Formed in late August 1939, it participated in occupation duty in Poland before fighting in the Battle of France. The 56th spent mid-1940 in Belgium, then returned to Poland in the early northern hemisphere fall, fighting in Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The division spent the rest of its existence on the Eastern Front, participating in the Battle of Moscow and the Battle of Kursk, suffering heavy losses in the latter. In late 1943 the division was dissolved and its headquarters used to form Corps Detachment D, which was destroyed during Operation Bagration. The headquarters of the latter was again used to reform the division in East Prussia in September 1944, but it was again destroyed in the Heiligenbeil Pocket in early 1945.