Heinrich Himmler

Powieść historyczna, fikcja literacka oparta na prawdziwych wydarzenia z czasu II wojny światowej. Historia zamachu na Adolfa Hitlera z 8 listopada 1939 roku przeprowadzona w Monachium przez stolarza Georga Elsera. Alternatywna wersja wydarzeń - Janus - Dwie twarze Heinricha Himmlera.

Quedlinburg atmet Geschichte: Bis heute besticht die Silhouette der UNESCO-Welterbestadt durch zahlreiche gut erhaltene Stadttürme. Über 2100 Fachwerkhäuser, mittelalterliche Kirchen, stattliche Adelsbauten und Palais und nicht zuletzt das holperige Kopfsteinpflaster lassen Besucher in vergangene Tage eintauchen. In 1100 Jahren entwickelte sich aus einer Burg König Heinrichs I. ein fast 900 Jahre bestehendes freiweltliches Damenstift mit einer mittelalterlichen Doppelsiedlung aus Alt- und Neustadt. International bekannt wurde sie durch die außergewöhnliche Odyssee des Quedlinburger Domschatzes nach Texas und zurück.

Den Spuren dieser Entwicklung folgt die Kleine Stadtgeschichte – mit neuen geschichtlichen und archäologischen Erkenntnissen, Anekdoten, Literaturzitaten und Abbildungen.

Niniejsza książka śledzi dziedzictwo absurdalnego przeinterpretowania przez Rosenberga wczesnonowożytnych procesów o  czary na rzecz propagandy nazistowskiej. Jak pokazuje autorka Bożena Ronowska, Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler, zainspirowany teorią Rosenberga, zorganizował specjalny oddział SS (Die Schutzstaffeln der NSDAP, Sztafety Ochronne NSDAP), tak zwany Hexen-Sonderkommando, którego celem było archiwizowanie oraz zarządzanie wszystkimi aktami i  zapisami dotyczącymi czarownic na terenach podbitych przez armię Rzeszy podczas drugiej wojny światowej. W  wyniku przypadku historycznego, zbiór ten (tak zwany Hexenkartotek) znalazł się po wojnie na ziemiach polskich, w Poznaniu, gdzie stał się bazą analizy Ronowskiej.

Adolf Hitler (Adolfo Hitler). Adolf Hitler; fue un político militar y canciller imperial y Führer (jefe, caudillo, conductor). Nació el veinte de abril de mil ochocientos ochenta y nueve (1889), en Braunau am Inn, en el imperio austrohúngaro (Austria-Hungría), actualmente Austria. De una familia católica de clase media, su padre Alois Hitler; un agente de aduanas y su madre Klara Pölzl, eran primos. Hitler fue el tercero de siete hijos, pero sólo él y su hermana Paula llegaron a la edad adulta. Estudiante mediocre, solo sacaba buenas notas en dibujo. Su padre muy estricto contrastaba con lo cariñosa que era su madre. Querían que también fuera funcionario de aduanas, pero Adolf prefería el arte. Con la muerte de Alois el tres de enero del mil novecientos tres (1903), Hitler decide dejar los estudios a los dieciséis años para dedicarse a la pintura. Viaja a Viena para ingresar en la academia de bellas artes, aunque nunca consiguió entrar. Unos años después; su madre fallece por un cáncer y Adolf malvivió en la capital austriaca vendiendo sus cuadros. Hitler se trasladó a Munich y eludió el servicio militar durante años, hasta que lo localizaron y fue llamado a filas, pero fue declarado no apto. El veintiocho de julio de mil novecientos catorce (1914), estalló la primera guerra mundial. Hitler se enroló en el ejército voluntariamente marchando al frente occidental, designado como mensajero del decimosexto regimiento de infantería bávaro de reserva. Por un ataque de gas mostaza quedó ciego temporalmente. Fue condecorado con cruces de hierro al mérito militar que luciría con orgullo años más tarde. Acabada la guerra con la derrota de Alemania, Hitler sufrió un duro golpe. Cuando se recuperó, permaneció en el ejército en calidad de educador de las tropas, dedicándose a predicar el ideal nacionalista (anticomunista) impartiendo numerosas conferencias. Sus ideas se fueron volviendo más fanáticas, desencantado con el nuevo régimen democrático de la República de Weimar, a cuyos políticos acusaba de haber traicionado a Alemania aceptando las humillantes condiciones de paz del Tratado de Versalles. Para mil novecientos diecinueve (1919), Hitler ya era un V-Mann (Verbindungsmann); un espía del ejército. Una de sus misiones fue la investigación de un pequeño partido político llamado Partido Obrero Alemán (DAP), dirigido por Anton Drexler, de ideología nacionalista y de extrema derecha. manuelverdugo.com

