- 7 hours ago
For educational purposes
Part 1 looks at how the SA, the Storm Detachment of the NSDAP, began as a group of thugs and criminals, many of whom had fought in World War I.
This group helped Hitler rise to power after the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.
The SS, originally Hitler's black shirted personal bodyguard regiment, was fiercely loyal to Hitler and soon became an elite and powerful group.
Led by former chicken-farmer Heinrich Himmler, the SS soon became more powerful than the SA.
This episode also looks at the rising opposition Hitler faced from within the SA and the measures he took to eliminate this group.
There are personal interviews with survivors and with those men who served the inhuman SS system.
Part 1 looks at how the SA, the Storm Detachment of the NSDAP, began as a group of thugs and criminals, many of whom had fought in World War I.
This group helped Hitler rise to power after the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923.
The SS, originally Hitler's black shirted personal bodyguard regiment, was fiercely loyal to Hitler and soon became an elite and powerful group.
Led by former chicken-farmer Heinrich Himmler, the SS soon became more powerful than the SA.
This episode also looks at the rising opposition Hitler faced from within the SA and the measures he took to eliminate this group.
There are personal interviews with survivors and with those men who served the inhuman SS system.
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LearningTranscript
00:28Transcribed by —
00:30The SS were the living embodiment of Nazism.
00:40They were trained to believe that history was on their side and that the future belonged to them.
00:45The truth and weakness fell off from us.
00:50We want our own fire to protect.
00:53The Holy Spirit will never be released.
00:58Fanatical and ruthless, they were hated and feared throughout Europe.
01:05It was the synonym for the Third Reich, the code word for Hitler's Germany, for Nazi Germany, for terror, for
01:14the death by violence that could happen at any time.
01:21In charge of the SS was Heinrich Himmler.
01:25He was the mastermind of Hitler's police state.
01:30A small, polite man who suffered from headaches, he was an unlikely devotee of mass murder.
01:40I actually thought him to be totally insignificant.
01:45The mystery was that he carried out every one of Hitler's criminal orders without any criticism.
01:55Under Himmler, the SS became the enforcers of Nazi ideology.
02:22Himmler believed unswervingly in the superiority
02:26of the so-called German master race.
02:30His SS, an elite of Aryan warriors, would enforce these ideas.
02:35They would stop at no sacrifice or crime to make his dreams a reality.
02:42It was Himmler who supervised the extermination camps,
02:46the final destination for enemies of the Nazi state.
02:50The camps were staffed by the SS,
02:5340,000 guards of the Death's Head units.
03:00On the battlefront, alongside the German army,
03:03stood the elite Waffen-SS.
03:05These shock troops were trained in more than military tactics.
03:09They believed they were the knights of a new Teutonic age.
03:17The fact that we were genuine Aryans was a very important point.
03:20We, as Aryans, felt superior to other races.
03:26We believed that we really would rule Europe one day.
03:34After Germany's defeat,
03:36some former members of the Waffen-SS claimed they were just regular soldiers.
03:43But although they were under the army's operational control,
03:46these were no ordinary troops.
03:49They were subject to intensive training and indoctrination.
03:53They were taught to give death and take death without question.
04:18This is where you've been placed,
04:19and this is where you are to stand.
04:21And if need be, die.
04:23There was no mercy.
04:24Pardon.
04:27Just as Himmler had taught them,
04:30they showed no mercy to their enemies.
04:33In a series of notorious massacres,
04:36the Waffen-SS cold-bloodedly murdered their prisoners,
04:40whether civilians or soldiers.
04:43At Wormhaut, France in 1940,
04:46a hundred British troops captured in battle
04:48faced the wrath of the Waffen-SS.
04:53Only 16 survived.
04:55We were stripped of everything.
04:57We had nothing to defend ourselves with
04:59and to be just put into a bar and agonised,
05:02drowning,
05:04and then machine-gunned.
05:05And one thing never came in with automatic firing and all this.
05:09It was a cold-blooded murder.
05:13At his peaceful mountain retreat at Obersalzberg in the Bavarian Alps,
05:18Hitler hatched many of his plans for world mastery.
05:23He knew he could pound above all on the unswerving loyalty of the SS,
05:28its ingenious chief, Heinrich Himmler,
05:30and his right-hand man, Reinhard Heydrich,
05:33the creator of the Nazi police state.
05:38Personally recruited by Himmler,
05:40Heydrich would run the Gestapo,
05:42the notorious Nazi secret police,
05:44and the rest of the SS police apparatus.
05:48Feeding off a vast network of informers,
05:51they were responsible for blackmail, torture, and murder
05:54across the Nazi empire.
05:57Hangman Heydrich, as his enemies called him,
05:59had an insatiable lust for power.
06:02He was also a passionate violinist.
06:07Whenever Heydrich unpacked his violin
06:09and took it in his hands,
06:10his face lit up.
06:12He was a completely different person.
