"[46], Some SA members died saying "Heil Hitler" because they believed that an anti-Hitler SS plot had led to their execution. Whilst the pseudo-legal measures were one factor that helped the Nazis to consolidate power, another was terror and intimidation. A copy of the original film, before Rhm was edited out, was found in the 1980s in the German Democratic Republic's film archives. info)) or "Operation Hummingbird" (Kolibri) was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany.It happened between 30 June and 2 July 1934 when the Nazi regime executed at least 90 people for political reasons. "It was plain that there was wide acceptance of the deliberately misleading propaganda put out by the regime. David Low responded to what became known as the Night of the Long Knives by producing a cartoon that deeply angered Hitler. Share Image. [63], Former Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was in exile in Doorn, Netherlands, was horrified by the purge. Background Hitler was Chancellor (Prime Minister), but not yet completely in control. Gring's personal police battalion also took part in the killings. The novella is now in the public domain, so you can get it free on Kindle, but I want to recommend the audio version which is 3 hours and 17 . Behind Hitler is a backdrop of the Swastika. Whilst Gleichschaltung aimed to reach every aspect of rule in Germany, this was not always possible. This decree suspended the democratic aspects of the Weimar Republic and declared a state of emergency. The Night of Long Knives was the purge of the SA leadership and other political opponents from the 30 June 1934 to the 2 July 1934. [44] The murdered included at least one accidental victim: Willi Schmid, the music critic of the Mnchner Neuste Nachrichten newspaper, whose name was confused with one of the Gestapo's intended targets. Shortly after Hindenburgs death, Hitler announced that offices of the chancellor and the president were to be combined to create one position, the Fhrer and chancellor. "[26] According to his memoirs, von Papen, a Catholic aristocrat with ties to army and industry, privately threatened to resign if Hitler did not act. pardoned This decree gave the Nazis a legal basis for the The Nazi grip on government extended across national, state and local levels. The law needed two thirds of the Reichstag to vote for it to pass. [37] Sepp Dietrich received orders from Hitler for the Leibstandarte to form an "execution squad" and go to Stadelheim Prison where certain SA leaders were being held. Close 'Here after let this be known as the night of the long side burns!' [57][58], A special fund administered by SS General Franz Breithaupt was set up for the relatives of the murdered, from which they were cared for at the expense of the state. Mussolini used the affair occasioned by the murder of Giacomo Matteotti as an example of the kind of trouble unruly followers could cause a dictator. 1922 1923 1925 1943 1944 Albert Speer Art Auschwitz autobahn British Pathe Cartoon cartoons Catholic Church Chancellor Dada Denmark Disney Document Documentary Film Final Solution Four Year Plan Goebbels Hindenburg Hitler Holocaust Hyperinflation Jews July Bomb Plot . The Nazis aimed to increase their share of the vote so that they would have a majority in the Reichstag. This fear was 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. British cartoon by David Low, 1934 They salute with both hands, now! The tension between the SA and the Nazi leadership grew. . The Night of the Long Knives. "[74], Hitler named Viktor Lutze to replace Rhm as head of the SA. The Night Of The Long Knives. In the judicial system specifically, this act removed any judges that were deemed non-compliant with Nazi laws or principles. The destiny of our country is at stake. Paul von Hindenburg was the president of the Weimar Republic from the 12 May 1925 until his death on the 2 August 1934. This represents how Hitler betrayed the SA, as they had been led to believe that they would gain power alongside Hitler. Following the Enabling Law, much of this harassment and imprisonment was legal. The SA were dramatically reduced in size, dropping by 40% to 1.8 million by 1935. 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". [4] The violent confrontations between the two contributed to the destabilization of the Weimar Republic. While all of these men were veterans of the Nazi movement, only Rhm continued to demonstrate his independence from, rather than his loyalty to, Adolf Hitler. In this photo, Rhm is talking to a group of SA men, who appear to be listening intently. Hitler arrived and personally placed Rhm and other high ranking SA leaders under arrest. Overall, what is the meaning of the cartoon? By 1934 there were more than a million of them. It was during this speech that Hitler gave the purge its name: Night of the Long Knives (a phrase from a popular Nazi song). The army's support for the purge, however, would have far-reaching consequences for