HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF - 2/2
(la Storia si ripete / seconda ed ultima parte)

- The roots of Kosovo fascism
(by George Thompson)
- Eyewitness to Genocide in Kosovo: Kosovo-Metohija and the Skenderbeg
Division
(by Carl Savich)
- Tetovo and Greater Albania:
Tetovo During World War II, 1941-1944
(by Carl K. Savich)

Per una documentazione in lingua italiana sullo stesso argomento si
veda l'importante articolo PASSATO PRESENTE, di Matthias Kuentzel, alle
URL:
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1029
http://it.groups.yahoo.com/group/crj-mailinglist/message/1030


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The roots of Kosovo fascism

by George Thompson (2-19-00)
www.tenc.net [emperors-clothes]

THAT WAS THEN...

"The Serbian population in Kosovo should be removed as soon
as possible. Serbian settlers should be killed." (Albanian
fascist leader Mustafa Kroja, June 1942.)

...AND THIS IS NOW

"He, like many KLA officers, says openly that he dreams of a
Kosovo without Serbs." (Description of KLA death squad
commander "the Teacher", Agence France Presse, August 19,
1999)

"As Germany overtook Yugoslavia in 1941, the Kosovar people
were liberated by the Germans. All Albanian territories of
this state, such as Kosova, western Macedonia and border
regions under Montenegro, were re-united into Albania
proper. Albanian schools, governmental administration, press and radio
were re-established." (From www.klpm.org , a Kosovo
Liberation Army-affiliated affiliated website)

Mussolini's Italy occupied Albania proper in April, 1939,
and established a collaborationist regime with the apparent
enthusiasm of most Albanians.(1) After Hitler invaded and
occupied Yugoslavia in spring 1941, the bulk of current
Kosovo-Metohija was placed under Italian-Albanian collaborationist
control and annexed to Albania.(2)

When Italian forces moved into Kosovo they were accompanied
by Albanians from Albania. Albanians living in Kosovo joined
the invasion force as it made its way North and West, and
also ambushed Yugoslav Army units moving to meet the invaders.
These Albanians, natives of both Albania and Kosovo, instituted a
campaign of murder and expulsion of Serbs. Initially, the
mayhem was carried out by disorganized "kachak" (irregular)
units. These were Albanian brigands from both sides of the
border who had fought Yugoslavia throughout the 1920s and
1930s.(3) However, soon a native Kosovo militia was formed.
This militia, called the Vulnetari, and various gendarme
units, began more systematic persecution.(4)

ITALIAN FASCISTS TAKEN ABACK

Italian authorities in Kosovo seemed a bit distressed by the
terror against Serbs and occasionally intervened to prevent
Albanian attacks, at least in urban areas. Thus a Serbian
historian wrote: "Italian troops were stationed in the towns
of Kosovo and acted as a restraining force ..."(5) And Carlo
Umilta, a civilian aide to the Commander of the Italian occupation
forces, described several instances where Italian forces
fired on Albanians to halt massacres of Serbs.6)

Because of manpower limitations and the de facto alliance
between Albanians and the Axis powers, these efforts at
restraint were limited. Nevertheless, the Italian occupiers
reported their disgust at Albanians’ actions to the authorities
in Rome. The Italian army reported that Albanians were "hunting
down Serbs", and that the "Serbian minority are living in
conditions that are truly disgraceful, constantly harassed by the
brutality of the Albanians, who are whipping up racial
hatred."(7) Carlo Umilta described some of the atrocities in
his memoirs and observed that "the Albanians are out to
exterminate the Slavs."(8) His words were echoed by those of
German diplomat Hermann Neubacher, the Third Reich’s
representative for southeastern Europe: "Shiptars (i.e.,
Kosovo Albanians) were in a hurry to expel as many Serbs as possible
from the country."(9)

The atrocities were deliberate, part of a plan to create a
Serb-free "Greater Albania". In June 1942 the fascist puppet
president of Albania, Mustafa Kroja, declared his goals
candidly before his followers in Kosovo:

"The Serbian population of Kosovo should be removed as soon
as possible . . . All indigenous Serbs should be qualified
as colonists and as such, via the Albanian and Italian
governments, be sent to concentration camps in Albania.
Serbian settlers should be killed." (10)

Similar sentiments were expressed by a Kosovo Albanian
leader, Ferat-bey Draga:

"time has come to exterminate the Serbs . . . there will be
no Serbs under the Kosovo sun."(11)

The anti-Serb pogroms intensified after Italy's collapse in
September 1943. The German Nazi's assumed control of
Albania, including Kosovo. Italian military units pulled out
and were replaced by three divisions of the German XXI Mountain
Corps. The German presence freed the Albanians of restraint.

Kosovo Albanian nationalist militias called the "Balli
Kombetar" (or "Ballistas") carried out a campaign of
deportation and murder of Serbs in 1943 and 1944. Then, on
Hitler’s express order, the Germans formed the 21st
"Waffen-Gebirgs Division der SS" - the Skanderbeg Division.
With German leaders and Kosovo Albanian officers and troops, Hitler’s
hoped that using the Skanderbergs Germany could "achieve its
well-known political objective" of creating a viable (i.e.,
pure) "Greater Albania" including Kosovo.(12)

In general, German policy was to organize volunteer military
units among Nazi sympathizers in occupied countries. Of all
the occupied nations only the Serbs, Greeks and Poles
refused to form Nazi volunteer units. Rather than joining
the Nazis, as the Albanians in Kosovo did, the Serbs organized the
largest anti-Nazi resistance in Europe. Both the Communist
Partisans and thee Royalist Chetniks were mainly Serbs and
both groups fought the Germans and their local allies
throughout Yugoslavia.

The Germans recruited the 9,000 man Skanderbeg division to
fight these resistance groups But the Skanderberg's
Albanians had little interest in going up against soldiers;
they mainly wanted to terrorize local Serbs, "Gypsies" and
Jews. Many of these Kosovo Albanians had seen prior service in the
Bosnian Muslim and Croatian SS divisions which were notorious for
slaughtering civilians.

What explained this passionate hatred for non-Albanians? A
big factor was militant Islam. The Fundamentalist "Second
League of Prizren" was created in September 1943 by Xhafer
Deva, a Kosovo Albanian, to work with the German
authorities. The League proclaimed a jihad (holy war) against
Slavs. They were backed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, El Haj Emin
Huseini, who was pro-Nazi and had called for getting rid of
all Jews in what was at that time British-occupied
Palestine. Albanian religious intolerance was shown by their
targeting Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries for
destruction.(13)

No one is certain of human destruction suffered in this
Fascist Albanian Holocaust. Estimates range from 10,000 to
30,000 Serbs murdered. At least 100,000 were driven from
Kosovo and replaced with "immigrants" from Albania proper.(14)

In justifying current Kosovo Albanian demands to secede from
Serbia, the media has repeated, like a mantra: 90% of the
population is Albanian. While this figure is most likely
exaggerated (nobody knows for sure because Kosovo Albanians
boycotted the census for years!) - the province has been largely
Albanian. But a major cause of the current demographic
imbalance: was the Albanians' success as Hitler's willing
executioners during World War II.(15)

And their attention was not limited to Serbs. Unknown
numbers of Roma ("Gypsies") were liquidated. And Kosovo
Albanians, acting alone as well as under German direction,
eliminated many of Kosovo's Jews.

The definitive work on Hitler's "Final Solution" in
Yugoslavia (16) estimates that 550 Jews lived in Kosovo
Hitler took over Yugoslavia. 210 of them, or 38 percent,
were murdered in Kosovo, mainly by Albanians. In fact, the
Skanderbeg division's first operation was to act as an "einsatzgruppen"
against the Jews, and its second was a similar extermination
foray against the Serb village of Velika where more than 400
Serbians were murdered.(17)

Ceda Prlincevic, head of the Jewish community in Pristina
and an executive of the provincial archives, has explained
to Emperors-Clothes that the Jews who were not murdered
outright were sent by the Skanderbeg division to the German
death camps Treblinka and Bergen-Belsen. One train, on its way to the
latter camp, took the wrong track and was intercepted by
advancing Russian soldiers. According to Mr. Prlincevic,
were it not for that fortunate detour, the entire Jewish
population of Kosovo would have been eliminated.

Although KLA supporters now claim that no Jews were killed
in Kosovo and that Jews were sheltered by the Kosovo
Albanians, such claims are false and should be treated the
same way we would treat other Holocaust denials.

ALBANIAN FASCISTS GO ON FIGHTING

The Germans surrendered in 1945, but the remnants of the
Kosovo Albanian Nazi and fascist groups continued fighting
the Yugoslav government for six years, with a major
rebellion from 1945 to 1948 in the Drenica region. (Drenica was the
hotbed for KLA recruiting in 1998-99). That rebellion was under
the command of Shabhan Paluzha; it is called the Shabhan
Paluzha rebellion. Sporadic violence continued until 1951.
It is literally true to say that the last shots of World War
II were fired in Kosovo

PARTING THOUGHT

This past summer, as Germans entered Prizren in Kosovo for
the first time since World War II, an NBC correspondent
reported:

"I was at dinner with a kind Kosovo Muslim family the other
night when talk turned to the German NATO troops that rolled
into town to make the city the headquarters of its
peacekeeping district. The patriarch of the family, a man old
enough to remember the last time German troops rolled into Prizren,
said they all felt safe now. 'The German soldiers are
excellent,' he said. Then he added, 'I should know, I used
to be one.' Then he raised his arm in a Nazi salute and
said, 'Heil,' and laughed merrily. (NBC, June 18, 1999)


FOOTNOTES
(1) Professor Nikalaos A. Stavrou, KFOR: Repeating History,
The Washington Times (August 11, 1999).
(2) Hugo Wolf, Kosovo Origins (1996) chapter 10. Portions of
northern Kosovo, from Mitrovica to the provincial border
with Serbia, were administered by Germany from the outset,
primarily to exploit the mines in the area. An eastern sliver
of Kosovo was ceded to Bulgaria.
(3) Dr. Smilja Avramov, Genocide in Yugoslavia, Part 2,
Chapter 5, "Genocide in Kosovo and Metohija" (1995): "The
crimes were begun by the ‘kachak’ guerrilla detachments
which had been sent into Kosovo from Albania, but members of
the Shqiptar minority quickly joined in. Judging from
Italian reports, at first the situation resembled more the marauding
of bandits than a deliberate policy."
(4) Dr. Dusan Batakovic, The Kosovo Chronicles (1992);
Avramov, supra.
(5) Dr. Smilja Avramov, supra.
(6) Carlo Umilta, Jugoslavia e Albania, Memoire di un
diplomatico (1947), in Avramov, supra, note 141.
(7) Dr. Smilja Avramov, supra, note 117.
(8) Carlo Umilta, Jugoslavia e Albania, Memoire di un
diplomatico (1947), in Avramov, supra, note 137.
(9) Hermann Neubacher, Sonderauftrag Sudost (1953), quoted
in Dr. Slavenko Terzic, Old Serbia and Albanians.
(10) Dr. Slavenko Terzic, Kosovo, Serbian Issue and the
Greater Albania Project.
(11) Batakovic, supra, citing H. Bajrami, Izvestaj
Konstantina Plavsica Tasi Dinicu, ministru unutrasnjih
poslova u Nedicevoj vladi oktobra 1943, o kosovsko-mitrovackanm
srezu, Godisnjak arhiva Kosova XIV-XV (1978-1979) at 313.
(12) Avramov, supra, note 151.
(13) Avramov, supra, note 148, citing Bishop Atanisije
Jevtic, From Kosovo to Jadovno.
(14) Batakovic gives a conservative estimate of 10,000 dead
while Dr. Slavenko Terzic cites a contemporary American
intelligence report that 10,000 died in the first year of
occupation alone. Terzic, supra, citing Serge Krizman, Maps
of Yugoslavia at War (1943). Carl Kosta Savitch, in Genocide in
Kosovo: Skanderbeg Division, quotes a wartime account that 30,000 to
40,000 Serbs were killed by Albanians. In addition, an
unknown number of Serbs dies in the German-operated work
camps of Pristina and Mitrovica, or were killed by the
Germans as reprisals against resistance activity.
The reported number of expelled Serbs also varies depending
on the source. Dragnich and Todorovich cited the figure of
70,000-100,000, based on a review of wartime refugee
records. Dmitri Bogdanovich estimates 100,000, but acknowledges
that the exact number has never been determined. Dmitri Bogdanovich,
The Kosovo Question: Past and Present (1985). Dr. Avramov
notes that wartime records showing 70,000 refugees from
Kosovo counted only those persons in need of government
assistance who registered with the Commissariat for Refugees
in Belgrade. Records of those who did not register, or who
fled to Montenegro, apparently do not exist. Avramov, supra.
(15) Before world war 2 Serbs constituted a slight majority
of the Kosovo population. Avramov, supra. In addition to the
murder and expulsion of Serbs, the relative ethnic
population balance was further skewed by the entrance of
hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians from Albania proper during
the war. Relying on Italian records from the time, Dr. Avramov
estimates that 150,000 to 200,000 Albanians moved into
Kosovo between 1941 and 1943.
(16) The Crimes of Fascist Occupants and Their Collaborators
Against the Jews of Yugoslavia (1952, revised 1957)
(published by The Federation of Jewish Communities of
Yugoslavia).
(17) Avramov, supra


