SS Obergruppenführer, leader of the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, active in Central Russia, directing anti-partisan warfare, and in Poland, leading the suppression of the Warsaw uprising. His great-great-great-grandfather was Michal Zelewski (1700-1785), a Kashubian landowner, who owned the villages of Milwino, Niepoczolowice and Zakrzewo in Pomerania. His grandfather was Otto August Ludwik Rudolf von Zelewski (1820-1878). His father, Otto Jan Józefat von Zelewski (1859-1911), married Amalia Maria Eveline Schimanski. They had three daughters and three sons, including Erich. Apparently, Erich manipulated his genealogy numerous times in his career, to impress his superiors. He joined the NSDAP in 1930 and the SS in 1931. In 1937 he was named Senior SS and Police Leader (HSSPF) in Silesia, and also served as Commander of SS main district South East. In 1943 he 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. His 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". Even when successful in pacification actions, he usually accomplished little more than to force the real enemy to relocate and multiply their numbers with civilians enraged by the massacres. In 1944, he took command of all German troops fighting Bor-Komorowski's Home Army that had staged the Warsaw Uprising. 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, he managed to take control of the city, committing atrocities in the process, notably the Wola massacre. He was arrested by US troops in 1945, but in exchange for his testimony against his former superiors at the Nuremberg Trials, he never faced trial for any war crimes. He was, however, sentenced to 4.5 years in prison and later 10 years house arrest for his activities before WWII. His awards were Iron Cross 1st & 2nd Class (1914 & 1939), Wound Badge in Black & Silver, Danzig Cross, German Sports Badge, SA Sports Badge in Bronze, Golden Party Badge, SS Honor Ring, War Merit Cross with Swords 1st & 2nd Class, Eastern Front Medal, Anti-Partisan Guerrilla Warfare Badge in Silver, German Cross and Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross.