The Night of the Long Knives: Hitler’s Rise to Power | EPISODE 1

[Music] the summer of 1934 for a year and a half now Germans have been living under the thumb of Adolf Hitler a few months were all it took for him to obliterate democracy freedom of the press and all civil liberties have been abolished his opponents have been thrown in jail the Nazi party has become the only party yet despite all the repression and violence Hitler's power is still fragile he's torn between the two forces that brought him to power on the one hand the conservative tendency on the other the revolutionaries of the party he's under pressure and he's going to have to choose a side he will do so in a decisive act of extreme brutality sacrificing the blood of some of his oldest companions among on them his longtime friend Aaron Strom the other great figure of Nazism and the leader of the Revolutionary tendency it's a wave of assassinations that will Mark a turning point for Germany and turn it definitively into a Nazi dictatorship thus in the month of June 1934 an extraordinary criminal operation by the state is underway one that will last for 3 days and forever be remembered as the kn of the Long [Music] Knives Berlin 8 in the morning 28th of June 1934 at temple hareport they're waiting for Adolf Hitler who's taking a flight to Essen it's here in this Temple of the now decommissioned Nazi power that the story of the night of the Long Knives begins Hitler is chancellor on this Thursday morning he's beginning a trip of several days to west faia in the west of the [Music] country as he takes off from Temple hoof Hitler leaves behind him a bir Lin plagued by infighting between conservatives the main Nazi leaders and the most radical fringes of his own [Music] party it's 11: a.m. when Hitler's plane lands at Essen in the heart of the ruer industrial Basin from the airport Hitler heads to the wedding of one of his relatives ysep terbin governor of the reinland and the region Nazi leader it's the first step of his journey Hitler wanted to be here to show his loyalty to one of the earliest of his companions who 10 years ago in 1923 took part alongside him in the Munich coup attempt at 300 p.m. Hitler leaves the wedding and drives to the home of Gustaf kup the president of Germany's largest military industrial conglomerate K is one of his strongest supporters in the country's traditional conservative Elite it was he who created the Adolf Hitler fund of German trade and Industry after the usual courtesies Hitler is shown around the factories and workshops Hitler has come to secure C support but also to reassure him and through him all the country's major industrialists for they're all worried about the disorder still being caused by Nazi groups loyal to the Revolutionary anti-c capitalist Spirit of the party's beginning [Music] today Hitler's reaching out to the big bosses only a few months ago it was the workers he was appealing to standing amongst them as if he were one of their own in the factories of K or Daimler Ben or semans [Music] [Music] [Music] it for [Applause] the next morning Friday the 29th of June Hitler began the second part of his journey a major inspection tour of the volunteer camps of the rad the labor department at the Olen Camp the young volunteers provide him with one of the demonstrations of physical strength and perfect discipline that he loves so much he is still to visit camps 210 and 211 where they're repairing the near [Music] [Applause] Canal but suddenly he decides to cancel everything he orders his delegation to change course 10 big mercedes-benzes including the convertible in which Hitler rides head north along the banks of the rind on board his Ed Toom his bodyguard and several of his most trusted [Music] leaders he has decided they should all get together in a place he knows well the drezen hotel on the bank of the [Music] [Music] river Hitler came here for the first time in 1926 he wrote in the hotel register Hitler Adolf resident of Munich Ryder stateless nobody here knew him came on the recommendation of his Entourage of Rudolph Hess actually the dresen hotel was one of Hitler's favorite places to stay a new link with the Ry the German Ry was what fascinated him here and that's no doubt why he came so often the reasons why Hitler came to the hotel at that particular time on that day I don't know but it's not so surprising he'd been coming to the hotel for eight years Hitler arrives at the drezen hotel in the early afternoon the owner and staff were only notified a few minutes before the Nazi delegation arrives in large numbers they are shown to the Grand reception rooms the hotel's only telephone booth is made available to Hitler and his bodyguards so they can remain in constant contact with Berlin an improvised crisis committee is being set up for Hitler is about to engage in a decisive battle against his own friend anrom arrom is himself on holiday about 300 M away in Bavaria on the shores of Lake tar SE an room is the head of the sa the assault section the Nazi party's paramilitary group that helped sees power above all he was one of Hitler's first Brothers in Arms and he's one of his few close friends but today he opposes Hitler headon he's not content just to be in power he wants to continue the great National Socialist Revolution between the hanseler barding house where Rome is staying and the drezen hotel where Hitler is there runs An Invisible Thread that of a common history of more than 15 years that binds the two men a history of friendship and shared struggles and it's about to break R's the only one who talks to him on intimate terms there's a relationship of mutual esteem even Mutual Fascination between the two men Rome recognizes Hitler's political genius which he believes will save Germany Hitler recognizes in Rome a military genius who knows how to lead the troops and this fasc Hitler For Whom the four years he spent fighting in the Great War were the high point of his life an experience of