Erich Julius Eberhard von dem Bach-Zelewski (born Erich Julius Eberhard von Zelewski; 1 March 1899 – 8 March 1972) was a German politician of Polish-Kashubian descent, military officer and high-ranking SS commander. During World War II, he was in charge of the Nazi security warfare against those designated by the regime as ideological enemies and any other persons deemed to present danger to the Nazi rule or Wehrmacht's rear security in the occupied territories of Eastern Europe. It mostly involved atrocities against the civilian population. In 1944, he led the brutal suppression of the Warsaw Uprising.
Despite his responsibility for numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity, Bach-Zelewski did not stand trial in the Nuremberg trials, and instead appeared as a witness for the prosecution. He was later convicted for politically motivated murders committed in Germany before the war and died in prison in 1972.
Erich Julius Eberhard von dem Bach-Zelewski was born as Erich Julius Eberhard von Zelewski in Lębork on 1 March 1899 to Polish-Kashubian parents, Otto Johannes von Zelewski (1859–1911) and Elżbieta Ewelina Szymańska (born 1862 in Polish family in Toruń city from Kujawy region). His father, an officer and farmer, was of an impoverished Polish-Kashubian family of landed gentry with roots in Seelau. Erich's family came from the Polish nobility with their own coat of arms (Żelewski). Erich von Żelewski's grandfather was Franciszek von Żelewski, who married Ewa Kętrzyńska.
His uncle, Emil von Zelewski, died in 1891 as commanding officer of the Schutztruppe of German East Africa while fighting the Hehe. The Zelewski family had originally spoken Kashubian and Polish at home and for generations was connected with the Roman Catholic church in Linia, but as an adult Zelewski joined a Protestant church.
Since his father had to pay off several siblings, he sold the manor he inherited and became a traveling salesman. Zelewski and his six siblings therefore grew up in relative poverty in Biała Piska in East Prussia, where he attended an elementary school. When he was twelve, his father died, and the children were placed in foster families. Zelewski was taken in as the foster son of a landowner named Schickfuss in Łagiewniki.
Zelewski attended several high schools, in Wejherowo, Brodnica, and Chojnice.
The outbreak of the First World War came during the school summer holidays of 1914, while Zelewski was staying with his mother in Biała Piska. He was only fifteen, but in December 1914 he succeeded in enlisting in the Prussian Army, gaining some renown as its youngest volunteer. He served throughout the First World War. In 1915, he was wounded by a bullet in the shoulder and in 1918 suffered a poison gas attack.
He was awarded the Iron Cross, First Class. By the end of the war he had been promoted to Leutnant.
Following the armistice of November 1918, Zelewski remained in the Reichswehr and fought against the Polish Silesian Uprisings. In 1924, he resigned his army commission (or was discharged) and returned to his farm in Düringshof (now Bogdaniec in the Gorzów Wielkopolski county of Poland). He became a member of the German veterans' organization Der Stahlhelm and also joined the Deutschvölkischer Schutz- und Trutzbund, the largest, most active and most influential antisemitic organization in the Weimar Republic. Zelewski enrolled with the border guards (Grenzschutz) the same year.
Zelewski legally added "von dem Bach" to his family name on 23 October 1925. On 28 November 1940, he removed the "Zelewski" part of his surname because of its Polish-sounding origin. Bach-Zelewski manipulated his genealogy numerous times in his career to impress his superiors. A source of considerable embarrassment for him was that all three of his sisters had married Jewish men. After the war, he claimed under interrogation that this had ruined his reputation in the army, forcing him to leave the Reichswehr.
In July 1930, Bach-Zelewski left the Grenzschutz, and joined the Nazi Party (membership number 489,101). Bach-Zelewski joined the Schutzstaffel (SS) as member number 9,831 on 15 February 1931. He rose rapidly in the ranks and was promoted to SS-Brigadeführer on 15 December 1933. During this period he reportedly quarreled with his staff officer, Anton von Hohberg und Buchwald, and had him killed on 2 July 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives (for which he was convicted of manslaughter in 1961). Less than two weeks later, he was promoted to SS-Gruppenführer on 11 July 1934.
Bach-Zelewski was appointed to the Reichstag in August 1932 and was elected as a deputy from electoral constituency 5 (Frankfurt an der Oder) at the March 1933 election. He retained a Reichstag seat until the fall of the Nazi regime in May 1945, switching to constituency 7 (Breslau) at the March 1936 election. From February 1934, he served as commander of SS-Oberabschnitte (main district) "Nordost" in East Prussia, with headquarters in Königsburg. After a serious disagreement with East Prussian Gauleiter Erich Koch in February 1936, he was transferred to the command of SS-Oberabschnitte "Südost", based in Breslau. On 28 June 1938, he was also named the first SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) for Wehrkreis (military district) VIII (Silesia), a command he retained until 20 May 1941.
In November 1939, Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler, in his capacity as Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood, made Bach-Zelewski his deputy for East-Silesia (the Polish territories incorporated into Silesia in 1939). His duties included mass resettlement and the confiscation of Polish private property. 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).
Bach-Zelewski provided the initial impetus for the building of Auschwitz concentration camp at the former Austrian and later Polish military barracks in the Zasole suburb of Oświęcim due to overcrowding of prisons. The location was scouted by his subordinate Oberführer Arpad Wigand. The first transport arrived at KL Auschwitz on 14 June 1940, and two weeks later Bach-Zelewski personally visited the camp.
On 22 June 1941 at the launch of Operation Barbarossa, Bach-Zelewski was appointed as HSSPF for "Russland-Mitte", chiefly in the territory of Belarus. From July to September 1941, he oversaw the murder of Jews in Riga and Minsk by the Einsatzgruppe B, led by Arthur Nebe, also visiting other sites of mass killings such as Białystok, Grodno, Baranovichi, Mogilev, and Pinsk. Bach-Zelewski regularly cabled to headquarters on the extermination progress; for example, the 22 August message stated: "Thus the figure in my area now exceeds the thirty thousand mark". At the end of 1941 the forces under Bach-Zelewski numbered 14,953 Germans, mostly officers and unteroffiziere, and 238,105 local "volunteers" (most war crime victims were murdered by local collaborators under German command).
In February 1942, Bach-Zelewski was hospitalized in Berlin for treatment of "intestinal ailments" stemming from opium abuse, and was described as suffering from "hallucinations connected with the shooting of Jews". Before resuming his post in July, Bach-Zelewski petitioned Heinrich Himmler for reassignment to anti-partisan warfare duty. He was promoted to SS-Obergruppenführer and General of Police on 9 November 1941.
In June 1942, Reinhard Heydrich, acting Reich-Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, was assassinated in Prague. Hitler chose Bach-Zelewski as his replacement, but Himmler protested that he could not be spared due to the prevailing military situation. Hitler relented and appointed Kurt Daluege to the position. Through 1943, Bach-Zelewski remained in command of "anti-partisan" units on the central front, a special command created by Hitler. He was the only HSSPF in the occupied Soviet territories to retain genuine authority over the police after Hans-Adolf Prützmann and Friedrich Jeckeln lost theirs to the civil administration.