At the outbreak of World War II , one of the first combat units of the Waffen-SS , the SS Division '' Totenkopf '' , was formed from SS-TV personnel . It soon developed a reputation for brutality , participating in war crimes such as the Le Paradis massacre in 1940 during the Fall of France . On the Eastern Front , the mass shootings of Polish and Soviet civilians in Operation Barbarossa were the work of special task forces known as '' Einsatzgruppen '' , which were organized by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich
Le Paradis massacre
Le Paradis massacre
SS-Totenkopfverbände