Josef dietrich biography children

Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (– 21 April ) was a German politician and a general in the Schutzstaffel (SS) during the Nazi era.

He started his military career in the Bavarian army. During World War 1 he served as a gunner and was injured several times. His agressive spirit was highly appreciated and he became Hitler's personal bodyguard. Once Hitler had assumed power in , Dietrich established Hitler's personal guard detail, a unit that would later be known as the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler and became part of the Waffen-SS, the military section of the SS.

Its original complement of men increased during the course of the war to that of an armoured division. During the Polish campaign, the Leibstandarte saw action for the first time as part of the Panzerdivision Armoured division Kemp. The unit committed the first warcrime before the war had even begun: in a synagogue, 50 Jews were murdered.

In the battle for Lodz, the Leibstandarte was deployed as an independant unit for the first time and later in Warsaw. Hitler took a keen interest in Dietrich's battle actions. When Germany invaded France and the Low Countries in , the Leibstandarte, commanded by Dietrich pushed head-on through the Netherlands; the unit also participated in the encirclement of Dunkirque.

Once again, the unit was involved in warcrimes by murdering 80 British POW's. Dietrich later maintained not to have been present nor to have given the order for the massacre. In April , the unit participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece. During an offensive action, six mutilated bodies of SS soldiers were discovered by the unit.

Dietrich ordered all Russian POW's to be shot in reprisal for three days; the number of victims was estimated to be 4. That year, the Leibstandarte was stationed in France for rest and refit after the battles on the Eastern front.