[1] From 1940 to 1942 Chmielewski, by then a Hauptsturmführer, served as Schutzhaftlagerführer at Gusen concentration camp, and it was there that he developed a reputation for extreme brutality.

[4] During his reign at Herzogenbusch, Chmielewski gained a reputation for corruption, and he was eventually tried for personally enriching himself through stealing diamonds from prisoners.

After his real identity was established, he was arrested by West German police in January 1959, accused of nearly two hundred counts of murder.

At his trial in 1961, he was found guilty of causing the deaths of prisoners through his brutality, and was sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour.

[9][10] He was released from prison in March 1979, on mental health grounds, and spent his last years in a care institution at Chiemsee.