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Eyewitness to Genocide in Kosovo:
Kosovo-Metohija and the Skenderbeg Division

SERBIANNA.COM LINK:
http://www.serbianna.com/columns/savich/001.shtml

by Carl Savich


Introduction

The historical and political precedent for the creation of a Greater
Albania was set during World War II when the Kosovo-Metohija
region, along with territory in southwestY Montenegro andY
western Macedonia (then Southern Serbia, now part of
Macedonia, but a part of Stara Srbija in the medieval
period), were annexed to Albania by the Axis powers, fascist Italy and
Nazi Germany under a planY by AdolfY Hitler and Benito
MussoliniY to dismember Yugoslavia.The Kosovska Mitrovica
region was retained under German occupation because of the
Trepca mines. The districts of Vucitrn, Lab, and Dezevo or
Novi Pazar were made part of the Kosovo Department. The
Tetovo, Debar, Struga, Gostivar regions of western Macedonia were
ceded to a Greater Albania under Italian administration. The
Gnjilane, Vitin, and Kacanik districts were ceded by Germany
to Bulgaria to administer. In the initial stages of the
occupation of Kosovo-Metohija,YGermany organized a police
force of approximately 1,000 Kosovar Albanians and Albanian
paramilitary forces of the same number known as Vulnetara.
During the Italian administration from 1941-1943, Kosovo Serbs, Jews,
Gypsies, and other non-Albanians were arrested, interned,
deported, or murdered. Serbian houses were burned and
Serbian inhabitants were driven out of Kosovo. Dozens of
Serbian Orthodox churches were demolished and looted. Over
10,000 Kosovo Serb and Montenegrin families were driven out
of Kosovo by Albanians who wereY put in charge of Kosovo-Metohija
by the Italian and German forces.Kosovo Serbs and Montenegrins
were deported to forced labor camps in Pristina and in
Mitrovica to work the Trepca mines and to Albania to work on
construction projects as forced or slave labor. The Italian
regime encouraged the Kosovo Committee and the Balli
Kombetar (BK, National Union) to create an ethnically pure
Albanian Kosovo as part of a Greater Albania. The government and
police were made up of Albanians while the Albanian language and
the Albanian flag were permitted in Kosovo-Metohija.Germany
assumed direct control and re-occupied Kosovo when Italy
surrendered in 1943.

On April 17,1944, pursuant to instructions by
Reichsfuehrer-SS Heinrich Himmler, an Albanian Waffen SS
Division, the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS
'Skanderbeg' or 'Skenderbeg' (Albanische Nr.1), was formed, which
occupied and ethnically cleansed Kosovo-Metohija of Orthodox
Serbs, Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians. Himmler
envisioned the formation of two Albanian SS Divisions, but
the war ended before the second could be formed.
Approximately 300 Albanian troops in the Bosnian Muslim 13th
Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS 'Handzar' or 'Handschar' were
transferred to the newly forming SS division. The Skanderbeg
Division was made up of 6,491 ethnic Albanians, two-thirds
of whom were from Kosovo-Metohija, 'Kosovars'. To this
Albanian core were added German troops,Reichdeutsche from
Austria and Volkdeutsche officers, NCOs and enlisted men transferred
from the 7th SS Mountain Division 'Prinz Eugen' or 'Princ
Eugen', then stationed in Bosnia-Hercegovina. TheYSkanderbeg
Division was made up of Albanian Muslims of the Bektashi and
Sunni sects of Islam and several hundred Albanian Roman
Catholics, followers of Jon Marko Joni. The total strength
of the Skanderbeg Division was 8,500-9,000 men of all ranks.

The first commander of the Skanderbeg Division was SS
Brigadefuehrer and Generalmajor of the Waffen SS Josef
Fitzhum, from April to June, 1944. In June,1944, SS
Standartenfuehrer August Schmidhuber, formerly an officer in
the Prinz Eugen 7thYSS Division, was appointed division commander
until August 1944, when SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Alfred Graf (or
Graaf) assumed command of the remanants of the division
until May 1945.

The Skanderbeg Division engaged in a policy of ethnic
cleansing and genocide against the Serbian Orthodox
Christian and Jewish populations of Kosovo-Metohija and the
Stara Srbija region. In Kosovo-Metohija, the Skanderbeg Division
massacred unarmed Serbian civilians with impunity and
indiscriminately in a systematic plan of genocide. The
Skanderbeg Division sought to create an ethnically pure
Kosovo-Metohija, 'Kosova' or 'Kosove', cleansed of Orthodox
Serbs, Jews, and Gypsies, the untermenschen (subhumans)
rayah targeted for extermination. The Skanderbeg Dision played a role
in the Holocaust or Final Solution when, during its occupation
of Kosovo-Metohija, it rounded up scores of Kosovo Jews and
Orthodox Serbs, persons deemed enemies of the Third Reich,
who were subsequently deported to concentration camps.

With the surrender of Italy in 1943, Germany re-occupied
Kosovo-Metohija and German occupation forces sought to
strengthen Albanian nationalist groups and to recruit
Albanians into German forces. On September 16, 1943, Dzafer
Deva, a member of the Balli Kombetar, organized the Second
League of PrizrenY ''in cooperation with the German occupation
authorities' which intensified its efforts to ethnically
cleanse Kosovo of Serbs and Jews and other non-Albanians.
Attacks against Kosovo Serbs increased and intensified. Over
10,000 Kosovo Serbian families were driven out of Kosovo.
The Balli Kombetar and the Second League of Prizren were
instrumental in the creation of the 21st Waffen Gebirgs Division der
SS 'Skanderbeg', which was envisioned as advancing the cause of
Greater Albania by making Kosovo ethnically pure, cleansed
of Serbs and Jews.

When Germany re-occupied Kosovo and Albania following the
collapse of Italy in 1943, the German Wehrmacht and the
Waffen SS sought to integrate the manpower into the German
forces. Himmler wanted to use the Albanian manpower to form
two Waffen SS Divisions. Moreover, 'anthropological studies'
by the Italians during 1939-1943 purported to show that the
Ghegs of northern Albania and Kosovo-Metohija were Aryans, herrenvolk,
the master race, who had preserved their racial purity for
over two millennia. Thus, from a practical and theoretical
standpoint, Himmler was determined to form two Albanian SS
Dvisions.

