Essay on The Significance of the Night of Long Knives

next event that controlled Hitler’s life was the Beer Hall Putsch, in November of 1923. The Nazi

The choice Night as the title is propitious in that it epitomizes both physical darkness and the darkness of the soul. Because young Elie and his father observe the sacrifice of a truckload of children in a fiery ditch and watch the flaming corpses light up the night sky at Birkenau, the darkness evokes multiple implications. The crisply methodical work of the Nazi death camps spreads over night and day and actualizes the fanatical intent of Hitler to wipe out all traces of European Jewry. Sights like these would draw fear into even the toughest of

Finally, there were Army leaders to be dealt with. They were to be taken into consideration for the army was one of the potential groups who was powerful enough to over through Hitler. These, however, were at the moment quite pleased with Hitler’s actions so far, for they shared conservative, antidemocratic and authoritarian views; but still a matter for their concern and distrust was the SA, a paramilitary army run by the Nazi Party which had a bad reputation for being badly disciplined, and particularly their leader being a heavy drinker, openly homosexual who was in charge of an army over 4 million men, and who was presumed to intend to make the SA a second German army and, what’s more, he was also believed to have plotted to over trough Hitler. To grant full support by the army leaders, Hitler sent the SS on a mission to kill Röhm and arrest SA leaders on what was known as the Night of the Long Knives. He made it look as if he had sacrificed a personal friend of his own

Wiesel. “The yellow star? So what? It’s not lethal” (Wiesel, 11). In this line, Elie tells his father that the yellow star that the jews are forced to put on is not lethal, what does it foreshadow? It foreshadows that the star actually is a lethal symbol and foreshadows the death of those who bear it. “I knew that I no longer argued with him, but with Death itself, with death, he had already chosen” (Wiesel, 105). This foreshadows the death of Elie’s father in a sad tone. Night uses foreshadowing to hint towards further

The Reichstag fire was probably the trigger which enabled Hitler to convince the Government that the communists were plotting against them. A young communist, Marinus Van Der Lubbe, was blamed for the fire and therefore the communist reputation was damaged in favor of the Nazi Party. At the March 1933 election, the Nazi party did not have sufficient numbers to form a majority, however the Nationalist Party joined the Nazi’s to form a coalition government and therefore gave Hitler control of the Reichstag. Hitler seized this opportunity and on 23rd March introduced the “Enabling Act”, which gave him complete control over Germany, however he still needed approval of the Reichstag to pass laws. The Nazis placed enormous pressure on all parties using intimidation in the Reichstag and used the “Law for the Protection of the People” to prevent communists from taking their seats in Parliament. The SS, (which was Hitler’s own private army), physically beat members of

Hitler was “content” with disputes between his subordinates and on occasion, “actively furthered rather than tried to hinder governmental chaos”. Bracher is correct in arguing, “institutional antagonism was resolved by the key position of the Fuhrer”. Through distancing himself from disputes, Hitler transcended governmental chaos and emerged as the ultimate decisive force. Rival agencies competed with each other to win Hitler's favour: the only source of political legitimacy. Furthermore, although leading Nazi figures were given considerable autonomy in creating policy, they were required to work within the framework of Hitler’s ideology and to remain loyal to him. As Overy maintains, power should not be confused with responsibility; although responsibilities were delegated to individuals, there were “no other power centres separate from the will of the central figure”. Hitler dealt ruthlessly with any threat to his position. Rohm, commander of the SA, was executed in 1934, whilst Goering was condemned to death by Hitler in the final days of the war, for suggesting that he should take over government. Although, Hitler distanced himself from daily administration, this apparent neglect stemmed not from an inability to do so, as Broszat suggests, but from a lack of interest in administrative affairs. Numerous examples prove the ultimate executive power of

Fear and terror plays an important role in Hitler’s road to gaining power. He used fear to gain complete control over citizens or people who were against him. The German police were given complete control so that they could arrest or imprison someone for no reason at all. People also feared Hitler’s personal army, the S.S very much because they could

Considering how harsh Hitler’s dictatorship was, it is hard not to wonder how and why the population accepted his dictatorship. Hitler brought the population to this point mainly by the use of propaganda, the manipulation and brainwashing of German youth, and, most importantly, the use of terror .

