Formation, Training and Mutiny
The division was initially sent to southern France for formation and training, where it was accommodated mainly in towns and villages in the Aveyron and Lozère départements. For a long period after its official formation, the division was unnamed and was referred to as the "Kroatische SS-Freiwilligen-Division" (Croatian SS-Volunteer Division) or the "Muselmanen-Division" (Muslim Division). The decision by the Waffen-SS to form and train the division outside Bosnia was contrary to advice given by the NDH's German plenipotentiary general, Edmund Glaise von Horstenau. This advice soon proved prophetic.
On 9 August 1943, Oberst (Colonel) Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig took command of the division from von Oberwurzer. Sauberzweig transferred to the Waffen-SS and was appointed to the rank of SS-Oberführer (Senior Colonel). He was a Prussian who had been decorated as an eighteen-year-old company commander during World War I, and had served as a regimental commander during the early stages of Operation Barbarossa before being wounded. A "proven leader of men", he spoke no Serbo-Croatian but quickly gained the lasting respect and affection of the men of the division.
Read more about this topic: 13th Waffen Mountain Division Of The SS Handschar (1st Croatian)
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“The triumphs of peace have been in some proximity to war. Whilst the hand was still familiar with the sword-hilt, whilst the habits of the camp were still visible in the port and complexion of the gentleman, his intellectual power culminated; the compression and tension of these stern conditions is a training for the finest and softest arts, and can rarely be compensated in tranquil times, except by some analogous vigor drawn from occupations as hardy as war.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)