On 4 October, Ljotić, along with Nedić and about 300 Serbian government officials, escaped from Belgrade with German officials. In early October, the SDK was tasked to defend the Šabac bridgehead on the Sava River against the Partisans, together with some German units under the command of Colonel Jungenfeld, head of the 5th Police Regiment. The battle for Belgrade commenced on 14 October, and the Germans decided to evacuate the SDK to a location where it could be used in guarding duties and anti-Partisan actions, since it was considered unsuitable for conventional operations. Hitler ordered that the SDK be moved to the Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral, and placed it under the command of the Higher SS and Police Leader Odilo Globocnik. The commander of Army Group F ordered the evacuation of the SDK from the railway station in Ruma on 17 October. Between 19–21 October, the High Command of the Southeast cleared the SDK for transport west. At the end of October, Ljotić and the SDK arrived in the city of Osijek. It was here that German official Hermann Neubacher agreed to arrange their safe passage towards the Slovenian coast. While the retreat of collaborationist troops through the NDH was easy, there were exceptions. In November, the Ustaše removed between thirty and forty SDK officers from transports moving through Zagreb, after which they were summarily executed. In December, Ljotić arranged for the release of Nikolaj Velimirović and Serbian Orthodox Patriarch Gavrilo Dožić from the Dachau concentration camp. Velimirović had been imprisoned by the Germans in July 1941 on the suspicion that he was a Chetnik sympathizer and Ljotić had written several letters to German officials that summer, urging them to release the Bishop on account that he had allegedly praised Hitler before the war. Velimirović was transferred to Dachau alongside Dožić via Budapest and Vienna in September 1944 and was held there as an "honorary prisoner". Upon being released, he and Dožić were relocated to a tourist resort and then to a hotel in Vienna as guests of the German government, where they met with Ljotić and other Serbian collaborationist officials. Discussions between the Serbian side and the Germans took place here. Ljotić and Nedić petitioned Neubacher so that the forces of Chetnik commander Momčilo Đujić could be allowed passage to Slovenia, as did Slovene collaborationist General Leon Rupnik. The Germans urged Nedić to raise a force of