My research question is whether the relationships between Hitler and his team had an impact of the success of the Nazi Party. There are several related questions which stem from this, but first I will establish my argument. Hitler was pragmatic, because he used the individuals in his team strategically to further his power and that of the Party. This is not to say that the men were simply following orders, which is a common conception. The team did have autonomy, and the freedom to make decisions concerning policies. Some of the men were so devout to Hitler they refused to go against his word, whereas others were more concerned with their own personal gain than that of the Party. Therefore, the relationships between Hitler and his team did affect the success of the Nazi Party. Some other questions which stemmed from my initial research will be addressed in the main body of this essay.

Nazi Germany saw Eastern Europe as an opportunity to expand its territory, its living space. Poland would become the laboratory for an inhumane colonisation plan, the Generalplan Ost (“General Plan for the East”), which involved replacement of the non-Aryan population with Germanic farmers. The anti-urban management of that lobotomised territory was scientifically drafted by a group of architects, geographers, and agronomists working under the orders of Heinrich Himmler. The urban planning aspects of this utopian plan, based on central place theory, self-sufficiency, and neighbourhood units, were of great technical interest and influenced the creation of new communities within Franco’s regime. However, we cannot overlook the fact that, had the Nazi plan been completed, it would have resulted in the forced relocation of 31 million Europeans.

The ‘annihilation of the Jewish people’, proclaimed Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler on 4th October 1943 before senior SS functionaries, would be an ‘unwritten and never-to-be-written page of glory’ in German history.  Such a statement epitomises the complex and deliberately secretive nature of the Final Solution – the comprehensive attempt by the Third Reich to systematically ‘murder every last Jew within German grasp.’  Altogether, approximately 3 million Jews were murdered in extermination camps, 700,000 killed by mobile gas vans, 1.3m by mass shootings and 1m by hunger, disease and the ghettos established within the occupied territories.  It is almost impossible to provide coherent explanations for the Final Solution, not simply due to six million Jews being murdered, but because ‘no one altogether [can] understand how mass murder on such a scale could have happened […] comprehensibility may never be possible.’

My doctoral dissertation examines the experiences of the Italian volunteers in the Waffen-SS troops using in-depth interviews with former volunteers as the main primary source. This phenomenon, even if significant in size (depending on the source, some 15 000-20 000 Italian men volunteered in the Waffen-SS), has been hitherto largely unknown to historical research. The available literature on the Italian volunteers, mainly written by military history enthusiast journalists and methodologically weak, concentrates mainly on the combat operations and military organization, and offers a rather stereotypical profile of the volunteers.

My dissertation does not aim to reconstruct the military history of the different divisions of the Waffen-SS in which Italian volunteers operated but instead to examine the subjective, private and intimate experience of the volunteers in order to understand the motivations, attitudes, beliefs and cultural and family background, as well as their political ideas. The main objective of my doctoral dissertation is to discover the ideological precepts of the volunteers’ political credo. As the last phase of fascism and its ideology, often defined as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascism, is still the object of wide academic debate, a better understanding of the volunteers’ ideology also contributes to deepening overall knowledge of the nature of this last phase.

