Night Of The Long Knives Cartoon 3 of 3. A telegram purportedly from the ailing Hindenburg, Germany's highly revered military hero, expressed his "profoundly felt gratitude", and congratulated Hitler for "nipping treason in the bud",[61] although Hermann Gring later admitted during the Nuremberg trials that the telegram was never seen by Hindenburg, and was actually written by the Nazis. [45] Then, on 13 July 1934,[52] Hitler justified the purge in a nationally broadcast speech to the Reichstag: If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann Gring and Heinrich Himmler, ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions intended to consolidate his power and alleviate the concerns of the German military about the role of Ernst Rhm and the Sturmabteilung (SA), the Nazi's paramilitary organization, known colloquially as "Brownshirts". The Nazis aimed to increase their share of the vote so that they would have a majority in the Reichstag. 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. Through these aspects the Nazis suppressed any opposition to their power, and were able to start the road from democracy to a dictatorship. The purge of the SA was kept secret until it was announced by Adolf Hitler on July 13. President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler chancellor on 30 January 1933. Close 'Here after let this be known as the night of the long side burns!' [27] While von Papen's resignation as vice-chancellor would not have threatened Hitler's position, it would have nonetheless been an embarrassing display of independence from a leading conservative. intensified persecution 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. In the cartoon, I can see Hitler standing on a stage, infront of an audience. Just two months later, on 14 July 1933 the Nazis used the Enabling Act to ban all political parties except the Nazi Party. Max Heydebreck, an SA leader in Rummelsburg, denounced the army to his fellow brownshirts, telling them, "Some of the officers of the army are swine. The Night of the Long Knives, which was originally published in Amazing Science Fiction Stories in 1960, feels surprisingly current the character names are the most dated-feeling aspect of the story. [30] At Hitler's direction, Gring, Himmler, Heydrich and Victor Lutze drew up lists of people in and outside the SA to be killed. [12] Although nicknamed the "Rubber Lion" by some of his critics in the army for his devotion to Hitler, Blomberg was not a Nazi, and therefore represented a bridge between the army and the party. The Night of the Long Knives L.O. Reichswehr On the 4 October 1933, it was declared that all editors must be Aryan. On the 31 January 1933, Hitler, conscious of his lack of a majority in the Reichstag, immediately called for new elections to try and strengthen his position. by Roy Morris Jr. 8/20/2018. It's been called "the night of the long knives in the tropics.". 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". Leading members of the leftist-leaning Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, including its leader Gregor Strasser, were also killed, as were establishment conservatives and anti-Nazis, such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Bavarian politician Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had helped suppress Hitler's Munich Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. In this photo, Rhm is talking to a group of SA men, who appear to be listening intently. An atmosphere of panic and terror followed the event. SS men stormed the hotel, and Hitler personally placed Rhm and other high-ranking SA leaders under arrest. After Hitler and most of the army officers had left, however, Rhm declared that he would not take instructions from "the ridiculous corporal" a demeaning reference to Hitler. [35] Goebbels emphasised this aspect in subsequent propaganda justifying the purge as a crackdown on moral turpitude. The Night of the Long Knives J. Marshall, 2007. Despite this, on the whole, Gleichschaltung was largely successful. Let the nation know that its existencewhich depends on its internal order and securitycannot be threatened with impunity by anyone! The Night of the Long Knives was a turning . Germany feared revolution. It was a mass murder planned by the SS for the SA and their members. Gestapo officers attached to the SS unit shot Papen's secretary Herbert von Bose without bothering to arrest him first. Not content solely with the leadership of the SA, Rhm lobbied Hitler to appoint him Minister of Defence, a position held by the conservative General Werner von Blomberg. 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. He lifted his arm in the Nazi salute and called out "Heil Hitler, I love Germany. Courtesy of The Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. Wiskemann, Elizabeth, "The Night of the Long Knives", This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 06:34. Following Hitlers appointment as chancellor the Nazis were finally in a position of power. And let it be known for all time to come that if anyone raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot. On 17 June 1934, conservative demands for Hitler to act came to a head when Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, confidant of the ailing Hindenburg, gave a speech at Marburg University warning of the threat of a "second revolution. Rhm's contempt for the party's bureaucracy angered Hess. 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. While Nazism was not exclusively or even primarily a working-class phenomenon, the SA fulfilled the yearning of many unemployed workers for class solidarity and nationalist fervour. How useful is the cartoon in helping us to understand the events that occurred during The Night of the Long Knives? [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. What does Long Knives expression mean? [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. 