Erich von dem Bach
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Template:Infobox Biography Erich von dem Bach, born Erich von Zelewski and also known as Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski (March 1 1899 - March 8 1972), was a Nazi official and a member of the SS (in which he reached the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer).
He was born in Lauenburg, Pomerania, on March 1 1899, the son of Oskar von Zelewski. The Kashubian Zelewski family had served Poland and Prussia according to changing historical opportunities. His father joined the army and was killed in 1915 during World War I. The following year Erich von Zelewski volunteered for the Prussian army and served there until the end of the war. Twice wounded, he twice won the Iron Cross.
After the war he remained in the Reichswehr and, among other duties, fought in the Silesian Uprisings. In 1924 he transferred to the border guards' units (Grenzschutz), where he remained until 1930.
After quitting the Grenzschutz he joined the German Nazi Party (I.D. card No. 489101) in 1930 and became a member of the SS in 1931. He gained rapid promotion and by the end of 1933 had reached the rank of SS-Brigadeführer. At this point he began using his mother's maiden name (Bach), in order to sound more Germanic.
A member of the Reichstag from 1932 to 1944, he participated in the Night of the Long Knives in 1934. He served at various Nazi party posts, initially in East Prussia and after 1936 in Silesia. By 1937 he had become commander of all police and SS units in Silesia.
After the outbreak of World War II, units under his command took part in reprisal actions and the shooting of POWs during the September Campaign; however, von dem Bach was not present personally. On November 7 1939, Heinrich Himmler offered him the post of commissar for strengthening of German spirit in occupied Polish Silesia. His duties included mass resettlements and the confiscation of private property. By August 1940 his units had deprived more than 20,000 families from the Zywiec region of their homes and had forced them to leave.
In late 1939 he proposed setting up a concentration camp for the non-German inhabitants of the region in the vicinity of the town of Oswiecim. After initial reluctance, Heinrich Himmler agreed to von dem Bach's suggestion, and in May 1940 the Auschwitz concentration camp opened.
On November 28 1940, von dem Bach officially changed his name and dropped the name of Zelewski.
On June 22 1941, von dem Bach became Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer ("higher SS and police leader") in the region of the Heeresgruppe Mitte ("middle army group"); in July 1943, he became commander of the so-called "Bandenkampfverbände" ("mob fight units"), responsible for, among other deeds, the mass murder of 35,000 civilians in Riga and killing more than 200,000 people in Belarus and Eastern Poland. The authorities designated him as the future commander of SS and police units in Moscow; however, the Wehrmacht failed to take the city, and von dem Bach remained in command of "anti-partisan" units in the Central Front until 1943.
In February 1942 he went into hospitalization due to a nervous breakdown connected with the ethnic cleansing in Belarus. He resumed his post in July.
On July 23 1943, von dem Bach received command of all "anti-partisan" actions in Belgium, Belarus, France, the General Gouvernment, the Netherlands, Norway, Ukraine, Yugoslavia, and parts of the Bialystok area.
In 1944 he took part in front-line fighting in the Kovel area, but in March he had to go to Germany for medical treatment. Heinrich Himmler assumed all his posts.
On August 2 1944, he took command of all troops fighting against the Warsaw Uprising (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, he finally managed to recapture the city.
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Between January 26 and February 10 1945, von dem Bach commanded one of the "paper-corps", X SS Armeekorps in Germany. His unit, however, suffered annihilation after less than two weeks. He went underground and tried to leave the country. However, US military police arrested him on August 1 1945. In exchange for his testimony against his former superiors at the Nuremberg Trials, von dem Bach never faced trial for any war crimes. Similarly, he never faced extradition to Poland or to the USSR. He left prison in 1949.
In 1951 von dem Bach 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's claim, however, and did not charge him with aiding Göring's death. Most modern day historians dismiss the von dem Bach claim and agree that a U.S. Army contact within the prison of Nuremburg most likely aided Hermann Göring in his suicide.
In 1951 von dem Bach received a sentence of ten years in a labour camp for the murder of political opponents in the early thirties; however, he did not serve time until 1958, when he faced an accusation of killing an SS officer during the Night of the Long Knives and received a prison sentence of two and a half years. In 1961 he received a sentence of another 10 years in home custody for the murder of ten German communists in the early thirties.
He died in Munich prison on March 8 1972.