In 1938 , a campaign was started by local '' Selbstschutz '' in the Czechoslovakian Sudetenland in order to subjugate the local Czechs prior to the Munich Conference . During the Invasion of Poland of 1939 , a number of similar units conducted sabotage actions directed by the emissaries trained in Nazi Germany . These groups were officially merged into one organization , the ethnic German '' Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz '' ( Self-Defense Force ) of more than 100,000 men . They took part in fighting the Poles as the Fifth Column , but also served as auxiliary forces of the Gestapo , '' SS '' and SD during the early stages of the occupation of Poland , and helped the Nazi administration in the newly formed '' Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia '' and '' Reichsgau Wartheland '' . They served as local controllers , informers , and members of execution squads particularly active in the wave of mass murders of Polish intelligentsia during Operation Tannenberg and other more local and vengeful atrocities . The killings of Poles and Jews ascribed specifically to members of '' Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz '' is estimated at the minimum of 10,000 men , women and children . The force was disbanded in winter 1939/40 and the majority of its members joined the German '' SS '' or Gestapo by the spring of the following year
Operation Tannenberg
Operation Tannenberg
Selbstschutz