Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (May 28, 1892 – April 21, 1966) was a German Waffen-SS general, an SS-Oberstgruppenführer, and one of the men closest to Adolf Hitler. For his wartime services, he was one of only 27 men to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds.
Sepp Dietrich was born in Hawangen, near Memmingen in Bavaria, Germany on May 28, 1892, son of Pelagius Dietrich and his wife Kreszentia. He worked as a...
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Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (May 28, 1892 – April 21, 1966) was a German Waffen-SS general, an SS-Oberstgruppenführer, and one of the men closest to Adolf Hitler. For his wartime services, he was one of only 27 men to be awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds.
Sepp Dietrich was born in Hawangen, near Memmingen in Bavaria, Germany on May 28, 1892, son of Pelagius Dietrich and his wife Kreszentia. He worked as a butcher and hotel servant. In 1911 he joined the Bavarian Army for a short time. Volunteering at the beginning of the First World War, he served with the artillery, as a paymaster sergeant and later in the first German tank troops.
After the war, Dietrich served briefly in a Freikorps against the Bavarian Soviet Republic, May, 1919. Thereafter, he migrated from one job to another, including waiter, policeman, foreman, farm labourer, petrol station attendant and customs officer. He joined the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in 1928 and became commander of...
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