06:21He was born to a well-to-do,
06:23middle-class, cultured family.
06:25His father was a composer.
06:32Yet it was Heydrich who set up and directed
06:34the SS Einsatzgruppen, or task forces,
06:38which frequently acted as death squads,
06:40massacring the Jews in occupied territories like Poland.
06:50The blonde beast, as he was known to the Nazis,
06:53was also a devoted father.
07:00He typified many of the paradoxes of Nazism.
07:07Praised by Hitler for his blind obedience
07:09and his killer instinct,
07:11he was implacable towards all enemies of the Reich.
07:19Heydrich lived the idealised life of a high-ranking Nazi.
07:23He directed mass murder from a distance,
07:26while others did the killing for him.
07:34We led them into the wood and sat them down
07:37where they had to wait a while.
07:39And then we forced them in groups
07:41into this hole in the ground.
07:44We shot them with machine guns.
07:52Many of these SS killers had been regular policemen,
07:56with mundane peacetime jobs,
07:58tracking down minor criminals,
08:00or directing traffic.
08:03Under the Nazis,
08:05they were conscripted by the SS
08:06to fight partisans in occupied territories.
08:13These family men,
08:15who'd spent years upholding law and order,
08:17committed some of the worst atrocities of the war,
08:20butchering innocent civilians.
08:25That was their religion.
08:28They believed that by eliminating the Jews,
08:30they were not only improving Germany,
08:32but also the whole world.
08:35You would know, Sean.
08:43In the Nazi death camps,
08:45some six million Jews,
08:47gypsies, and others were eliminated.
08:50They often tried to deny it later,
08:53but the camps were run by the SS.
08:55The killers wore SS uniforms,
08:58and had SS pay books.
09:07For me, the SS is the most atrocious word,
09:10the most atrocious institution,
09:12and in terms of the people,
09:14the most atrocious brutes in this world.
09:17For me, the SS is synonymous with an executioner,
09:21who is standing behind you with an axe,
09:24and who can chop your head off at any moment.
09:28The SS numbered more than a million of their peak.
09:31But how did this organisation,
09:33that began as nothing more than a handful of personal bodyguards,
09:37become the backbone of the Nazi empire?
09:44After their defeat in the First World War,
09:46German soldiers were welcomed home,
09:49but they soon faced unemployment.
09:52The SS was born of the political turmoil
09:54that resulted in many German cities,
09:56above all in Munich.
09:58Many former soldiers joined political militias.
10:01Some fought for the left,
10:02inspired by the communist revolution in Russia.
10:05Others fought for the right.
10:08They wanted the downfall of Germany's socialist government of the day,
10:12the Weimar Republic.
10:13They labelled it the Republic of the Jews.
10:16They marched under the symbol of the skull and crossbones.
10:23The right-wing militias, or Freikorps,
10:25were committed to counter-revolution.
10:28Violent clashes were commonplace.
10:34Marching with the Freikorps at the funeral of a murdered politician
10:37was a young veteran from the front,
10:39Corporal Adolf Hitler.
10:42One of the Freikorps ringleaders was Ernst Röhm,
10:45a former captain in the vanquished German army.
10:49Röhm met Hitler in 1919.
10:52By then, his men were already active
10:54in the streets and beer halls of Munich.
10:56Among his early associates was Hans Schweigart.
11:03I only found out a few years ago that Uncle Hans was a murderer.
11:07He shot a girl, a maid,
11:10because the lot fell to him.
11:12And he had to shoot this girl
11:14because she'd blabbed about a secret weapons arsenal
11:17belonging to the lynches.
11:18He had to warn the female murder.
11:22Röhm was supplying these weapons to his allies
11:25in a new political party in Munich,
11:27the National Socialist Workers' Party,
11:29known as the Nazis.
11:31In 1921, he had founded the SA,
11:34the Sturmabteilung, or Stormtroopers,
11:36to be the Nazis' brutal street militia.
11:40That year, the Nazi party had appointed Adolf Hitler as their new leader.
11:46The charismatic young fascist soon had a band of fanatical supporters.
11:51We didn't exactly run after Rome. We were Hitlerites, us young people.
12:01Hitler was already a powerful orator.
12:04But Rome planned to use Hitler to help the SA rise to power.
12:09A people has been defeated by the war, and we, we are defeated from the war.
12:21Rome ominously said of Hitler, we will sweep him away soon enough.
12:27That made him suspicious, and Hitler naturally had his own, absolutely devoted following.
12:35That's something that no one else had.
12:41As the rift with Rome's SA deepened, Hitler recruited new followers in the bowling alleys and beer halls of Munich.
12:48They would form the nucleus of his personal bodyguard, who'd guard him against any attack, even from Rome.
12:59This was the forerunner of the infamous SS.
13:05Some were pathologically brutal.
13:08Others were relatively moderate and always listened to Hitler.
13:11When Hitler said something had to be done, then it was done.
