After more than two months of heavy fighting and the total destruction of Warsaw , Bach-Zelewski managed to take control of the city , committing atrocities in the process , notably the Wola massacre . Bach-Zelewski was awarded the Knight 's Cross of the Iron Cross on 30 September 1944 . On 4 October 1944 , he accepted the surrender of General Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski . 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 in Europe ended , Bach-Zelewski went into hiding and tried to leave the country . 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 crimes . Similarly , he never faced extradition to Poland or to the USSR . During his testimony at the Nuremberg trials , Bach-Zelewski stated that he disapproved of Himmler 's aim to exterminate 30 million Slavs
Wola massacre
Wola massacre
Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski