The+Night+of+Long+Knives

=** The Night of Long Knives**= After becoming chancellor, Hitler still felt his power threatened. He feared a second revolution from many of the people and organizations that had brought him to power, and he ended up being caught in the middle of the power struggle between the regular army and the SA. Hitler was suspicious of the regular army because it had not sworn allegiance to him, and also, the generals weren't very fond of Hitler, who ended his military career as just a Corporal. Hitler knew that the army was key to his ambitions for conquest. The army were rivals with the SA, who wanted to take over the army. The SA was run by Ernst Rohm, who was a devoted follower of Hitler. Though they were friends, many in the Nazi party found Rohm to be nuance, for example, Heinrich Himmler. Being forced to decide between the army and the Brownshirts, Hitler chose the army because he realized that though the SA was larger, the army would be better in actual battles, and that they were more of a power threat to himself. Hitler negotiated that the SA was to be dissolved into the army and all "threats" to be removed, in exchange for an oath of loyalty to Hitler. On the nights of June 29-30, 1934, the SS carried out the arrests and executions of SA members and leaders. The official statement was around 77 died, but it is estimated that over 200 were killed. Within these nights, Hitler got the alliance of the regular army, the threats from within the Nazi party were eliminated, the army was rid of their rival, the SA became more of a display than an actual force, and the event marked the rise of Himmler and the SS as the most feared force in Nazi Germany.



1.Trueman, Chris, BA. "The Night of Long Knives." History Learning Site. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2009. .

2. Layton, Geoff. __The Third Reich 1933-1945__. Third Edition. London. Hodder-Murray 2005.