Named Kama after a small dagger used by Balkan shepherds, it was one of the thirty-eight divisions fielded by the Waffen-SS during World War II.

Formed on 19 June 1944, it was built around a cadre from the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) but did not reach its full strength and never saw action as a formation.

After the invasion of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers on 6 April 1941, the extreme Croat nationalist and fascist Ante Pavelić, who had been in exile in Benito Mussolini's Italy, was appointed Poglavnik (leader) of an Ustaše-led Croatian state – the Independent State of Croatia (often called the NDH, from the Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska).

[1] NDH authorities, led by the Ustaše Militia, immediately launched a campaign of mass killings, expulsions and forced religious conversions to Catholicism targeting the Serbian Orthodox population living within the borders of the new state.

By November 1942, these Muslim autonomists were desperate to protect their people and wrote to Adolf Hitler asking that he annex Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Reich.

[9] On 28 May 1944, Hitler gave his formal approval for the creation of a 23rd SS Division,[10] with its formation to begin on 10 June and training to be complete by the end of 1944.

The conscripts were subjected to the draft by the NDH government then transferred to German command along with the others,[9] who were then transported to Waffen-SS recruiting depots at Zombor and Bošnjaci.

[8] Many Volksdeutsche from the NDH and a few from Hungary were recruited into the division to act as interpreters between the Bosnian Muslims and the German cadre and to enhance unit cohesion.

[11] By this time, morale was waning within the new division just as it completed the final phase of its training in Hungary; the war was not going well, and there were rumours that the Germans were going to abandon the Balkans and leave the Muslims to defend themselves.

[17][16] The staff of IX Waffen Mountain Corps of the SS (Croatian) headquarters left Hungary, and on 3 October 1944 they arrived in the village of Andrijaševci, near Vinkovci.

[18] The Bosnians did not leave Bácska immediately, and for a short period were garrisoned alongside Lombard's new 31st SS Volunteer Grenadier Division.

[19] In the meantime, the Red Army continued to advance into Hungary, and on 9 October 1944 a telegram was sent by the commander of Waffen-SS forces in Hungary to IX SS Mountain Corps in Bosnia announcing that "battle ready units from SS Oberführer Lombard's division and Bosnians from the Division Kama had been thrown into the fighting in Bacska".

[18][20] The Bosnian elements were deployed along the Tisza (Serbo-Croatian Latin: Tisa) river for a week or so as part of Kampfgruppe Syr in an attempt to slow the Soviet advance.

[18] The Bosnians were soon disengaged from the front line in Hungary and had begun the move to Bosnia to join the 13th SS Division when they mutinied on 17 October 1944.