HITLER Long Knife Night

Among the many crimes committed by the Nazism. one that was very important because of the great influence he had on the later government was the murder opposition political figures, serving to end any political figure contrary to Hitler To talk about one of the most terrible nights in history in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to offer you a summary of the night of the long knives.

Index

1. Context of the Night of the Long Knives
2. Night of the long knives or the Great purge
3. Aftermath of the Night of the Long Knives

On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germanyby President Paul von Hindenburg, beginning a rapid movement called Gleichschaltung to end the opposition. This movement consisted of ban all political parties Germans minus his, turning the Germanic country into a one-party nation where the only valid party was the Nazi Party.

At that time, Hitler's power was not total, since he was not in control of the army, although a large Most of the military agreed with Nazi ideas about German expansion and increased troops. That is why Hitler looked for a common enemy between the army and his party to be able to approach the troops:

The SA, the enemy of Nazism

The SA was a paramilitary group away from the Nazi Party, although they shared most of the ideas of the Nazism, whose birth took place by a series of Germans who did not agree with the treaties that Germany had signed after World War I and they believed that politicians had sold Germany.

The SA was causing riots across the country and they attacked violently at the rallies of the Socialists and Communists. SA violence was key to Hitler's coming to power as the leader promised that after his arrival, the violence would stop. But even with the rise of Hitler and the demise of the socialist and communist parties, the SA continued to provoke riots. The army was against the SA and therefore Hitler decided to end this organization, although its members had been a large part of the supporters in the elections for the Nazis.

At that time the leader of the SA was Röhm, who had been a great ally of Hitler during his coup attempt and who had asked Hitler to give him capabilities over the Ministry of Defense. Hitler forced Röhm to sign a document that listed the army as a supremacist force and the SA as an auxiliary force to the army.

For the next several months, Röhm insisted that the SA be the majority force, at the same time that Hitler wanted the SS and the army to become increasingly important and the SA to lose power. Röhm's constant pressure led Hitler, to the SS led by Himmler and the army to plan the great purge to end the problem that was the SA.

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The night of June 30, 1934 the call took place Night of the long knives, Operation hummingbird or The purge. This was a night in which a large number of assassinations planned by Hitler were committed in order to finish off his rivals and control the entire German structure.

The night of the events, Hitler met with some of the highest ranking figures in the SA, who withdrew their honors for the disturbances that had caused the previous days and sent them to prison. After that Hitler, accompanied by numerous members of the SS, the army and the police, met with Röhm and his followers in a hotel. Hitler's Companions they arrested both Röhm and his allies, being justified by Nazi propaganda later for having committed treason and being immoral. The rest of the SA had two destinations: they were imprisoned or murdered for treason.

After killing and imprisoning the SA members, Hitler gave a speech in Berlin, speaking of what he considered the greatest betrayal in history, although the reality is that the SA never wanted to overthrow Hitler. After this speech (which even made free SA members ask to kill those who had been their comrades), the Nazis continued their plan and Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda leader, made a call by means of the Keyword of "Kolibri"For the execution squads to go out to exterminate to all opposition.

The SA was already exterminated, the communists and socialists had already been assassinated or imprisoned, so the Hitler's next target was the Conservatives. The SS and the Gestapo committed dozens of murders that night, some of the victims being Vice Chancellor Von Papen, the leader of the Catholic party Erich Klausener, the predecessor chancellor Hitler von Schleicher and his wife, a former member of the Nazi Strasser party and the person who had stopped Hitler's coup attempt von Kahr.

It was on that night that Hitler became the most powerful person in Germany and there was no longer any possible opposition to his power. He had not only finished off all opposition, but also those who had been his allies.

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To conclude this summary of the Night of the Long Knives, we must talk about the consequences that tonight had for the history of Germany, since it was key for Hitler to start the Second World War.

Although at first the murders were to be secret, the number of relevant Germans murdered were so many that it was impossible for German society not to find out. Burning documents and banning newspapers That they spoke on the subject were the first steps and, after that, it was Hitler who informed the population that the murders had been in self defense because the plan of the assassinated was to betray Germany.

The Night of the Long Knives made Hitler get one of his wishes, the get control of the german army, since the troops agreed with the murders. This was because, although some generals had died, the troops believed the information that they were traitors.

The village, mostly, also believed Hitler, since Nazi propaganda had become a difficult machine to stop. From that moment on, Hitler had absolute power in Germany, with the army and the people at his side and without any opposition.

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