Sepp Dietrich

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SS-Obergruppenführer Sepp Dietrich

Josef "Sepp" Dietrich also known as Ujac (May 28, 1892–April 21/22, 1966) was a German Waffen-SS general, an SS-Oberstgruppenführer, and one of the closest men to Hitler. For his wartime services, he was one of only 27 men to be awarded the Knight's Cross with Oak leaves, Swords, and Diamonds.

Early life and career

Sepp Dietrich was born in Hawangen, near Memmingen in Bavaria on May 28, 1892. He became a butcher but joined the Bavarian Army in 1911. In the First World War, he served as a paymaster sergeant and later in the first German tank troops.

After the war, Dietrich served briefly in the Freikorps against the Bavarian Soviet Republic, May, 1919. Thereafter, he migrated from one job to another, including waiter, policeman, foreman, farm laborer, gas station attendant and customs officer. He joined the Nazi party in 1928 and became commander of Hitler's SS bodyguard. He accompanied Hitler on his tours around Germany and received the nickname "Chauffeureska" from Hitler. Later Hitler arranged other jobs for him, including various SS posts, and let him live in the chancellery.

1930s and World War II

In 1930, Dietrich was elected to the Reichstag as a delegate for Lower Bavaria. By 1931, he had become SS-Gruppenführer. When the NSDAP took over in 1933, Dietrich rose swiftly through the Nazi hierarchy. He rose to the rank of SS-Obergruppenführer, commander of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, General of the Waffen-SS and member of the Prussian state council.

In 1934, Dietrich played an active role in the Night of the Long Knives. Hitler told him to take six men and go to the Ministry of Justice to execute a number of SA leaders. Shortly thereafter, he was promoted to SS Obergruppenführer.

When World War II began, Dietrich led the Leibstandarte in attacks on Paris and Dunkirk. Dietrich remained in command of the Leibstandarte throughout the campaigns in Greece and Yugoslavia before being promoted to command of the 1.SS-Panzerkorps, attached to Army Group Center, on the Eastern Front. In 1943, he was sent to Italy to recover Mussolini's mistress Clara Petacci. He received numerous German military medals but also became notorious for his mistreatment of prisoners of war.

SS-Obergruppenführer Dietrich in full dress uniform on the terrace of Hitler's Berghof.

Dietrich commanded the I.SS-Panzerkorps in the battle of Normandy. Because of his success, Hitler promoted him to command of the 6.SS-Panzer-Armee as well. Dietrich commanded the 6.SS-Panzer-Armee in the Battle of the Bulge in 1944. He had been assigned to that task because, due to the July Plot, Hitler distrusted Wehrmacht officers. On December 17, SS units under his command executed 82 US prisoners of war near Malmedy, Belgium, in what is known as the Malmedy massacre.

At this point, Dietrich began to protest Hitler's unwillingness to let officers act upon their own initiative. In April 1945, after the failure of Hitler's planned Spring Awakening offensive at Lake Balaton, spearheaded by Dietrich's troops, a frustrated Hitler ordered Dietrich and his men to give up their unit cuff titles, but Dietrich refused to pass on the order.

Dietrich commanded tank troops in Vienna but failed to prevent Soviet troops from taking the city. He surrendered to US troops led by George Patton on May 8, 1945.

Post war

In 1946, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Malmedy massacre trial for ordering the execution of US prisoners of war in Malmedy. Due to testimony in his defense by other German officers, his sentence was shortened to 25 years. He served only ten years but was rearrested after his release in 1956. On May 14, 1957, he was sentenced to nineteen months for his part in the Night of the Long Knives; he was released due to ill health in February 1959 but he had already served his 19 months sentence by then.

In 1966 Dietrich died of a heart attack in Ludwigsburg at age 73. Six thousand of his wartime comrades came to his funeral.

Further reading

The only biography about Sepp Dietrich is the one by Charles Messenger. There are two versions [see below]. There is also a biography by the french historian, Jean Mabire. Additonal information about Dietrich has to be pieced together from many separate sources, which are mostly in English and in German. These are among the more relevant and accessible that are obtainable through larger research libraries (and their Interlibrary Loan), or through online vendors.

In English:

• Bradley, Omar N. A Soldier's Story. New York: Henry Holt, 1951.
• Bruce, Donald Roger. The Early Career of Sepp Dietrich, 28 May 1892-1 September 1939. Master's Thesis. Tempe, Arizona: Arizona State University, 1977.
• Gisevius, Hans Bernd. To the Bitter End. Translated by Richard and Clara Winston. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1947.
• Guderian, Heinz. Panzer Leader. Translated by Constantine FitzGibbon. New York: Dutton, 1952.
• Hanfstaengl, Ernst 'Putzi'. Hitler: The Missing Years. London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1957.
• Hassell, Ulrich von. The von Hassell Diaries, 1938-1944: The Story of the Forces Against Hitler Inside Germany, as Recorded by Ambassador Ulrich von Hassell, a Leader of the Movement. New York: Doubleday, 1947.
• Höhne, Heinz. The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS. Translated by Richard Barry. New York: Coward-McCann, 1969.
• Messenger, Charles. Hitler's Gladiator: The Life and Times of Oberstgruppenführer and Panzergeneral-Oberst Der Waffen-SS Sepp Dietrich. No location: Potomac Books, 1988.
• Messenger, Charles. Hitler's Gladiator: The Life and Wars of Panzer Army Commander Sepp Dietrich. No location: Conway Maritime Press, 2005.
• Reitlinger, Gerald. The SS: Alibi of a Nation, 1922-1945. London: William Heinamann, 1965.
• Speer, Albert. Inside the Third Reich: Memories by Albert Speer. New York: Macmillan, 1970.
• Stein, George H. The Waffen SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War, 1939-1945. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1966.
• Weingartner, James J. Hitler's Guard: The Story of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, 1933-1945. Carbondale and Edwardsville, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 1974.

• Dienstalterliste der Schutzstaffel der NSDAP.
• Hausser, Paul. Soldaten wie andere auch.
• -. Waffen-SS in Einsatz.
• Hitler, Adolf. Adolf Hitler und seine Kämpfer.
• Hoffmann, Peter. Die Sicherheit des Dictators.
• Jahncke, Kurt, ed. Das Archiv.
• Kienast, E., ed. Der deutsche Richstag, 1936.
• Schirach, Baldur von. Die Pionere des dritten Reiches.
• -. Ich glaubte an Hitler.
• Schwarz, Max. MdR: Biographisches Handbuch der Reichstage.
• Steiner, Felix. Die Armee der Geächten.
• Wistrich, Robert, and Hermann Weiß. Wer war wer im Dritten Reich. Frankfurt/Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, 1993. ISBN 3-596-243-734.

• Mabire, Jean. Panzers Marsh! Sepp Dietrich, le dernier lansquenet.

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