communal courage that gave a meaning to life that he sees incarnated in Rome the great man of war the friendship between room and Hitler first blossoms in Munich in 1920 in the turbulent days of the postwar period room is still in the military a captain in the German Army the reiches V but he Harbors a deep resentment towards his leaders whom he holds responsible for the defeat room frequents the far right that's where he meets Hitler they both join the German Workers Party which soon becomes the nsdap the na party together the two men create the sa the assault section the militia of the [Music] party Hitler's political activities first begin in the nsdap and he's convinced that victory for the Nazis will come about by winning over public opinion using the method of the time large scale public meetings so he simply starts out by speaking in front of 100 people then 200 people then 300 except that at the time the country has just come out of a war it's a country where in 1921 there are still 2 million guns in circulation [Applause] and when someone as radical as anti-semitic and as fanatical as Adolf Hitler gets up on a platform to talk it's pretty risky he could easily get shot because there are communists breaking into the meetings of the extreme right and the extreme right are responding in kind there's real political [Applause] violence what exactly is the sa well it's a security service [Music] there are a lot of people joining the Nazi party the sa and the SS who are veterans that never really reintegrated into society after the first World War and who naturally see in nationalist movements with a marshall even a paramilitary component a way to exist what we forget is that an institution like the say and even later the Nazi regime is a nourishing protective institution almost in a material way it's a pro-life institution doing what we would call good works or public assistance the Nazis call it saim the sa homes these sa homes bring in unemployed young people there's free soup every evening there's a bit of ideological training they talk about how it would be nice to bring some order and fight against the Communists they promise adventure and dignity etc etc obviously it's a very attractive proposition and Rome knows it he plays the card of the charismatic military leader who promises his flock protection action a meaning to life to put it simply the sa is a revolutionary Army those two words are important they evoke an army with the uniforms that say we are the men From The Trenches and we are revolutionaries in other words they aim to destroy the viar Republic although Hitler appears to see the essay as a mere tool it seems to be a tool he wants to hold on to and that it actually has very little economy from the party it's obvious however that Rome as the figurehead of the SA or at least one of its most important leaders in those years wishes it to enjoy total autonomy Hitler is not convinced by room's revolutionary aims but in the fall of 1923 room persuades him to attempt a cou d'etat to overthrow the Republic he assures him he'll have the support of the Army on the night of the 8 and 9th of November Hitler herings the crowd in Munich inciting them to seize power in the regional capital and then march on Berlin but rooms got it wrong the Army isn't behind Hitler and the coup is a total failure the protesters are dispersed the sa are arrested and disarmed Hitler wounded is sentenced to 5 years at lansburg prison with only 9 months left to serve he writes the first version of mine comp the book in which he lays out the basis of his Doctrine drawing lessons from the failed P he establishes a new strategy for winning power not by force but through elections in this new strategy room no longer has a place in the military he leaves the German political scene and goes into EX EX in Bolivia where he becomes an instructor in the National [Music] Army Hitler is in fact the one who learns the lessons of the failed Pooch of 1923 and who says to himself and tells his people that they'll never be able to take power by Force of Arms you have to use tactics because their means are subersive and their final end is to achieve legal election aidea that one can turn the weapons of democracy against it and kill the viar regime with what is its very essence that is free and Democratic elections not only am I going to win the elections but I'm going to win them by looking you straight in the eye and saying that I'm going to kill you [Music] there is a second political arena in Germany not the parliament the r nor the parliaments of the federal states but the street without the sa the Nazi party would have had a much harder time entering the public scene as a political group presenting itself as a radical alternative to the [Music] system in Germany it's not only the Communists and social Democrats and of course the Nazis who organize parades with uniforms throughout Europe there are radical movements of both the right and the left like the supporters of musolini of course who already set aside democracy in proclaiming violence as a legitimate tool of political confrontation from the start violence is an important way of creating a community within the sa you expose yourselves to Danger together and if you overcome this danger together you feel more closely connected it's a very important mechanism [Music] instrument Hitler is playing it both ways on the one hand formal respect for democracy on the other violence on the street this makes the sa a very important part of his game in 1928 the Nazis have hardly any political weight 2.6% of the vote and only 12 deputies no one imagines that this small farri party could occupy anything other than a marginal place but one major event is about to shake up political life the 1929 crisis sweeps through Germany the country only just recovering from the first world war is hard hit there's a sharp fall in production factories close unemployment explodes and in some areas famine takes hold in