The Night of the Long Knives

• Although Germany was now a one party state, Hitler still feared opposition within his own party, in particular from Ernst Rohm, leader of the SA.
• By 1934, the SA numbered 3 million, and Hitler feared many of these were loyal more to Rohm than himself, who was more socialist than Hitler.
• Rohm was also distrusted by the army generals, whose limited army of 100,000 was threatened by the 3 million strong SA, and by other Nazi leaders such as Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goring who saw Rohm’s influence as a threat to their status in the Party. Himmler wanted his SS to replace the SA in importance.
• Hitler believed that Rohm was planning to use the SA to seize power, so on 30 June 1934, Rohm and 100 other senior SA leaders were arrested at a meeting in Bavaria and shot without trial.
• The SA continued to exist but no longer rivalled the army or the SS and was now firmly under Hitler’s control.
• Hitler also used the opportunity to have other potential political opponents murdered in the carnage, including Gregor Strasser who had challenged Hitler’s leadership of the Party at the Bamberg Conference.