SS Polizei-Selbstschutz-Regiment Sandschak

SS-Polizei Selbstschutz Regiment Sandschak (from German; "SS-Police Self-Protection Regiment Sandžak", Serbo-Croatian Latin: SS-policijska pukovnija samozaštite Sandžaka), also known as the Krempler Legion (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Legija "Krempler", Serbo-Croatian Cyrillic: Легија „Кремплер") was a Schutzstaffel (SS) unit established on the territory of Sandžak by the senior Waffen-SS officer Karl von Krempler[4] in Axis occupied Yugoslavia. He went to the Sandžak region (named after the Ottoman administrative unit "Sanjak") in October and took over the local volunteer militia of around 5,000 anti-communist, anti-Serb Muslim men headquartered in Sjenica.[2]

SS Polizei-Selbstschutz-Regiment Sandschak
Active1943 — 1944
Size2,000
Nickname(s)
  • Krempler's Legion/Regiment/Militia[1]
  • "Moslem Legion"[2]
EngagementsWorld War II in Yugoslavia
Commanders
Founded and effectively controlledKarl von Krempler
SS and Police LeaderAugust Meyszner

The SS-police "self-defence" regiment Sandžak was created by joining three battalions of Albanian collaborationist troops with one battalion of the Sandžak Muslim militia. The Germans could not provide uniforms, arms and equipment for more than one battalion of Muslims, so other Muslim fighters remained within units of Muslim militia.[5][6] This formation was sometimes thereafter called the Kampfgruppe Krempler or more derisively the "Muselmanengruppe von Krempler". As the senior Waffen-SS officer, Karl von Krempler appointed Sulejman Pačariz as the formal commander of the unit, but as the key military trainer and contact person with German arms and munitions, he remained effectively in control.[7] At one point around 2,000 members of the SS regiment operated in Sjenica.[8] The supreme commander of all police forces was SS and Police Leader August Meyszner who was responsible only to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler regarding the police actions.[9]

All newly recruited members of this police were sent for two-months military training to Raška and Vučitrn. They were trained by Volksdeutsche. Besides military training they learned German language, first military commands and later to speak German. They sang German March songs while they marched through populated places.[10]

In August 1944 took part in operation Operation Rübezahl under command of 5th SS Mountain Corps.[11] On 14 October 1944 Yugoslav partisans defeated the regiment during a surprise attack in which they took Sjenica and pushed it back to Duga Poljana, 23 kilometres (14 mi) to the east. This action marked the end of the unit in Sandžak, although Germans recaptured Sjenica on 25 October 1944. In November 1944, Pačariz together with his troops retreated to Sarajevo where the SS regiment was put under command of Ustaše General Maks Luburić. Pačariz was promoted to the rank of Ustaše Colonel.[12]

In 1945 Pačariz was captured near Banja Luka, put on trial and found guilty for massacres of civilians. He was executed as war criminal.[13]

Annotations
  • Name:
    • Selbstschutz-Regiment "Sandschak".[14]
    • "Police Self-Defense Regiment Sandjak" (Polizei-Selbstschutz-Regiment Sandschak).[12][15]

References
  1. Muñoz 2001, p. 294.
  2. Thomas, Nigel; Mikulan, Krunoslav (1995). Axis Forces in Yugoslavia 1941-45. Osprey Publishing. p. 23. ISBN 978-1-85532-473-2. In Sanjak, the border region between South- West Serbia and Northern Montenegro, the Italians formed a 3,000-strong anti-Partisan Moslem Militia, under Hoxha Patchariz, reformed in early 1944 as the Moslem Legion, under SS-Major Karl von Krempler.
  3. Colić, Mladenko (1988). Pregled operacija na jugoslovenskom ratištu 1941-1945. Vojnoistorijski Institut. p. 224.
  4. Burg, Steven L.; Shoup, Paul S. (13 January 1999). The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention. M.E. Sharpe. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-7656-3189-3. A Muslim unit, the Legija Kempler, operated in the Sandžak region (in Serbia).
  5. Glišić, Venceslav (1970). Teror i zločini nacističke Nemačke u Srbiji 1941-1944. Rad. p. 215. Легију „Кремплер", састављени од три батаљона албанских квислиншких трупа и муслиманске фашистичке милиције у Санџаку.
  6. Muñoz 2001, p. 293.
  7. "The Moslem Militia and Legion of the Sandjak" in Axis Europa Magazine, Vol. II/III (No. 9), July–August–September 1996, pp.3-14.
  8. Simpozijum seoski dani Sretena Vukosavljevića. Opštinska zajednica obrazovanja. 1978. p. 160. Немци су тада на подручју Сјенице имали ... и око 2000 СС добровољачка легија Кремплер
  9. Tomasevich, Jozo (October 2002). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia: 1941 - 1945. Stanford University Press. pp. 77, 78. ISBN 978-0-8047-7924-1.
  10. Božović, Branislav; Vavić, Milorad (1991). Surova vremena na Kosovu i Metohiji: kvislinzi i kolaboracija u drugom svetskom ratu. Institut za savremenu istoriju. p. 164. ISBN 9788674030400.
  11. Kumm 2007, p. 241.
  12. Muñoz 2001, p. 295.
  13. Vojnoistorijski institut (Belgrade, Serbia) (1958). Zbornik dokumenata i podataka o narodnooslobodilačkom ratu naroda Jugoslavija. Vojnoistorijski institut. p. 32.
  14. Kurt Mehner (1995). Die Waffen-SS und Polizei, 1939-1945: Führung und Truppe. Militair-Verlag Klaus D. Patzwall. pp. 325, 381.
  15. Christopher Hale (24 October 2012). Kaci Hitlera. Brudny sekret Europy. Otwarte. pp. 747–. ISBN 978-83-240-2150-5.

Sources

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