such a setting the extremists make their voices heard more easily on the left the Communist party but above all at the other end of the political Spectrum the Nazis Hitler's person personality plays a crucial role through his oratorical skills as well as his total lack of Scruples when it comes to making his most demagogic speeches in the September 1930 general elections the Nazi party surprises everyone with a spectacular 18% breakthrough making it Germany's second largest political force for Hitler it's the first meaningful result and it validates his electoral [Music] strategy this first victory has sharpened appetites within the party and the sa is shaken by a serious internal crisis a radical faction is trying to impose its views and to grab Power by force Otto Vagner the head of the sa can't control the situation Hitler has to put the organization back on track especially since it includes the SS its Elite guard recognizable by the black uniforms that distinguish them from the rest of the sa in their brown shirts he needs a strong and loyal man at the head of the sa so he brings back his old companion Aon Strom from his Exile in [Music] Bolivia y one wonders of course why Hitler appointed room head of the sa again when he should have known that the old conflict between the two of them would start up again the old military versus politics conflict but Hitler probably believed that he had already with the Nazi party's great success in the elections overtaken room and that the latter could no longer be a serious competitor that the early balance of power between them had swung in his favor and that it was now he who held the Reigns at the same time it's obvious that room not least because of the injury to his face would never be the great orator he will never be the face of national socialism he is well aware of that it is therefore a tactical Alliance in which room's limited capabilities in those particular areas give prominence Hitler room rapidly regains control of the sa and throughout 1931 and 1932 the team of Hitler and room remains a force to reckon with each of them has his place and each his role one rules the streets through violence and Terror while the other keeps campaigning and appealing to the voters 1932 is the year in which it all really begins there are two general elections because of a disolution of the r talk and there's a presidential election the Nazis give it all they've got with massive and extremely modern electoral propaganda for the first time Hitler's flying around in Planes sometimes making speeches at two or even three different places on the same day hourong speeches in front of 20 or even 30,000 people and he's a good speaker sometimes the numbers are staggering as many as 200,000 people and it's all made possible by an invention of the time the sound systems that allow one person to be heard by so many they may be the most reactionary speeches but technically they represent the very Apex of modernity [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the Nazis message is a promise of Liberation fright unbr freedom and Brad Freedom means that Germany is going to be a great power again and bread means a return to economic prosperity the theme of bread is very important because it's so Concrete in Germany you could starve to death in those days so the Nazis are saying things that Germans want to hear and that they believe which explains in large part their meteoric progress in elections of 22% in 1928 to almost 40% in the summer of 1932 [Music] in 1932 the elderly Marshall Hindenberg is president of the Republic he's been firmly installed in his post for seven years and embodies the values of the conservative right and as head of state he represents the entire institution of the military in April 1932 Hindenberg is up against Hitler in the presidential elections Hindenberg wins but Hitler's score is a highly significant one then two general elections follow in close order in July the Nazi party come out on top with almost 40% of the vote president Hindenberg however refuses to appoint Hitler as head of government so a new general election is called in November and once more the Nazis win and again Hindenburg refuses kenberg says no he says I don't talk to a corporal just imagine Hindenberg Paul Von Hindenberg the greatest general of the German Army of the first world war the victor of tannenburg the man who saved Germany in August 1914 when it was invaded by the Russians stooping to talk to a Corporal when he's 84 years old and Hitler's only 44 hierarchy simply forbids it except that little by little and this is another key to understanding the Nazi Victory Hindenberg is unfortunately going to be the victim of a conspiracy by a powerful click of various chancellors Von pen Bruning schleker who will demand that he put Hitler in power and that's what he does on January the 30th 1933 hindenburg's appointment of Hitler in January 1933 was in a way a temporary solution it consisted of using Hitler as just a figure head of the government while placing around him so many forces of conservatism that this mass movement which Hindenberg could neither understand nor accept could not do any [Music] damage so on January the 30th 1933 Hitler officially presents his government he's only able to appoint two Nazi ministers and president Hindenberg imposes as Vice Chancellor Von Poppin a former prime minister and representative of the conservative right his mission is to keep Hitler under control that very night tens of thousands of sa members hold torch-like processions as if their Victory were total each standing at his window Hindenberg and Hitler watch them pass by their different reactions are striking while Hindenberg immobile just endures the spectacle Hitler gives a joyful salute he knows how much he owes to the [Music] [Applause] sa during the first half of 1933 the government was rapidly reorganized and the sa again played a very important role simply because it fought the opposition