13:14They were his stooges.
13:15But brutal, unpleasant skinheads, as you would say today, they were not.
13:22About 200 in number, they saw themselves as decent working people, a newsagent, a civil servant, a watchmaker.
13:33They called themselves Hitler's shock troops.
13:36When he made his first grab for power in November 1923, they would be his most committed followers.
13:46The attempted coup of the Hitlerites and the brown shirts began in the beer halls of Munich.
13:52With Hitler declaring a national revolution, they took over the regional press.
14:01Hoping for support throughout Germany, the Nazis believed they'd soon be in control of the entire country.
14:09With 400 heavily armed SA soldiers, Rome occupied the war ministry.
14:15They took hostages and imprisoned politicians.
14:23The standard bearer of these counter-revolutionaries was a young acolyte of Rome, Heinrich Himmler, then 23.
14:32The coup was soon crushed and its leaders arrested.
14:35The Munich Beer Hall Putsch, as it was known, was a humiliating failure.
14:45It was basically an inadequate beer hall revolution.
14:49But Hitler and the SS turned it into a legend.
14:52On the 9th of November, during the march to the Feldhernhalle, 16 of those involved in the Putsch were killed.
15:00But it was the basis of an incredibly powerful legend.
15:05On the 9th of November in München, they found their agreement with the agreement of the SS-anwärter on the
15:11place of the Feldhernhalle in the position of the captain.
15:17In years to come, when Hitler was leader of all Germany, SS-men would take their oaths of allegiance in
15:23the center of Munich, at the very place where the amateurish coup had failed.
15:29There would be lavish Nazi ceremonies.
15:33You see, we lived in the Schackstrasse, near the Victory Gate.
15:38Whenever there was some Nazi celebration going on, you couldn't open the windows for the racket they were making.
15:44Really, they were worse than animals.
15:52After the Beer Hall Putsch, Hitler and Röhm were imprisoned.
15:57Many of Hitler's bodyguards, the nucleus of the future SS, were also jailed.
16:02Munich returned to normal.
16:06After the coup's failure, Hitler and Röhm's alliance began to fall apart.
16:13Hitler, the politician, would favor a more cautious path to power, whereas Röhm, the soldier, wanted far-reaching political change
16:21immediately.
16:26Imprisoned in Landsberg, Hitler dictated Mein Kampf, or My Struggle, setting out his vision for the German master race.
16:33Its unique brand of nationalism and socialism appealed to many of the young.
16:42As a consequence, this national-socialistic phraseology fascinated me at the time.
16:51It meant something to me.
16:55You had to be nationalistic, and socialism was a good cause.
17:03In the workers' district, the social differences were easy to see.
17:08And so they were my motives when I was a young lad of 14.
17:19After Hitler's release in 1924, he soon resumed tight control of the Nazi party, including the SA.
17:27He still wanted them to be the main force in his assault on the Weimar Republic.
17:33They were growing fast, attracted by the promise of food, wages and power.
17:38But Hitler drew his own private army ever closer to him, now officially naming it the SS, Schutzstaffel, or Protective
17:46Corps.
17:46His personal bodyguards, they were under strict orders, to march even against your own brothers, if need be.
17:59From this, a rivalry grew, which was bound to end in bloodshed.
18:05The SA was the infantry and the SS the guard.
18:08The SS was Hitler's personal protective corps, and the SA troops were the footmen.
18:17In the late 1920s, the SA and the SS maintained an uneasy alliance, their boundaries blurring.
18:24One Nazi film even shows SA chief von Pfeffer as the head of the SS.
18:31Heinrich Himmler is seen humbly presenting him with a document.
18:35His time had not yet come.
18:39The brown-shirted SA was still in the ascendant.
18:43In cities throughout Germany, they gathered in Sturmlocale, political centres that were also homes and barracks for the rootless SA
18:51recruits.
18:52As their power grew, they openly defied the law.
18:55One SA unit in Berlin called itself the Murdersturm, the Murder Squad.
19:01Another, the Ludensturm, the Hoodlum Squad.
19:05The brown-shirts accepted prison sentences with open contempt.
19:10It's worth slaughtering a communist pig for two years in prison.
19:14Don't always send my mother to see me.
19:17Above all, I long for you, my comrades.
19:24They were the most useless, good-for-nothings, depraved characters that operated there.
19:35Using brute force, the SA was an effective instrument of terror at election time, intimidating opponents.
19:42Nazi propaganda portrayed the brown-shirts as innocent victims in the electoral struggle.
19:47The reality was very different.
19:59That's what they always used to sing down here, and I, as a small boy, I imagined it happening.
20:13Above all, we knew how many knifings there were between the big private armies.
20:22You see, every big party had a private army with secret arsenals.
20:30National elections in 1928 and 1930 brought more political violence to the streets.
20:36For now, SS and SA stood shoulder to shoulder, fighting their common enemies on the left.
