In February 1944, Hitler approved the creation of an Albanian Waffen-SS division that was to serve only inside Kosovo,[8] and was intended to protect ethnic Albanians but remain under German control.[18] It was meant to be one of three Muslim Waffen-SS divisions serving in the Balkans, the other two being the 13th SS Division and the 23rd Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Kama (2nd Croatian).[19][20] Himmler's goal was to expand Waffen-SS recruiting in the Balkans and form two corps of two divisions each, with one corps to operate in the region of Bosnia in the Independent State of Croatia and the other in Albania.