Code: 56483
An exceptionally rare insignia set to an Unterscharfuhrer in the 13th Waffen SS Mountain Division of the SS Handschar.
Comprising the machine embroidered Handschar collar patch and the rank collar patch with the single pip both on a black wool backing on buckram and the machine embroidered Arm Shield again on a black wool background. All are clearly uniform removed and in very good condition.
The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar was a Muslim combat formation created by the Germans to restore order in Yugoslavia.
It was given the title Handschar after a local fighting knife or sword carried by Turkish policemen during the centuries that the region was part of the Ottoman Empire. It was the first non-Germanic Waffen-SS division, and its formation marked the expansion of the Waffen-SS into a multi-ethnic military force.
The division was composed mostly of Bosnian Muslims (ethnic Bosniaks) with some Catholic Croat soldiers and mostly German and Yugoslav Volksdeutsche (ethnic German) officers.
