war, retreating to Austria
in May, 1945.
The Skanderbeg division engaged in a policy of ethnic cleansing and
genocide against the Serbian Orthodox Christian populations of the
regions under occupation by the division in Kosovo Metohija, Montenegro,
and southern Serbia. Balkan Historian Robert Lee Wolff, in the "Balkans
in Our time", described the genocide committed against Kosovo Serbs
by the Shqiptar 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS Skenderbeg as
follows:
In the regions annexed by the Albanians, their so-called Skanderbeg
division, made up of members of the Albanian minority in Yugoslavia,
massacred Serbs with impunity.
Historian L.H. Stavrianos, in "The Balkan Since 1453", described the
genocide committed against Orthodox Serbs by the Shqiptar Skanderbeg
Division in these terms: Yugoslav Albanians, organized in their fascist
Skanderbeg Division, conducted an indiscriminate massacre of Serbians.
The Skanderbeg Division played a role in the Holocaust, the genocide
if European Jewry, by rounding up scores of Kosovo Jews in a group
roughly 500 persons deemed enemies of the Third Reich when the division
occupied Prizren in Kosovo Metohija. The division sought to create
ethnically pure Kosovo, ethnically cleansed of Orthodox Serbs, Jews
and Gypsies the untermenschen (subhuman), who were targeted for extermination.
The Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal declared the Shutzstaffel or SS
criminal organization and every individual member of SS was found
to Be a war criminal guilty of "planning and carrying out crimes against
humanity". The Shqiptar Kosovars in the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division
"Skanderbeg" committed war crimes and genocide against the Orthodox
Serbian population of Kosovo. The Shqiptar planed and carried out
crimes against humanity in Kosovo. Orthodox Serbians of Kosovo were
the victims of ethnic cleansing and genocide. This genocide would
contribute in the Shqiptar goal and policy to create an ethnically
pure, Shqiptar Kosovo, in an attempt to create a greater Shqiperia
or greater Albania. Following World war II, the Yugoslav Communist
dictatorship allowed the policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against
the Orthodox Serbs to continue, and indeed, gave greater impetus and
legitimacy to the policy.
---
During World War II, the Axis powers dismembered and occupied Yugoslavia
and created a greater Albania by annexing the Serbian region of Kosovo-Metohija
by Nazi Germany, Germany formed a Shqiptar "Kosovar" Waffen SS Division,
the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS "Skanderbeg" which engaged
in a policy of ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Orthodox
Serbian population of Kosovo. The result was that the Shqiptars, with
the help of Germany, were able to virtually exterminate the Serbian
and Jews populations of Kosovo, thereby creating an ethnically pure,
Nazi German-sponsored Greater Albania or Greater Shqiperia.
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rights reserved, ¿ÞÓÛÕÔØ - 2003.
