In late June and early July, 1934, over three to four days, German dictator Adolf Hitler had as many as one hundred of his enemies, and some others, murdered. The slaughter began with former Hitler sidekick and supporter Ernst Roehm, leader of the SA (popular known as the “Storm Troopers”), a Nazi-related militia gone rogue.
Hitler was trying to transition, temporarily, at last, from a revolutionary to a democratic politician. He was appointed Chancellor (like prime minister) by German President von Hindenburg over a year earlier. Roehm and other SA leaders didn’t like Hitler transition and wanted to keep the radical Nazi revolution going. Hitler came regard Roehm and others as hindrances and threats to his leadership.
Hitler, together with his cronies Himmler and Goering, decided to eliminate all their leading enemies in one fell swoop. The Gestapo did much of the killing. A few people were murdered unintentionally. That is, they were confused with the true intended victims.
Some historians estimate the total number killed at over 100, perhaps as many as 700 (although that seems an inflated number but not if one includes in the number many killed later at Dachau and other places where Hitler sent dissidents).
The vast majority of Germans supported the massacre because Hitler said it was necessary to avert a coup against the German government. Most of the victims, however, didn’t even know each other. There was no coup in the works.
The massacre has been labeled “The Night of the Long Knives.”
It was not the only case in which dictators murdered or arrested their enemies only for the purposes of revenge and/or elimination of political opposition. Italian dictator Mussolini and Spanish dictator Franco carried out similar Night. However, they were not as well known because they were carried out over longer periods of time.
German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoeller later became a victim of Hitler’s attempted elimination of all opposition, although he survived his “detention” at Dachau. After WW2 he said “First they came for the communists and I didn’t speak out…then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.” In the poem he mentioned socialists and Jews.
For those of you who do not live in America at this terrible time…President Donald Trump is ordering the United States Department of Justice to investigate and indict and prosecute his political enemies. He says publicly that he does not have a “list,” but he has named some. Most observers and objective commentators say these targeted political enemies have committed no other crime than opposing Trump. However, many scholars of US law say, rightly, I suspect, that it is almost impossible to avoid violating some federal law(s) because there are so many and some contradict each other.
Here, following Niemoeller, I speak out for James Comey. Is he totally and absolutely innocent? I don’t know. He wants his day in court. He is confident he will be acquitted by a jury of his peers. However, one federal prosecutor already declared that there was not enough evidence to convict him so he/she dropped the case.
Please pray for America. Our Night of the Long Knives is beginning and is likely to be less violent and more drawn out than Germany’s. However, we must ask, how do we know? Anytime a national leader announces that he seeks revenge on his political enemies, all lovers of freedom must speak out against that.
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