On 17 August 1938 Adolf Hitler decreed that the SS-VT was neither a part of the Ordnungspolizei (order police) nor the Wehrmacht, but military-trained men at the disposal of the Führer.

The SS-VT was formed on 24 September 1934 from a merger of various Nazi and paramilitary formations such as the SS Special Detachments (SS-Sonderkommandos) and the Headquarters Guard (SS-Stabswache) units.

The LSSAH, under the command of Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, continued to serve exclusively as a personal protection unit for Hitler and an honor guard during this timeframe.

Further, during wartime, units of the SS-TV would be used as reserves for the SS-VT.[12][13] Over the course of the war this led to a constant flux of men between the Waffen-SS and the Nazi concentration camps.

[11] The military formations under Himmler's command on 1 September 1939 consisted of several subgroups: Elements of the SS-VT served with the Wehrmacht during the occupation of the Sudetenland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia.

[17] The SS-VT regiments Deutschland and Germania along with the Leibstandarte participated in the invasion of Poland, with Der Führer (recruited in Austria after the Anschluss) in reserve at Prague.

In September 1939, a combined unit of SS-VT and Heer (army) troops conducted operations jointly as Panzer Division Kempf during the invasion of Poland.

The OKW or Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (High Command of the Armed Forces) reported that the SS-VT units took unnecessary risks and had a higher casualty rate than the army.

[19] In addition, Eicke's SS-TV field forces were not military, and during the invasion of Poland, "[t]heir...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.

"[20] Further, members of the Leibstandarte also committed atrocities in numerous towns, including the murder of 50 Polish Jews in Błonie and the massacre in Złoczew, where 200 civilians were machine gunned.

[22] In October 1939 the SS-VT regiments Deutschland, Germania, and Der Führer were organized into the SS-Verfügungs-Division with Paul Hausser as commander.

[19][23] In addition, the armed but ill-trained Totenkopfstandarten, together with SS Heimwehr Danzig, were organized into the Totenkopf-Division under Eicke's command in October 1939.

The SS Totenkopf was overrun, finding their standard anti-tank gun, the 3.7 cm PaK 36, no match for the British Matilda tank.

[31] On 27 May, a unit from the Totenkopf, the 4 Company, committed the Le Paradis massacre; 97 captured men of the 2nd Battalion Royal Norfolk Regiment were machine gunned after surrendering, with survivors finished off with bayonets.