Product Description

Hitler's Gladiator is the life of German general Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich, who rose from private soldier in the Kaiser's army to command an SS panzer army in the closing stages of the Second World War.

Dietrich was one of the more notorious but intriguing characters of the Nazi era. It is impossible to disassociate him from the excesses of the Hitler regime, he was close to the heart of the party and Hitler himself and was twice convicted as a war criminal.

However, he was also an effective and much admired military commander; he was devoted to his men and led them through some of the fiercest fighting and harshest conditions experienced during the war.

In this revised and extensively illustrated paperback edition, Charles Messenger provides an objective account of the life and times of Sepp Dietrich, painting a vivid picture of life under the Third Reich.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #908325 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Customer Reviews

One and only Sepp biography...
There was a lot of man in front of the eyes when you take a look at the history of the Third Reich. And there is alot of things to say about them. When the SS matters, one can easily count Sepp Dietrich`s name in the top 5. So he must have been one of the most well-known persons in the Third Reich history, but not.

This biography especially deals with the wars of Sepp Dietrich. I couldn`t find many useful information about his early life and what did he do just before the WW2 between 1933-1939 (the book spared only 20 pages for that). The 47 years of his life between 1892-1939 covers only 70 pages and most of them are not directly about Sepp, only giving a brief summary of the events.

Sepp will be still a mystery after reading this book. And many new questions will arise about him.

But there is a big advantage of this book. It`s the one and only. So I won`t say "Don`t buy this one". Read it if you have interest about Sepp but minimilise your expectations.

First and Only Biography in English of Controversial German War Hero
Josef "Sepp" Dietrich was a charismatic leader of the Waffen-SS. He fought in World War I and became the first true military leader of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler in 1933, which became the first division of the Waffen-SS in 1941. Acting on the orders of Hitler (not to mention Himmler, Goering, and others), he was directly responsible for executing several SA members in the June 1934 Nazi party purge of its enemies that became known as the Night of the Long Knives.

He fought in all major German fronts in World War II, except for North Africa, including the invasion of Poland, the invasion of France, the evacuation at Dunkirk, the invasions of Greece and Yugoslavia, the invasion of Russia, the defense of Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge, and the defense of Vienna. Throughout these campaigns Sepp Dietrich and the accomplishments of his men were lauded in the German press to the point that he rivalled Rommel in press coverage and adulation.

At first commanding the SS LAH until it grew to divisional size and strength during Operation Barbossa, Sepp Dietrich later became commander of the First SS Panzer Corps, and eventually, after his successful maneouveres in defending the invasion of Normandy, commander of the Sixth SS Panzer Army.

Sepp Dietrich's contemporaries in the Wehrmacht, namely the Prussian officer class, acknowledged his personal skills in motivating and leading his men but most believed that he had risen above his abilities in becoming if not a corps commander then certainly commander of his own army. Nonetheless, his successes against overwhelming odds continued at both the corps and army level and his few failures were more often than not based on factors outside of his control, such as Hitler's micromanagement of strategy and tactics, which eventually led to a rift between the two men.

At the end of the war, Sepp Dietrich was sentenced to life imprisonment at a war crimes trial over allegations of his involvement, due to vague orders regarding the taking of prisoners, in the deaths of numerous U.S. soldiers at Malmedy during the Ardennes offensive. This was later reduced to 25 years and he ended up serving 10. (No one was ever executed for the Malmedy massacre because it came to light after the trial was over that confessions used at the trial were obtained by beatings, torture, and psychological manipulation, including mock executions.) He was also condemned to death, in absentia, by the Soviets for atrocities committed by the SS LAH during the Battle of Kharkov. Finally, he received a 19-month sentence by a German court for his part in the Night of the Long Knives. Released in 1959, he lived until 1966. Despite his controversial past, six to eight thousand comrades in arms attended his funeral.

Charles Messenger's "Hitler's Gladiator" is the first and only attempt to tell Sepp Dietrich's story in English. (There is also one in French but inexplicably none in German.) In so doing, the author does an excellent job of objectively assessing Sepp Dietrich's history based on meticulous and thorough research. Woven throughout that history is also a history of the Nazi party and World War II. Included are a sprinkling of maps and two sections of photos. Essential reading for students of World War II in Europe, Nazism, Hitler, or the Waffen-SS.