Scholtz started World War II as a battalion commander in the SS-Regiment Der Führer, taking part in the Western campaign of 1940 and later taking command of the SS Regiment Nordland, which in 1941 became part of a new SS Division Wiking. Attached to Army Group South, the division took Tarnopol in Galicia in late June, 1941. In early 1943, he took command of first 1 SS Infantry Brigade, attached to Army Group Centre, then 2 SS Infantry Brigade composed of mostly Latvian recruits, under Army Group North.