- Caption
- Croatian refugees return to their homes following partisan activity.
The original caption (translated) reads, "The population returns to its hometowns after being abducted by partisans."
One of a series of photographs taken by the 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen in Croatia, Serbia, and Montenegro from 1942 to 1944, after the German invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The photographs are believed to have been captioned by the commanding office of the Waffen-SS, and had been in the possession of Friedrich Wilhem Krueger, who served with the division from November 1943 until April 1944.
- Photographer
- Kuch
- Date
-
1943 March 03
- Locale
- [Croatia] Yugoslavia
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Phillip Birnbaum
- Event History
- "Prinz Eugen" was a SS-Division, which was formed between April and October 1942. The full name of the division was the 7th Volunteer Mountain Division (Freiwillige Gebirgsdivision). While the officers were almost entirely national Germans (Reichsdeutsche), the enlisted men were ethnic Germans from outside the Reich (Volksdeutsche). The Division was brought into action after the invasion of Yugoslavia to fight against partisans. In 1942, they operated first in Serbia and then also in Croatia after 1943. They fought against numerous groups, including a communist group commanded by Tito. The Nazis considered everyone a partisan and hence burned down entire villages and tortured and massacred unarmed civilians, men, women and children as collective punishment for supporting the resistance movements.
(Thomas Casagrande, Die Volksdeutsche SS-Division "Prinz Eugen")