Muslims were communist sympathizers, and burned their villages and murdered many civilians. The Chetniks accused the Muslims of taking part in the Ustaše violence against Serbs and perpetrated similar atrocities against the Muslim population. The Muslims received little protection from the Croatian Home Guard, the regular army of the NDH, whom the Germans described as "of minimal combat value". Local militias were raised, but these were also of limited value and only one, the Tuzla-based Home Guard "Hadžiefendić Legion" led by Muhamed Hadžiefendić, was of any significance. The Bosnian Muslims sought protection and independence from the NDH, and saw German support as a means to achieve those aims. Prominent Bosnian Muslims were friendly towards Germany, and Bosnians were generally nostalgic over the former period of Habsburg (Austro-Hungarian) rule. This push was strongly opposed by Pavelić as counter to the territorial integrity of the NDH. 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. While this idea did not receive Hitler's approval, possibly because he did not want to create problems for Pavelić, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler saw this as an opportunity to create a Waffen-SS recruiting zone in the NDH to attract Bosnian Muslims. In early 1943, Hitler authorised the raising of the first SS division to be recruited from a non-Germanic people, the 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian). The division was to be raised primarily from the Muslim population of the NDH. History The Germans wanted to recruit a second SS division from the Muslims of Bosnia, as part of Himmler's goal to expand Waffen-SS recruiting in the Balkans. His plan was to form two corps of two divisions, with one corps to operate in the Bosnian region of the Independent State of Croatia and the other in Albania. These corps would then be combined with the Volksdeutsche 7th SS Volunteer Mountain Division Prinz Eugen and together would form a Balkan SS mountain army of five divisions. On 28 May 1944, Hitler gave his formal approval for the creation of a 23rd SS Division, with its formation to begin on 10 June and training to be complete by the end of 1944. Himmler followed the advice of the commander of the 13th SS Division Handschar, SS Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of Waffen-SS (Brigadier) Karl-Gustav Sauberzweig, and agreed to