the institution. Moonlight glistened on numerous silvery revolvers, contrasting with the sinister black uniforms. This included Vice-Chancellor Papen and those in his immediate circle. BUT Some within the Nazi Party opposed Hitler. [7] Complaints of "overbearing and loutish" behaviour by stormtroopers became common by the middle of 1933. Hitler was shrewd enough to understand that he could never fully consolidate his grip on the country without the support of the army. The SA and the SS had also been on a month long campaign of violence to scare or imprison other opponents to the party. On 22 March 1933, the first Nazi concentration camp was established in the town of Dachau. Adolf Hitler needed Ernst Rhm and his storm troops to climb to power in faction-torn Germany. [30] At Hitler's direction, Gring, Himmler, Heydrich and Victor Lutze drew up lists of people in and outside the SA to be killed. : Why did Hitler order the massacre of hundreds of Nazis in June 1934? Rhm demurred, telling them, "If I am to be killed, let Adolf do it himself. [68] Hammerstein, who was a close friend of Schleicher, had been much offended at Schleicher's funeral when the SS refused to allow him to attend the service and confiscated the wreaths that the mourners had brought. Upon returning to Berlin, Goebbels telephoned Gring at 10:00 with the codeword Kolibri to let loose the execution squads on the rest of their unsuspecting victims. Called the Nacht der langen Messer in Germany, this event occurred over a series of days and entailed the Nazi regime's murder of those Hitler considered to be political enemies. ", Coincidentally, Hitler had been incarcerated at. "[67] The extent of the massacre and the relative ubiquity of the Gestapo, however, meant that those who disapproved of the purge generally kept quiet about it. British cartoon by David Low, 1934 H I UN TL PR KE ER OM PT 'S IS ES They salute with both hands, now! Background Hitler was Chancellor (Prime Minister), but not yet completely in control. As such the Nazis justified this measure as implementing necessary security measures, rather than revealing their true motive to remove opposition. Censorship was heightened, and any person publishing actively anti-Nazi material was threatened or imprisoned. [53][54], Wanting to present the massacre as legally sanctioned, Hitler had the cabinet approve a measure on 3 July that declared, "The measures taken on June 30, July 1 and 2 to suppress treasonous assaults are legal as acts of self-defence by the State. During a trip to Warsaw in January 1935, Gring told Jan Szembek that Schleicher had urged Hitler in January 1933 to reach an understanding with France and the Soviet Union, and partition Poland with the latter, and Hitler had Schleicher killed out of disgust with the alleged advice. [69] The memo went on to demand that Hindenburg punish those responsible, and criticized Blomberg for his outspoken support of the murders of Schleicher and Bredow. by Roy Morris Jr. 8/20/2018. The Night of the Long Knives (aka Blood Purge) was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate Hitler's absolute hold on power in Germany. 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]. The Night of the Long Knives not only removed the SA leaders but also got Hitler the army's oath that he so needed. Hitler used the SS and the Army to kill the SA on the Night of the Long knives, and doing so helped him to win them over as it showed his preference for them over the thug-like Stormtroopers. [21] By the beginning of June everything was set and all that was needed was permission from Hitler. The undersigned Generals and senior officers swear to preserve to the last breath their loyalty to you and the Fatherland. In two brutal days in 1934 Adolf Hitler and his senior staff would capture and execute Ernst Roehm, the rest of the senior leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA) and perhaps 1000 other enemies and threats to his control of Germany. [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. This hysteria helped to turn the public against the communists, one of the Nazis main opponents, and 4000 people were imprisoned. The decree also removed basic personal freedoms, such as the freedom of speech, the right to own property, and the right to trial before imprisonment. Both Kurt von Schleicher, Hitler's predecessor as Chancellor, and his wife were murdered at their home. Then came the day he didn't need them anymore. Many were terrified of voting of at all, and many turned to voting for the Nazi Party out of fear for their own safety. Night Of The Long Knives Cartoon 3 of 3. [20] Although Schleicher was in fact unimportant by 1934, increasingly wild rumours that he was scheming with Rhm to re-enter the corridors of power helped stoke the sense of crisis. You give Hitler power and time by voting HITLER!. This continued when a young Dutchcommunist, Van der Lubbe was arrested for the crime. Most of those killed were members of the "Storm