The theoretical frame of my dissertation lies in oral history, in particular in the postmodernist approach to oral history, through which I reconstruct the volunteers’ ideology. In-depth interviews with former volunteers are the main primary source, but multiple data collection methods have been adopted. Phone interviews and correspondence with the volunteers have also been considered as primary sources. In addition to interviews and correspondence, family archives consisting of diaries, correspondence with the volunteers’ relatives and photographic material have also been collected and examined. An ethnographic observation of the volunteers’ domestic spaces has been conducted during the in-depth interviews, and photo self-elicitation techniques have been used in cases where the volunteers were willing to share their photographs.

An exhaustive portrait of the ideological structure of the volunteers has been obtained, as well as of the cultural and social origins of the values that contributed to the rise and adoption of this ideology. Further, the volunteers’ motivations to enlist have been clearly reconstructed, together with their cultural, political, social and military backgrounds. The results of the research are particularly relevant both for comprehension of the Italian phenomenon of volunteering in the Waffen-SS and for the reconstruction of the ideological dynamics of the last phase of fascism. The volunteers’ political and ideological system, which can be defined as the Italian SS-fascist ideology, disagrees strongly with the vaguely described ideological profile offered by previous studies that describe volunteers as generically “super-fascist”. The research also offers the opportunity for a deeper understanding of the final fascist ideological trajectory, currently defined, not without a certain level of approximation, as the “Germanisation” or “Nazification” of fascist ideology.

Horrified by the Holocaust, social psychologist Stanley Milgram wondered if he could recreate the Holocaust in the laboratory setting. Unabated for more than half a century, his (in)famous results have continued to intrigue scholars. Based on unpublished archival data from Milgram’s personal collection, volume one of this two-volume set introduces readers to a behind the scenes account showing how during Milgram’s unpublished pilot studies he step-by-step invented his official experimental procedure—how he gradually learnt to transform most ordinary people into willing inflictors of harm. Volume two then illustrates how certain innovators within the Nazi regime used the very same Milgram-like learning techniques that with increasing effectiveness gradually enabled them to also transform most ordinary people into increasingly capable executioners of other men, women, and children. Volume two effectively attempts to capture how step-by-step these Nazi innovators attempted to transform the Führer’s wish of a Jewish-free Europe into a frightening reality. By the books’ end the reader will gain an insight into how the seemingly undoable can become increasingly doable.
It is not necessary to read Vol. 1 before reading Vol. 2 (Vol. 2 has a good summary of Vol. 1's key arguments).

Il mensile «Germanien» fu l'organo di divulgazione ufficiale della società
Ahnenerbe durante gli anni del Terzo Reich. Al suo interno venivano
illustrati i risultati delle ricerche scientifiche (sopratutto in materia di
Storia e Archeologia) e molte delle stravaganti teorie sostenute
dall'entourage di Heinrich Himmler, il tutto mescolato a propaganda e a
concezioni di supremazia razziale. Attraverso le storie e le vite di coloro
che hanno collaborato alla rivista, da giovani ricercatori fino ad autori di
fama internazionale spesso con indosso l'uniforme delle SS, si affronta
l'analisi complessiva delle tematiche, dei contenuti pubblicati e delle
ricerche internazionali, fornendo anche documenti inediti. L'autore trae
questo libro dalla sua tesi triennale in Metodologia e fonti della ricerca
storica dal titolo "«Germanien»: l’Eredità Ancestrale tra propaganda e
divulgazione scientifica".

The Germanien, the official magazine of the Third Reich, presented the extravagant pseudo-scientific theories supported by Himmler's entourage, mixed with propaganda and conceptions of racial supremacy. Through the stories and lives of those who collaborated on the journal, leading researchers, often wearing the uniform of the SS, some of the international renown, for the first time is addressed the analysis of the themes and published content, inter-national research (also in Italy), also providing untranslated undiscontinued material.

SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler in Finland and Rovaniemi

Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was Reichsführer  of the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the National Socialist Party (NSDAP) of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Germany and one of the people most directly responsible for the Holocaust.

Himmler visited Finland three times. First visit was 10.2.1941, when he briefly paid a visit to Kolttaköngas to see a church and a Skoltish village. Next visit was in 22.3.-28.3.1942, when he first came to Rovaniemi and visited also Kiestinki. He did not visit Helsinki this time. Third visit was in 29.7.-6.8.1942, which was both  official and vacation. This time he first arrived in Helsinki to see president Risto Ryti and prime minister J.W. Rangell. Himmler wanted to present a list of Finnish Jews to Finnish goverment, so that they could have expelled to Germany but his wishes were blocked.

Kötetünk címének meghatározásakor olyan kifejezést kerestünk, amely kellően nyitott ahhoz, hogy a könyv anyagát képező szövegek sokrétűségét, tudományközi határátlépéseit, valamint megszólalásbeli sokszínűségét is visszatükrözze, mindezt mégis úgy, hogy a központi csapásirány és tudományterület is megvillanjon általa. A história szó maradéktalanul megfelelt ezeknek az elvárásoknak, amennyiben az értelmező szótárak szerint a mai magyar nyelvben egyszerre jelent elbeszélést, történetet, s kissé régies formában bár, de használható a történelem és a történetírás szinonimájaként is. A latin eredő, a historia magába sűríti a történelem, az elbeszélés, sőt a tudás szavak jelentéstartományait is, a görög hisztoria szó pedig a megtudottak és a hallottak megfelelője. Azon túl tehát, hogy a Históriák kötetcím a fentiek mindegyikét integrálja, többes számbeli alakja úgy utal a bekerült szövegek egyes csoportjaira és darabjaira, hogy közben a múlt többféle, paralel értelmezhetőségét is meglebegteti. A könyv hasábjain kibontakozó jelenség-olvasatok ennek okán nem törekednek kizárólagosságra, inkább az egyes kérdéskörök újszerű megközelítését tűzik ki célul.

La Alemania nazi vio en el este europeo la oportunidad de ampliar su territorio, su espacio vital. Polonia sería el laboratorio de un inhumano plan de colonización, el Plan General del Este, que implicaba la sustitución de la población no aria por campesinos germánicos. La antiurbana ordenación del territorio lobotomizado fue detallada científicamente por un equipo de arquitectos, geógrafos y agronómos, bajo las órdenes de Heinrich Himmler. Los aspectos urbanísticos del utópico plan, basados en la teoría del lugar central, la autosuficiencia y la unidad vecinal, son de gran interés técnico, y ejercieron influencia en los poblados nuevos del franquismo. No se puede obviar, sin embargo, que, de haberse completado, el plan nazi hubiera supuesto el desplazamiento forzoso de 31 millones de europeos.

L'articolo analizza come il castello di Wewelsburg sia stato reso da Himmler il centro culturale e simbolico del suo mondo di credenze pseudo-storiche ed esoterico, mettendo in evidenza in particolare un duplice modo di rifarsi alla figura del barbaro: da un lato il barbaro come modello da seguire (Arminio e Viduchindo), dall'altro il barbaro selvaggio dell'est da conquistare seguendo l'esempio dei re tedeschi (Carlo Magno e Enrico l'Uccellatore).

The Languedoc region between the Rh.ne River and the Pyrenees is renowned for its medieval history. Or rather, its special version of medievalism. This article seeks to explain how and why the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) and the heretical Cathars came to be intertwined with myths about the Holy Grail after World War I by examining three different definitions of medievalism by Eco, Gentry & Müller, and Matthews. The theories approach medievalisms from different perspectives, but they all pay special attention to the political usage of medievalisms, which can be detected in all corners of the Albigensian Crusade historiography and fictional literature. This shows that a special Occitanian medievalism-hybrid has been created, which is constantly being developed and highlighted by both literature, myths and the region’s tourism industry. Finally, the article argues that the perceptions of medieval Languedoc and the myths surrounding the area reflects the challenges and political rea...

