Erich von dem Bach - Zelewski Erich Julius Eberhard von Zelewski or Erich von dem Bach - Zelewski ( 1 March 1899 – 8 March 1972 ) was a high profile Nazi official of the Third Reich and a member of the SS , in which he reached the rank of " SS - Obergruppenführer " ( General ) . Biography . Origins . Von dem Bach - Zelewski was born into a Kashubian family to Otto Jan Józefat von Zelewski , a Roman Catholic , and his Lutheran wife Elżbieta Ewelina Szymańska ( written in German legal documents as Schimansky ) . Born Erich Julius Eberhard von Zelewski , he legally added " von dem Bach " to the family name late in 1933 . He went on to have the Polish sounding " Zelewski " officially removed from his name in November 1941 . His great - great - great - grandfather was Michał Żelewski ( c . 1700 - 1785 ) , who was a Kashubian Polish nobleman ; he owned the villages of Milwino , Niepoczołowice and Zakrzewo in Pomerania . Von dem Bach ' s grandfather was Otto August Ludwik Rudolf von Zelewski ( born 1820 in Zakrzewo , died 28 June 1878 in Zęblewo ) according to Roman Catholic Church sources . His father , Otto Jan von Zelewski ( born 19 May 1859 in Zęblewo ; died 12 April 1911 in Dortmund ) , married Elżbieta Ewelina Szymańska about 1890 . They had three daughters and three sons , one of whom was Erich . Apparently , Erich von dem Bach - Zelewski manipulated his genealogy numerous times in his career , to impress his superiors . Early life . Zelewski was born in Lauenburg , Pomerania , German Empire ( now Lębork , Poland ) , on 1 March 1899 . Despite his aristocratic genealogy , he seems to have grown up in poverty ; his father proved unable to establish a career and undertook a range of jobs , including agriculture . At the time of his death he was an insurance clerk . Zelewski ' s uncle Oskar von Zalewski , a soldier , developed a very close relationship with the boy and encouraged him to also pursue a military career . In November 1914 , Erich von Zalewski volunteered for the Prussian army , becoming one of the youngest recruits and serving until the end of World War I . He was wounded twice , and awarded the Iron Cross . Zelewski was gassed in 1918 , which had a long - term effect on his health . After the war , Zelewski remained in the army ( the " Reichswehr " ) . He fought in the Freikorps against the Polish Silesian Uprisings . In 1924 , Zalewski left the army on his own volition , and went back to his farm in Düringshof ( Polish Bogdaniec in Gorzów Wielkopolski county ) . Zalewski enrolled with the border guards ( " Grenzschutz " ) the same year . On 23 October 1925 , he legally changed his surname to von dem Bach - Zalewski . He left the " Grenzschutz " in 1930 , when he joined the Nazi Party , becoming a member of the SS in 1931 . Bach - Zalewski was rapidly promoted and , by the end of 1933 , had reached the rank of Major General ( " SS - Brigadeführer " ) . He is also known to have quarreled with his staff officer Anton von Hohberg und Buchwald . In 1934 Bach - Zalewski received the Cross of Honor ( " Ehrenkreuz " ) . A source of considerable annoyance for him was the fact that all three of his sisters had married Jewish men . In 1946 , he claimed under interrogation that this had ruined his reputation in the army , forcing him to leave the Reichswehr . A Nazi Party member of the Reichstag from 1932 to 1944 , Bach - Zalewski participated in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 , taking the opportunity to have Buchwald murdered . He served in various Nazi Party posts , initially in East Prussia and after 1936 in Silesia . By 1937 , Bach - Zalewski had become the Higher SS and Police Leader , " Höherer SS - und Polizeiführer " ( HSSPF ) in Silesia and also served as the Division Commander of SS Division South East ( " SS - Oberabschnitt Südost " ) . World War II . Bach - Zalewski did not participate in the invasion of Poland personally , although the units under his command took part in reprisal actions and the shooting of POW s in the course of the September Campaign . Instead , on 7 November 1939 , SS chief Heinrich Himmler offered him the post of " Commissioner for the Strengthening of Germandom " in Silesia . His duties included mass resettlement and the confiscation of Polish private property there . By August 1940 , some 18 , 000 – 20 , 000 Poles from Żywiec County were forced to leave their homes in what became known as the Action Saybusch ( German name for Żywiec ) . On 22 June 1941 , Bach - Zelewski became the HSSPF in the region of Silesia . He provided the initial impetus for the building of Auschwitz concentration camp at the Polish artillery barracks in the Zasole suburb of Oświęcim due to overcrowding of prisons . The location was scouted by his subordinate " Obergruppfuhrer " Arpad Wigand . The first transport arrived at KL Auschwitz on 14 June 1940 , and two weeks later Bach - Zelewski personally visited the camp . Eastern Front . During Operation Barbarossa , Bach - Zelewski served as the SS and police leader in the territory of Belarus , extending all the way to the Urals . He oversaw the activities of the Einsatzgruppe B , responsible for the extermination of Jews in Riga and Minsk between July and September 1941 . He went back to Berlin in February 1942 for medical treatment . Bach - Zalewski was hospitalized with intestinal ailments , and described as suffering from " hallucinations connected with the shooting of Jews " . He asked Himmler to be reassigned from managing executions to anti - partisan warfare . Bach - Zalewski resumed his post in July , with no apparent reduction in his ruthlessness . In June 1942 , after the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich in Prague , Hitler wanted Bach - Zelewski to take Heydrich ' s place as the leader of the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia . When Himmler argued that Bach - Zelewski could not be spared due to the prevailing military situation , Hitler relented and appointed Kurt Daluege to the position . In July 1943 , Bach - Zelewski became commander of the so - called " " Bandenkämpfverbände " " ( " Band - fighting Unit " ) , responsible for the mass murder of 35 , 000 civilians in Riga and more than 200 , 000 in Belarus and eastern Poland . The authorities designated him as the future HSSPF in Moscow ; however , the Wehrmacht failed to take the city . Until 1943 , Bach - Zalewski remained the HSSPF in command of " anti - partisan " units on the central front , a special command created by Adolf Hitler . Bach - Zalewski was the only HSSPF in the occupied Soviet territories to retain genuine authority over the police after Hans - Adolf Prützmann and Jeckeln lost theirs to the civil administration . Bach - Zelewski ' s genocidal tactics . On 12 July 1943 , Bach - Zalewski received command of all anti - partisan actions in Belgium , Belarus , France , the General Government , the Netherlands , Norway , Ukraine , Yugoslavia , and parts of the Bezirk Bialystok . In practice , his activities remained confined to Belarus and contiguous parts of Russia . Bach - Zelewski ' s tactics produced a high civilian death toll and relatively minor military gains . In fighting irregular battles with the partisans , his units slaughtered civilians in order to inflate the figures of " enemy losses " ; indeed , far more fatalities were usually reported than weapons captured . The German troops used to encircle areas controlled by the partisans in a manner both time - consuming and conspicuous , allowing the real enemy to slip away . After an operation was completed , no permanent military presence was maintained , which gave the partisans a chance to resume where they had left off . Even when successful in pacification actions , Bach - Zalewski usually accomplished little more than to force the real enemy to relocate and multiply their numbers with civilians enraged by the massacres . In early 1944 , he took part in front - line fighting in the Kovel area , but in March he had to return to Germany for medical treatment . Himmler assumed all his posts . Crushing of the Warsaw Uprising . On 2 August 1944 , Bach - Zelewski took command of all German troops fighting against the Warsaw Uprising . The German forces were made up of 17 , 000 men arranged in two battle groups : under von Rohr , and under Reinefarth – the latter included the Dirlewanger Brigade of convicted criminals . This command group was named after Bach - Zelewski , as " Korpsgruppe Bach " . Units under his command killed approximately 200 , 000 civilians ( more than 65 , 000 in mass executions ) and an unknown number of POWs . After more than two months of heavy fighting and the total destruction of Warsaw , Bach - Zelewski managed to take control of the city while committing the cruelest atrocities in the process . For his exploits in Warsaw , Bach - Zelewski was awarded the Knight ' s Cross of the Iron Cross by the Nazi regime on 30 September 1944 . Incidentally , during the slaughter and razing of Warsaw , he is alleged to have personally saved Fryderyk Chopin ' s heart , by taking it for his own collection of curiosities . The recovered heart is held at a Warsaw church . Between 26 January and 10 February 1945 , Bach - Zelewski commanded " X SS Armeekorps " , one of the " paper - corps " , in Germany , but this unit was annihilated after less than two weeks . After the war . Bach - Zelewski went into hiding and tried to leave the country . However , US military police arrested him on 1 August 1945 . In exchange for his testimony against his former superiors at the Nuremberg Trials , Bach - Zelewski never faced trial for any war crime s . Similarly , he never faced extradition to Poland or to the USSR . He left prison in 1949 . In 1951 , Bach - Zelewski claimed that he had helped Hermann Göring commit suicide in 1946 . As evidence , he produced cyanide capsules to the authorities with serial numbers not far removed from the one used by Göring . The authorities never verified von dem Bach - Zelewski ' s claim , however , and did not charge him with aiding Göring ' s death . Most modern historians dismiss Bach - Zalewski ' s claim and agree that a U . S . Army contact within the Palace of Justice ' s prison at Nuremberg most likely aided Göring in his suicide . Also in 1951 , Bach - Zelewski was sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp for the murder of political opponents in the early 1930s ; however , he did not serve time until 1958 , when he was convicted of killing Anton von Hohberg und Buchwald , an Sturmabteilung officer , during the Night of the Long Knives , and was sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment . In 1961 , he was sentenced to an additional 10 years in home custody for the murder of 10 German Communists in the early 1930s . None of the sentences referred to his role in Poland , in the East , or his participation in the Holocaust , although he openly denounced himself as a mass murderer . He died in a Munich prison on 8 March 1972 .