"Röhm-Putsch" Wrongly called ‘The Night of Long
Knives’; Purge of political opponents or National and social necessity.
Lies being taught;
Hitler purged his political opponents to
remove all opposition to him.
Now the truth;
History of Stormtrooper;
The first official German Stormtrooper unit
was authorized on 2 March 1915 when the German high command ordered the VIII
Corps to form a detachment to test experimental weapons and develop tactics
which could break the deadlock on the Western Front. On 2 October 1916, General
quartiermeister Erich Ludendorff ordered all German armies in the west to form
a battalion of stormtroops. They were first successfully used during the German
Eighth Army's siege of Riga, and again at the Battle of Caporetto. Wider use
followed on the Western Front in March 1918, where Allied lines were
successfully pushed back tens of kilometers. The SA evolved out of the remnants
of the Freikorps movement of the post-World War I years. The Freikorps were
nationalistic organisations primarily composed of disaffected, disenchanted,
and angry German combat veterans founded by the government in January 1919 to
deal with the threat of a Communist revolution when it appeared that there was
a lack of loyal troops. A very large number of the Freikorps believed that the
November Revolution had betrayed them when Germany was alleged to be on the
verge of victory in 1918. Hence, the Freikorps were in opposition to the new
Weimar Republic, which was born as a result of the November Revolution, and
whose founders were contemptuously called "November criminals".
What are Stormtrooper under Nazis;
The Sturmabteilung (SA or Brownshirts) originally
functioned as the paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party. Brown-coloured shirts
were their standard uniform. An advertisement was carried out in the Münchener
Beobachter for a mass meeting in the Hofbräuhaus, to be held on 16 October
1919. Some 70 people attended, and a second such meeting was advertised for 13
November 1919 in the Eberlbrau beer hall. Some 130 people attended; there were
hecklers, but Hitler's military friends promptly ejected them by force. The
next year, on 24 February 1920, Hitler announced the party's Twenty-Five Point
program at a mass meeting of some 2000 persons at the Hofbräuhaus. Protesters
tried to shout Hitler down, but his army friends, armed with rubber truncheons,
ejected the dissenters. The basis for the SA had been formed. Their main
assignments were providing protection for Nazi rallies and assemblies from
opposing parties particularly Communist Party (KPD), countering paramilitary
units of the KPD and social democrats, protecting Nazi meetings from disruption
by protesters, disrupting meetings of commies, distributing propaganda,
recruiting, marching in the streets to propagandize by showing support for the
Nazi cause, political campaigning, and brawling with Commies in the streets.
SA members saw their organization as a
revolutionary group, the vanguard of a national-socialist order that would
overthrow the hated Republic by force. Stennes leader of SA advocated use of
force as legitimate means of taking over political power in February 1931 article
published in Der Angriff. This was disturbing to the Nazi leadership as it
contravened Hitler's strategy of gaining power through constitutional means
only and forswearing violence as a means to power. In September 1930, Hitler
invited Ernst Röhm to lead SA who took charge on 5th January 1931.
SA became National nuisance;
Hitler was elected chancellor in January 30,
1933. After Hitler's appointment as chancellor stormtroopers were deprived of
attacks by or against commies. They would now run riot on streets after a night
of heavy drinking. They would indulge in hooliganism or street fights between
themselves and then attack the police who were called to stop them. Complaints
of "overbearing and loutish" behaviour by stormtroopers became common
by the middle of 1933. Stromtroopers attracted many former communists under
their fold from their success in protecting Nazi meetings from commie
disruptions. Rudolf Diels, the first Gestapo chief, estimated in 1933 Berlin
that 70 percent of new SA recruits were former communists.
Under Röhm, the SA took the side of workers
in strikes and other labor disputes, attacking strike breakers and supporting
picket lines. SA had fought against left-wing parties during electoral
campaigns, but its reputation for street violence and heavy drinking was a
hindrance, as was the open homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders such as
his deputy Edmund Heines. One American journalist would later write,
"[Röhm's] chiefs, men of the rank of Gruppenfuehrer or Obergruppenfuehrer,
commanding units of several hundred thousand Storm Troopers, were almost
without exception homosexuals.[i]
After coming to power of NASDAP, the SA
became increasingly eager for power and saw themselves as a replacement for the
German Army, then limited by law to no more than 100,000 men. However In
Hitler’s view, the proper functions of SA's which hence before had been to
protect Nazi Meetings from disruption by protesters, propagandizing Nazi cause,
did not advance to SA's functioning as a military organization. Hitler now
wanted SA to do community service. Helping elderly, women children, canvassing or
fundraising. This was resented by the SA as Kleinarbeit, "little work,
trivia".
SA’s Conflict with Army;
Röhm lobbied Hitler to appoint him Minister
of Defence, a position held by the conservative General Werner von Blomberg.
Blomberg was not a Nazi, but from Prussian Nobility. Blomberg and many of his
fellow officers regarded the SA as a plebeian rabble that threatened the army's
traditional high status in German society.
