After Italy’s collapse in September 1943 German army assumed control of Albania, including Kosovo. Italian military units pulled out and were replaced by three divisions of the German XXI Mountain Corps.

Kosovo Albanian nationalist militias called the “Balli Kombëtar” (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. It was hoped that Skanderberg Division Albanians could “achieve its well-known political objective” of creating a viable “Greater Albania” including Kosovo.

In general, policy was to organize volunteer military units among sympathizers in occupied countries. Of all the occupied nations only the Serbs, Greeks and Poles refused to form volunteer units. The Germans recruited the 9,000 man Skanderbeg division to fight 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.

Why such 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 Christians. They were backed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, El Haj Emin Huseini, who 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.

In 1945, but the remnants of the Kosovo Albanian fascist groups continued fighting the Yugoslav government for six years, with a major rebellion from 1945 to 1948 in the Drenica region. That rebellion was under the command of Shabhan Paluzha and 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.

This division (although it never reached divisional strength) was authorised in April 1944 and was made up of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo who were mostly of the Muslim faith. Recruitment began in summer 1944 and by September about 6,500 volunteers had come forward. The officer cadre for this division came from the 7th SS-Gebirgs Division “Prinz Eugen” who were also earmarked for providing the cadre for 13th Waffen-Gebirgs Division “Handschar”. 13th Waffen-Gebirgs Division “Handschar” also provided a number of Kosovan Albanians for III Waffen-Gebirgsjäger-Rgt. 50 of the Skanderbeg Division. They were sent into action shortly after and by October desertions were rife. By that date the divisions officers numbered 86 officers and 467 NCos (of whom only 38 were Albanian) and 887 men (of whom 499 were Albanian).

The high desertion rate resulted in the unit being disbanded and reformed with the German cadre forming Kampfgruppe “Skanderbeg” which joined up with the 14th Regiment of the 7th SS “Prinz Eugen” in Yugoslavia. This battle group was was in action in December 1944/January 1945 around Zwornik, Bjellina and Brcko and only a handful of men from this unit were transferred to 32. SS-Panzergrenadier-Division 30 Januar and sent to the Oder front in 1945.It appears that this short-lived unit of Kosovo Albanian Waffen-SS volunteers was of minimal combat value, although elements of the division did fight rear-guard actions to allow for the 1944 German retreat from the Balkan peninsula.

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