Adolf Hitler and The Night of The Long Knives

Upon his arrival in Munich, Hitler arrested the leading SA man in the city and in a public ceremony stripped him of his insignia whilst raging about disloyalty and treachery. Despite all this, Rohm still appeared oblivious of the manoeuvrings against him. In the early morning of the 30 June, Hitler sped off to the resort where the SA leadership were staying, accompanied by his SS guards and with Rudolf Hess at his side. The hotel was surrounded and then armed with a pistol he burst into Rohm’s room. The SA leader was dragged from his bed and the arms of his young male lover, and had to endure a torrent of abuse as Hitler raged against him. He tried to deny the charges he was accused of but was frog-marched off to Stadelheim Prison just outside Munich. Hitler hadn’t been so generous to another SA leader who had been found in bed with his male lover, he had ordered both executed on the spot.

Despite everything, Hitler could not bring himself to order the execution of his old friend. He hoped that as a professional soldier, an officer, and a man of honour, Rohm would take his own life. He told his captors to provide him with a pistol with a single bullet. Presented with this alternative, Rohm replied, ” If Adolf wants me dead, let him do it himself.” After 15 minutes had passed and no gunshot had been heard, two SS officers, one of whom was Theodore Eicke, the future commander of the SS Death’s Head Division and Commandant of Dachau, entered his cell and shot him dead. His last words were, “Mein Fuhrer! Mein Fuhrer! 

The SA were now condemned as traitors, there leaders had been arrested and the organisation effectively proscribed. Members left their ranks in droves and they were no longer the heros of the Nazi revolution but were tainted with the stigma of disloyalty. They were now the objects of abuse and were jeered and hooted at in the streets. There power had been broken.

In Berlin, Hermann Goering had been busy. He, and others elsewhere in Germany, now took this opportunity to dispose of those they considered enemies of the Nazi’s or had merely offended them in the past. Among those murdered were Gustave von Kahr, who had opposed Hitler during the Munich Putsch; General von Schleicher and his wife; Gregor Strasser, who was seen as Hitler’s only possible replacement as leader of the Nazi Party; Father Bernhard Stempfle, who it was felt knew too much about Hitler’s personal life. Assassins were also sent to murder Franz von Papen but he was absent so they shot his secretary instead. One young man, a cellist, was dragged from his family and later executed because he was unfortunate enough to have the same name as a noted opponent of the Nazi’s. His body was later returned to his family who were told that he had died in an accident, and with strict orders not to open the coffin. It had been apparent throughout that Hitler did not enjoy this, but his henchmen did and they had gone about their business gleefully.

Hitler, had tried to cover up the full implications of the Night of the Long Knives, but it was impossible. On 13 July, in a speech to the Reichstag that was broadcast to the nation, he tried to justify these extra-judicial murders, ” If anyone reproaches me and asks me why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this, in this hour  I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and I thereby became the supreme judge of the German people.” He went on, ” Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot.” No matter what he said, no one could be in any doubt, that the legitimate Government of Germany had become a regime of murder. ***

*** See related articles; 1/ Himmler, Hitler’s Henchman 2/ Einsatzgruppen, Nazi Death Squads 3/ Irma Grese and IIse Koch, Sisters of Satan 4/ Mengele, Nazi Doctor 5/ Operation Valkyrie, the 20 July Bomb Plot 6/ Magda Goebbels,The First Lady of the Third Reich 7/ The Adolescent Hitler and Beyond.