The Night of the Long Knives was extremely significant in the establishment of the Nazi dictatorship and ultimately Hitler’s power. This night of brutal murder and elimination of the Sturm Abteilung (SA) gave Hitler the support of the army, which he need for both the creation of a totalitarian state and his future foreign policy and also relieved the pressures on Hitler. However, The Night of the Long Knives was also the continuation of many other events, which could be described as equally as important, such as the Enabling Act and the Reichstag Fire.

Adolph Hitler became head of Germany’s National Socialists Party in July of 1921. By 1933 the once unknown Hitler was given dictatorial power. As his power grew the new dictator grew more restrictive and power hungry. Books were burned, Jewish-owned businesses were boycotted, the Nazi Party was made the only party, and concentration camps were opened, all in the first year of Hitler’s

3) The ascent of National Socialism. In 1923, Hitler held a meeting of all high-ranking Nazis in a beer hall in Munich, where he revealed his plans for a coup. This failed attempt to overthrow the Weimar government would later be known as the Munich Putsch, which “gave the Nazi’s unparalleled publicity”. The use of the radio in order to spread the National socialist message played a pivotal role in the Nazi parties’ popular rise in society. Due to the ramifications that Germany faced after the First World War, the nation had unquestionably lost faith in tradition and their priorities had shifted to populist nationalism. On the eve of Hitler’s appointment, victory parades took place in dozens of German settlements. The capital saw nearly a million Berliners demonstrate their commitment to the National Socialist party who had pledged to establish “a strong-willed and strong-armed racial state” in “a very new twentieth-century Germany”. History shows that Hitler’s tremendous and irrefutably passionate presence came about at the perfect time, filling the void created by populace sentiment. Much of the

The vast Nazi rallies including symbolic acts such as the public burning of books written by Jews, Communists, liberals, and foreigners helped vocalize the party’s strength.

As for Hitler, absolute power was achieved by merging Presidency and Chancellorship and inheriting the position of Commander-in-Chief after Hindenburg's death in 1934. Hitler became the Führer and Reichskazler. The abolition of all other parties, the Reichstag and state parliaments, and finally the suspension of the Weimar Constitution helped vest all power in Hitler. Totalitarianism contains purges and reign of terror. On June 30, 1934, he launched the "Night of the Long Knives" to eliminate the populist wing of the SA whom the German army disgusted.

This is evident as on February 1st 1933 Hitler (through mediums such as the radio) broadcasted his “Appeal to the German People” and the SA began to attack the enemies of National Socialism. As a result of this terror and encouraging the use of violence, twenty one days later the police were reinforced with the SA. This was significantly important in the Nazi consolidation of power as it removed threats and made people support the Nazis and Hitler even if the support was drawn out of fear of them being targetted through means of violence and terror, thus increasing support for them. Hitler stressed the issue of the Communist threat which was more important as it meant that more people would oppose them and even go as far as supporting Hitler to effectively legalise violence which their voters believed was needed in order for them to consolidate power and put a stop to the supposed threat. An example of this is that the Reichstag Fire allowed the police to legally arrest suspects without reference to the courts. Another way that the Nazis consolidated their power through violence was at the appointment of 50,000 SA, SS and Stahlhelm members on 22nd February 1933 to create a wave of violence against communists and SPD supporters. There was a failure on the left which weakened the importance of the terror in violence in consolidating power. This is because, the communists and the SPD didn’t believe that the Nazi

Despite all this, the Nazis did employ terror as part of consolidation. They used violence, increasingly without legal restriction. A developing crisis came ahead in April 1934 when it became apparent that President Hindenburg didn’t have much longer