The Mutiny of the 13th SS Handschar Division at Villefranche de Rouergue
Symbol of the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar |
The Munity in Villefranche-de-Rourgeue is the name for the events that took
place on September 17, 1943, in Villefranche-de-Rouge, a small town in occupied
France when several members of the pioneer (engineering) battalion of the 13th
SS "Handjar" division revolted against their German superiors, with the aim of
joining the Allies or the French resistance movement. The rebellion was quickly
and bloodily suppressed but after the war the inhabitants of the city
celebrated the rebels as heroes and martyrs. After the disintegration of
Yugoslavia, it was the subject of various interpretations and various theories
about motives, goals, and organizers.
The original memorial to the "Yugoslav combatants" in Villefranche unveiled in 1952 |
The Handzar Division was a "volunteer" SS
division whose majority were Bosnian Muslims (Bosniaks) from the territory that
was then officially part of the NDH and for which the official name "Croats of
the Muslim Faith" was used. The purpose of the division's existence was both to
help the Axis forces in the fight against partisans in the area of today's BiH,
and to set a positive example to other Muslim nations in Europe and the Middle
East to join the Axis against the Allies. The division was formed in the summer
of 1943 and then sent for training to France. Its battalions were deployed in
the departments of Aveyron and Lozere.
Members of the division during their training |
According to available testimonies, the
leader of the uprising was Ferid Džanić, a former Home Guard lieutenant who,
according to some sources, spent some time in the Yugoslav partisans before
joining the "Handžar Division". His collaborators in planning and leading the
uprising were Luftija Dizdarevic, Nikola Vukelic, and Bozo Jelinek. Most
historians hold that Džanić and his comrades were either members or sympathizers
of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia "inserted" into the ranks of the "Handžar"
division in order to gather intelligence or sabotage its activities. In any
case, after arriving in Villefranche, Džanić started coming to the local Hotel
Moderne, where he eventually gained the trust and came into contact with members of
the local resistance movement. After exposing the idea of raising a rebellion to
them, he asked for contact with the allied forces and asked for help. Help was
promised to him, but it was never realized. The revolt came seven days after the
capitulation of Italy when it was thought that the Allies could use it as an
opportunity to deliver a final blow to the Axis Powers.
Ferid Džanić |
After midnight On September 17, the rebels broke into the bedrooms of German officers, took their
weapons, and captured them. They then told part of the men that British and
French troops would land in southern France and persuaded them to join the
rebellion. Part of the rebels deployed around the city as guards. Around 4:10
a.m., rebels shot German officers and non-commissioned officers. However, Imam
Halim Malkoć and Dr. Schweiger managed to escape; they devised a plan to return
control of the battalion to German hands. Malkoć came to the rebellious soldiers
and told them that the news of the arrival of the Allies was a lie; to which the
soldiers, (some even weeping) took up arms, swore allegiance to Hitler again,
and set out to quell the rebellion. At around 7 o'clock, Dizdarevic and Dzanic
were killed and Vukelic was captured. After only seven hours the rebellion was
quelled.
SS Handschar Imam Halim Malkoč addressing members of the division |
Immediately after the uprising, Vukelic, Mujo Alispahic, Meho
Memisevic, Philipp Njimac, Ivan Jurkovic, Alija Beganovic, Mustafa Moric,
Sulejman Silajdzic, Jusuf Vucjak, Zemko Banjic, Efraim Basic, Ismet Cefkovic and
Uzeir Mehicic were shot. Jelinek managed to escape and join the French
resistance movement to obtain the rank of an officer; then he was decorated with
the Legion of Honor. By the end of the month, German authorities had carried out
a purge among the men. There are various figures on the executed insurgents -
from 14, over 78 to 150. Of all the members of the division, 825 of them were
confiscated weapons and transferred to the Todt Organization as forced labor in
Germany; 265 of them who refused to do so were sent to the Neuengamme
concentration camp where dozens died by the end of the war. Himmler awarded both
Malkoč and Schweiger the Iron Cross Second Class for thwarting the mutiny. Five
soldiers were also decorated.
Members of the division on operations during May 1944 |
When Villefranche-de-Rouergue was liberated in
1944, the local population decided to pay tribute to the mutineers by naming one
of its streets Avenue des Croates (Bosnian Muslims were seen by the local population as Croats of Islamic faith) and commemorating "the revolt of the
Croats "every 17 September. Cohen states that after the war, the Yugoslav
government requested it be changed to "the revolt of the Yugoslavs" in order to
obscure the mutineers' ethnicity; this request was refused by the French. The
Villefranche-de-Rouergue uprising was originally commemorated in the city with a
monument designed by Croatian sculptor Vanja Radauš.
The munity in Villefranche
was not the only revolt of the 13th SS Division. In October 1944, 100 members of
the division in Cerna in present-day Croatia, led by Imam Abdulah Muhasilović,
left their positions and went to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where they eventually
surrendered to the partisans.
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