20:44We had to hurry over and force them out of there.
20:52In our squad, we had a vehicle, a truck, waiting in front of the door,
20:56which drove us straight there whenever something was happening,
21:00and then we would jump off and settle it all in a jiffy.
21:08No Marxist dares disrupt our gatherings, reported an SS leader to HQ in Munich.
21:15But the rivalry between the SS and the SA was deepening by the day.
21:20Resenting the SS as political opportunists, the SA nicknamed them Hitler's bigwig guards.
21:27They stole the show on the political stage.
21:34The SA had done all the hard work, and now they arrived, playing the distinguished guard.
21:46Ernst Röhm, the former head of the SA, had grown disillusioned with the infighting within the Nazi movement,
21:52and left for South America.
21:55Letters to him from former SA colleagues complained that Hitler was curbing their power.
22:00Angered, Röhm wrote back,
22:11In Berlin, that led to parts of the SA under the leadership of SA leader Stenners,
22:17a former German army captain, breaking off from Hitler.
22:29They formed a separate political group under the slogan,
22:32and now it's getting interesting, you see,
22:35workers, farmers, soldiers.
22:38In effect, they adopted the slogan of the Bolsheviks of 1917.
22:48In September 1930, the rivalry between the SS and the SA exploded.
22:54Hitler had refused to give the SA any seats in the German parliament.
22:58Furious, the Berlin brown shirts rose against him.
23:01They openly called him a traitor of the working class,
23:05distributing brochures claiming Adolf betrays our proletariats.
23:10Joseph Goebbels, Hitler's party chief in Berlin,
23:13bore the brunt of the uprising.
23:15The SA stormed his office, beating up the SS men guarding him.
23:19The SA even threatened a coup against Hitler as party leader.
23:24Now began the ascent of a man whom many underestimated,
23:29Heinrich Himmler, the new chief of the SS.
23:37He was an almost scrawny figure, pale and difficult to fathom.
23:42He was regarded as a charming conversationalist,
23:45but no one actually imagined that one day
23:47he would be this merciless administrator of racial mania.
23:56Himmler's rise to power was based on a slavish devotion to Hitler.
24:01Himmler saw that the SS had to act quickly
24:03if the Nazis were to present a united front for the elections.
24:07We have never yet disappointed our Fuhrer, he said,
24:10and we won't this time.
24:17Himmler's SS soon restored order
24:19to the Berlin branch of the Nazi party,
24:22sidelining the massed ranks of the SA.
24:25He then began a national recruitment drive for the SS,
24:29screening all candidates for their racial purity.
24:36I first took a look at them,
24:38how they were built,
24:39what impression they made on me,
24:41and then we selected accordingly.
24:44There was such a horde of them
24:46that we couldn't take all those who applied.
24:48Big, blonde, blue-eyed,
24:50that was our first choice.
24:52We would only take the best.
24:58Himmler saw the SS as a modern order of Teutonic knights,
25:02devoted to the Fuhrer.
25:04Officers had to provide evidence of racial purity,
25:07stretching back as far as 1750.
25:12The fascist elite of the SS stood morality on its head.
25:18For them, mercilessness was a virtue.
25:23Hitler wanted a fanatical force
25:25able to destroy all opponents,
25:28even those in the SA.
25:34That was an elite squad for Hitler.
25:40It had developed out of the SA
25:42and now stood much closer to the regime than the SA,
25:47which was just a bunch of civilians
25:50dressed up in uniforms.
25:54But the SA was still a major threat.
25:56So in a bold move,
25:58Hitler recalled his old rival Ernst Röhm
26:01to head the SA and bring it into line.
26:04Himmler waited patiently for the moment to pass.
26:11From the lower ranks,
26:12you don't get to see it all so clearly
26:14when you're marching and vegetating in the undergrowth.
26:18The power struggles that were going on up there,
26:21God.
26:22To begin with,
26:23we were just drunk on power.
26:27On the 30th of January, 1933,
26:30Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany,
26:32its head of government.
26:33The SA celebrated his triumph as their victory.
26:38One shocked observer wrote in his diary.
26:41My God,
26:42this is no conservative revolution.
26:45It is the assumption of power
26:47by the plebs.
26:53Now four million strong,
26:55the brown shirts unleashed their fury
26:57on all non-Nazis,
26:59while the SS remained in the background.
27:06The SA mobs delighted
27:08in the infamous burning of the books
27:10of all writers the Nazis disapproved of.
27:16They threw all the printing machines
27:18out of the window.
27:20My father was very interested in printing,
27:22in books and so on.
27:24It was just unbelievable to us
27:27that somebody could destroy such things.
27:32Orgies of SA violence followed.
27:35Rampaging through Germany,
27:37the brown shirt gangs
27:38imprisoned political opponents
27:40and personal enemies
27:41in lawless and brutal
27:43so-called wild camps.
27:49My childhood friend was arrested
27:52at five in the morning
27:53and didn't come back
27:55until nine in the evening.
