Silesian Uprisings World War II Josef "Sepp" Dietrich (28 May 1892 – 21 April 1966) was a German politician and a general in the Schutzstaffel (SS) during the Nazi era.

As commanding officer of the 6th Panzer Army during the Battle of the Bulge, Dietrich bore responsibility for the Malmedy massacre, the murder of U.S. prisoners of war in December 1944.

Upon his release from Landsberg Prison in 1955, Dietrich became active in HIAG, a lobby group established by former high-ranking Waffen-SS personnel.

[1][2] He joined the Freikorps and fought against Polish insurgents during the Silesian Uprisings, but lost his job as a police officer due to his suspected involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch.

He would remain in the Reichstag until the fall of the Nazi regime, representing several different electoral districts: Lower Bavaria–Swabia (Wahlkreis #24, to 1933), Upper Bavaria (#25, to 1936) and Frankfurt/Oder (#5, to 1945).

Hitler, along with Dietrich and a unit from the Leibstandarte, travelled to Bad Wiessee to personally oversee Ernst Röhm's arrest on 30 June.

Later, at approximately 17:00 hours, Dietrich received orders from Hitler for the Leibstandarte to form an "execution squad" and go to Stadelheim prison, where certain Sturmabteilung (SA) leaders were being held.

[11] There in the prison courtyard, the Leibstandarte firing squad shot six SA officers, including Edmund Heines.

[14] After World War II in Europe began, Dietrich led the Leibstandarte during the German advance into Poland and later the Netherlands.

[16] During this campaign members of the Leibstandarte 2nd Battalion were responsible for the murder of 80 British and French POWs, in what became known as the Wormhoudt massacre.

[3] During the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Dietrich was mainly noted for believing that the Russians could not be defeated even when leading the Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler, which was very unpopular with many of his peers yet he would continue to fight even with these opinions.

[1] In March 1945 Dietrich's 6th Panzer Army and the LSSAH spearheaded Operation Spring Awakening, an offensive in Hungary near Lake Balaton aimed at securing the last oil reserves still available to Germany.

[20] As a mark of disgrace, the Waffen-SS units involved in the battle were ordered by Hitler to remove their treasured cuff titles bearing his name.

Dietrich often took gambles, much to the dislike of the OKW, such as when he sent the Leibstandarte division "charging into Rostov" without orders "purely to gain a prestige victory".

Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt considered him to be "decent but stupid" and was especially critical of Dietrich's handling of the 6th Panzer Army in the Ardennes.

[Note 1] In 1943, Dietrich was sentenced to death in absentia by the Soviet Union for war crimes committed by his men in Kharkiv.

On that day he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Malmedy massacre trial for his involvement in ordering the execution of U.S. prisoners of war.

He, along with former SS-Standartenführer Michael Lippert, was charged by the Landgericht München I and tried from 6 to 14 May 1957 for their role in the killing of SA leaders during the Night of the Long Knives in 1934.

[2] Dietrich was sentenced to 18 months for his part in that purge, after being convicted as an accessory to manslaughter for providing a firing squad for the executions of six SA men.