Troopers" (SA) (German: Sturmabteilung). On 13 July 1934 the Reichstag You gave these parties 14 years to ruin Germany! The Night of the Long Knives was a helping event in Hitler becoming a dictator. Although many Germans approached the official news of the events as described by Joseph Goebbels with a great deal of scepticism, many others took the regime at its word, and believed that Hitler had saved Germany from a descent into chaos. Rhm, however, wanted to eliminate the generalship of the Prussian aristocracy altogether, using the SA to become the core of a new German military. The widows of the murdered SA leaders received between 1,000 and 1,600 marks a month, depending on the rank of the murdered person. Hitler and Himmler unleashed the Gestapo against old enemies, as well. Hitler ordered him, as one prominent historian described it, to put an end to "homosexuality, debauchery, drunkenness, and high living" in the SA. The Bill passed by 444 votes for to 94 against on the 24 March 1933. The elections were neither free or fair. This photograph shows the SA as they marched victoriously through the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin the same day. Open navigation menu Night of the Long Knives: Directed by Paul Stanley. If that was indeed true then, as a legal matter, the law was entirely unnecessary and redundant. 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 . He asked, "What would people have said if I had done such a thing? He took seriously the socialist promise of National Socialism and demanded that Hitler and the other party leaders initiate wide-ranging socialist reform in Germany. His perceived enemies were executed on the night of June 30, 1934. Search ID: CS308675. This betrayal is seen by the image of SA members looking fearful in . However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party Goebbels soon radicalised each of these areas, ensuring that they advocated Nazi ideas. In this image the narrative present is about the incident now known as the Night of the Long Knives (June 29th/30th 1934), when . [73] However, despite the rehabilitation of the two murdered officers, the Nazis continued in private to accuse Schleicher of high treason. On 30 June 1934 these tensions came to a head. While Rhm's homosexuality did not endear him to conservatives, they were more concerned about his political ambitions. I also almost always agree with what his cartoons are saying. [34], At about 04:30 on 30 June 1934, Hitler and his entourage flew to Munich. A few weeks after the purge, Hitler rewarded the SS . At first, its architects seemed split on how to handle the event. Also in 1932, the Nazi critic Carl von Ossietzky would use the term to describe the then unrealised plans for a violent uprising: At the beginning of 1932 the Nazis seemed on the verge of a dictatorship, and the air was full of the stretch of blood. By 1935, over 1,600 newspapers had been closed. , They understood the need to appear moderate and take over slowly by democratic means where possible, maintaining the stability and illusion of a democracy. Most officers are too old and have to be replaced by young ones. Because their plans for the army conflicted, Rhm's success could come only at Hitler's expense. Many of those that were harassed by the SA and the SS or imprisoned in camps were terrified to speak out about their ordeal fearing that they would be further abused or re-imprisoned. . The Nazis had the support of the DNVP, and had banned the communist party, the KPD, from attending. The night was 29th June 1934, the Night of the Long Knives. [31] On 27 June, Hitler moved to secure the army's cooperation. Gleichschaltung was applied across every possible aspect of government policy. Give Hitler four years to rebuild it! [g] Many stormtroopers believed in the socialist promise of National Socialism and expected the Nazi regime to take more radical economic action, such as breaking up the vast landed estates of the aristocracy. The Peoples Court, a court created by the Nazis in April 1934 with judges chosen specifically for their Nazi beliefs, replaced the Supreme Court. Night of the Long Knives. 2. By mid-1934, Hitler seemed to be master of all Germany. The Nazis also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition legally. [63] Franois-Poncet was not declared persona non grata as would have been usual if an ambassador were involved in a plot against his host government. [He] died with words "Heil Hitler" on his lips. [19] Schleicher criticized 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, Rhm minister of defence, Heinrich Brning foreign minister and Gregor Strasser minister of national economy. This is a crucial part of Hitler's consolidation of power. The reshuffle took place against a backdrop of . This photograph was taken the same day, showing the Reichstag still burning. The support of respected individuals such as von Papen and Hindenburgs son, Oskar von Hindenburg, gave the Nazis further