would make any government led by him a failure. The Germans believed that Ljotić had a "dubious reputation among Serbs". Ljotić told Gestapo officer Karl Wilhelm Krause that "[an] uncompromised man with generally recognized authority and force of personality ... [is] needed to convince the people that the Germans are their friends, that they want the best for the people and that they are the saviours of humankind from Communism." The Germans soon invited Ljotić to join the initial Serbian puppet government, the Commissioner Administration of Milan Aćimović. Ljotić was offered the position of economic commissioner but never took office, partly because he disliked the idea of playing a secondary role in the administration and partly because of his unpopularity. He resorted to indirectly exerting his influence over the Serbian puppet government through two of his closest associates, Stevan Ivanić and Miloslav Vasiljević, whom the Germans had selected as commissioners. The only official function Ljotić held in German-occupied Serbia was administrator of Smederevo. He helped in the town's reconstruction after large parts of it were destroyed in an ammunition depot explosion in June 1941. In July and August, the Germans gave Ljotić permission to broadcast three of his speeches over Radio Belgrade and consulted him prior to appointing Nedić as leader of the Government of National Salvation in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia. In one of his July speeches, Ljotić proclaimed that the ultimate aim of the Soviet Union was "the destruction of the national and Christian order, which would be followed by the rule of Jews over all nations." Formation of the Serbian Volunteer Detachments In response to the Communist uprising that had erupted in the aftermath of the German occupation of Serbia, hundreds of prominent and influential Serbs signed an "Appeal to the Serbian Nation" which was published in major Belgrade newspapers on 11 August. The appeal called upon the Serbian population to help the authorities in every way in their struggle against the Communist rebels, and called for loyalty to the Nazis and condemned the Partisan resistance as unpatriotic. Ljotić was one of 546 signatories. The Germans trusted Ljotić more than any other ethnic Serb in occupied Yugoslavia. In need of a reliable collaborationist force to combat the Communists, they gave him permission to form the Serbian Volunteer Detachments (, SDO) in September 1941. The SDO initially launched public appeals calling for volunteers "in