Page 140

the Croatian city governor, their commander, to restore the lights immediately. Within half an hour the lights returned and the darkness lifted.

Finally, we left Banja Luka for Sarajevo and met with the leaders of Bosnia and Herzegovina. After discussing with them and with the German military command how to preserve the Bosnians’ lives, defend them and prevent massacres against them, the German government agreed to recruit young men among them, train and arm them, on the condition that they defend themselves and their families inside their homeland. Before I left Bosnia, about seven thousand volunteers had been registered.

When I returned to Berlin, we agreed with the German government to form a Bosnian military division called the “Khanjar Division,” commanded by the German general “Sauerzweig.” This was followed by the creation of another division called the “Kama Division.” The two divisions had about thirty-seven thousand soldiers. Other local forces were also formed, including police, gendarmerie and militia guards, whose combined total was close to one hundred thousand fighters. In this way the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina were able to ward off the imminent danger threatening them.

There was no way to protect the Muslims in those lands from extermination except by agreement and cooperation with the German authorities. The agreement was as follows:

1. Recruit a number of young Muslims in the provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Sanjak of Novi Pazar to form military and public-security forces, the police.

2. These forces shall be responsible for protecting lives and property from those attacking them inside their homeland in the regions mentioned.

3. These forces shall not be required to undertake military action outside their homeland or any task other than defending themselves and their property.

4. The German government undertakes to arm and train these forces and to keep the weapons with their members during and after the war.

5. The military forces shall be subordinate to the SS army.

The Bosnian forces, numbering more than one hundred thousand of the bravest soldiers, prevented massacres against themselves and all the Muslims of the Balkans and Eastern Europe, numbering about six million. General Mihailović and other Balkan tyrants began maneuvering around them and approaching them. When the current president of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito, appeared in those lands, and was even more dangerous, they