Part 1
Colonel Wilhelm Hintersatz - Harun El Resit Bey
Himmler who issued an order on May 2 1944 requested the establishment of the Turkish division which he intended to name New Turkestan within that year. In July 1944 the most suitable person to lead this planned project was found: Major Harun Reşit.
He served very actively in World War I. He took part in a German delegation sent to the Ottoman Empire in 1917 and became the adjutant of Enver Pasha. He converted to Islam in 1919 and changed his name to "Harun El Reşit". After Germany lost the First World War he joined the Freikorps, an independent unit of volunteers fighting the communists in Germany and Eastern European lands held by Ober Ost.
He served in the Wehrmacht between 1939-44 of the Second World War. He joined the SS with the rank of major on June 30 1944 and rose in rank over time. (Hintersatz was never a member of the NSDAP).
@schutzstaffelhistory8