The Tragedy Of The Long Knives: Adolf Hitler's Intrigue That Ends The Massacre Of Political Opponents

Adolf Hitler (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Adolf Hitler came to power over Germany in 1934. Like most dictators, he did not want the slightest gap that could potentially undermine his power, including from his immediate environment. Therefore, in anticipation of a coup, he used divide and rule tactics which led to the massacre of his own friends. The famous event was called the "Long Knife Night Tragedy."

The tragedy of the massacre, also known as Operation Hummingbirds, was brief but gruesome. This massive "purge" killed at least 85 people for political reasons.

Quoting the Jewish Virtual Library page, Hitler deliberately ignited the intrigue of leaders in his government to compete with each other for positions of senior officials. Even though one of the consequences of this policy could make people in their ranks hate each other.

Just right. There is one person who hates the most among the elite. He is the leader of the elite Sturm Abteilung (SA) troop, Ernst Rohm. The reason is, the SA, the troops that the Nazi party used to achieve power, were moncer under Rohm's leadership.

These troops succeeded in mobilizing as many as three million members. Apart from Rohm's brilliance, the other elites were worried that the mighty power would get rid of them one by one. They rack their brains so that what they worry about does not happen.

Apart from the SA, there was another major Nazi security agency, namely the Schutzstaffel (SS). SS leader Heinrich Himmler became one of those people who didn't like Rohm and had the ambition to overthrow him.

Then, Himmler had a way to take down Rohm. He enlisted the help of Reinhard Heydrich, another SS officer to collect documents about Rohm. Heydrich, who was also afraid of Rohm, gathered evidence that Rohm had been bribed 12 million marks by the French to overthrow Hitler.

At first Hitler did not believe the documents Heydrich provided, because he liked Rohm's abilities. After all, Rohm was one of the Nazi party leaders and its main supporters. Apart from that, the SA under Rohm's leadership also played an important role in crushing the opposition during the elections of 1932 and 1933.

Start of the hummingbirds operation

But Hitler had his own reasons for getting rid of Rohm. Apart from complaints from Hitler's staunch supporters about Rohm, the generals of his army also feared that the SA, which had more than three million members, could absorb a much smaller German army into its ranks and thus make Rohm their leader.

Meanwhile, the wave of opponents of Rohm grew bigger. The industrialists who supported the Nazi winning funds also resented Rohm because of his socialist economic views. Besides that, apart from Rohm, other senior SA party leaders were ridiculed a lot because many of them were homosexual.

Hitler slowly began to think that Rohm and the SA were dangerous enough for his rule. Himmler fanned Hitler's fears by giving him new information about Rohm's coup plans. With this news, Hitler ordered all SA leaders to attend a meeting at the Hanselbauer Hotel in Wiesse.

On 29 June 1934 Hitler arrived at Wiesse with the SS troops. The next day, on June 30, 86 years ago or in 1934, the Long Knife Night tragedy occurred. Rohm and 200 other senior SA officers were arrested on their way to Wiesse.

Not a few SA troops were shot dead after being captured. But Hitler had time to forgive Rohm for remembering his services to the Nazis.

After a lot of pressure from other elites including Himmler, Hitler finally agreed that Rohm should die. He allowed Rohm to kill himself instead of being executed.

Rohm refused and asked to be killed by Hitler's own hands if he did so. After that, finally two SS troops shot Rohm.

Röhm was replaced by Victor Lutze as head of the SA. Lutze was a weak man and the SA was slowly losing its power in Hitler's Germany. Himmler's Schutzstaffel (SS) grew rapidly over the next few years, replacing the SA as the dominant force in Germany.