During the invasion of Poland , Eicke 's SS-TV field forces numbered four infantry regiments and a cavalry regiment , plus two battalions placed in Free City of Danzig . The SS-TV role in the attack on Poland was not military in spite of close proximity to combat . " Their military capabilities were employed instead in terrorizing the civilian population through acts that included hunting down straggling Polish soldiers , confiscating agricultural produce and livestock , and torturing and murdering large numbers of Polish political leaders , aristocrats , businessmen , priests , intellectuals , and Jews . " Eicke 's three regiments , Oberbayern , Brandenburg and Thuringen , were reformed as the first '' Einsatzgruppen '' ; the Oberbayern and the Thuringen ( EG II and EG z. B.V ) followed the Tenth Army in Upper Silesia ; the Brandenburg ( EG III ) followed the Eight Army across Warthegau . The behavior of these '' Standarten '' in Poland elicited some protests from officers of the army , including 8th Army commander Johannes Blaskowitz who wrote a memorandum to Walther von Brauchitsch detailing the SS-TV atrocities , unaware that they were planned years in advance by the Central Unit II P-Poland under Heydrich who himself coordinated secret extermination actions including Operation Tannenberg and the '' Intelligenzaktion '' both targeting more than 61,000 members of Polish elites during the opening stages of World War II
Operation Tannenberg
Operation Tannenberg
SS-Totenkopfverbände