Bedri Pejani, the president of the Second League of Prizen,
wrote Himmler a letter of March 19, 1944, asking that
Himmler organize Albanian military formations as part of the
armed forces of the Third Reich:

Excellency, the central committee of the Second Albanian
League of Prizren has authorized me to inform you that only
your excellency is united with the Second Albanian League,
that you should form this army, which will be able to
safeguard the borders of Kosovo and liberate the surrounding regions...
Bedri Pejani

Hans Lammers sent Pejaniis letter to Himmler, who wrote
Lammers about the planned formation of the two Kosovar
Albanian SS Divisions:

Most respected party friend Lammers! I received your letter
ofY April 29 together with the letter of the president of
the central committee of the Second Albanian League of
Prizren. At this time one Albanian division is being formed.
As things now stand, I plan to form a second division, and
afterwards an Albanian corps will be formed...
Heil Hitler!
Yours very faithfully,
H. Himmler

The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg was formed and trained in Kosovo and
was made up primarily of Muslim Albanians from Kosovo, over
two-thirds of the personnel were from Kosovo.

*** During WWII, Kosovo was under Italian occupation - as well as
Albania itself. Albania + Kosovo + Western Macedonia,
all under Italian occupation was officially caled
"Greater Albania". In Kosovo part of this fascist
structure the Albanian nationalists got free hand to
terrorize the Serbs. Under such pressure estimated 75,000 Serbs
left Kosovo. In their empty houses about the same number of
Albanians from Albania settled. This definitelly tipped
the ballance in the Albanian favour. The first official
census in post-WWII Yugoslavia (in 1948) showed 199,961
Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo and 498,242 Albanians.
***


Eyewitness to Genocide

On July 28, 1944 in the village of Velika in the Lim region of
Montenegro,Y Skanderbeg massacred 428 Serbs of which 120
were children and burned around 300 houses during Operation
Draufgegner, in a joint attack with the 7th Prinz Eugen
Division. Milunka Vucetic was an eyewitness, whose account of the
massacre follows:


I approached the house of Milovan Vucetic. Around afternoon an army
from Ivanpolje came into the area.We decided to take them
bread, salt, which we had.

When the army approached, I saw how in the olive grove
Tomislav, the son of Milovan Vucetic, played. Two soldiers
took him, a third ran over... one took out a knife and began
to skin the child alive from his eyes downwards. I could not
watch what occurred. I began screaming and his mother
Leposava-Lepa ran over to protect him. She was killed.


Radoje Knezevic, who survived the massacre, recalled:

I was only 11 years old when Hitleris Division 'Skanderbeg' and
'Prinz Eugen' burned down the village of Velika and killed
about 428 persons. Our family paid a heavy price that day.

On that day my mother Stojanka was killed and then her body
burned. The same fate befell my two brothers Nedeljko (5
years old) and Ratko ( 11 months old). My sister Raba ( 18
years old) was killed as she was trying to protect her
mother and young brothers. And she too was burned.


Draguna Knezevic gave the following account:

In the house of Andra Knezevic were killed Mona
Stamatovic...and Toma Savic with her daughter... In the
house of Leka Knezevic, Stojanka Knezevic (aged 42), her
daughter Rabija (18 years old) and sons Nedjelko (6 years
old) and Ratko (1 year old).

In the house of Ljuba Stamatovic Miroslava Stamatovic (50)
was killed.

In the house of Janka Simonovic, his two daughters, Kosa
(18), and Milojka (19) were killed. Milojka was thrown alive
into a fire. In the house of Radote Simonovic, his daughter
Milena (20) was killed... In the house of Nikola Tomovic,
his wife Rabija and his daughter Milica, who was five years
old were killed. Milica was killed outside and thrown in a
fire, in the house.


Divna Vucetic, a resident of Velika, gave the following
account of events during the massacre:

...I heard news of massacres in the surrounding villages so I became
concerned for the safety of my children, the two eldest of
whom I sent in the woods... I held in my lap my one year old
son, Boza. On the threshold my daughter Persida approached,
who was only three years old, and after her my two nieces,
four year old Kata and three year old Nata, and daughters
Cvete and Dusana Vucetic.

...A soldier approached with a gun... I told him that I wanted to bring
him bread, as I was ordered to. He replied to that:Y'Germany
has bread!' He spoke our language perfectly. He then shot at
me, killing my son Boza in my lap, and wounding me in the
right hand.


The Kosovar Albanian Skanderbeg SS Division drove out or ethnically
cleansed approximately 10,000 Kosovo Serbian families, most
of whom fled as refugees to Serbia while Albanian colonists
from Albania entered Kosovo and took over their lands,
homes, and possessions.In Between Serb and Albanian: A
History of Kosovo, Miranda Vickers described the ethnic cleansing
of the Skanderbeg SS Division as follows:

Until the first months of 1944 there were continued waves of migration
from Kosovo of Serbs and Montenegrins, forced to flee
following intimidation... The 21st SS 'Skanderbeg Division'
(consisting, as already mentioned, of two battalions) formed
out of Albanian volunteers in the spring of 1944,
indiscriminately killed Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo. This
led to the emigration of an estimated 10,000 Slav families, most of
whom went to Serbia... replaced by new colonists from the
poorer regions of northern Albania.

The Skanderbeg Division engaged in acts or war crimes against the
Kosovo Serbian population that constituted genocide and
crimes against humanity.


The Skenderbeg SS Division and the Holocaust


The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg played a role in the Holocaust or
Shoah, the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,the
extermination of European Jewry. The first operation of
Skanderbeg in Kosovo-Metohija was the raid on Kosovo Jews in
Pristina which occurred on May 14,1944. The Albanian Kosovar
SS troops raided apartments and homes where Kosovo Jews lived,
looted their possessions, and rounded them up for deportation to the
death camps. Kosovo Jews were subsequently placed in
makeshift jails. The 21st SS Division Skanderbeg apprehended
281 Kosovo Jews, which included men, women, and children.
From May to June 1944, Skanderbeg apprehended a total of 519
Kosovo Serbs and Jews.

During the initial German occupation of Pristina in 1941
before it was turned over to Italian administration, the
property of Kosovo Jews was seized and they were conscripted
for forced labor like Kosovo Serbs. In Kosovska Mitrovica,
Jewish shops and stores were closed down and Kosovo Jews
were ordered to wear a yellow band to identify themselves as Jews. The
seizure of Jewish property was organized and conducted by the
Gestapo and members of the Albanian Committee. On May 20,
1941, Dzafer Deva, the leader of the Mitrovica district,
ordered the seizure of Jewish property. Jewish businesses
were supervised by members of the Albanian Committee. The
seizure of Jewish businesses and property was conducted by
Mamut Perijuc, Ramiz Mulic and Osman Ibrahimovic, who worked in
conjuction with the German Gestapo. Ibrahimovic was the head
of the commission overseeing Jewish property. He ordered the
demolition of the Jewish synagogue and the destruction of
papers and documents in the Jewish archive. In Pristina, the
seizure of Jewish property and anti-Jewish measures were
undertaken by the Kosovar Albanian regime placed in control
and members of the Albanian Kosovo Committee, Maljus Kosova, president
of the Committee, Dzemal beg Ismail Kanli, head of the
police, Rasid Memedali, and Rifat Sukri Ramadan.

