While the primary mission of the SS during the initial invasion of Poland was to neutralize Polish resistance, they also immediately went about identifying, imprisoning, deporting, and murdering large portions of the Jewish population. Codenamed "Operation Tannenberg" SS, and Gestapo units prioritized the killing of Poland's educated class including Jewish people.

Within the SS, the Special Purpose Operational Group (Einsatzgruppe) and the Leibstandarte were tasked with this mission. These units began their systematic murders directly following the blitzkrieg of Poland. For instance, a unit if the Leibstandarte massacred around two hundred Polish Jewish in the town of Złoczew just three days after the beginning of the blitzkrieg. They then established a ghetto in what remained of the town and forced about 2,500 Jewish people from the surrounding area into it. Similar actions were conducted by SS units throughout the region. Three weeks after the massacre in Złoczew, SS units in Poland began a four-day "Jewish action" involving numerous mass executions and the confiscation and destruction of Jewish property.

Even though many SS units were initially integrated into the Wehrmacht in general, they were under the command of Himmler. Himmler, the head of the SS, saw the persecution and murder of the Jewish population as a major priority. Therefore, SS units wasted little time in enacting anti-Jewish atrocities as soon as they could.