27:57His head was shaved bare,
28:00a swastika branded on his head.
28:03He was totally beaten up.
28:08Many never returned.
28:11For one week in June 1933,
28:14SA thugs turned the magistrates' court
28:16in the Köpenick district of Berlin
28:17into a torture chamber.
28:19They called it
28:21the Köpenick Bloody Week.
28:23An eyewitness reported,
28:2635 workers were swimming in blood.
28:29The SA trampled on them
28:30with their boots.
28:32Blood and lumps of flesh
28:33were swept up together
28:34and carried out in buckets.
28:38It was a stark warning
28:40of what was to come.
28:46It was an arbitrary SA regime.
28:52The SA gone wild.
28:56They could now let off steam
28:58with fights and so on.
29:05But all this
29:06had none of the horrendous,
29:09methodical,
29:10routine
29:12that was used later
29:13in the big concentration camps
29:15run by the SS.
29:24In the early years
29:25of Hitler's rule,
29:26the SS had a very different profile
29:28to the SA.
29:30Immaculately dressed
29:31in their black uniforms,
29:32the SS often tried
29:34to present themselves
29:35as the respectable pillars
29:36of Hitler's new regime,
29:38ideal role models
29:39of all that Nazism stood for,
29:41especially for the young.
29:49One of my playmates
29:50saw a cat running around
29:52and took a stone
29:54and threw it at the cat.
29:56One of the SS people
29:57saw him.
29:59In three steps,
30:00he was next to my friend,
30:02grabbed him by the scruff
30:03of his neck
30:04and gave him a good box
30:06on the ears,
30:07saying,
30:08don't be cruel to animals.
30:10He was next to the
30:18and he was next to the
30:23In 1934,
30:24a new formation
30:25of the SS was created,
30:27the auxiliary force
30:28known as the
30:29Verfugungsruppe,
30:30or VT.
30:31Many middle-class officers
30:32from the army
30:33joined up.
30:35Harking back
30:36to past German heroes
30:37like Frederick,
30:38former king of Prussia,
30:39the VT would eventually
30:41become part of the
30:42infamous Waffen-SS,
30:43the Nazi combat troops.
30:51None of these SS people
30:53looked like a beast.
30:57We heard that they always
30:58had the front row
30:59for all the symphony concerts
31:00at the National Theater.
31:04They really did not behave
31:06in an uncultured way.
31:13And it's difficult for me
31:14to reconcile the picture
31:15of these apparently
31:17civilized people
31:18with brutes who would
31:19beat, hang,
31:20and torture men
31:21until they died.
31:28Behind the scenes,
31:29Himmler's SS
31:30was now over
31:3150,000 strong.
31:46Röhm did not see
31:48the SS as a threat.
31:49He thought his own
31:50revolutionary army
31:52of SA street warriors
31:53would enable him
31:54to topple the German army
31:55itself,
31:56with Hitler's help.
32:03Röhm and the SA leadership
32:05wanted to put Hitler
32:06at the head
32:07of this second revolution.
32:14They were hoping
32:16that Hitler would join them.
32:23At the time,
32:24the SA was hoping
32:25to become the decisive
32:26military organization
32:27in all of Germany.
32:30Not the German army,
32:32but rather the SA.
32:38Impatient with the pace
32:39of change,
32:40Röhm wanted to destroy
32:41the army
32:42and create a revolutionary
32:43new people's army
32:45run by the brown shirts.
32:48As a war veteran,
32:50he despised
32:51the conservative officers
32:52of the German army.
32:59It was his bad luck
33:05that the so-called
33:06monocle wearers
33:07on the other side
33:08were far more modern
33:10and scrupulous
33:10than Röhm
33:11could ever have imagined
33:12in his country
33:14farm boy fantasy.
33:16That was his misfortune.
33:22The army's top brass
33:24united against Röhm
33:26with Hitler.
33:27The Führer knew
33:28he needed the army
33:29to realize
33:30his long-held dreams
33:31of conquering territories
33:33to the east
33:33of the fatherland.
33:35The noose was
33:37tightening on Röhm.
33:38He fought more openly
33:39than ever
33:40for his place
33:41in the new state.
33:45Was he Hitler's
33:46staunchest ally
33:47or his most
33:48dangerous enemy?
33:54In weekly newsreels,
33:56Röhm styled himself
33:57as a rival to Hitler.
33:59Röhm loved the adulation
34:01and overreached himself.
34:03Behind the Führer's back,
34:04he ridiculed Hitler
34:05and said he was a traitor
34:07whose orders meant nothing.
34:09Sometimes he even made
34:11public threats
34:11in front of thousands
34:13of listeners.
34:18Thanks to Himmler,
34:20Hitler now had
34:21his own power base.
34:22Protected by the SS,
34:24he publicly flattered
34:25the SA,
34:26but he made them
34:27no promises.
