Erich von dem Bach, born Erich von Zalewski and also known as Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski (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).
On July 23, 1943, von dem Bach Zalewski 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.
Between January 26 and February 10, 1945, von dem Bach Zalewski commanded one of the "paper-corps", X SS Armeekorps in Germany.
VON DEM BACH-ZELEWSKI: I established the Allgemeine-SS Border Defense in the districts of Schneidemuhl and Frankfurt-ander-Oder, and from, 1934 I was Oberabschnittsfuehrer in East Prussia and afterwards in Silesia.
VON DEM BACH-ZELEWSKI: The principal task of the Einsatzgruppen of the Sicherheitspolizei was the annihilation of the Jews, gypsies, and political commissars.
VON DEM BACH-ZELEWSKI: With the commanders of the army groups, not of the armies, and with the district commanders of the Wehrmacht.
Erich von dem Bach, born Erich von Zelewski and also known as Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski was a Nazi official and member of the SS with a rank of SS-Obergruppenführer.
After initial reluctancy, Heinrich Himmler agreed to von dem Bachs pleas and in May 1940 the Auschwitz concentration camp was created.
He was to be the commander of SS and police units in Moscow, however the city was never conquered and von dem Bach remained in command of "anti-partisan" units in the Central Front until 1943.
Von Wulf distanzierte er sich und warf ihm vor, immer nur nach "Belastungsmaterial" zu suchen.
Sie scheint auf dem Wege der Erinnerungsgeschichte die Erinnerung selbst in jene anstehende Epoche hinüberretten zu wollen, in der es keine persönliche Erinnerung an das Geschehen mehr geben wird.
Ist nichts von dem, was ihn ermöglichte, heute mehr virulent?
Three days ago, General Erich von dem Bach took over as Commander-in-Chief of all German units.
Soon after that, Home Army units surrounding Bruhl Palace were pushed back, and von dem Bach sent Fischer instructions to leave the Palace as soon as possible.
Von dem Bach, charged personally by Hitler not to take prisoners, to kill women and children as well as civilian men, and to eradicate the city of Warsaw from the face of the earth, had been anxious to get Fischer out as soon as he arrived in Wola, the westerly suburb.
During the Second World War, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski was an SS Obergruppenführer, Higher SS and Police Chief for the center section of the Eastern front, and Chief of the Anti-Partisan Units.
He testified for the prosecution at the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal as part of a deal struck with the Allied authorities.
It would be very useful to find confirmation in a reputable publication of this alleged repudiation.
VON DEM BACH-ZELEWSKI: Yes, I stayed in the 100,000-man army.
VON DEM BACH-ZELEWSKI: Till 1924, when I took my discharge.
VON DEM BACH-ZELEWSKI: No, I was battalion leader in the Border Defense, and subsequently I took part in maneuvers with the Wehrmacht until the campaign against Poland.
Obszar podlegajand#261;cy von dem Bachowi byand#322; imponujand#261;cy: Jugosand#322;awia, Ukraina, Biaand#322;oruand#347;, Generalna Gubernia i czand#281;and#347;and#263; okrand#281;gu Biaand#322;ystok - sami Niemcy obszary te okreand#347;lali jako Bandenkampfgebiete, czyli "zagroand#380;one dziaand#322;aniami bandyckimi" - [partyzanckimi].
Erich von dem Bach przyjmuje kapitulacjand#281; warszawskiej AK.
Erich von dem Bach i Komendant Gand#322;ówny AK gen. "Bór" - Tadeusz Komorowski w Oand#380;arowie.
Warsaw Uprising: Jan Rossman. In the Warsaw Sewers.
This article, with the exception of the reports by SS General Erich von dem Bach and SS Major General Jürgen Stroop, was published in the monthly magazine Mowia Wieki No. 8/20 in August of 1959.
General von dem Bach admitted during the capitulation talks that initially he did not recognize the role of the municipal sewer system and its usefulness as a means of transportation and communication between Warsaw’s city districts.
As General von dem Bach recollects, he never managed to convince his soldiers to descend into the sewers and carry on the struggle there.
