On this channel we've talked about non-German Waffen-SS formations a lot; today we're going
to discuss a notorious German Waffen-SS division that was comprised of ethnic Germans
from Yugoslavia. The division became known as the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen (7. SS-Freiwilligen-Gebirgs-Division Prinz Eugen).
The unit was involved in different atrocities against the local population
and therefore got a reputation of ruthlessness and cruelty. Today more on the SS-Prinz Eugen.
Germans did not only live inside the borders of the Third Reich when Hitler ascended to power.
Many Germans lived outside Germany these ethnic Germans were known as Volksdeutsche. They lived
outside the borders of Hitler's Reich contrary to those who lived inside it and were known as
Reichsdeutsche. The country in the Balkan that had the biggest German minority was Yugoslavia: an estimated 540 000
ethnic Germans lived there during the interwar years; especially in the areas that were part of
the Habsburg Empire of which its emperors encouraged the German population to settle
into the Danubian regions. After the Ottomans had retreated much of these regions were left empty.
Three large migrant waves occurred during the 18th century. Most of these migrants were farmers,
craftsmen, fctory owners or merchants. Now before World War II most of them lived in the north
of Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia was Kingdom that was established after WW1 and was
initially known as the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovene and many ethnic Germans became attracted
to Hitler's ideas. Also because the kingdom of Yugoslavia was plagued by economic hardships
and political instability. On the 6th of April 1941 the Axis powers led by Germany invaded the kingdom
of Yugoslavia and completed the conquest within 12 days. “During the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia,
many local Germans served the German authorities in various ways, sometimes exceeding in barbarity the regular Wehrmacht (German army).
About 80,000 served in the German army while 25,000 of these joined the Waffen SS Division called Prinz Eugen formed by local Germans to fight the Partisans.”
Many ethnic Germans that would joined the SS-Prinz Eugen came
from the Benat; a region that was dominated by Serbs but had significant German, Hungarian, and
Romanian minorities. After the Axis take-over the Yugoslav Banat got a special occupation
regime that was led by the local German minority and this solved the problem of who
- Hungary or Romania - could occupy the region. Also the Germans were interested in the region because
of the natural resources. One activity for which many Volksdeutsche were particularly well suited
was counterinsurgency in their own homelands since they knew the terrain. It was declared
a mountain division because it was designed to the Balkans as an anti-partisan mountain division
and already in April 1941 the SS began recruiting volunteers for the SS division "Das Reich". A year later
the 7th Volunteer SS Division "Prinz Eugen" was formed. It was named after a Habsburg ruler
Prince Eugene of Savoy that lived around the year 1700. Himmler appointed the Transylvanian
Artur Phleps as commander of the new division. Now it was designated to be a volunteer division but
soon the rush of volunteers tapered off and thus in August 1941 the SS Court in Belgrade decided to
impose conscription on all Volksdeutsche living in the Banat. It was actually the first of its kind.
Volksdeutsche could be recruited between the age of 17 and 30. By the end of 1943 more than 20 000
ethnic Germans served in the SS-Prinz Eugen. Most of them came from the Serbia Banat but also
Germans that came from Romania or Croatia served in the unit. The unit was used in various parts
of Yugoslavia and became known for its brutality; in October 1942 the unit was moved from the Banat
to occupied Serbia. Till early 1943 they were stationed there and then they were replaced
by Bulgarian forces. The SS-Prinz Eugen Division was transferred to Croatia for the impending
Operation Weiss (White) against the Partisans known as the Fourth Enemy Offensive in Partisan parlance.
Germans, Italians, Croatians and Chetniks launched an offensive against Partisan-controlled areas.
Also the Croatian 369th Infantry Division, the first Croatian legionnaire division, participated
in this operation which lasted from mid-January till mid-March 1943 and inflicted severe losses on
the Partisans and pushed them southwards onto the left bank of the Nertva River. It did not put the
Partisans out of action. Later the SS-Prinz Eugen also participated in Fifth Enemy Offensive, known as
Case Black. From mid-May till mid-June 1943 they took part in further anti-partisan operations.
