June 30 - The Night of the Long Knives

This Day in History: 30 June 2020

 

30 June 1934

 

86 years ago, today, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler ordered a bloody purge of his own party members in the Night of the Long Knives. Hundreds of Nazis were assassinated as Hitler thought they had the potential to become political enemies. The leadership of the Nazi Storm Troopers, the SA, was especially targeted. The purge confirmed Hitler's supremacy, as well as successfully eliminating the SA as a threat. In the early 1920s, Hitler's Nazi Party had grown full of resentful Germans that sympathised with the party's hatred of the country's democratic government, leftist politics and Jews. In November, the Nazis launched their first attempt at seizing the German government by force, but the uprising was suppressed, leading to Hitler's arrest and a sentence of five years in prison.

 

While in jail, Hitler spent his time dictating his autobiography, 'Mein Kampf', and after only nine months, he was released due to political pressure from Nazi Party supporters. The party was reorganised during the next few years, before Hitler was appointed chancellor by President Paul von Hindenburg, hoping that Hitler would be brought down as a member of the cabinet. However, Hitler's political power was underestimated, as one of the new chancellor's first acts was to call for a general election. The police, under Nazi Hermann Goering, suppressed much of the opposition before the election, and Hitler took on absolute power shortly after through the Enabling Acts. Hindenburg died in 1934, thus dismantling the last remains of the democratic government, paving the way for Hitler's desire for war and genocide.

 

Want to find out more about the Night of the Long Knives? Click here for more information, or here for more on Hitler's rise to power. Click here for a video that explains the events from the Night of the Long Knives.