Many stormtroopers returned the feeling,
seeing the army as insufficiently committed to the National Socialist
revolution. Max Heydebreck, a SA leader in Rummelsburg, denounced the army to
his fellow brownshirts, telling them, "Some of the officers of the army
are swine. Most officers are too old and have to be replaced by young ones. We
want to wait till Papa Hindenburg is dead, and then the SA will march against
the army."
Röhm, wanted the SA to become the core of a
new German military. Limited by the Treaty of Versailles to one hundred
thousand soldiers, army leaders such as General Werner von Blomberg, the
Minister of Defence, and General Walther von Reichenau, the chief of the
Reichswehr's Ministerial Department watched anxiously as membership in the SA
surpassed three million men. Ernst Röhm who had been given a seat on the
National Defence Council had began to demand more say over military matters. On
2 October 1933, Röhm sent a letter to Reichenau that said: "I regard the
Reichswehr now only as a training school for the German people. The conduct of
war, and therefore of mobilization as well, in the future is the task of the
SA."
SA's National conflict;
In January 1934, Röhm presented Blomberg with
a memorandum demanding that the SA replace the regular army as the nation's
ground forces, and that the Reichswehr become a training adjunct to the SA. Röhme
viewed member of the officer corps as old fogies who lacked "revolutionary
spirit." He believed that the Reichswehr should be merged into the SA to
form a true "people's army" under his command. At a February 1934
cabinet meeting, he demanded that the Reichswehr be absorbed into the SA under
his leadership as Minister of Defense.[ii]
This horrified the army, with its traditions
going back to Frederick the Great. The army officer corps viewed the SA as a
brawling mob of undisciplined street fighters, and were also concerned by the
pervasiveness of homosexuality and "corrupt morals" within the ranks
of the SA. Further, reports of a huge cache of weapons in the hands of SA
members raised further concern among the Reichswehr leadership. The entire
officer corps opposed Röhm's proposal, insisting that discipline and honour
would vanish if the SA gained control.
Preparation of a Secret dossier;
Blomberg and von Reichenau began to conspire
with Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler against Röhm and the SA. Himmler asked
Reinhard Heydrich to assemble a dossier on Röhm. Heydrich recognized that in
order for the SS to fully gain national power the SA had to be broken. He
manufactured evidence that suggested that Röhm had been paid 12 million marks
by the French to overthrow Hitler.
Hitler liked Ernst Röhm and initially refused
to believe the dossier provided by Heydrich. Röhm had been of enormous help during
early years of Nazi party. The SA under Röhm's leadership had also played a
vital role in destroying the communist opposition during the elections of 1932
and 1933.
Talks of Second Revolution;
Röhm spoke of a "second
revolution". Röhm alongwith Gregor, Otto Strasser, Gottfried Feder and
Walther Darré, belonged to radical faction. This group put emphasis on the word
"socialist" and "workers" in the party's name; putting them
ideologically closer to the Communists. They capitalism and pushed for
nationalization of major industrial firms, expansion of worker control,
confiscation and redistribution of the estates of the old aristocracy, and
social equality.
Simultaneously Former Chancellor, General
Kurt von Schleicher began criticising the current Hitler cabinet while some of
Schleicher's followers such as General Ferdinand von Bredow and Werner von
Alvensleben started passing along lists of a new Hitler Cabinet in which
Schleicher would become Vice-Chancellor, Röhm Minister of Defence, Heinrich
Brüning Foreign Minister and Gregor Strasser Minister of National Economy.
Pressure from Vice Chancellor Von Papen;
On June 17, 1934, conservative demands for
Hitler to act came to a head when Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, gave a
speech at Marburg University warning of the threat of a "second revolution".
Von Papen, a Catholic aristocrat with ties to army and industry, threatened to
resign if Hitler did not act. Von Papen's resignation as vice-chancellor would
have been an embarrassing.
Pressure from President Chancellor von
Hindenburg;
Matters came to a head in June 1934 when
President von Hindenburg, who had the complete loyalty of the army, informed
Hitler that if he did not move to curb the SA then Hindenburg would dissolve
Hitler's Government and declare martial law.[iii]
The purge;
In Last week of June 1934, Röhm and several
of his companions were on holiday at a resort in Bad Wiessee. On 28 June,
Hitler phoned Röhm and asked him to gather all the SA leaders at Bad Wiessee on
30th June for a conference.
At about 04:30 on June 30, 1934, Hitler and
his entourage flew into Munich. From the airport they drove to the Bavarian
Interior Ministry, where they assembled the leaders of SA and lambasted them on
the rampage that had taken place in city streets the night. Enraged, Hitler
tore the epaulets off the shirt of Obergruppenführer of SA August Schneidhuber,
and chief of the Bavarian Police for failing to keep order last night. Hitler
shouted at Schneidhuber that he would be shot. Schneidhuber was executed later
that day. As the stormtroopers were hustled off to prison, Hitler departed for
the Hanselbauer Hotel in Bad Wiessee, where Ernst Röhm and his followers were
staying.