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. Nazi propaganda presented the murders as a preventive measure against an alleged imminent coup by the SA under Rhm the so-called Rhm Putsch. "[9], Hitler's speech signalled his intention to rein in the SA, whose ranks had grown rapidly in the early 1930s. Whilst Gleichschaltung aimed to reach every aspect of rule in Germany, this was not always possible. . : Why did Hitler order the massacre of hundreds of Nazis in June 1934? On 22 March 1933, the first Nazi concentration camp was established in the town of Dachau. [41], The regime did not limit itself to a purge of the SA. [8], On 6 July 1933, at a gathering of high-ranking Nazi officials, Hitler declared the success of the National Socialist, or Nazi, seizure of power. On the 5 March 1933, the elections took place, with an extremely high turnout of 89%. By the end of it, Hitler's party had been shaken by a major crisis, and the long knives were put quietly back in their box while all the Fhrer kept out was a wary ear. Despite this improvement, the Nazis still did not command a majority in the Reichstag. Until then, Lippert had been one of the few executioners of the purge to evade trial. 1. [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. 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. It was a purge of the head of the Nazi paramilitary organization, the SA, by Hitler and a certain faction within the Nazi party. This would allow them to rule unopposed and unhindered by coalition governments. 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. 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. The Enabling Law allowed them to do this under the guise of legality. 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. The Party had generally been aligned with the Social Democrats and Catholic Church during the rise of Nazism, being critical of Nazi ideology, but voting nonetheless for the Enabling Act of 1933 which granted Hitler dictatorial authority. ", Coincidentally, Hitler had been incarcerated at. The humbling of the SA ended the threat it had posed to the army but, by standing by Hitler during the purge, the army bound itself more tightly to the Nazi regime. "A chancellor", he wrote, "sentences and shoots members of his own private army! "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.'" In 1933, up to 200,000 people were seized and imprisoned by the SA and the SS. IN THE CHILLY DAWN OF JUNE 30, 1934, TWO BLACK MERCEDES-BENZ automobiles wound their way around the misty western edge of Tegernsee Lake in the . Enraged, Hitler tore the epaulets off the shirt of Obergruppenfhrer August Schneidhuber, the chief of the Munich police, for failing to keep order in the city the previous night. With James Darren, Robert Colbert, Malachi Throne, David Watson. The S.A. were becoming lawless by the early 1930's and were causing some Germans to turn against the Nazis. government, under President Hindenburg. , night of the long knives phrase. Scribd is the world's largest social reading and publishing site. Then came the day he didn't need them anymore. This included Vice-Chancellor Papen and those in his immediate circle. Originally designed and developed by the London Jewish Cultural Centre. Both Himmler and Gring welcomed Hitler's decision, since both had much to gain by Rhm's downfall the independence of the SS for Himmler and the removal of a rival for the future command of the army for Gring. Hold me on this night of the long knives Hold me on this night of the long knives It's coming (Shame about your neighbourhood) It's coming (Shame about your neighbourhood) There's a flood on the street, there's a tide and it's coming in now Yet the concrete burns at the back of your skull And they're saying it's a wave but it feels like a . [l] Luise Solmitz, a Hamburg schoolteacher, echoed the sentiments of many Germans when she cited Hitler's "personal courage, decisiveness and effectiveness" in her private diary. [11] Rhm saw violence as a means to political ends. 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 . Adolf Hitler . The Nazis consolidation of power can be grouped into three main themes: pseudo-legality, terror and intimidation and pseudo-moderation. of any opponents, who were be framed as traitors to the republic. coalition The night was 29th June 1934, the Night of the Long Knives. illusion [72] In a speech given on 3 January 1935, at the Berlin State Opera, Hitler stated that Schleicher and Bredow had been shot "in error" on the basis of false information, and that their names were to be restored to the honour rolls of their regiments at once. However, to gain power Adolf Hitler built up a close and friendly relationship with Germany's industrialists. The support of respected individuals such as von Papen and Hindenburgs son, Oskar von Hindenburg, gave the Nazis further legitimacy for these actions. The Nazi Party used the atmosphere of panic to their advantage, encouraging anti-communism. [79] This story would be popularized across western Europe in the 12th century as part of the History of the Britons by Geoffrey of Monmouth, which introduced many of the Arthurian legends to Germany.[80][81]. One key example of an event posed as moderate was the Night of Long Knives. 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. The Nazis also took several more steps to reduce their political opposition legally. However, this power was limited, as the Nazis were just one party in a three party In British politics, the "Night of the Long Knives" was a major Cabinet reshuffle that took place on 13 July 1962. On 17 March 1935, 700 pastors of the Confessing Church, which opposed the Nazis, were arrested. On 15 March 1938, following the German annexation of Austria three days earlier, Hitler gave a speech in front of the palace in Vienna. The "knives of the long night" episode, as it is now called, took place with brutal swiftness. As such the Nazis justified this measure as implementing necessary security measures, rather than revealing their true motive to remove opposition. [82] However, the term was soon adopted by the Nazis themselves to invoke what they saw as justifiable and necessary measures taken by Germanic peoples against an enemy. A poster from the March 1933 elections. . In Berlin, on Gring's personal orders, an armed SS unit stormed the Vice-Chancellery.
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