1st Belgrade Special Combat detachment The 1st Belgrade Special Combat detachment was a special police unit which was established by the German Gestapo in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia during World War II . History . Background . On 6 April 1941 , Axis forces invaded the Kingdom of Yugoslavia . Poorly equipped and poorly trained , the Royal Yugoslav Army was quickly defeated . The country was then dismembered , with Serbia being reduced to its pre - 1912 borders and placed under a government of German military occupation . With their forces in the Balkans depleted by the need to send troops to the Eastern Front , the Germans sought to find local leaders to police the region for them . In Serbia this came in the form of Milan Nedić , a pre - war politician who was known to have pro - Axis leanings . Formation . The Germans then utilized a series of irregular armed formations to help stabilize the region . One of these formations was the 1st Belgrade Special Combat detachment , formed in mid - 1942 by the German Gestapo without the knowledge of Nedić or his government . It was the intention of " SS - Oberführer " Emanuel Schäfer , the newly appointed chief of the German Security Police in Serbia , to create " an indigenous Serbian entity through which the Gestapo could exert more control over the Nedić regime . Captain Strahinja Janjić , a reported German agent and member of the Serbian fascist movement Zbor , was selected by Schäfer to lead the new organization . Janjić proceeded to recruit members of quisling formations such as the Serbian State Guard and the Serbian Volunteer Corps , as well as high school students , merchants and officials from Nedić ' s administration . Members of the detachment then began calling themselves the Serbian Gestapo ( ) . Meanwhile , Janjić began to see himself as replacing Nedić and becoming the Führer of a national socialist Serbia with the first twelve members of his detachment , whom he called his " apostles " , taking the highest state positions . Furthermore , Janjić proposed to Felix Benzler of the Reich Ministry of Foreign Affairs and August Meyszner of the Schutzstaffel ( SS ) that he should be entrusted with the creation of two Serbian SS divisions , one for the Eastern Front and one for the front in North Africa . When Nedić heard of Janjić ' s intentions , he ordered his arrest and the disbanding of the 1st Belgrade Special Combat detachment . Janjić was subsequently detained at the Banjica concentration camp , before being released at the behest of the German Gestapo . Operations . Between 1942 and 1944 , the 1st Belgrade Special Combat detachment was active in the Syrmia region of the Independent State of Croatia . At the end of 1942 , it was recorded as having 145 members . Headquartered in a reconfigured primary school where torture and murders occurred , it was envisioned by the Germans as being an elite formation which would operate against the Yugoslav Partisans . However , Janjić was more concerned with usurping Nedić than fighting the Communists . On 22 February 1943 , Nedić sent a memorandum to Schäfer , protesting the activities of Janjić ' s detachment . Dissolution . After receiving the memorandum , Schäfer divided the 1st Belgrade Special Combat detachment into two parts . Subsequently , Janjić and twenty - six of his men left Belgrade and travelled to Berlin , where they continued to work for the German Gestapo . Another thirty - three members of the detachment remained in Belgrade under the leadership of Janjić ' s deputy , Svetozar Nećak . Here , they worked to fulfill specific tasks set out to them by the Germans , were not permitted to wear German uniforms , and were ordered to undermine the actions of the Partisans rather than Nedić ' s administration . Headquartered in his Berlin apartment , Janjić had his men infiltrate the ranks of the Yugoslav forced labourers there , using methods such as blackmail , robbery , and entrapment to expose Partisan sympathizers . Despite these efforts , Janjić ' s actions were seen as being " [ harmful ] to German interests , " and in May 1944 he was replaced by two other members of his detachment . Uniform . Occasionally , members of the detachment wore the uniform of Draža Mihailović ' s Chetniks . At other times , however , they dressed in German military uniforms while pretending not to know the Serbian language .