The Hitler Diary Entry Series Pt 3: June 30th, 1934 – Night of Long Knives

elumni (63)in #writing • 7 years ago (edited)

Disclaimer: This five-part series details events from World War II, written as diary entries in the voice of Adolf Hitler.

Since its inception, the SA has served very instrumental in my quest to consolidate power within the Reich. The SA served me well in my quest to suppress political opposition, and have served as a police force for the Nazi party.

No one was exempt from their thuggery and brutal violent treatment; these tactics were sanctioned by Herman Goering and myself. During the summer of 1934, the ranks of the SA became intolerable, even by my standards.

Insubordination begins to surface in the summer as support was rising in the SA for Rohm in his attempt to revolt and circumvent me from power. The SA leadership also desired to obtain high positions in the military which happen to upset Reichswehr minister Bloomberg, who went on to tell me that the ranks of the SA were filled with a bunch of thugs who didn’t have the honor or historical, and cultural dedication to Ger-many as the traditional Army did.

What enraged me even further was evidence of treason as Rohm’s insolence was revealed to me by informant Viktor Lutze of a planned strike by Rohm and his associates on Berlin to stop my revolution. To further exasperate my mounting problems, on June 17 von Papen made a scathing speech, calling our Nazi party a “personality cult”, and questioning my greatness as being built primarily on propaganda. On January 25 I called for a meeting with SS and SD leadership to instruct them on preparing for a soon to be expected SA putsch.

Those words from that “tiny worm” von Papen in the treasonous intentions of Rohm have left me no choice but to mobilize against the two opposing groups by the end of June of this year. At a wedding reception, I attended on June 20, Himmler gave me word that conservatives and von Papen had meetings in an effort to suppress an SA revolution, but they also were planning to suppress me as well. On June 29 Goebels, Sepp Dietrich and I sat down to determine a plan of action against the conservatives, and SA leadership which conspired with our enemies the French along with the back-stabbing Schlicher and Strasser to start a revolution against me and the Nazi party. On June 30, the Night of Long Knives was underway.

At 2 PM that morning I flew to Munich to attend a scheduled meeting with SA leadership at hotel Hanselbauer, where the SA had been taking leave until August. Before my arrival to the hotel, I summoned local SA leaders, they were awaiting my arrival as I was in a fit of rage. When they approached, I place them under arrest and told them they were to be executed. I then reached the hotel at 6 AM finding many SA leaders drunk and engaging in homosexual activity. We proceeded to place SA leadership under arrest, including the trader Rohm. After we rounded up all the treasonous SA leadership they were then transported to the Munich prison Stadelheim. I later announced in the afternoon address to SA troopers that I was their leader now, and I had to do so to bring Germany once again the glory. Our murderous frenzy began as Goebbels made a phone call to the death teams in Berlin, giving Goring the cold word “Hummingbird” so that the death squads can carry out phase 2 of the purge.

In Berlin, not just the SA traders felt the wrath of the SS, old feuds with the opposition were settled as Strasser and Schleiecher were murdered as well. It would’ve been a bad diplomatic decision on my part to kill von Papen, so we placed him under house arrest. After the great work, I accomplished Richswehr minister Bloomberg thanked me, and called my ask a “statesmanlike duty”. I was torn on what the fate was going to be for my former comrade Rohm, as I did not want to see him executed like the others. After great pressure from Goering and Himmler, I caved in to have Rohm put the death, only on the grounds that he was not executed but given the opportunity to commit suicide and understand the great crime he committed. When this time came, Rohm did not choose suicide and was executed by Eicke and Lippert. On July 2 is when I ceased the eradication of party opposition and I have also prevented a Civil War in Germany from happening. Praise be to the Führer.