We were close personal friends; we often dined together in Berlin. By 1935, over 1,600 newspapers had been closed. The faction headed by Hermann Gring and also . Hitler feared that the SA and Ernst Rhm, their leader, were a potential threat to his leadership. With James Darren, Robert Colbert, Malachi Throne, David Watson. [m] Years later, in November 1945, while being interviewed by psychologist Gustave Gilbert in his cell during the Nuremberg trials, Gring angrily justified the killings to Gilbert, "It's a damn good thing I wiped them out, or they would have wiped us out! Over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. [He] died with words "Heil Hitler" on his lips. Goebbels soon radicalised each of these areas, ensuring that they advocated Nazi ideas. By May, lists of those to be "liquidated" started to circulate amongst Gring and Himmler's people, who engaged in a trade, adding enemies of one in exchange for sparing friends of the other. [69] Mackensen and Hammerstein ended their memo with: Excellency, the gravity of the moment has compelled us to appeal to you as our Supreme Commander. You give Hitler power and time by voting HITLER!. People could be imprisoned for any or no reason. Despite his earlier agreement with Hitler, Rhm still clung to his vision of a new German army with the SA at its core. It was a purge of the head of the Nazi paramilitary organization, the SA, by Hitler and a certain faction within the Nazi party. In 1928, the popular Nazi song "Wetzt die langen Messer" (English: Sharpen the long knives) encourages the mass murder of Jewish people and the desecration of Synagogues (seemingly equating their own tactics with the treacherous Anglo-Saxons). Consumed with rage, Hitler denounced "the worst treachery in world history". President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. Used for Educational purposes only. [i] Rhm, as one of the earliest members of the Nazi Party, had participated in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch, an attempt by Hitler to seize power by force in 1923. Night of the Long Knives (Classroom Activity) When the Nazi Party was first formed it was an anti-capitalist movement. [21], As a means of isolating Rhm, on 20 April 1934, Gring transferred control of the Prussian political police (Gestapo) to Himmler, who, Gring believed, could be counted on to move against Rhm. He held the same position with Rhm as I held with Himmler. Low's cartoons have always appealed to me because of his ability to depict characters like Hitler and Mussolini in a recognisable but often funny way. In Berlin, on Gring's personal orders, an armed SS unit stormed the Vice-Chancellery. Rhm was given the nickname "The Machine Gun King of Bavaria" in the early 1920s, since he was responsible for storing and issuing illegal machine guns to the Bavarian Freikorps units. Following the purge, the Nazis sculpted the media coverage to portray the event as a preventative measure against a revolutionary, violent, and uncontrollable force, rather than a series of political murders. [25] Neurath's manoeuvre to put pressure on Hitler paid off, with Mussolini agreeing to the request (Neurath was a former ambassador to Italy, and knew Mussolini well). The day after the Reichstag fire, the 28 February 1933, Hindenburg signed a decree giving Hitler emergency powers. We want to wait till Papa Hindenburg is dead, and then the SA will march against the army. With these measures in place, the Nazification of the judicial system was complete. [56] Germany's legal establishment further capitulated to the regime when the country's leading legal scholar, Carl Schmitt, wrote an article defending Hitler's 13 July speech. Despite this improvement, the Nazis still did not command a majority in the Reichstag. On the 5 March 1933, the elections took place, with an extremely high turnout of 89%. [35] Papen was unceremoniously arrested at the Vice-Chancellery, despite his insistent protests that he could not be arrested in his position as Vice-Chancellor. His perceived enemies were executed on the night of June 30, 1934. The Night of the Long Knives - Free download as Word Doc (.doc / .docx), PDF File (.pdf), Text File (.txt) or read online for free. Mr Maracin has filtered out much of the historical minutia belabored by other historians of Nazi Germany during this period and given us a quick 209 page read for those with a mild passing interest on how this to barbarism came to be. Definitions by the largest Idiom Dictionary. On the 28 February 1933, President Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. British cartoon by David Low, 1934. It will first explore this topic in chronological order, from the Reichstag Fire through to the death of President Hindenburg, and then explore it thematically in the last section. The Night of Long Knives, one of most noteworthy events during Hitler's rule, was a purge that occurred on the 30th June 1934. Hitler ordered the murders of conspicuous Conservative anti-Nazis such as Kurt Von Schleicher and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, Left wing Nazis such as Gregor Strasser and many members of the SA including its leader Ernst Rohm. As such, the Nazis consolidation of power relied on maintaining the illusion of a stable democracy. However, soon after the purge Hitler himself would name the events the "Night of the long knives" in a public speech on 13 July 1934 defending the actions (despite the violence taking place over several days). [63] During a meeting with Polish Ambassador Jzef Lipski on 22 May 1935, Hitler told Lipski that Schleicher was "rightfully murdered, if only because he had sought to maintain the Rapallo Treaty. 