WAR CRIMES: Success Story

As commander in chief of the Sixth Panzer Army, Joseph (“Sepp”) Dietrich, onetime butcher boy and personal bodyguard to Hitler, was a failure. “He had at most the ability to command a division,” said Goring of the general whose blundering cost the Germans some 37,000 men at the Battle of the Bulge. “Dietrich,” said Rundstedt simply, “is decent, but stupid.” After the war, however, Dietrich found a job where he was really appreciated.

Last week at the Dachau trial of Colonel Otto Skorzeny, Mussolini’s rescuer, the important witness Dietrich was temporarily excused by special agreement between opposing counsel. Reason: he was urgently needed to supervise the harvest at Landsberg prison, where he is now a life-termer and the indispensable head-gardener.