Dietrich, General Sepp

1892–1976

   One of the closest and oldest comrades of HITLER to whom he acted as bodyguard before the accession to power, Dietrich took a major part in the Blood Purge of 30 June 1934. During World War II he became a General in the Waffen SS, commanded the I SS Panzer Corps in the USSR and in December 1944 the Sixth SS Panzer Army in the Battle of the Bulge. He was given the latter command by Hitler to emphasize his mistrust of Army officers following the Bomb Plot of July. In 1946 he was sentenced by an American military court to 25 years imprisonment for the murder of American prisoners at Malmédy by soldiers of the Sixth Panzer Army and, on his release ten years later, was sentenced by a German court to eighteen months imprisonment for his part in the Blood Purge.