The Night of the Long Knives was a bloody purge of Hitler’s rivals in the SA. There was to be a meeting of the SAs leadership in a town called Bad Wiessee, just outside Munich. In the early hours of June 30th, Hitler flew to Munich where he first confronted SA officers who had taken part in a violent demonstration the night before, He tore off their epaulettes, screaming that they were arrested and would be shot. With the SA officers on their way to prison, Hitler went onto Bad Wiessee by car to confront Rohm and those with him. There, Hitler led the arrests, personally arresting Rohm. Some were dragged outside and shot. Rohm was taken back to Munich and put in Stadelheim Prison where he had been held after the Munich Beer Hall putsch. It is said that Hitler had given Rohm the opportunity to end his own life, giving orders for a gun to be left in his room, but when Rohm declined the offer, he too was shot on site.
Other SA leaders were arrested in Munich. When Hitler met with some of them personally, it is said that such was his fury that spittle was dribbling from his mouth. His accusations were also wild, for example that Rohm had received twelve million Marks in bribes from the French to overthrow him. At midnight, they were taken to a forest and shot.
Back in Berlin, Goring, aided by Heydrich and Himmler rounded up some 150 SA leaders who were then shot. Others to whom the Nazis held a grudge also fell victim to the purge. Schleicher was shot on his doorstep, his wife as well. Gregor Strasser, too, was killed. Gustav von Kahr’s body was found in a swamp near Dachau. He had been hacked to pieces. Papen survived but he was placed under house arrest. His principal secretary though, was shot at his desk. The total number killed is unknown, the Nazis put it at 77 but other investigations have put the number much, much higher. In any case, most of the killings were over by July 1st when Hitler hosted a tea party in the Chancellery’s gardens.
Hitler got away with it because the elites were pleased with his work, pleased that it had happened.
On July 2nd Hindenburg sent a telegram thanking Hitler for his ‘determined action and gallant personal intervention which had nipped treason in the bud and rescued the German people from great danger.’ The Defence Minister, Blomberg, had already issued a statement to the army that praised Hitler’s ‘soldierly determination and exemplary courage’. The Cabinet felt the events necessary ‘for the defence of the State.’[1]
He told the Cabinet on July 3rd that ‘The example he had given would be a healthy lesson for the entire future. He had stabilized the authority of the government for all time.’[2] The Cabinet then agreed the draft law for the Emergency Defence of the State that read: ‘The measures taken on 30 June and 1 and 2 July for the suppression of high treasonable and state treasonable attacks are, as emergency defence of the state, legal.’
In a speech to the Reichstag on July 13th (now a chamber without any authority, a chamber consisting almost exclusively of Nazis, and a chamber without thirteen of its members after the events of June 30th-July 2nd), Hitler gave further justification for the events:
‘If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this: In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge of the German people.’
And he gave a chilling warning: Everyone must know for all future time that if he raises his hand to strike the State, then certain death is his lot.’[3]
Hitler had become the law. He could even get away with murder.
[1] Quotes from Ian Kershaw, p. 517 + William L. Shirer, p. 225
[2] Quoted in Richard J. Evans, p. 37 + Ian Kershaw, p. 518
[3] Quoted in Richard J. Evans, pp. 37-8, Ian Kershaw, p. 519 + William L. Shirer, p. 226