This document was compiled by the German commander of
the said Albanian SS Division, August Schmidhuber (1901-1947), from Augsburg in
Bavaria, on 2 October 1944, shortly before the German withdrawal from Albania
in November 1944. This SS Division of some 6,000 men was formed late by the
Nazis (recruitment began in February 1944 and it only received its name in
August 1944). It never reached its operational strength, and was disbanded on 1
November 1944 by which time most of the recruits had deserted and run away.
Major General Schmidhuber, who expresses some none too flattering remarks about
his Albanian subordinates in this text, was subsequently found guilty of war
crimes by a Yugoslav military tribunal and was hanged on 27 February 1947 in
Belgrade
.1.Formation Order The formation order was based on the presumption that
Albania had more or less attained the general European level of civilisation
and culture. In this connection, it cannot be denied that, until recently,
Albania was no better known in Germany than the smaller countries of South
America. This lack of “official” knowledge led to the downfall of a certain
Prince Wied.
After four hundred years as a Turkish province, Albania is in
every way more Turkish than Turkey itself – from women’s veils to their
self-definition as a nation.
(είναι πιο τούρκοι από τους ίδιους τους τούρκους)
SS Commander August
Schmidhuber speaking in Kosovo about the formation of the SS Skanderbeg
Division(photo: Kriegsberichter Georg Westermann, 1944).