34:38When you were there
34:40when you were there,
34:42you would never have
34:43been saved.
34:45When you were there,
34:45You would never have
34:47Praising the SA,
34:48Hitler was really
34:50softening them up
34:51for the kill.
34:54From Hitler's position,
34:56it was difficult to tell
34:57how devoted the SA
34:58were to Röhm,
34:59whether they would have
35:00staged a putsch or something.
35:03Hitler and his advisors
35:04were afraid of that,
35:06so they had to cut off
35:07the serpent's head.
35:08During Hitler's first year
35:10as Chancellor,
35:11Himmler prepared his forces
35:12for the strike
35:13against the SA.
35:14Hitler told Röhm
35:15he didn't want to be
35:16drawn into conflict
35:17with him.
35:18He genuinely seems
35:19to have respected Röhm
35:20as a war veteran.
35:28Röhm had experienced
35:29the First World War.
35:31He'd been a so-called
35:32pig at the front.
35:35Whereas Himmler
35:36was a latecomer.
35:38He could not become
35:39an officer and saw
35:40almost nothing of the war.
35:42But as a result,
35:44he had an almost
35:45religious admiration
35:46for Röhm.
35:53By summer 1934,
35:55the SS was ready
35:57to strike against the SA.
36:00The Gestapo
36:01had been helping
36:02to collect evidence
36:03against the SA
36:03and draw up death lists.
36:09The SS Death's Head Units,
36:12already charged
36:13with policing
36:14Dachau concentration camp,
36:15practised manoeuvres
36:17for an attack
36:18on the SA's strongholds
36:19in Bavaria.
36:21Throughout Germany,
36:23the SS High Command
36:24prepared its hammer blow
36:26against the unwitting
36:27Brownshirts.
36:33That June,
36:35Röhm had taken a break
36:36from the power struggle.
36:37The SA Chief of Staff
36:39was at a popular
36:40holiday resort
36:40at Bardwiese
36:42in Bavaria.
36:47The locals
36:48now called
36:49their spa
36:50Röhm-ini.
36:52Röhm had no idea
36:54what was in store
36:55for him.
36:59He played the role
37:00of a health spa guest
37:01completely,
37:02taking baths.
37:04In Wiese,
37:05you would bathe
37:05in the morning,
37:06then you would have
37:07a good rest,
37:07then you would drink
37:08a cure.
37:09He really took it easy
37:10as a spa guest
37:11and was completely relaxed.
37:14Röhm was causing a stir
37:16by hiring boats
37:17illegally
37:17and brazenly flouting
37:19his homosexuality.
37:22Everyone knew
37:23that he owned
37:24a love isle here
37:25where he took
37:25his young lovers
37:26and that he had
37:27a motorboat.
37:29He used to go
37:30to that island
37:31quite a lot.
37:32It was a small
37:33reed island
37:34that you weren't
37:34really supposed
37:35to go on
37:35so as not disturb
37:37the ducks' nests
37:38and so on.
37:43Röhm's homosexuality
37:45had been known
37:45about for a long time.
37:47Hitler would soon
37:48use it as another
37:49pretext for his
37:50assassination.
37:56The 29th of June
37:581934 was the eve
38:00of the Night
38:01of the Long Knives.
38:04Hitler was in a
38:05Rhineland hotel
38:06deciding on his
38:07tactics.
38:11He came and
38:13sat in the Mercedes
38:14and he had only
38:15one or two
38:15escort vehicles
38:16with him,
38:17no more,
38:18and they were
38:19closed.
38:20They were occupied
38:21by a few people
38:22I didn't know.
38:23They were probably
38:24SS men.
38:25I didn't see
38:26any SA at the time.
38:27I remember
38:28that struck me.
38:31Trumped up
38:32by Himmler
38:32and Heydrich,
38:33reports came
38:34into Hitler
38:35that the SA
38:35was preparing
38:36a coup against him.
38:38Goebbels wrote
38:39in his diary,
38:40the Führer
38:41is very serious.
38:42On Saturday
38:43he will act
38:44against Rome
38:45and his rebels
38:46with blood.
38:54The door opened
38:56below the balcony.
38:58Hitler stepped
38:59out,
39:00this time
39:01with Goebbels,
39:02his propaganda
39:03minister.
39:05They got into
39:06the car
39:06and drove away,
39:08as I later
39:08discovered,
39:10towards the airfield,
39:12so as to fly
39:13from the Rhineland
39:14to Munich,
39:15where they
39:16then arrived
39:16at daybreak.
39:23At 5.30 a.m.,
39:25on June the 30th,
39:26Hitler,
39:27Goebbels,
39:27and an SS unit
39:28arrived in
39:29Bad Visee.
39:30Their destination
39:31was the guesthouse
39:32at Hanselbauer
39:33Amsee.
39:35Rome,
39:35his deputy,
39:36Heiners,
39:36and five other
39:37SA leaders
39:38were arrested
39:39on the spot.