«UN NUOVO EDEN». Così Adolf Hitler, nel luglio del 1941, descriveva lo stato dell’Europa dopo la prevista vittoria nazista: un continente ripulito da tutti gli individui razzialmente indesiderabili e unificato politicamente ed economicamente, un continente in cui le merci avrebbero viaggiato senza limiti, ma le persone (quelle vive, almeno) sarebbero state segregate. Questo futura condizione fu l’oggetto di una meticolosa pianificazione da parte delle SS ed esitò nel Generalplan Ost, il progetto nazista per la nuova Europa. Questa sinistra visione non nacque dal nulla; si alimentò nelle credenze della destra tedesca pre-nazista, legata ai miti esoterici della purezza del sangue e del ritorno alle radici razziali del popolo ariano. La prima generazione di nazisti, formatasi in quegli ambienti, portò quei temi all’interno del movimento nazionalsocialista e delle SS in particolare, seguaci di una teoria in cui la purezza del sangue e l’appartenenza a un determinato territorio si fondevano misticamente insieme, generando la credenza che per i portatori di puro sangue tedesco fosse indi- spensabile, per la creazione di un nuovo Rinascimento europeo, colonizzare i territori che appartenevano di diritto a quel sangue; fino a che, nelle seconde generazioni di nazisti, quest’idea divenne pura tecnica di dominio dello spazio: il Generalplan Ost. Nella storia di come dalle prime, oscure teorizzazioni della destra nazista si giunse a questo progetto, si dispiega la parabola di gran parte delle classi dirigenti tedesche, sedotte da questa forma di nazionalismo razzista, nelle spire di un regime avviato verso l’estremo approdo del genocidio.

Η ενασχόληση της Διεθνούς Συμμαχίας για την Ανάμνηση του Ολοκαυτώματος - IHRA και οι ενέργειές τις μέσω της Επιτροπής για τη Γενοκτονία των Ρομά για την ευαισθητοποίηση σε θέματα Ρομά και στη Γενοκτονία των Ρομά το Δεύτερο Παγκόσμιο Πόλεμο.  Επίσης οι ενέργειες για τη μνήμη και τα μνημεία