Yugoslav Jewish survivors blame the Kosovar Albanian
Committee for inciting the first and second internments of
Kosovo Jews. In the Jewish historical archives of
Yugoslavia, the role of the 21st SS Division in the Holocaust
and in the genocide of Kosovo Jews and Serbs is described as follows:Y
''From May 25 to July 2, 1944 the Division 'Skanderbeg'
apprehended 510 Jews, Serbs... They were put in jails, while
249 were sent as forced laborers to the Reich.''

The Skanderbeg Division played a hitherto unacknowledged
role in the Holocaust, the genocide of European Jewry. In
Kosovo: A Short History, Noel Malcolm noted that in the
Djakovica region of Kosovo-Metohija, the Skanderbeg Division
engaged in ''the round-up and deportation of 281 Jews'' to
the concentration-extermination camps in May 1944.Y According to
Malcolm, ''they took part in the most shameful episode in
Kosovois wartime history.'' Malcolm, for the most part,
ignored the actions or war crimes of the Skanderbeg Division
against the Kosovo Serbian population during the same
period. Of these 281 Kosovo Jews which the Kosovars deported, more
than 200 were killed by the Germans at the Nazi death camp of
Belsen. By 1945, 210 of the 551 Kosovo Jews known to reside
in Kosovo had been killed.The division sought to create an
ethnically pure, homogenous Kosovo, supported by Italy and
Germany, a Kosovo ethnically cleansed of Orthodox Serbs,
Jews, Gypsies, and other non-Albanians, the untermenschen
rayah, not part of ''enlightened Latin Christendom'', not part of the
so-called West, not Aryans, but Slavs, who were targeted for
extermination.

Conclusion

During the occupation of Kosovo-Metohija by Nazi Germany
during World War II, an Albanian Waffen SS Division,
Skanderbeg, was formed which committed war crimes against
the Serbian Orthodox and Jewish populations which
constituted genocide and crimes against humanity. The Skanderbeg
Division engaged in a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing
against the Kosovo Serbian and Jewish populations. This
genocide contributed to the Albanian goal and policy to
create an ethnically pure and homogenous Kosovo.


Bibliography

Ivanov, Pavle Dzeletovic. 21. SS Divizija Skenderbeg.
Beograd: Nova Knjiga,1987.

Kane, Steve. ''The 21st SS Mountain Division'', Siegrunen:
The Waffen-SS in Historical Perspective, 6, no. 6, issue 38,
October-December 1984, pp. 21-30.

Malcolm, Noel. Kosovo: A Short History. NY: New York
University Press, 1998.

Michaelis, Rolf. Die Gebirgs Divisionen der Waffen SS.
Erlangen, Germany: Michaelis Verlag, 1994.

Munoz, Antonio. Forgotten Legions: Obscure Combat Formations
of theWaffen-SS. Boulder, CO: Paladin Press, 1991.

Vickers, Miranda. Between Serb and Albanian: A History of
Kosovo. NY: Columbia University Press, 1998.


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Tetovo and Greater Albania:

Tetovo During World War II, 1941-1944

by Carl K. Savich


Tetovo during World War II, 1941-1944: Introduction

The practical implementation of the Greater Albania ideology was
achieved during World War II when Adolf Hitler and Benito
Mussolini established a German/Italian sponsored Albanian
state which incorporated Western Macedonia, Illirida,
Kosovo-Metohija, Kosova, and southern Montenegro. Hitler and
Mussolini set the historical and political precedent for the
creation of Greater Albania which existed from 1941 to 1944. The
Orthodox Slavic populations, the Roma and Jewish populations were
to be exterminated and deported. Albanian was made the
official language in Kosovo, Western Macedonia, and southern
Montenegro. The Albanian Lek was introduced as the official
currency. The Albanian national flag, a double-headed black
eagle on a red background, was raised in the occupied areas.
Hitler and Mussolini had achieved a Greater or Ethnic Albania.
The UCK, the so-called Albanian Liberation Army, known also by the
acronyms the NLA/KLA/ANA/KPC/LAPMB, seeks to re-establish
and to re-create the Greater Albania first created by Adolf
Hitler and Benito Mussolini. The agenda, the goals, and the
objectives of the UCK are identical to those of the
ideologues of Greater Albania during World War II who created
a Greater Albania in Western Macedonia, Kosovo-Metohija, and southern
Montenegro. Western Macedonia and the city of Tetovo are
integral and inseparable components or parts of the Greater
Albania ideology. Greater Albania would be incomplete
without Western Macedonia. What is being witnessed in Kosovo
and in Macedonia today is a repeat or replay of what
occurred during World War II, when Hitler and Mussolini established
Greater Albania.

Albanian Nazi's were specially brutal to the Serb Orthodox
clergy. Here an Albanian is murdering an Orthodox priest in
Devic in World War 2.

Tetovo during World War II: Italian Occupation, 1941-1943
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini established Greater
Albania in 1941 following the occupation and dismemberment
of Yugoslavia. On April 6, 1941, Germany and allies Italy,
Albania, Hungary, and Bulgaria invaded Yugoslavia in
Operation Punishment. Yugoslavia was subsequently occupied and
dismembered. Hitler and Mussolini then sponsored a Greater
Albanian state which included territory from Western
Macedonia, Kosovo-Metohija, and southern Montenegro.

Tetovo became a part of Albania. The borders of Albania were
enlarged to include not only Tetovo or Tetova in Albanian,
but all of Western Macedonia (Illirida), Kosovo-Metohija,
and regions of Montenegro. Present-day Macedonia (FYROM) was
divided between Albania and Bulgaria. Tetovo was in the
Italian zone of occupation until September 3,1943, when Italy
surrendered and Germany re-occupied Macedonia. Ethnic Albanians in
Macedonia formed the National Albanian Committee to advance
the Greater Albania movement and agenda. The Balli Kombetar
(BK, National Union) was formed by Midhat Frasheri and Ali
Klissura to advance the Greater Albania ideology or cause.
The Slavic Orthodox populations were targeted for deportation
or murder. The Jews and Roma were similarly to be deported or killed.

Hitler and Mussolini had given the ethnic Albanians Greater
Albania. In August, 1941, the Italian occupation forces in
Tetovo established a prison for prisoners of war. The
Italian occupation authorities gave the civil authority and
administration to the Albanian population. All
Albanian-inhabited territories, Western Macedonia, Illirida,
Kosovo-Metohija, Kosova, and southern Montenegro, were
integrated completely into Albania proper. Albanian language
schools, an Albanian press, an Albanian radio network were
established and an Albanian governmental and political
administration was created. Vulnetara, an Albanian paramilitary
formation, was organized. Albanian police units were
established by the Italian occupation force. Albanian became
the official language as Western Macedonia or Illirida
became a part of Albania. The Albanian national flag, the
double-headed black eagle on a red background, was raised in Tetovo
and other cities and towns in Western Macedonia. The Albanian
Lek was introduced as the official currency. Tetovo,
Gostivar, Struga, Debar, and Kichevo were the key
municipalities and districts in Western Macedonia
incorporated into Albania, a Greater Albania. Eastern Macedonia was
occupied by Bulgarian military forces.

