Ferid Džanić (1918 – 17 September 1943) was a Bosniak soldier during World War II. A member of the SS Handschar Division, he was one of the leaders of an unsuccessful anti-German mutiny in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, in which he was killed.
Ferid Džanić | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1918 Bihać, Condominium of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | 17 September 1943 Villefranche-de-Rouergue, France |
| Rank | Lieutenant, duty officer |
Early life
editDžanić was born to a Bosniak family in the Bosnian city of Bihać in 1918, around the time World War I came to an end.
Army history
editDžanić served as an officer cadet in the Royal Yugoslav Army for a short time before joining the 8th Krajina Brigade of the Yugoslav Partisans to escape imprisonment in autumn 1942.[1][2] While patrolling in western Bosnia in early 1943, Džanić was captured by the Germans during the Fourth Enemy Offensive and incarcerated in a prison camp outside Sarajevo. He was only released when he agreed to volunteer to become a soldier in the German-aligned Handžar division, where he became a lieutenant and later a battalion duty officer.
Death
editIn July 1943, Džanic began forming an anti-German "rebel cell" within the Handžar division while they were stationed in Germany.[3] During their stint in Germany, Džanić first met Božo Jelenek, who would become a fellow ringleader in the "rebel cell". The division was transferred to southern France in August 1943 where a third ringleader, teenager Nikola Vukelić, joined the group. SS Mountain Pioneer Battalion 13, the unit of the Handžar's that the rebel ringleaders were from, was stationed in the French commune Villefranche-de-Rouergue.[4]
The Bosniak and Croat soldiers of the Division endured harsh discipline,[5] forced labour and physical abuse by their German superiors and on 7 September 1943, their living quarters were moved to the barracks while the German officers were quartered in a hotel in the town. News of German and Chetnik atrocities against the Bosnian Muslim population in Bosnia made its way to the soldiers in France. All that coupled with anger about the plan to have the division transferred back to Germany, and evidently eventually to Russia, led to the anti-German rebellion the Villefranche-de-Rouergue uprising, which began just after midnight on 17 September 1943 and ended with five German soldiers and multiple Handschar dead.[6] Around 800 surviving Handžars were sent to Dachau concentration camp after the battle. Among the dead was 25-year-old Džanić.
References
edit- ^ Hale, Christopher (2011-04-11). Hitler's Foreign Executioners. The History Press. ISBN 9780752463933. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- ^ Trigg, Jonathan (2011-11-30). Hitler's Jihadi's. The History Press. ISBN 9780752477589. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- ^ Hoare, Marko Attila (February 2014). Bosnian Muslims in the Second World War. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199327850. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- ^ "Tko je oslobodio prvi grad u Zapadnoj Europi od Nijemaca". Dnevnik. 17 September 2013. Archived from the original on 5 June 2014. Retrieved 1 June 2014.
- ^ "La révolte des Croates (1943)" [The Croats' revolt] (in French). Villefranche-de-Rouergue. 4 September 2019.
- ^ George Lepre (1997). Himmler's Bosnian Division: The Waffen-SS Handschar Division, 1943-1945. Schiffer Military History. p. 98. ISBN 0764301349 – via University of Michigan.
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