Znana nam dziś pod skrótem SS organizacja sztafet ochronnych Adolfa Hitlera (Schutzstaffel) zawdzięcza swój prężny rozwój Heinrichowi Himmlerowi, który w latach istnienia Trzeciej Rzeszy uczynił z niej elitarną formację, stanowiącą tak narzędzie władzy wykonawczej, jak i zaplecze polityczno-wojskowe narodowosocjalistycznego reżimu. Nie ulega wątpliwości, że SS była dla Himmlera projektem o niezwykle istotnym znaczeniu, ponieważ to na jej gruncie, już od momentu objęcia funkcji Reichsführera, realizował koncepcję rasowej wspólnoty rodów.
Głosząc teorię o tym, że „ludzie mogą być hodowani z równym powodzeniem jak hoduje się zwierzęta”, Himmler marzył o wybudowaniu czystego rasowo społeczeństwa, posiadającego najbardziej cenione genetycznie przez narodowosocjalistyczną władzę cechy. By zrealizować ten projekt jako Reichsführer wprowadził sekwencję różnego rodzaju wytycznych, dzięki którym w szeregi SS mieli być przyjmowani wyłącznie kandydaci spełniający ustanowione przez niego rasowe kryteria. Z czasem te restrykcyjne wymogi zaczęto stosować również wobec kandydatek na przyszłe żony SS-manów, co na przestrzeni kolejnych lat miało zagwarantować zarówno wybudowanie elitarnej pod względem rasowym wspólnoty rodów, jak i ciągłość genetyczną najbardziej pożądanych cech. Himmler rościł sobie prawo nie tylko do wydawania pozwoleń na zawarcie małżeństwa przez podległych mu SS-manów, ale zaczął ingerować także w ich życie rodzinne, oczekując od par wchodzących w skład wspólnoty rodów konkretnej dzietności, czy też dostosowania się do określonych ról społecznych.
Niniejszy artykuł koncentruje się na opisaniu założeń teoretycznych i praktycznych działań Heinricha Himmlera mających na celu wybudowanie rasowej elity niemieckiego narodu na gruncie podległej mu SS. W teście podjęto także próbę odpowiedzi na pytanie o to, czy rzeczywiście przestrzegano ustanowionych przez Himmlera wytycznych i na ile te praktyczne założenia okazały się skuteczne (w jakim stopniu wpłynęły na liczbę zawieranych przez SS-manów małżeństw oraz na liczbę rodzących się w tych związkach dzieci)?
***
Adolf Hitler's protective squadrons (Schutzstaffel), commonly known as the SS, owed its dynamic development to Heinrich Himmler, who during the Third Reich transformed it into an elite formation. The SS became both an instrument of executive power and a political and military power base for the National Socialist regime. Since Himmler was appointed the Reichsführer, the SS became the most crucial project for him as on this very formation he based his concept of the racial family community which he meticulously implemented over the years.
Proclaiming the theory that "humans can be successfully bred just as animals are," Himmler dreamed of building a racially pure society with genetic traits most valued by the National Socialist power. To carry out this project Himmler, vested with the power of the Reichsführer, introduced a range of various directives; only candidates who met racial criteria set by Himmler could enter the ranks of the SS. These rigorous requirements later extended also to candidates for future wives of the SS men. Over the next years all these criteria were to guarantee a construction of racially elitist kinship of families as well as the genetic continuity of the most desirable traits. Himmler did not just claim the right to issue marriage permits to his subordinate SS men, but he also began to interfere with their family lives, expecting couples to produce a specified number of offspring to the community of the SS. He also demanded the SS families to adapt to specific social roles.
This paper aims to describe theoretical and practical prerogatives of Heinrich Himmler's actions to build the racial elite of the German nation based on the power of the SS. In this study I also attempt to answer the question whether Himmler’s directives were actually observed and, to what extent these practical guidelines proved to be effective; how they influenced the number of marriages concluded by SS men and the number of children born in these relationships.

O trabalho pretende abordar o poder em três dimensões: a primeira delas é a da normatividade do biopoder, que resulta do entrecruzamento entre o poder disciplinador sobre o homem e o poder sobre a espécie humana enquanto população, que resulta, assim, no início do século XIX uma nova espécie de racismo que podemos observar no antissemitismo alemão do Terceiro Reich. A segunda tenta analisar a ascensão do Nazismo como a destruição de um poder burocrático e impessoal pela voracidade do poder carismático de Hitler. E, em uma terceira análise, buscaremos demonstrar como o poder de um único homem, no caso, Hitler, conseguiu se sobrepor a uma sociedade, antes organizada e conseguir um "poder plebiscitário". Analisadas essas três dimensões do poder, passaremos a uma investigação dos relatos tanto de sobreviventes quanto de perpetradores do Holocausto, buscando responder a pergunta óbvia: "de quem é a culpa da Solução Final". Poderemos assim ver que a resposta não é nada simples, que não se pode pôr toda a carga em cima do poder de Hitler, nem tampouco livrá-lo de sua responsabilidade, deixando a culpa dos facínoras do regime, Heydrich e Himmler. Cairemos, consequentemente, num debate historiográfico entre David Irving e Martin Broszat sobre a ciência ou não de Hitler sobre o genocídio perpetrado em seu regime e se a ordem para tal partiu dele ou da autonomia de seus subordinados.