89.93% voted in favour of Hitler. [40] Those not immediately executed were taken back to the Leibstandarte barracks at Lichterfelde, given one-minute "trials", and shot by a firing squad. [45][41] As Himmler's adjutant Karl Wolff later explained, friendship and personal loyalty were not allowed to stand in the way: Among others, a charming fellow [named] Karl von Spreti, Rhm's personal adjutant. He wrote about the cartoon in his book, Years of Wrath (1949): "Nazi Party members and S.S. men got out of hand, clamouring for jobs in a Nazified industry and in an army under Nazi control; but Hitler had promised the . A convoy of lorries moved quietly through the night. The Nazis also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition legally. He also wanted to appease leaders of the Reichswehr, the German military, who feared and despised the SA as a potential rival, in particular because of Rhm's ambition to merge the army and the SA under his own leadership. The Night of the Long Knives. The message of the cartoon "They Salute with Both Hands Now" is that in the Night of the Long Knives, Hitler turned on his previously loyal supporters, the SA, in order to consolidate his position by eliminating the threat of Ernst Rohm and the SA and winning over the Army. The Night of the Long Knives commences. The SA evolved out of the remnants of the Freikorps movement of the post-World War I years. The Night of the Long Knives was a helping event in Hitler becoming a dictator. However, most accounts argue that as many as 1,000 deaths occurred during the Night of the Long Knives. [69] The request that Neurath be replaced by Nadolny, the former Ambassador to the USSR, who had resigned earlier that year in protest against Hitler's anti-Soviet foreign policy, indicated that Hammerstein and Mackensen wanted a return to the "distant friendliness" towards the Soviet Union that existed until 1933. "A very calm and easy going mailman," the diarist Victor Klemperer wrote, "who is not at all National Socialist, said, 'Well, he simply sentenced them.'" 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. Rhm, who was initially . What were Hitler's and the Nazi Party's ideas? Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. Hitler ordered him, as one prominent historian described it, to put an end to "homosexuality, debauchery, drunkenness, and high living" in the SA. Most officers are too old and have to be replaced by young ones. While many officers were impressed by Hitler's promises of an expanded army, a return to conscription, and a more aggressive foreign policy, the army continued to guard its traditions of independence during the early years of the Nazi regime. As a result, a political struggle within the party grew, with those closest to Hitler, including Prussian premier Hermann Gring, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, Reichsfhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler, and Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess, positioning themselves against Rhm. intensified He was now a dictator. [21], Demands for Hitler to constrain the SA strengthened. [17] While Hitler did not take immediate action against Rhm for his intemperate outburst, it nonetheless deepened the rift between them. [5] In June 1932, one of the worst months of political violence, there were more than 400 street battles, resulting in 82 deaths. "They give . It was the culmination of a chaotic week in Westminster, which saw furious calls for an overhaul . A combat veteran of World War I, Rhm had recently boasted that he would execute 12 men in retaliation for the killing of any stormtrooper. Whilst the purge focused on the SA, the Nazis also used the event to eliminate other political opponents, such as the former chancellor Kurt von Schleicher. 1. On 13 July 1934 the Reichstag [29] On 29 June, a signed article in Vlkischer Beobachter by Blomberg appeared in which Blomberg stated with great fervour that the Reichswehr stood behind Hitler. The Nazis immediately used the Enabling Law to remove civil rights. [72] Fritsch and Blomberg suddenly now claimed at the end of 1934 that as army officers they could not stand the exceedingly violent press attacks on Schleicher and Bredow that had been going on since July, which portrayed them as the vilest traitors, working against the Fatherland in the pay of France. Many were terrified of voting of at all, and many turned to voting for the Nazi Party out of fear for their own safety. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name: Night of the Long Knives (a phrase from a popular Nazi song). In his speech to the Reichstag on 13 July justifying his actions, Hitler denounced Schleicher for conspiring with Rhm to overthrow the government; Hitler alleged both were traitors working in the pay of France. "[74], Hitler named Viktor Lutze to replace Rhm as head of the SA. [23] Himmler envied the independence and power of the SA, although by this time he and Heydrich had already begun restructuring the SS from a bodyguard formation for Nazi leaders (and a subset of the SA) into its own independent elite corps, one loyal to both himself and Hitler. In 1934, Hitler purged the SA, killed a bunch of its leaders to eliminate the Strasserist faction and made it a largely irrelevant organization. Hitler claimed that 61 had been executed while 13 had been shot resisting arrest and three had committed suicide. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate German critics of his new regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, as well as to settle scores with old enemies.[a]. "A chancellor", he wrote, "sentences and shoots members of his own private army! How seriously Hitler took the socialist character of National Socialism was to remain one of the main causes of disagreement and division within the Nazi party up to the summer of 1934. The Night of the Long Knives J. Marshall, 2007. Why did Hitler turn on the SA in the Night of the Long Knives? Further, he recognized that the Sturmabteilung was becoming increasingly useless as their main job to intimidate was becoming unnecessary as more people heeled to Hitler's . Nov 3, 2012 - Explore S o l s h e i 's board "Yay, it's Friday! The Nazi grip on government extended across national, state and local levels. Hitler arrived and personally placed Rhm and other high ranking SA leaders under arrest. Hitler remained indecisive and uncertain about just what precisely he wanted to do when he left for Venice to meet Benito Mussolini on 15 June. Have a Free Meeting with one of our hand picked tutors from the UK's top universities. A more succinct understand of the years between 1920 - 1945 of Hitler would be hard to find. After Hitler had promised to protect the interests of the Catholic Church, the party conceded and supported the bill. On 30 June 1934 these tensions came to a head.
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