Sepp Dietrich

Josef „Sepp“ Dietrich
Schutzstaffel (SS) Fascists and Nazis Counter-revolutionary forces Germany Germany 1892–1966 ○ Natural causes

Freikorps veteran who led Hitler’s Leibstandarte bodyguard and became the Waffen-SS’s highest-ranking general

On 30 June 1934 he accompanied Hitler to Bad Wiessee for Ernst Röhm’s arrest. That afternoon, on Hitler’s orders, he formed a Leibstandarte execution squad that shot SA leaders.

Born in Hawangen in Bavaria, a butcher’s apprentice, he served in the artillery in the First World War. In 1919 he helped crush the Munich Soviet Republic as a sergeant in a Freikorps, and in 1921 he stormed the Annaberg in Upper Silesia with Freikorps Oberland. Joining the Nazi Party and the SS in 1928, he became Hitler’s chauffeur and bodyguard and entered the Reichstag in 1930. From 1933 he commanded the bodyguard unit that became the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler, and in the Night of the Long Knives he ran the firing squads that shot SA leaders. In the Second World War he rose to the Waffen-SS’s highest rank commanding corps and armies; as commander of the 6th Panzer Army in the Battle of the Bulge he bore responsibility for the Malmedy massacre. Convicted by a US military tribunal, he was released in 1955 and joined the Waffen-SS veterans’ lobby HIAG.

Also known as: Josef Dietrich

Activities and affiliations

Related historical events