Then in September 1943 Italy surrendered; the Italian territories of Yugoslavia were taken
over by the Germans who disarmed most of the Italian troops. On the orders of German field
Marshal Keitel 3 Italian generals and 47 Italian officers were executed by the SS-Prinz Eugen.
after they had been court-martialed. And did you know that in April 1944 Ustasha
ministers complained to the German authorities about the ruthless punitive actions
of the SS-Prinz Eugen in the Dalmatia region, where also many Croatians lived. The men of the SS-Prinz Eugen Division compiled a record
or grizzly acts, massacres, torture and razing villages. From a higher up commanding officers
in Serbia Serbia Franz Böhme issued the following order, modelled on a directive from high command:
“In the future, for every fallen German soldier 100, and for every wounded soldier 50, prisoners or hostages are to be shot. For this purpose, as many communists and Jews as well as
nationally or democratically camouflaged rebellious elements... from every deployment site are to be captured as
may be guarded without endangering our fighting capacity.” And being part of a German unit also
meant that your family was exempted from the reprisals that were carried out by the Axis
forces in occupied Yugoslavia. I mean remember over half a million Germans lived in Yugoslavia.
One of the notorious massacres that was carried out by the SS-Prinz Eugen was the massacre of Otok
that occurred near Split in March 1944, where the SS-Prinz Eugen men, assisted by Croatian forces,
slaughtered hundreds of men, women, and children. In a post-war trial the following statement was read:
“The victims were shot, slaughtered and tortured, or burnt to death in burning houses. Where a victim was found not in his house but on the road or in the fields some distance away, he was murdered and burnt there.
Infants with their mothers, pregnant women and frail old people were also murdered. In short, every civilian met with by these troops in these villages was murdered. In many cases, whole families who,
not expecting such treatment or lacking the time for escape, had remained quietly in their homes were annihilated and murdered. Whole families were thrown into burning houses in many cases and thus burnt.”
Unsurprisingly the men of the SS-Prinz Eugen wore German Waffen-SS uniforms
and had German weaponry. They had this symbol and there was also a cuff band. The division's emblem
was an odal rune, which originally meant "inherited property" and was used by the Nazis in connection
with their "blood and soil" theories. What I find interesting is the person on the left regarding
his footwear. I think this is a rare occasion of a German World War II military men wearing puttees.
Most of the time the Germans wore leather boots or, issued later, ankle boots with low gaitors. On this
photo you see they have French tanks the SOMUA S35 and Hotchkiss H39. I read used
Czech machine guns. Otto Kumm was the commander of the unit from January '44 till January '45 and after
the war founded the HIAG with its main objective to achieve rehabilitation for the Waffen-SS. If
you think that the theory of the clean Wehrmacht, known as the clean Wehrmacht myth is outrageous,
this guy advocated a clean Waffen-SS myth, meaning he wanted to rehabilitate the Waffen-SS...
Late 1944 the Yugoslav Partisans assisted by the Red Army pushed out the German armies
from Yugoslavia. From that moment massacres of ethnic Germans by the Partisans occurred!
Between two hundred thousand and a quarter of a million Germans were evacuated in time. Those who
didn't got away were either murdered or put in camps that were set up later, because around 200 000
German civilians and 70 000 German POWs came under Tito's authority; around 8 000
Germans that were either in mixed marriages or had assisted the Partisans were not interned
or released shortly after. How many ethnic Germans were slaughtered by the Partisans in Yugoslavia
at the end and after WW2 is hard to say.
I read different estimates ranging from 50 000 to 200 000. The surviving members of the SS Prince
Eugen that fell in the hands of the Partisans, mostly Volksdeutsche and also some Croats, they
were all slaughtered by the Partisans and I read that in 2010 a mass grave of 2 000 murdered Prince
Eugen Division soldiers was found in Slovenia.