 The Germans turned to Kragujevac for retaliation, not because of anti-German activity in the town but because not enough adult males could be found otherwise to meet the required quota for executions.According to eyewitnesses, SDO commander Marisav Petrović and his men entered barracks in which hostages were being held and, with German approval, freed those whom they recognized as supporters of Ljotić and Nedić, as well as those whose political attitudes they considered to be "nationally correct".Petrović accused those whom he had failed to free of supporting the Communists and spreading Communist propaganda, thus "infecting" Serbian society with their leftist ideas.