Macedonia was divided between Albania and Bulgaria. Hitler
and Mussolini sought to delineate the borders between
Greater Albania and Greater Bulgaria. The Albanians and
their Italian sponsors wanted to enlarge the borders of
Albania eastward encroaching on Bulgarian occupied territory.
The Bulgarians sought to expand westward. On April 20 and 21, 1941,
the German foreign minister, Joachim Ribbentrop, and the
Italian foreign minister, Count Galeazzo Ciano, met in
Vienna to discuss the Bulgarian occupation zone and the
enlargement of the borders of Greater Albania eastward.
Ribbentrop emphasized the importance of the mines in Kosovo-Metohija
and Macedonia that were vital to the strategic interests of
Germany. The German and Italian supreme commands reached an
agreement on the final demarcation line in Macedonia. Hitler
approved the agreement on April 25. The agreement was
tentative, however, and was not a final, complete agreement
on demarcation lines. The agreement was abandoned later as
Italy and Bulgaria could not agree on a border between their
two occupation zones in Macedonia and Kosovo-Metohija. Later in 1941,
the two sides were able to reach an understanding on where the
border should be.

The Italian occupation forces appointed Albanian Dzaferi
Sulejmani the president of the Tetovo district. The
vice-president was Albanian Munir Tevshana who had come from
Albania. Later, Zejnel Starova and Shaib Kamberi replaced
him. Kamberi worked for the Italian intelligence service.
Selim Shaipi was the representative for Tetovo and was the leader of
the Albanian youth movement. Shaipi was also a representative
of the Second League of Prizren and was the president of the
Third Balli Kombetar Committee. Shaipi fled with the German
Army when Tetovo was evacuated in 1944. Husein Derala was
made the commander of the gendarmes units in Tetovo by the
Italian occupation forces.

The Albanian administration targeted the Orthodox, Slavic
populations for elimination, disenfranchisement,
de-recognition, and expulsion. Feyzi Alizoti called for the
extermination and deportation of non-Muslims. The Greater
Albania ideology was anti-Orthodox, anti-Slavic in nature,
and atrocities, deportations, and murders were committed against the
Slavic, Orthodox populations. Josip Kovac, a Slovenian who was
placed in charge of the Tetovo hospital by the Axis forces,
described the anti-Orthodox, anti-Christian, anti-Slavic
activity of Alizoti as follows:

"There were exceptionally hard times in the annexed areas of
Western Macedonia and Kosovo-Metohija when Fejzi Alizoti,
the High Commissioner, visited. He gave a speech in Tetovo
that demanded the annihilation of the non-Muslim
communities. Publicly and openly he stated that there will
be no peace until the last foreigner---Orthodox Christians---leaves
his territory and settles across the border and only ethnic
Albanians are left behind. Following his visit, the
situation deteriorated and became unbearable for all
non-Muslims."

The Italian military intelligence service, OVRA, formed an
independent battalion in occupied Tetovo. The battalion was
named iLjuboteni, a special unit made up of ethnic Albanians
in the Tetovo region. This Italian-created Albanian Axis
unit was to uncover, question, and annihilate any resistance
to the occupation. After the surrender of Italy in 1943, the
German forces retained this Albanian formation allowing the unit
to keep their Italian-issued uniforms and weapons. Members of the
Balli Kombetar later joined the Ljuboten battalion. At the
end of 1943, the Ljuboten unit was engaged in the attack on
Kichevo in Macedonia.

The Italian occupation of Western Macedonia allowed the
Albanian population to create an ethnic Albanian-ruled
region. Albanian police and paramilitary units were formed
as a proxy army by the Italian forces. The civil administration
was entrusted by the Italians to Albanian leaders. Albanian became
the official language;the civil and police administration
was taken over by ethnic Albanians; Albanian schools,
newspapers, and radio stations were established. Tetovo
became Tetova, an Albanian Muslim city in the newly-expanded
Albanian state.


Early History

From the 14th century, Tetovo has been an Orthodox Slavic
settlement founded around the Orthodox Church of Sveta
Bogorodica (Saint Mother of God)near the mountain source of
the Pena river in the Polog valley. Sveta Bogorodica was
built in the 13th century when Tetovo began to be regarded
as a major Orthodox Church center. Tetovo was the first
center of the Orthodox episcopate. The oldest settlement in Tetovo is
the region around the Sveta Bogorodica Orthodox Church. The
modern city of Tetovo grew from this small medieval Orthodox
Slavic settlement of Htetovo with the building and
construction of houses around the Orthodox Church. The
Ottoman Turkish Muslim Empire invaded and occupied present-day
Macedonia beginning in the 14th century. The Muslim Turks began
settling and colonizing Macedonia with Turkish settlers. The
Ottoman Turks began the Turkification and Islamicization of
Macedonia. The Ottoman Turks altered the Orthodox Slavic
nature of Tetovo, which in Turkish was renamed Kalkandele.
The Ottoman Turks began settling the level lowlands of Tetovo.
The Colored or Painted Mosque (Aladzha or Sharena Dzamija), also
known as the Pasha Mosque, was built in 1459 by the Ottoman
Turks. The earlier Slavic Orthodox population concentration
in Tetovo was on the high ground and on the foothills of the
Shar Planina or Mountain range.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the city began to expand
greatly. The city was divided into the Orthodox Slavic
quarter and the Muslim Turkish quarter. The Orthodox Slavic
quarter or section was on the left side, on the Pena River,
made up of the Potok, Dva Bresta, Koltuk, Sveti Nikola, Dol,
Pevchina, and Dolno regions. The Turkish Muslim quarter or section
included the following regions: The Colored Mosque (Sharena
Dzamija) region, Banja, Gorna Charshija, Gamgan, and Saat.
After World War II, the ethnic mosaic of the city changed
with the displacement of the Serbian Orthodox and Turkish
Muslim populations. The city then acquired its present
ethnic configuration of Macedonian Orthodox Slavs and Muslim
Albanians. Different city subdivisions emerged. New settlements and
districts were formed such as Przhova Bavcha, Tabakaana,
Gazaana, the Teteks textile plant district, and the
Boulevard iBoris Kidrici.

