Night of the Long Knives........Hitler's Blood Purge of Political Rivals

[Dover]

........................

By the summer of 1933, the S.A. had grown discontented with the progress of the Nazi regime. Many had taken seriously the "socialism" of "National Socialism" (due to their years of unemployment), and were angry that Hitler and the other party leaders had not. As a result, they grew increasingly distant from the Nazi leadership and believed further steps needed to be taken to achieve substantive social and economic change. They also wanted to become the core of a new German army.

By 1934, Hitler dominated Germany's government, but still feared losing power in a coup d'état. To maintain complete control, he allowed political infighting to continue among his subordinates. As a result, a political struggle grew, with Hermann Göring, Joseph Goebbels, Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich on one side and Ernst Röhm, the leader of the S.A., on the other. The S.A. was the only remaining viable threat to Hitler's power.

The power of Röhm and his violent organization frightened his rivals. Goering and Himmler asked Heydrich to assemble a dossier of manufactured evidence to suggest that Röhm had been paid 12 million marks by France to overthrow Hitler. Himmler presented the "evidence" to Hitler, fuelling his suspicion that Röhm intended to use the S.A. to launch a plot against him ("Röhm-Putsch"). At the time, Himmler had nearly completed the restructuring of another Nazi organization, the SS (Schutzstaffel), from one tasked with protecting Nazi leaders into a secret police formation. The eventual marginalization of the SA removed an obstacle to Himmler's accumulation of power over the coming years.

Hitler had always liked Röhm — he was one of the first members of the Nazi Party, and had participated in the Beer Hall Putsch. But Hitler was under increasing pressure to reduce the S.A. influence. Hitler's industrialist supporters were concerned over the S.A.'s socialist leanings — socialism had been useful for the Nazi rise to power, but the ideology stood in contradiction to nationalist Nazi goals. Likewise, military leaders were alarmed by Röhm's proposal that the German army, which was limited by the Treaty of Versailles to 100,000 men, be absorbed into the larger S.A., which in early 1934 numbered 2.5 million. Some leaders of the Nazi party also joined in the dislike of many conservative officers expressed over the overt homosexuality of Röhm and some other S.A. leaders. The Night of the Long Knives was a significant prelude to life in Nazi Germany, and its use of terrorism to eliminate dissent —expanding later into the Holocaust...cont'd
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives

[Oversea Visitor]

1. Although I cant beleive that it will happen to the US

I now think that it will sleep on guys.

[Chokey]

2. Wake up, it's already happened

Sure, not with actual violence, but with Rove calling liberala unpatriotic, are purges not that far ahead?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

3. Currently, there are different ways to "assassinate" an opponent...

...you can smear them in a whisper campaign, or you can hire a group of people to make false claims about an opponent, or you can catch your opponent in a compromising position.

And if all of that fails, you can just wait until they have to go somewhere on a small plane.

[hfojvt]

6. I find it quite odd/disturbing

that so many people, like Christine Todd Whitman and that guy who coined the term "Mayberry Machiavellis", former supporters have criticized Bush and then publicly recanted. It is like they have been visited by a hit squad or been shown the file that J. Edgar keeps on them which would be made public. Quite spooky, like the Anthrax that got sent to Daschle, Jeffords, and some journalists. Gee, we never did find out who did that, except that it was US government Anthrax. Wow, what a surprising coincidence - NOT!

[hfojvt]

4. Kristallnacht

Is this available as a Dover book? :evilgrin:

Sorry, I could not resist, and I love Dover books. I made a point of having them in my store, even though I could not possibly turn a profit on them.

Check out my signature quote.

[Oversea Visitor]

5. I think the Germans too belive that their country

can do not evil. But hey keep accepting all the justification and next thing you know the world call you evil bastards.
Opps thats today .... gee how did this happen

[jeepster61611]

7. New Krystallnacht

Keep in mind, the night of the long knives was when Hitler purged his buddies who he fely might become rivals. None of us would be threatened, because we can't stand the guy.


BUT, Krystallnacht was the murder of the innocents and the breaking of shop windows. That HAS started, and the red donkeys we will be porced to wear can't be too far behind.

[dummy-du1]

8. I think, this is more interesting...

An account of a gay Holocaust survivor, Pierre Seel, details life for gay men during Nazi control. In his account he states that he participated in his local gay community in the town of Mulhouse. When the Nazis gained power over the town his name was on a list of local gay men ordered to the police station. He obeyed the directive to protect his family from any retaliation. Upon arriving at the police station he notes that he and other gay men were beaten. Some gay men who resisted the SS had their fingernails pulled out. Others were raped with broken rulers and had their bowels punctured, causing them to bleed profusely. After his arrest he was sent to the concentration camp at Schirmeck. There Mr. Seel stated that during a morning roll-call the Nazi commander announced a public execution. A man was brought out, and Mr. Seel recognized his face. It was the face of his eighteen year old lover from Mulhouse. Mr. Seel then claims that the Nazi guards stripped the clothes of his lover and placed a metal bucket over his head. Then the guards released trained German Shepherds on him, which mauled him to death.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Homosexuals_during_the_Holocaust

Does the story sound common?

[Oversea Visitor]

9. sledgehammer and lesbians

Whats so diffirent. Ouch all this shit letting looney lose and becoming king of US. Most likely sledgehammer want to have a fling so girls say sorry we are lesbians.