The Muslim units proved useful in anti-partisan operations, but when faced by determined troops were less effective. They were motivated by a desire to fight their Christian Serb neighbours, who formed the core support for Tito's partisans, although the war in Yugoslavia was characterized by shifting allegiances. The Albanians, in particular, gained a gruesome reputation for committing atrocities. Attempts to move the Skanderbeg Division away from Yugoslavia in 1944 to fight in the West were a disaster, ending in a mutiny, and the unit was eventually disbanded. Splits in the partisan movement led to some Serb supporters of the old Royalist regime in Belgrade to switch allegiances to the Germans. The Serbian Volunteer Corps was transferred to the Waffen-SS in 1944.

Italians in the Waffen-SS

The formation of Benito Mussolini's rump fascist republic in northern Italy provided the recruiting ground for the formation of the 29th SS Waffen-Grenadier Division, which was committed to action against the Americans at Anzio in April 1944. Thereafter it fought a rearguard campaign along with other German units in Italy. Part of the division surrendered to the Americans at the end of the war, while the rest capitulated to Italian partisans, and were promptly executed.

Verdict on Waffen-SS foreign recruitment

More than 25 of Waffen-SS divisions raised during World War II contained a significant foreign element. The best units were those from Scandinavia and Western Europe, the Wiking Division standing out as a true élite formation on a par with the other Waffen-SS panzer divisions (it became a panzer division in 1943).

As an experiment in creating a "European army" for the new Third Reich, Himmler's Waffen-SS was a failure. Nazi racial ideology meant that no attempt was made to recruit foreigners to Germany's cause until it was too late. The half-hearted attempts by Himmler to form an anti-Soviet army of Russians was typical of the attitude of the Nazi leaders. After spending three years exploiting, neglecting or systematically murdering East Europeans, the attempt by Himmler to recruit these people into the Waffen-SS seems bizarre (interestingly, the German Army made use of captured Red Army soldiers almost from the start of the Russian campaign, forming so-called Hiwi units for rear-area duties). Those who did join almost always did so out of desperation. It was usually a choice of signing up for the Waffen-SS or languishing in a concentration camp. Even to the last, Himmler treated these men with contempt, and considered them little more than cannon fodder (the Nazi hierarchy never considered foreign units to be nationalist formations; this was at odds with individuals such as Vlasov, who saw their units as agents for ultimate national self-determination). Hitler viewed them with even more contempt, and often complained that weapons and equipment was being allocated to foreign SS units at the expense of German units. He thought this folly, which it was, and added nothing to the German war effort.

In the closing months of the war, as it became clear that Germany was doomed, the foreigners in the Waffen-SS started to look to the future. While many were looking to save their own skins by escaping from their vengeful fellow countrymen, thousands threw themselves into the fight with renewed vigour. Knowing their fate if Germany lost the war, foreign units such as the Wiking Division fought fanatically to hold back the Soviets on the Eastern Front. Their sacrifice was in vain.

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