The 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen was one of the most notorious Waffen-SS formations operating in the Balkans during the Second World War. Created by Nazi Germany in late 1941, the division was recruited largely from ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) living in Yugoslavia and surrounding regions. Its primary mission was not conventional warfare, but the suppression of resistance through terror, collective punishment, and mass murder. Following the German invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, Nazi occupation authorities faced growing partisan resistance across Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia, and Kosovo. To crush this movement, Berlin unleashed Prinz Eugen in a series of so-called anti-partisan operations. In reality, these campaigns targeted civilians as much as fighters. Villages were burned, hostages executed, and entire communities wiped out to intimidate the population and deny support to the resistance. Under commanders such as Artur Phleps, Carl von Oberkamp, and later August Schmidhuber, the division committed some of the worst atrocities in the region. In Serbia and Bosnia, civilians were shot for alleged partisan ties, refugees were attacked, and prisoners were executed without trial. During major operations like Operation Weiss and later offensives in Montenegro and Croatia, thousands of civilians—including women, children, and the elderly—were murdered. Entire villages disappeared from the map, leaving behind mass graves and ruins. Prinz Eugen also played a role in the Holocaust in Yugoslavia, assisting in the persecution and killing of Jews and participating in brutal occupation policies alongside the Wehrmacht and other SS units. Even Axis allies protested the division’s excesses, but no meaningful punishment followed during the war. After Germany’s defeat, justice was swift and violent. Senior commanders were captured, tried, and executed in Yugoslavia. Thousands of rank-and-file members were killed in post-war reprisals by partisan forces. The fate of Prinz Eugen stands as a stark example of how Nazi anti-partisan warfare became a campaign of mass murder—and how those responsible ultimately paid for their crimes.
Join World History channel and get access to benefits:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKKy_pNKZBX4KcCct8505HA/join
Disclaimer: All opinions and comments below are from members of the public and do not reflect the views of the World History channel.
We do not accept promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups based on attributes such as: race, nationality, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation. World History has the right to review the comments and delete them if they are deemed inappropriate.
► CLICK the SUBSCRIBE button for more interesting clips: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKKy_pNKZBX4KcCct8505HA/?sub_confirmation=1
#prinzeugen #WWII #secondworldwar #nazi #kommando #history #holocaustdocumentary #ww2stories #adolfhitler #warcriminals #warcrime #collaborators #worldhistory #worldwar2videos #Wehrmacht #belgrade #yugoslavia #partisans #serbia #montenegro #kosovo #josipbroztito
7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, Nazi general August Schmidhuber, Holocaust in Yugoslavia, Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia , Nazi SS, Nazi war crimes, WW2 war crimes, War trials, Nazi criminals, War criminals, War criminals WW2, German war crimes, SS in Yugoslavia , Yugoslavia WW2, Yugoslavia during WW2, World War 2 Yugoslavia, 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen, 7th SS mountain division, Yugoslavia resistance, Yugoslavia in WW2, Yugoslavia partisans, WW2 Yugoslavia, German occupation of Yugoslavia, Prinz Eugen division, Nazi executions, Croatia World War 2, Croatia in WW2, Independent State of Croatia, Holocaust in Croatia, Croatia history, Nazi war criminals executed, Nazi criminals, German war criminals, prinz eugen ss, ss division prinz eugen
Credit to : World History