World War II Day by Day

Berlin, Germany · April 11, 1934

On this date in 1934 German Chan­cellor Adolf Hitler sec­retly met with Ger­man War Minis­ter Gen. Wer­ner von Blom­berg, the un­offi­cial repre­sen­ta­tive of the officer corps of the Reichs­wehr (Ger­man armed forces), and reached an agree­ment that sealed the fate of the post-World War I Wei­mar Republic. Behind titu­lar Presi­dent Paul von Hinden­burg’s back, Hitler secured the Army’s sup­port to become Ger­man pre­si­dent upon Hinden­burg’s immi­nent demise. In return Hitler promised to rein in his Nazi Party’s brown-clad prae­to­rian guard, the 400,000-strong SA (short for the German Sturm­ab­teilung, or “storm troopers,” not to be confused with the elite SS, or Schutzstaffel), whose thug­gery under its leader and one-time Hitler inti­mate, the portly homo­sexual Ernst Roehm, had greased Hitler’s rise to power but now threatened the Reichs­wehr’s position as the true national defense force. Roehm had always seen his SA as a peo­ple’s army and replace­ment for the Reichs­wehr (the SA also supplied him with young boys), whereas Hitler was favor­ably inclined to­ward the tra­di­tional power groups: the Reichs­wehr, the arist­oc­racy, and the industrial and financial magnates.

Hitler’s cyn­i­cal betrayal of the SA became known as “The Night of the Long Knives,” a decap­i­ta­tion of the SA leader­ship by another of Hitler’s crea­tions, the Schutz­staffel (“Protec­tion Squad­ron”), which began on June 30, 1934. Not only were Roehm and other in­fluen­tial SA officials elim­i­nated by the SS, but other mis­cel­la­neous figures such as Gen. Kurt von Schleicher, former Ger­man Chan­cellor thought to be scheming with Roehm, and Gregor Strasser, fallen leader of the left-wing faction of the Nazi Party. Hitler jus­ti­fied the mur­der of as many as 100 of his oppo­nents and the arrest of over a thou­sand “muti­neers” in a two-hour speech on July 13 to the Reichs­tag, now short thir­teen members who had been killed in the “Roehm Putsch.”

The failing 86-year-old Hinden­burg was given a tele­gram drafted by Nazi Party mem­bers, which he duti­fully sent to Hitler, con­gra­tulating him on having “nipped trea­son in the bud” and saving “the Ger­man nation from serious dan­ger.” Upon Hinden­burg’s death on August 2, 1934, Hitler’s cabi­net appointed their leader Fuehrer und Reichs­kanzler, a mer­ger of offices con­firmed in a national pleb­i­scite (89.9 per­cent voting in favor) on August 19, 1934.

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Rise and Fall of SA Chief Ernst Roehm (1887–1934)

Left: Although the German public did not com­plain much when Sturm­ab­teilung (SA) acti­vi­ties were directed against Jews, com­mu­nists, and socialists, by 1934 there was gen­eral con­cern about the level of civic vio­lence for which Roehm’s “Brownshirts” were respon­sible. This photo shows Roehm’s (and by extension, Hitler’s) thug­gish work­force in front of a Jewish shop during the boy­cott of Jewish busi­nesses in Ger­many on April 1, 1933. The sign says: “Ger­mans, Atten­tion! This shop is owned by Jews. Jews damage the Ger­man eco­nomy and pay their Ger­man em­ployees star­vation wages. The prin­ci­pal owner is the Jew Nathan Schmidt.”

Right: Hitler posing in Nurem­berg with SA mem­bers in the late 1920s. Her­mann Goering, whom Hitler named as his suc­ces­sor on Septem­ber 1, 1939, the day war broke out in Europe, is pictured beneath Hitler bedecked as usual in medals. Goering, Nazi pro­pa­ganda chief Joseph Goebbels, and Schutz­staffel (SS) head Hein­rich Himm­ler plotted the demise of the SA. Goering per­sonally reviewed the list of detainees who were to be killed in the “Night of the Long Knives.”

Left: Mustered out of the Kaiser’s army as a cap­tain, Ernst Roehm con­tinued his mili­tary career as an ad­ju­tant in the Reichs­wehr. In 1919 he joined what became the Nazi Party and he and Hitler became close friends. He was tried along with Hitler for par­ti­ci­pa­tion in the Novem­ber 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. From his cell in pri­son, Hitler gave Roehm per­mis­sion to rebuild the Sturm­ab­teilung in any way he saw fit. Under both men the SA grew to num­ber over one mil­lion men who en­gaged in street battles with com­mu­nists and Jews. Hitler is pictured with SA Chief of Staff Roehm at the 1933 Nuremberg Party Rally.

Right: Hitler triumphant. SA troops parade past Hitler during the 1935 Nurem­berg Rally. Hitler admitted in the Reichs­tag on July 13, 1934, that the killings con­nected with the “Night of the Long Knives” had been il­legal, but claimed a plot had been under­way to over­throw the Reich. A tame Reichs­tag passed a mea­sure that retro­actively made the action legal.

Hitler, Roehm, and the Night of the Long Knives