39:41Goebbels wrote,
39:44Arrest,
39:45Führer splendid,
39:47Heiners pitiful
39:47with a rent boy.
39:49Rome keeps
39:50his composure.
39:53The baker
39:53was the first
39:54to know
39:54that Rome
39:55had been arrested.
39:56He was always
39:57there first,
39:58bringing the rolls.
39:59And that must
40:00have been
40:00between 6
40:01and 6.30.
40:03I don't know
40:03exactly when.
40:04My father
40:05was dragged
40:06out of bed
40:06early on the morning
40:07that Rome
40:08was arrested
40:08and had to
40:09get out
40:09the guest books
40:10because the
40:10Gestapo
40:11were looking
40:11for people
40:12belonging
40:12to this putsch.
40:16Meanwhile,
40:17in Berlin,
40:18Heydrich,
40:19chief of the
40:19SS secret police,
40:21swung into action.
40:25He was
40:26Himmler's
40:27driving force,
40:29the wicked genius.
40:32He was a genius
40:33at tracking
40:34people down,
40:36a genius
40:37of the hunt,
40:38of searching
40:39for leads
40:41and that
40:42gave him
40:42a very
40:42decisive role
40:43in the
40:44witch hunt
40:45for Rome's
40:45supporters.
40:48Heydrich
40:49had single-handedly
40:50created the
40:51SS intelligence
40:52service.
40:53On his orders,
40:54it now did
40:54its duty,
40:55together with
40:56the SS
40:57death squads.
41:03Later,
41:04one of his
41:04murderers
41:05remembered,
41:05there were
41:06eight of us
41:07in Berlin.
41:08Heydrich gave
41:09me a list
41:09with names
41:10of enemies
41:10of the state
41:11who were
41:12either to be
41:12arrested
41:13or shot
41:14on the spot.
41:16The SS set
41:17to work
41:17throughout
41:18Germany,
41:18working their
41:19way methodically
41:20through the
41:20death lists.
41:22Many were
41:23shot by SS
41:24execution squads.
41:28Ernst Röhm
41:29was shot
41:29in cold
41:30blood
41:30in his
41:30cell
41:31at Munich
41:31Stadelheim
41:32prison.
41:34In Berlin,
41:36dozens of
41:36others were
41:37killed in
41:37SS barracks.
41:40By the
41:40end of
41:41the Night
41:41of the
41:41Long Knives,
41:42the SS
41:43had murdered
41:4483 people.
41:48There were
41:49those who
41:49staged a
41:50putsch
41:50against
41:51Adolf Hitler,
41:51against the
41:52Führer,
41:52and wanted
41:53a revolt,
41:54and that
41:54was high
41:54treason.
41:55They were
41:56executed,
41:57and that
41:57was it.
41:58First row
41:59kneel,
41:59second row
42:00stand,
42:01and then
42:01the order
42:02was carried
42:02out.
42:03The individual
42:04soldier didn't
42:04think any
42:05more about
42:05it.
42:06That is
42:06quite clear.
42:08It was
42:08simply a
42:10national
42:10emergency.
42:15Privately,
42:15a few
42:16SS men
42:16did question
42:17the reason
42:18for the
42:18murders
42:19their units
42:19were carrying
42:20out so
42:20efficiently.
42:25one of
42:26them
42:26sat in
42:26front
42:27of
42:27me,
42:28wailing
42:28and
42:29blubbering,
42:29you see,
42:30as he told
42:31me how the
42:31SA leaders
42:32were led
42:33out of
42:33their buildings
42:33and were
42:34shot.
42:36He really
42:37wept,
42:37but nothing
42:38more.
42:40Old scores
42:41were settled.
42:42Kurt von Schleicher,
42:44Hitler's predecessor
42:45as Chancellor,
42:46was shot.
42:50found Rome
42:51terrible,
42:52naturally,
42:53as we
42:53all did.
42:54But I
42:55know that
42:55one time
42:56he spoke
42:56with Rome
42:57and basically
42:58wanted to
42:59win over
42:59the SA
43:00and split
43:01the party
43:01up,
43:03to win
43:03the SA
43:04for the
43:04German
43:05army,
43:07so that
43:08these
43:08well-trained
43:09troops could
43:10be taken
43:10over by
43:11the German
43:11army.
43:12That
43:13was one
43:13of his
43:14ideas.
43:17Another
43:18opponent of
43:19Hitler's
43:19met a
43:20cruel
43:20death
43:20at the
43:21hands
43:21of the
43:21SS.
43:23Gustav
43:23Ritter von
43:23Kahr's
43:24corpse
43:24was found
43:25in a
43:25bog,
43:26mutilated.
43:28Gregor
43:28Strasser,
43:29one of
43:29Hitler's
43:30most outspoken
43:30rivals
43:31for the
43:31Nazi
43:31party
43:32leadership,
43:32was also
43:33assassinated.
