 The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar ( 1st Croatian ) was a mountain infantry division of the Waffen @-@ SS , an armed branch of the German Nazi Party that served alongside but was never formally part of the Wehrmacht during World War II . From March to December 1944 , it fought a counter @-@ insurgency campaign against communist @-@ partisans in the Balkans . The division was composed primarily of Bosnian Muslims , Albanians and Croats .
The division was formed in March 1944 , primarily with Muslim volunteers from Bosnia and Herzegovina . The formation was originally called the 13th W