SEPP DIETRICH One of Adolf Hitler's earliest supporters, head of the Leibstandarte -SS Adolf Hitler Regiment and later Commander of the Sixth SS Panzer Army during World War II. Captured by the American Seventh Army in May 1945. Tried in 1946 and given a life sentence for his role in the massacre of American soldiers at Malmedy. He was secretly released on 22 October 1955 from the American War crimes prison at Landsberg on the recommendatioin of a joint Allied-Germany clemency board. He was rearrested in 1956 and charged with aiding and abetting in the Roehm murders. He was found guilty by a Munich court as an accessory to murder and sentenced to 19 months in prison. Released again in February 1959, he died of a heart attack in Ludwigsburg on 21 April 1966. (Nazi Party Archives)
Top Center: Waffen SS officer's collar patch. Worn in all German units of the Waffen SS with the exception of police and Death's Head Units. Top Left: Early pattern shoulder straps. Top Right: Late pattern shoulder strap, worn by all ranks up to Rottenfuehrer (approx. corporal). Bottom: Officer's cuffband. Ist SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" (regulation pattern). Cuffband was worn on lower left sleeve. (Courtesy of "SS Regalia" by Jack Pia)
SS service dagger, 1933 pattern. The inscription reads: "My Honor is my Loyalty". ("Nazi Regalia" by Jack Pia)
Waffen SS Rottenfuehrer in camouflage uniform first introduced in 1944. (Courtesy of "SS Regalia" by Jack Pia)
Waffen SS NCO and other ranks' field cap of about 1940. (Courtesy of "SS Regalia" by Jack Pia)
Waffen SS NCO's early pattern field cap. White piping indicates infantry. (Courtesy of "SS Regalia" by Jack Pia)
Blutorden (the Blood Order) originally named Ehrenzeigen vom 9th November 1923, it was instituted in March 1934 and awarded to participants in the Munich "Putsch." It was renamed Blutorden and given as a Nazi party decoration for outstanding merit until 1942, some posthumously awarded. It was worn with a red, white and black ribbon on the right breast pocket. The words on its back translate as "Against all odds you have been victorious." Sepp Dietrich was one of its earliest recipients. (BLUTZEUGE)