43:35There was
43:36at least
43:36one mistake.
43:37There were
43:38many Schmitz
43:39on the
43:39death list.
43:40Among
43:40them was
43:41one
43:41Willi
43:41Schmidt,
43:42an SA
43:42commander.
43:43An
43:44SS
43:44unit duly
43:45visited a
43:46Munich family
43:46named
43:47Schmidt.
43:50When
43:50they arrived,
43:51he was
43:51practising
43:52a Bach
43:52piece.
43:54He
43:54practised
43:54a cello
43:55piece
43:55every
43:55day.
43:58I mean,
43:59it's not
44:00impossible
44:00that there
44:00were some
44:01musical
44:01Nazis
44:01as well.
44:05But in
44:06truth,
44:06I can't
44:06comprehend
44:07to this
44:07day
44:08how that
44:08was
44:09possible.
44:09really was.
44:14Renate
44:15Schmidt's
44:15father,
44:16Willi,
44:16was a
44:16musician
44:17and
44:17journalist.
44:18He was
44:19a victim
44:19of mistaken
44:20identity.
44:21His
44:21surname
44:22ended
44:22in D,
44:23not
44:23DT.
44:28But the
44:29SS were
44:30in no mood
44:30to check
44:31spellings.
44:32Willi Schmidt
44:32was packed
44:33off to
44:33Dachau,
44:34where he
44:34was immediately
44:35shot.
44:38couldn't
44:38they see
44:41he wasn't
44:42the one
44:42that they
44:42were looking
44:43for.
44:44They just
44:44didn't want
44:45to see
44:45it.
44:46They were
44:47somehow
44:47totally
44:48fixated.
44:52The
44:53SS had
44:53now finally
44:54crushed
44:55the SA,
44:56just as
44:56Hitler had
44:57ordered.
45:00The 30th
45:01of June
45:01was the
45:01day on
45:02which the
45:02forces
45:02visibly
45:03separated.
45:04The
45:04SS had
45:05passed
45:05the
45:06ultimate
45:06test.
45:07If
45:08Hitler
45:08orders
45:09it,
45:09then we
45:09will
45:09kill
45:09everyone.
45:12And the
45:13SA could
45:13only watch
45:14as their
45:14leaders
45:14were killed.
45:15It was
45:16a piece
45:16of murderous
45:17workmanship
45:18by the
45:18SS
45:19against
45:19the
45:19SA.
45:38for the
45:39SS
45:39this was a
45:40defining
45:40moment.
45:43It was
45:44then that
45:44the image
45:45of the
45:45SS
45:45really
45:46changed
45:46for the
45:47first
45:47time.
45:48After
45:48the
45:49Führer
45:49said,
45:50SS men,
45:51your
45:51honor
45:51lies in
45:52loyalty.
45:56You
45:56see,
45:56for us
45:57that was
45:57naturally
45:58very
45:58uplifting.
46:05The
46:06SS had
46:07been
46:07trained
46:07from the
46:07start
46:08to kill
46:08anyone
46:09resisting
46:09Nazi
46:10supremacy.
46:16It was
46:17an
46:17organization
46:17of
46:18murderers
46:19destined
46:21to
46:21murder.
46:23The
46:2430th
46:25of
46:25June
46:251934
46:26entered
46:26Nazi
46:27mythology.
46:51It was
46:52a
46:52chilling
46:53example
46:53of
46:53the
46:54SS
46:54motto
46:54Your
46:55honor
46:55lies
46:56in
46:56loyalty.
47:00That
47:00they
47:00could
47:01speak
47:01of
47:01honor
47:01and
47:02believe
47:02that
47:03they
47:03were
47:03honorable
47:03human
47:04beings.
47:05That
47:05is
47:06really
47:06horrifying.
47:13The
47:13night
47:14of
47:14the
47:14long
47:14knives
47:15proved
47:15that
47:15with
47:15the
47:16SS,
47:17Himmler
47:17and
47:17Heydrich
47:18had
47:18created
47:18an
47:18unprecedented
47:19killing
47:20machine.
47:22As
47:23Hitler's
47:23empire
47:24expanded
47:24beyond
47:25Germany,
47:26the
47:26SS
47:26would
47:27act
47:27as
47:27the
47:27Nazis'
47:28main
47:28instrument
47:29of
47:29repression,
47:30terror,
47:31and
47:31mass
47:32murder.
47:40And
47:41our
47:41look
47:41at
47:41the
47:41Waffen
47:41SS
47:42continues
47:42in
47:43just
47:43a
47:43few
47:43moments
47:43here
47:44on
47:44the
47:44History
47:44Channel
47:45after
47:45we've
47:45sampled
47:45a
47:46sequence
47:46of
47:46programs
47:47at
47:47the
47:47weekend
47:47focusing
47:48on
47:48maritime
47:49disasters.
47:50It's
47:50SOS.
48:05SOS.
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