A veteran of many a killing ground, von dem Bach picked as his lieutenants two of the more exotic characters in the sinister gallery of Waffen SS degenerates.
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who was in overall command, desperately tried to get the advance moving again.
Besides, since his brigade could, if coerced, fight as a military formation, it was still needed by von dem Bach-Zelewski.
In August 1941 when Walther von Brauchitsch (commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht) and Fedor von Bock were appealing for an attack on Moscow, Hitler instead ordered the encirclement and capture of Ukraine, in order to acquire the farmland, industry, and natural resources of that country.
In September 1941, Erich Koch was appointed to the Ukrainian Commissariat.
In July 1941 Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski's SS unit began to carry out more systematic killings, including the massacre of 30,000 at Babi Yar.
The most succinct description of the purpose of the Einsatzgruppen was given at the trial of Adolph Eichmann by Dr. Michael Musmanno, Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, who presided over the trial of 23 of the leaders of the Einsatzgruppen.
He stated "The purpose of the Einsatzgruppen was to murder Jews and deprive them of their property." SS General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski confirmed this at the main Nuremberg Trial when he testified that "The principal task [of the Einsatzgruppen] was the annihilation of the Jews, gypsies, and political commissars." (Taylor, Anatomy, p.
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski -- the SS general (his rank was equivalent to the U.S. rank of lieutenant general) in charge of all anti-partisan warfare on the eastern front -- was a witness before the IMT at Nuremberg.
The Warsaw shield was instituted on December 10th, 1944, and was to be presented to members of the Wehrmacht and auxiliary forces who participated in combating the rebellion in that city during August 1st and October 4th of that year.
The troops, under the command of SS Obergruppenfuhrer unf General der Polizie Erich von dem Bach-Zelewiski,battled the free Polish army and used brutal force in putting down the rebellion.
The award was designed by Benno von Arent, and consisted of a shield with a flat top and pointed bottom across the top portion of which was the work “BALKAN”.
(e) In early Mar 1942, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, the Higher SS and Police Leader of Central Russia, suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be taken to the SS hospital in Hohenlychen.
Himmler's statements to Streckenbach, Bradfisch, Bender, Ohlendorf and von dem Bach were made in their response to their complaints about having to murder people.
So Streckenbach, Bradfisch, Bender, Ohlendorf and von dem Bach were not among those “many” who “insisted on the murder of all European Jews”.
During the last phase of the war he was employed as a foreign trade expert in the Ministry of Economics.
An example of the latter was the testimony of S.S. General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski.
He was threatened with execution himself because of his suppression of the revolt by Polish partisans at Warsaw in August 1944, which he carried out with his S.S. brigade of White Russians.
Instead, SS General Erich Von dem Bach, the butcher of Warsaw and a notorious murderer in the campaign against Soviet partisans, was used as a witness for the prosecution.
Der britische Historiker und Osteuropaexperte Norman Davies setzt sich nun in einem monumentalen Buch mit den Vorbedingungen, dem Ablauf und den Nachwirkungen des Aufstandes auseinander und hat in bester angelsächsischer Tradition ein erstaunlich lesbares Ergebnis vorgelegt.
Davies kommt zu dem Schluss, dass der Warschauer Aufstand in einem Gesamturteil über den Zweiten Weltkrieg unbedingt berücksichtigt werden müsse.
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, in custody in Nuremberg_Fuerth.
von dem Bach-Zelewski, Erich, married, General of the Waffen- SS and Police, residing at Roth bei Nuernberg, Weinweg 20, currently in custody in another matter in the Nuremberg Remand Prison, 62 years old, German national, not related and not connected by marriage to the Accused, Eichmann.
From June 1941 onwards, from the beginning of the Russian campaign, I was Higher SS and Police Leader, Central Russia, under the Senior Commander of the Central Russia Military Area behind the lines, General von Schenckendorff.
On July 18, 1941, Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, Ordnungspolizei commander in the Soviet republic of Belarus, sent the following message back to his superiors in Berlin summarising the activities of his men.
