Josef 'Sepp' Dietrich was one of Hitler's earliest supporters, one of those men so impressed with him that he offered his services. Dietrich has been variously described as an 'ex-butcher', a 'chucker-out', an 'uneducated bully', 'Hitler's chauffeur' and 'private detective', while the eminent American Berlin correspondent William Shirer, referred to him as one of the most brutal men in the Nazi Third Reich.
Born in Bavaria, Dietrich emerged as a small, tough character with a forceful, outgoing personality, and while totally different in one respect to his contemporary Ernst Roehm, whom he later shot, there is no doubt that both men were typical NCO types. Both had seen army service during the war, and although Roehm achieved officer status he remained an NCO at heart; Dietrich ended his war as a sergeant in the new tank troops.
But, apart from his sexual perversion, Roehm was a danger to Hitler and probably Germany, so according to Nazi realities had to be eliminated. Thereafter his name and face were expunged from all publications, even the friendly, comradely inscriptions on the 'honour daggers' presented by him were removed.
Dietrich has told how he came to join up with Hitler:
'I joined the Nazi movement because it seemed to be the best way to counter the Reds and to try and effect some radical improvement in our country's situation. I had been a Sergeant in the tank arm at the end of the Great War and had seen enough horrors to know that we should try to avoid such a conflict in future. 1 met Hitler in Munich and saw at once that he was far and away the best speaker we had ever heard; wherever he spoke he captivated his audiences, not all saw eye to eye with his ideas and statements, I did not myself. But there was something about the man and his ability which laid hold on me. So I offered him my small services, such as they were. He was rather short of real followers, though this was to change later of course. We had a heart to heart talk and he told me that I could be of most use to him by way of protecting him from those of the far left who would likely try to kill him. This was a very real threat at the time for the communists, or Bolsheviks as we called them, were by far the largest political party with real strength; they were uniformed and armed. By that I mean they usually carried cudgels or arms of some sort and were not slow to use them. 7 agreed to become Hitler's personal bodyguard, but very soon we organized a Stabswache of some six men who had the muscle to intervene if any brutality threatened. Later on we increased the number to a round dozen or so as some of the men had homes and families to go to. In my case I had forsaken my own family to become a full-time companion to Hitler, so inevitably I got to know him very well with all his quirks — and there were some. But he had an iron determination such as I had never seen before, and I could see that properly directed this would take him far in politics.'
Born in Bavaria, Dietrich emerged as a small, tough character with a forceful, outgoing personality, and while totally different in one respect to his contemporary Ernst Roehm, whom he later shot, there is no doubt that both men were typical NCO types. Both had seen army service during the war, and although Roehm achieved officer status he remained an NCO at heart; Dietrich ended his war as a sergeant in the new tank troops.
But, apart from his sexual perversion, Roehm was a danger to Hitler and probably Germany, so according to Nazi realities had to be eliminated. Thereafter his name and face were expunged from all publications, even the friendly, comradely inscriptions on the 'honour daggers' presented by him were removed.
Dietrich has told how he came to join up with Hitler:
'I joined the Nazi movement because it seemed to be the best way to counter the Reds and to try and effect some radical improvement in our country's situation. I had been a Sergeant in the tank arm at the end of the Great War and had seen enough horrors to know that we should try to avoid such a conflict in future. 1 met Hitler in Munich and saw at once that he was far and away the best speaker we had ever heard; wherever he spoke he captivated his audiences, not all saw eye to eye with his ideas and statements, I did not myself. But there was something about the man and his ability which laid hold on me. So I offered him my small services, such as they were. He was rather short of real followers, though this was to change later of course. We had a heart to heart talk and he told me that I could be of most use to him by way of protecting him from those of the far left who would likely try to kill him. This was a very real threat at the time for the communists, or Bolsheviks as we called them, were by far the largest political party with real strength; they were uniformed and armed. By that I mean they usually carried cudgels or arms of some sort and were not slow to use them. 7 agreed to become Hitler's personal bodyguard, but very soon we organized a Stabswache of some six men who had the muscle to intervene if any brutality threatened. Later on we increased the number to a round dozen or so as some of the men had homes and families to go to. In my case I had forsaken my own family to become a full-time companion to Hitler, so inevitably I got to know him very well with all his quirks — and there were some. But he had an iron determination such as I had never seen before, and I could see that properly directed this would take him far in politics.'
Sepp Dietrich has said that the funds resulting from Hitler's gains in the late 1920s enabled him to set up his SS organization on a national scale. There is no reason to doubt that whoever ran the office in this period, it was Dietrich who did most of the legwork in expanding the SS. Which is perhaps why it is said he was disappointed and irritated later when Paul Hausser was elected to head an SS Inspectorate and oversee the leadership schools. But while Dietrich was running around Germany doing the donkey work, others — or one man in particular — stepped in as Hitler's favourite, so gaining Hitler's ear with his schemes and theories that the Fuehrer appointed him 'Reichsfuehrer SS'.
'Unfortunately' Dietrich says, 'it came to be headed by Himmler, a rather feeble type of man who did however have a great organizing ability insofar as he was able to envisage things and set them down on paper. More importantly, he had Hitler's ear with a great deal of racial nonsense concerning the Jews which was music to Hitler, which was why he got along so well with 'treue Heini'. Otherwise, Himmler was a very weak type of fellow, almost effeminate in some ways, despite the fact that he had done a spell of military service which he liked to exaggerate as if he had fought at the front which was untrue. Frankly, I despised him, but I was stuck with him and he came to lean on me heavily for the real organizing. It is all very well to set out theories on paper, but the legwork has to be done by men with energy and determination. In other words, Himmler was a clerk of rather grand proportions. It was unfortunate that he became my political master, and though we of the military tried to distance ourselves from his kind we never fully succeeded until it was too late.'
'Unfortunately' Dietrich says, 'it came to be headed by Himmler, a rather feeble type of man who did however have a great organizing ability insofar as he was able to envisage things and set them down on paper. More importantly, he had Hitler's ear with a great deal of racial nonsense concerning the Jews which was music to Hitler, which was why he got along so well with 'treue Heini'. Otherwise, Himmler was a very weak type of fellow, almost effeminate in some ways, despite the fact that he had done a spell of military service which he liked to exaggerate as if he had fought at the front which was untrue. Frankly, I despised him, but I was stuck with him and he came to lean on me heavily for the real organizing. It is all very well to set out theories on paper, but the legwork has to be done by men with energy and determination. In other words, Himmler was a clerk of rather grand proportions. It was unfortunate that he became my political master, and though we of the military tried to distance ourselves from his kind we never fully succeeded until it was too late.'
