Von dem Bach-Zelewski went into hiding and tried to leave the country. However, US military police arrested him on 1 August, 1945. Because he told the Allies what he knew about his former bosses at the Nuremberg Trials, von dem Bach-Zelewski never went to trial himself for any war crimes. He also did not have to go back to Poland or to the USSR to be tried. He left prison in 1949.