Events from diary of Erich Kempa Chauffeur of
Adolf Hitler;
“I run quickly up the stairs
to the first floor where Hitler is just coming out of Röhm’s bedroom. Two
detectives come out of the room opposite. One of them reports to Hitler:
‘My Führer, the Police-President of Breslau is refusing to
get dressed!’ Taking no notice of me, Hitler enters the room where Obergruppenführer
Heines is remaining. I hear him shout: ‘Heines, if you are not dressed in
five minutes I’ll have you shot on the spot!’ I withdraw a few steps
and a police officer whispers to me that Heines had been in bed with an
18-year-old SA Obertruppführer. At last Heines comes out of the room with
an 18-year-old fair-haired boy mincing in front of him. ‘Into the laundry room
with them!’ cries Schreck.
Meanwhile,
Röhm comes out of his room in a blue suit and with a cigar in the corner
of his mouth. Hitler glares at him but says nothing. Two detectives
take Röhm to the vestibule of the hotel where he throws himself into an
armchair and orders coffee from the waiter. I stay in the corridor a
little to one side and a detective tells me about Röhm’s arrest. Hitler
entered Röhm’s bedroom alone with a whip in his hand. Behind him were two
detectives with pistols at the ready. He spat out the words: ‘Röhm, you
are under arrest.’ Röhm looked up sleepily from his pillow: ‘Heil, my
Führer.’ ‘You are under arrest’ bawled Hitler for the second time, turned
on his heel and left the room.
Meanwhile,
upstairs in the corridor things are getting quite lively. SA leaders
are coming out of their rooms and being arrested. Hitler shouts at each
one: ‘Have you had anything to do with Röhm’s plans?’ Naturally, they all
deny it, but that doesn’t help them in the least. Hitler usually knows
about the individual; occasionally, he asks Goebbels or Lutze a question.
And then comes the decision: ‘Arrested!’ But there are others whom he
lets go. Röhm’s doctor, SA Gruppenführer Ketterer, comes out of a room,
and to our surprise he has his wife with him. I hear Lutze putting in a
good word for him with Hitler. Then Hitler walks up to him, greets him,
shakes hands with his wife and asks them to leave the hotel; it isn’t a
pleasant place for them to stay that day.”[iv]
Hitler decided to pardon Röhm because of his
past services to the movement. On 1 July after much pressure from Hermann
Göring and Heinrich Himmler, Hitler agreed that Röhm should die. Hitler
insisted that Röhm should first be allowed to commit suicide. However, when
Röhm refused, he was killed by two SS officers, Theodor Eicke and Michael
Lippert.
Hitler used the occasion to move against some
persons close to Vice chancellor Von papen. In Berlin, on Göring's personal
orders, an armed SS unit stormed the Vice-Chancellery where they shot Papen's
secretary Herbert von Bose. The Gestapo arrested and later executed Papen's
close associate Edgar Jung, the author of Papen's Marburg speech; The Gestapo
also executed Erich Klausener, the leader of Catholic Action, and a close Papen
associate. The vice-chancellor Papen was arrested at the Vice-Chancellery, but later
released. Both Kurt von Schleicher,
Hitler's predecessor as chancellor, and his wife were murdered at their home.
Others killed included Gregor Strasser, a former Nazi who had angered Hitler by
resigning from the party in 1932, and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, the former
Bavarian state commissioner who crushed the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923.
"Röhm-Putsch" cannot be equated to or called “Night
of long knives” since only about eighty-five are known to have died as against
strength of three million members of SA. As against these eighty five, in June
1932, one of the worst months of political violence had resulted in 82 deaths.
Social and National Necessity;
The President Hindenburg, Germany's highly
revered military hero, sent a telegram expressing his profoundly felt gratitude
as he congratulated Hitler for “nipping treason in the bud”. The army unanimously
applauded the Purge. Germans saw Hitler as the one who restored order to the
country.[v]
Luise Solmitz, a Hamburg schoolteacher, echoed the
sentiments of Germans when she cited Hitler's personal courage, decisiveness
and effectiveness in her private diary. She even compared him to Frederick the
Great, the 18th-century King of Prussia.[vi]
The end
After the Night of the Long Knives, the SA
continued to exist under the leadership of Viktor Lutze, but the group was
significantly downsized. The SA officially ceased to exist in May 1945 when
Nazi Germany collapsed.
In 1946, the all-lies@alied Military Tribunal
at Nuremberg formally judged the SA not to be a criminal organization.[vii]
References;
[i] Knickerbocker, H.R. (1941). Is Tomorrow
Hitler's? 200 Questions On the Battle of
Mankind. Reynal & Hitchcock. p. 34.
[ii] Kershaw 2008, p. 306.
[iii] Wheeler-Bennett (2005), Nemesis of
Power: The German Army in Politics 1918–1945, pp. 319–320.
[v] Kershaw, Ian. Hitler (2008), p.
315
[vi] Evans 2005,
p. 39.
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