The decrypts also provide details of a special SS battalion which under the guidance of Joachim von Ribbentrop, the German foreign minister, was plundering works of art and sending them back to Berlin.
Among others tried were the then-mentally deranged Rudolf Hess, who had been deputy fuehrer to Hitler before his capture during a mysterious mission to Britain; foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop; Adm. Karl Doenitz, briefly chancellor after Hitler's death; Adm. Erich Raeder, for many years commander of the German Navy; Col. Gen.
A key witness was Gen. der Waffen-SS Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski.
He had directed ruthless suppression of guerrilla forces in the Soviet Union and later during the bloody 1944 uprising of the Polish resistance in Warsaw, but he agreed to testify for the prosecution at Nuremberg and help establish the German Army's role in atrocities.
Examples of the former include Otto Baum, Heinz Harmel (whose treatment of prisoners and civilians at Arnhem earned praise from the Allies-General Harmel is still alive and at nearly 100 years of age still conducts his daily life in the same way as he did as a soldier), Paul Hausser and others.
To his credit, von den Bach did not renege on his promise to the Poles, although had Germany somehow won the war or negotiated a separate peace with the West, the Poles probably would have suffered a different fate.
Report from 1st Cavalry Brigade commander Fegelein to von dem Bach, 13 August 1941, (101493) enclosing field reports of commanders of Cavalry Battalion, 1st Cavalry Regiment (Gustav Lombard), Cavalry Battalion of 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Bruno Magill), Recon Battalion of 1st Cavalry Regiment (Christian Reinhardt), Recon Battalion of the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (Albert Fassbender).
SS Police Battaltion 322, originating in Vienna, and constituted as a bicycle battalion under Major Nagel, was assigned to Polizeireiment Mitte on 6 June 1941, to the HSSPF Russland Mitte von dem Bach on 24 July 1941, and to the military commandant of Smolensk on 29 January 1942.
SS General Erich von dem Bach was appointed commander and soon after began to counter-attack with the aim of linking up with the remaining German pockets and then cutting off the Uprising from the Vistula (Wisla) river.
August 5 is marked by the liberation of the former Warsaw Ghetto area by insurgents and by the beginning of the Wola Massacre, where in mass executions approximately 40,000 civilians were slaughtered by the Germans.
According to the capitulation agreement, the Wehrmacht promised to treat Home Army soldiers in accordance with the Geneva Convention, and to treat the civilian population humanely.
THE OHLENDORF TRIAL The most revealing trial in the "Einsatzgruppen Case" at Nuremberg was that of S.S. General Otto Ohlendorf, the chief of the S.D. who commanded Einsatzgruppen D in the Ukraine, attached to Field Marshall von Manstein's Eleventh Army.
They are contained in a recent work called Die Auschwitz-Luge: Ein Erlebnisbericht von Theis Christopherson (The Auschwitz Legends: An Account of his Experiences by Theis Christopherson, Kritik Verlag/Mohrkirch, 1973).
Published by the German lawyer Dr. Manfred Roeder in the periodical Deutsche Burger-Iniative, it is an eye-witness account of Auschwitz by Theis Christopherson, who was sent to the Bunawerk plant laboratories at Auschwitz to research into the production of synthetic rubber for the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute.
Archive/File: people/e/eichmann.adolf/transcripts/Testimony-Abroad/Erich_Von_Dem_Bach_Zelewski-01 Last-Modified: 1999/06/14 ERICH VON DEM BACH-ZELEWSKI 29 May 1961 The Competent Court of Justice, Nuremberg-Fuerth Re: Request for Legal Assistance The main hearing in the criminal proceedings against the Accused Adolf Eichmann is at present taking place in this Court.
In the context of this main hearing, I request you to extend legal assistance to this Court by the examination on oath of the following witness: Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, in custody in Nuremberg_Fuerth.
------ Personal details: von dem Bach-Zelewski, Erich, married, General of the Waffen- SS and Police, residing at Roth bei Nuernberg, Weinweg 20, currently in custody in another matter in the Nuremberg Remand Prison, 62 years old, German national, not related and not connected by marriage to the Accused, Eichmann.