Furthermore, at the same time, Meyer-Mader made several visits to prisoners of war camps and called for volunteers to join the new Muslim SS legion. The recruits were not only Turkestani, but also Azerbaijani, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Tadjik. By the end of January 1944 he was able to recruit three thousand volunteers who were concentrated in Poniatova. To increase the staffing regiment, dozens of German officers and non-commissioned officers were transferred there. Nevertheless, it was a very slow process, mainly due to lack of equipment, including uniforms and even shoes. Therefore, the October 1944 deadline, which Himmler appointed for the deployment of divisions in the regiment there were only four thousand people who had been formed into three battalions.