Customer Reviews

Hitler's Gladiator: The Life and Times of Oberstgruppenfuhrer and Panzergeneral-Oberst Der Waffen SS Sepp Dietrich

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The book reads more like a history of SS-Leibstandarte Adolph Hitler than one of Sepp Dietrich - and for that I was disappointed. The march history is available in many other books.

This books starts our really sketchy, with a general lack of details, but such is Dietrich's life in the beginning. Messenger does try to put forth fact and debunk myths that have surrounded his subject for the later years of Dietrich's life. Overall, it's a great book, and worth reading if you want to gain an insight into one of the most charasmatic leaders in the Waffen SS. Dietrich was by no means the "typical" SS soldier, being a swearing, drinking, womanizer, but his traits of being a "soldier's general" are laid forth for reading and presented very well. Overall, Messenger does have a good book, but it could have been a little more detailed. Some of the passages are only referring to units and not to Sepp himself. Worth reading.

Updated 12-26-2011

First the mistakes. Has Peiper as an Obersturmführer (1st Lt) at the battle of the Bulge, he was an Obersturmbannführer (Lt Col). Skips Obersturmbannführer in the SS ranks in the back and has Standartenführer as Lt Col when it was full Colonel. Shows Oberführer as Brigadier when it was senior Colonel.

There is nothing much of substance about Sepp, even telling about one of his interviews with Sepp's son Wolf-Dieter would have been a huge improvement. You learn of Sepp vicariously through his times. As I said all the direct information about Sepp in the book would have taken up one chapter, all the rest was filler that I had read about before in other books. Messenger did an outstanding job with what he had to work with, even though I have read many books about Sepp I still learned.

To sum it up, I liked the book because it was better than nothing but gives little direct information about Sepp. Too bad he could not have at least contacted people who knew Sepp after the war. I am happy I read the book, thanks to the other reviews I did not expect much and was not dissapointed. Even the photos were lacking, a nice color photo would have been nice.

There are two biographies about Sepp Dietrich: one by Charles Messenger of which there are two versions, this one was written in 1988, the other was written in 2005. The other biography by Jean Mabire is in French, so as you can see information about Sepp has to be gleaned from other books.

JEAN MABIRE - PANZERS MARSCH ! SEPP DIETRICH

Any correction to my review are most welcome, if you have read the later Messenger book please let me know if there is any updated information.

While this book portends to detail Dietrich's life and times, I disappointingly found the material to be lacking. I have been unable to locate a thorough biography about Dietrich in English and have been frustrated furthermore in attempting to obtain the same in German. The content focuses more in Dietrich's role in World War II and less so in his earlier years. Thirty-eight pages of two hundred fourteen are all that are offered with respect to Dietrich's life prior to his joing the NSDAP May, 1 1928 and the SS May 6, 1928; he was 35 - quite a gloss over. The remaining 176 pages deal with the war and post war. I purchased the book hoping for the former as the latter have already been very well documented. The efforts of Messenger do not go unappreciated here, but I feel that a more determined effort could have been made regarding the myriad material available at the time of writing - not to mention a considerable number of Dietrich's peers and subordinates were still living. This review is based on the first edition, published 1988. You might best be served investing in Mark C. Yerger's WAFFEN-SS COMMANDERS (two volumes).

As stated in the book Sepp Dietrich was 'liebstandarte'. As also was pointed out much of the early life of Dietrich was shrouded in mystery. Whether this was by himself or the Nazi Hierarchy who will ever know? All in all I thought this was a good book.