In the town of Leshok, which had been known as Legen Grad,
in the Tetovo municipality, is located the Leshok Monastery
which includes the Orthodox Church of the Holy Virgin built
in 1326 and the Sveti Athanasius Orthodox Church built in
1924. The tomb of the Orthodox scholar Kiril Pejchinovic
lies in the Leshok Monastery. The Church has three layers of frescoes:
The lower layer was built in 1326, the middle layer was built
in the 17th century, and the top layer was built in 1879.
The Leshok Monastery symbolizes the Orthodox and Slavic
presence in the region. The UCK separatists deliberately
mined and demolished the Monastery in August, 2001, to
eradicate and cleanse the Orthodox Slavic influence. Cultural cleansing
is followed by the ethnic cleansing of the Orthodox Slavic
population. The UCK has ethnically cleansed or driven out
much of the non-Albanian population from the Tetovo district.

Tetovo and its population have undergone an evolution and
development over the centuries. Like a palimpsest, a
parchment that has been written upon over time but that
leaves impressions made on earlier layers and substrata, the
city of Tetovo has accumulated layers and strata of the
different populations, religions, and cultures that have existed in
the city. The city presents a palimpsest or mosaic of the
differing populations and cultures that have not been erased
but remain to reveal the development and growth of the city.
In the 15th century, Tetovo began to be regarded as a major
city in the region. The Turkish writer Mehmed Beg in 1436 in
the Vakuf noted that Tetovo had stores and shops and was one
of the most prosperous regions in the Polog valley. In 1470,
Mehmed Kebir Chelebija noted the rapid development of
Tetovo. In 1565, under Ottoman Turkish rule and occupation,
Tetovo was refereed to as the iepiscopal religious place
Htetovoi, an Orthodox religious center, the seat of the Orthodox Church
and domicile of the Orthodox religious leader. Haji Kalfa in
the 17th century noted in his writings that Kalkandele, the
Turkish name for Tetovo, that the city was expanding.

In the 19th century, the population of Tetovo began to
increase with settlement from the surrounding villages. The
French traveler Ami Bue noted that the population was
approximately 4,000-5,000 persons in the 1900s. Half of the
population was made up of Orthodox Slavs. In the Turkish
quarter, there were the upper and lower Turkish charshi and
the Konaci of the wealthy Turkish begs. Many clean streets were noted
by the travelers. A. Griezenbach estimated there were 1,500
houses or dwellings in the city. By the end of the 19th
century, the population increased as Tetovo became an
important trading center. In 1912, the population declined
due to the migration of the Turkish population and their
resettlement to Turkey.

A large garrison of Ottoman Turkish troops was stationed in
Tetovo during the 19th century when the city was a major
military/strategic base. During the latter half of the 19th
century, Ottoman Turkey was referred to as ithe sick man of
Europei because it could not maintain its occupation and
colonies in the Balkans and Eastern Europe. Ottoman Turkey suffered
military defeats following the Bosnian Insurrection by the
Serbian Orthodox populations of 1875 and the First Balkan
War in 1912.

Herbert Vivian published his account of his travels to
Macedonia in 1904 and offered his eyewitness accounts of
Kalkandele (Tetovo) under Turkish rule. Vivian described
Tetovo as follows:

"Kalkandele is even more beautiful than most Turkish towns.
Every house has its garden and a rippling rivulet, tall
poplars and cypresses rise up beside the glistening
minarets, storksi nests, are poised upon the chimneys,
weather-beaten wooden dwellings of fantastic shape are
relieved by the gay arrangement, always artistic, of Turkish shops,
and the women are among the most gorgeously attired in all
Macedonia."

Vivian described the Macedonian system as a isemi-feudal
systemi. The landed estates are governed by chifji or
seigneurs. The peasants have to pay a third of their crop
every year in lieu of rent. Macedonians ilead a medieval
lifei. Vivian noted the tension between the Slavic Orthodox
Christians and the Muslim Albanians. Muslims were allowed to
own weapons, but Christians were forbidden to own any arms. Vivian
explained:

"This question of arms is one which exercises the
Macedonians excessively. It is a standing grievance with the
Christians that they are forbidden to possess arms, while
the Albanians bristle with weapons."

Vivian observed the ethnic and religious polarization and
animus between the Orthodox Slavic Christian population and
the Muslim Albanian population. In Tetovo, he was a guest of
the Serbian Orthodox Prota, or archdeacon. Vivian described
the residence as follows:

"His house was like a fortress. A high wall protected his
smiling garden and huge doors were heavily barricaded at
sundown. O I asked the cause of all these precautions, and
was told much about the fanaticism of the population, who
might at any time wish to raid a Christian household."

Albanian Muslims sought to incorporate Western Macedonia,
Illirida, into a Greater Albanian state following the 1878
Albanian League of Prizren in Kosovo-Metohija, which
enunciated the Greater Albania ideology. In 1912, Albanian
insurgents seized and occupied Skopje itself, demanding that
the Ottoman Turkish regime grant them a Greater Albania.


Settlement

In the 18th century, the population of Tetovo began to
increase. Residents from the following surrounding villages
and suburbs began to settle in Tetovo: Brodec, Lisec, Selce,
Poroj, Shipkovica, Gajre, Zhelino, Dobri Dol, Zherovjane,
Novake, Gorno Palchiste, Senokos, Kamenane, and Gradec.
Macedonian Orthodox Slavs, Bektashi and Sunni Muslim Albanians,
Sunni Muslim Turks, Orthodox Serbian, and Roma were the major
population groups of the city. By the end of the 19th
century, the population of Tetovo was 19,000. The Slavic
Orthodox villages and towns in the Tetovo municipality or
district included Vratnica, Staro Selo, Tearce, Leshok,
Belovishte, Jegunovce, Rogachevo, and Neproshteno.

Tetovo or Htetovo was originally an Orthodox Slavic
settlement. With the Ottoman Turkish conquest, the city was
settled by Turks from Anatolia, Asia Minor, and Bulgaria.
For much of its history, Tetovo was divided between the
Orthodox Slavic section and a Muslim Turkish section. The
majority of the Albanian settlement of Tetovo and the surrounding
villages resulted due to the influx of Albanian migration
and settlement from Albania. Albanian settlement is
relatively recent and is due to Albanian migrations from
Albania proper into the Polog valley. The Albanian migrations
originated in the Albanian districts of Findi Berdita and Luma in
Albania. Albanian migration and settlement in Tetovo and the
surrounding villages from Albania began only in the 18th and
19th centuries. The massive, intensive migrations of
Albanian settlers from Albania proper began slowly to alter
the ethnic composition of the majority Orthodox Slavic city.
Settlers also came from Kosovo-Metohija. In the late 19th century
and early 20th century, the Slavic Orthodox migrated out of Tetovo
for economic and political reasons. The total Slavic
Orthodox migration out of the city amounted to 5,500 during
this period. During World War I, 2,000 left. After World War
I, 5,000 Turks migrated to Turkey. Following World War II,
another large group of Turks migrated out of the city. These
migrations of Turks again changed the ethnic make-up of the city
leaving the Orthodox Slavic and Albanian Muslim populations as the
bulk of the population of the city.