legitimacy for these actions. [25] During the summit in Venice, Mussolini upbraided Hitler for tolerating the violence, hooliganism and homosexuality of the SA, which Mussolini stated were ruining Hitler's good reputation all over the world. It's helped us to become more accustomed to acts of grim self-interested political butchery; but for those witnessing these events as they happened, they were simply unprecedented. Opposition from outside the Nazi party was being strangled . In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people. Dimensions: 2432 x 2229 px. The Nazis used violence to increase their vote share. Gring instructed police stations to burn "all documents concerning the action of the past two days". As S.A. membership grew, they were becoming harder . People could be imprisoned for any or no reason. , which opened just a few days before the vote on the 20 March 1933. Rhm's contempt for the party's bureaucracy angered Hess. persecution 54 Richard J. Evans At the same time, the apparatus of the police state began to look a good deal less coercive than it had done in the 1950s. . Reorganisation and the Bamberg Conference, The role of economic instability in the Nazi rise to power, The role of political instability in the Nazi rise to power, The role of the conservative elite in the Nazi rise to power. Gring declared that the communists had planned a national uprising to overthrow the Weimar Republic. The SA also ran a violent campaign of terror against any and all opponents of the Nazi regime. The speed and scale of the reshuffle caused it to be associated by its critics with the 1934 Night of the Long Knives in Nazi Germany.. [35] Goebbels emphasised this aspect in subsequent propaganda justifying the purge as a crackdown on moral turpitude. "They give . to control. SA violence in Prussia gravely concerned Gring. The SS was moving into position for the first of its many deadly tasks. [69] The memo asked that Hindenburg instead create a directorate to rule Germany, comprising the Chancellor (who was not named), General Werner von Fritsch as Vice-Chancellor, Hammerstein as Minister of Defense, the Minister for National Economy (also unnamed), and Rudolf Nadolny as Foreign Minister. The SA traced its dramatic rise in numbers in part to the onset of the Great Depression, when many German citizens lost both their jobs and their faith in traditional institutions. This new law gave Hitler the power to rule by decree rather than passing laws through the Reichstag and the president. Dachau During the 1920s and 1930s, the SA functioned as a private militia used by Hitler to intimidate rivals and disrupt the meetings of competing political parties, especially those of the Social Democrats and the Communists. "[65] Another rare exception was Field Marshal August von Mackensen, who spoke about the murders of Schleicher and Bredow at the annual General Staff Society meeting in February 1935 after they had been rehabilitated by Hitler in early January 1935. 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 had helped crush the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. In response, Hitler met Blomberg and the leadership of the SA and SS on 28 February 1934. The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in a broken-down munitions factory on the 20 March 1933, imprisoning primarily political prisoners. 3. Many of those killed in the purge were leaders of the SA, the best-known being Rhm himself, the SA's chief of staff and one of Hitler's longtime supporters and allies. . Wiskemann, Elizabeth, "The Night of the Long Knives", This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 06:34. [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. How did the Night of the Long Knives help to create a dictatorship out of a democracy? Carried out primarily by the SS and the Gestapo, over 150 people were murdered and hundreds more were arrested. [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! The Enabling Law allowed them to do this under the guise of legality. "[35] Having heard nothing in the allotted time, they returned to Rhm's cell at 14:50 to find him standing, with his bare chest puffed out in a gesture of defiance. The "knives of the long night" episode, as it is now called, took place with brutal swiftness. [66], Rumours about the Night of the Long Knives rapidly spread. [75] Lutze did little to assert the SA's independence in the coming years, and the organization lost its power in Germany. [78], The term "long knives" as a metonym for treachery and violence had been used to describe the Treason of the Long Knives since this incident was recorded in the 9th century Historia Brittonum. Others were appalled at the scale of the executions and at the relative complacency of many of their fellow Germans. By June 1934 this had grown to over 3,000,000 members. [22] Himmler named his deputy Reinhard Heydrich to head the Gestapo on 22 April 1934.

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