Celem niniejszego artykułu było przybliżenie czytelnikowi pracy dra Marcina Owsińskiego Dwie godziny w listopadzie… Wizyta Heinricha Himmlera w obozie Stutthof 23 listopada 1941 roku: geneza, przebieg konsekwencje, wydanej nakładem Muzeum Stutthof w Sztutowie w grudniu 2020 roku. Publikacja ta zasługuje na szczególną uwagę, ponieważ analizowany przez autora wątek nie doczekał się do tej pory odrębnego opracowania naukowego. W książce wykorzystano bogaty materiał źródłowy, przede wszystkim zdjęcia dokumentujące samą wizytę Himmlera. Na ich podstawie autor przeprowadził analizę, która pozwoliła odtworzyć zmiany w infrastrukturze obozu Stutthof. Wyciągnięto także wnioski co do rangi samego wydarzenia i jego znaczenia dla historii tego miejsca. Całość stanowi istotny wkład do badań, tak nad dziejami obozu Stutthof, jak i historii Holocaustu.

Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Haj Amin al-Husseini (Jerusalem 1893-Beirut 1974) has been widely recognized as one of the most important protagonists of political developments in Palestine prior to creation of the State of Israel. Historians are also well-acquainted with his collaboration with the Nazis during the World War II, even though there are aspects of that collaboration yet to be more thoroughly scrutinized. However, as I have argued in my article Haj Amin al-Husseini: Herald of Religious Anti-Judaism in the Contemporary Islamic World the Mufti’s role in shaping wider Muslim perception of Jews might be a far more important and lasting legacy of his, than the immediate political activism in Palestine, in Germany or elsewhere. An important source for supporting this thesis can be found in a booklet authored by him and intended for the Muslim soldiers enlisted in an SS Division in Bosnia. During the Mufti’s stay in Berlin he closely befriended the Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. Himmler’s fascination with Islam and the Mufti’s zealous support for the Nazi cause resulted in several common enterprises of theirs. The one relevant for this study had been the Mufti’s engagement in establishing a volunteer Waffen-SS Division in Bosnia, made up mostly of Bosnian Muslims, later named the Handžar Division. Most books about the Handžar Division display photography of its soldiers – distinguishable by the Division’s insignia on uniform lapels and fez headgear – reading a booklet titled Islam und Judentum. The cover does not display the name of the author, but it is most certainly the Grand Mufti, and the booklet is the German version of his pamphlet Islam i židovstvo (Islam and Judaism). In whatever language the pamphlet was originally written, the intended readers, as we shall see from the text, were Muslims (Bosnian or other), and not Germans. I have not been able to find a German copy of the text to compare, but it seems reasonable to regard the text written in the language of the Bosnian Muslims, which was at the time called Croatian as the most relevant. That fifteen-page booklet I have translated from the Croatian original into English, and present it here in its entirety.

Peer reviewed article published in Danish.
To buy the full Journal go to: https://unipress.dk/udgivelser/m/middelalderisme/

English Abstract:
The Languedoc region between the Rhône River and the Pyrenees is renowned for its medieval history. Or rather, its special version of medievalism. This article seeks to explain how and why the Albigensian Crusade (1209-1229) and the heretical Cathars came to be intertwined with myths about the Holy Grail after World War I by examining three different definitions of medievalism by Eco, Gentry & Müller, and Matthews. The theories approach medievalisms from different perspectives, but they all pay special attention to the political usage of medievalisms, which can be detected in all corners of the Albigensian Crusade historiography and fictional literature. This shows that a special Occitanian medievalism-hybrid has been created, which is constantly being developed and highlighted by both literature, myths and the region’s tourism industry. Finally, the article argues that the perceptions of medieval Languedoc and the myths surrounding the area reflects the challenges and political reality of the authors’ own time and experiences.