Tetovo: German Occupation, 1943-44

The surrender of Italy on September 3,1943 forced Germany to
re-occupy Tetovo and Western Macedonia. Germany organized
the XXI Mountain Corps, led by General Paul Bader, made up
of the 100th Jaeger Division, the 297th Infantry Division
and the German 1st Mountain Division, to occupy the
territory abandoned by the Italian forces. The German forces wanted
to recruit and enlist ethnic Albanians into proxy armies that
would assist the German occupation. The Germans retained the
Albanian iLjuboteni battalion initially formed by the
Italian occupation forces. The Waffen SS sought to
incorporate the Albanian manpower of the region into Waffen
SS formations, as a German/SS proxy army to maintain the military
occupation of the Orthodox Slavic populations. In 1943, the
German occupation authorities sponsored the formation of the
Second League of Prizren, reviving the 1878 League. The
Germans sought to use the racist, extremist, anti-democratic,
anti-Orthodox, anti-Slavic agenda of the Greater Albania ideology to
maintain and support their occupation of Kosovo and Western
Macedonia. Bedri Pejani, the president of the central
committee of the Second League of Prizren, a militant and
extremist Greater Albania ideologue, even wrote Himmler
personally to request his assistance in establishing a
Greater Albania and volunteering Albanian troops to work jointly with
the Waffen SS and German Wehrmacht. Himmler read the Pejani
letter and agreed to form two ethnic Albanian Waffen SS
Divisions. Like Hitler and Mussolini, Himmler became an
active sponsor of the Greater Albania ideology.

On April 17, 1944, Reichsfuehrer SS Heinrich Himmler
approved the formation of an Albanian Waffen SS Division,
which was then subsequently approved by Adolf Hitler. The SS
Main Office envisioned an Albanian division of 10,000
troops. The Balli Kombetar, the Albanian Committees, and the
Second League of Prizren submitted the names of 11,398 recruits for
the division. Of these, 9,275 were adjudged to be suitable for
drafting into the Waffen SS. Of this number, 6,491 ethnic
Albanians were actually drafted into the Waffen SS. A
reinforced battalion of approximately 200-300 ethnic
Albanians, the III/Waffen Gebirgsjaeger Regiment 50, serving
in the Bosnian Muslim 13th Waffen Gebirgs Division der SS iHandzari
or iHandschari were transferred to the newly forming division.
To this Albanian core were added veteran German troops from
Austria and Volksdeutsche officers, NCOS, and enlisted men.
The total strength of the Albanian Waffen SS Division would
be 8,500-9,000 men.

The official designation of the division would be 21. Waffen
Gebirgs Division der SS iSkanderbegi (Albanische Nr.1).
Himmler planned to form a second Albanian division,
Albanische Nr. 2. The SS Main Office designed a special arm
patch for the division, consisting of a black, double-headed
eagle on a red background, the national flag/symbol for Albania. The
UCK/ KLA/NLA/ANA/ LAMBP would have an identical arm patch in
their separatist/terrorist war for igreater rightsi and
ihuman rightsi in the 1998/99 Kosovo conflict and the
iinsurgencyi in Macedonia in 2001.The SS Main Office also designed
a strip with the word iSkanderbegi embroidered across it as well
as a gray skullcap with the Totenkopf (Deathis Head)
insignia of the SS below the Hoheitszeichen (the national
symbol of Nazi Germany, consisting of a silver eagle over a
Nazi swastika). Josef Fitzhum, the SS leader in Albania,
commanded the division during the formation stages. In June,
1944, August Schmidhuber, the SS Stardartenfuehrer in the 7th SS
Division iPrinz Eugeni, was transferred to command the
division. Alfred Graf commanded the division in August and
subsequently when the division was reorganized.
The 21st SS Skanderbeg Division indiscriminately massacred
Serbian Orthodox civilians in Kosovo-Metohija, forcing
10,000 Kosovo Serbian Orthodox families to flee Kosovo.

Albanian colonists and settlers from northern Albania then
took over the lands and homes of the displaced/cleansed
Serbian Orthodox Slavs. The goal of the Skanderbeg SS
division was to create a Serbien frei and Juden frei and
Roma frei Kosova, an ethnically pure and homogenous region
of Greater Albania. In Illirida, or Western Macedonia, the Skanderbeg
SS Division sought to create a Macedonian frei, Orthodox frei,
Slavic frei region. The Albanian SS troops played a key role
in the Holocaust, the Final Solution to the Jewish Problem,
which the sponsor of the Greater Albania ideology, Heinrich
Himmler, organized. On May 14, 1944, the Skanderbeg SS
Division raided Kosovo Jewish homes and businesses in
Pristina. The Albanian SS troops acting as a proxy for the German
occupation forces rounded up 281 Kosovo Jews who were
subsequently killed at Bergen-Belsen. The Skanderbeg SS
Division targeted Macedonian Orthodox Slavs, Serbian
Orthodox Slavs, Roma, and Jews when the division occupied Tetovo and
Skopje and other towns and cities in Western Macedonia.

The goal and agenda of the ethnic Albanian Skanderbeg Waffen
SS Division was to advance the Greater Albania ideology by
deporting and killing the non-Albanian populations of
Western Macedonia.

The Skanderbeg SS Division was formed at a time in the war
when Germany was retreating and withdrawing its forces from
the Balkans. The Russian Red Army was inflicting severe
losses on the German military forces. By November, 1944, the
Germans were withdrawing their forces from the Aegean
islands and from Greece. At this time, the Skanderbeg Division
remnants were reorganized into Regimentgruppe 21. SS Gebirgs
iSkanderbegi when it was transferred to Skopje. The
Kampfgruppe iSkanderbegi, in conjunction with the 7th SS
Mountain Division iPrinz Eugeni, defended the Vardar River
valley in Macedonia to allow Alexander Loehris Army Group E
to retreat from Greece and the Aegean. The Vardar Valley was
crucial as an escape corridor for the retreating German military forces.
The Skanderbeg SS Division crossed into Macedonia and
occupied Tetovo and Skopje in the early part of September,
1944. The purpose for the occupation was to garrison
Macedonia and safeguard the retreat of German troops from
Greece and the Aegean peninsula.

By 1944, the German forces in the Balkans were in a
defensive posture and were focusing their strategic efforts
on a well-ordered retreat and withdrawal. The Bulgarian
forces and the Italian forces had occupied Macedonia. The
Bulgarian army continued to occupy Macedonia <br/><br/>(Message over 64 KB, truncated)