with such violence that by the summer of 1933 it had virtually eliminated it when the Nazis come to power at the end of January 1933 it only takes a few months for them to destroy democracy the Communists are the first to go indeed less than a month after the Nazis form a government the burning of the reog on the night of the 27th to the 28th of February 1933 is all the excuse they need to decapitate the Communist Party more than 4,000 of its leaders and activists are arrested and intered most of them in daal the first concentration camp set up by the SS led by Hinrich himler on the 29th of February a presidential decree for the protection of the people and the State signed by Hindenburg suspends freedom of expression the right to Association and public meetings and freedom of the press no more civil liberties in Germany on the 5th of March the Nazi party wins 40% of the vote in the Parliamentary elections despite all the violence and intimidation by the sa despite the ban on opposition meetings and the repression of the Communists Hitler still fails to gain an absolute majority so on the 23rd of March he passes the enabling act that allows him to legislate without consulting Parliament and on the 14th of July the Nazi party is officially declared the only political party within 6 months all political opposition has been wiped out [Music] now there is only one institution left to stand up to Hitler the Army and its representative at The Head of the State president Hindenberg but this Army that now marches past the entire government is still limited by the Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of the first world war it cannot in theory exceed 100,000 men the sa though will soon be million strong and room has only one ambition to see his Nazi army absorb the old German Army when it's the turn of the sa to March past Hitler clearly flips them the Nazi salute the other members of the government including Vice Chancellor Von Poppin remain Stony faced nazification is not limited to the political sphere it spreads through the whole of society at lightning speed the people both old and young have soon taken on all the ceremonials of the [Music] Nazis the raised arm salute the parades and the cult of [Applause] Hitler in Bavaria the land of a bur where she lives to this day an a heist remembers I was 11 years old it was the Autumn of 1933 and there was a huge parade through the Tan Lake Valley it was a big event for everyone there I was on the Terrace of a hotel and I watched the parade go by [Music] there were hundreds of sa everyone thought that room was a personal friend of Hitler's everyone thought he'd helped Hitler come to power later on we heard talk about how room had become far too dangerous for [Music] Hitler in 1933 after its so-called seizing of power the saay numbered about 500,000 members and in 1934 room expanded the organization to more than 4 million members he developed something like a state within the state thus an independent [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] power he wanted to arm the essay but he also wanted to house them offer them positions help them recover economically and reintegrate them into the Working World room came up with the key word the second revolution it was room who wanted to push further the process of taking power the so-called Second Revolution whereas Hitler had interrupted it in July 1933 by declaring the National Socialist Revolution completed [Music] Hitler says to himself the revolution is over at any rate the conquest of power is complete there's no longer a structured opposition Nazism has very quickly and with unprecedented violence Swept Away the forces of the left the trade Union forces the workers movement there is no longer any political opposition at all so by the second half of 1933 the sa in Hitler's view is no longer useful of course the essay only becomes important when it has adversaries now since it has eliminated them the question arises why do we still need the sa and whether they know it or not the sa fears this loss of relevance significantly it's not lost on Hitler and his Circle that the sa are trying to expand their powers in different areas in the military in the police as a social revolutionary group against the bourgeois against traditional forces in the administration and against the party back once more at the drezen hotel on Friday the 29th of June 1934 Hitler knows he must solve the problem of an sa that's becoming ever more demanding sa members helped him to power and after the election helped him to impose all his emergency laws now Aon and his men are claiming their due their reward for services rendered in what settles the matter is room's demands for compensation for his men and for his movement demands which Hitler can only partially meet so within the sa things begin to deteriorate and now Von Poppin is trying to take advantage of the situation between Hitler and room to strengthen the position of the conservatives once again Vice chancelor Von Poppin and his conservative friends are also putting pressure on Hitler they can no longer tolerate that room with all his schemes of revolutionary violence is still clinging onto the SA hler is trying to buy time but by the 17th of June Von Poppin the same man who had him appointed Chancellor 18 months earlier has had enough incited by President Hindenberg he launches a blistering attack on Hitler in a speech at the University of MarBorg he openly denounces all the excesses of the [Music] Nazis it's a signal that you can't keep on plotting and delaying things any longer the conservative reactionaries are challenging Hitler and saying it's time for a decision will Hitler reassure the conservatives in the Reich and especially in the Vermont or will he choose to take his political activism even further and support the SAA but there Still Remains the simple question of what to do with the SAA should it become a regular army a military force of the Nazi regime the answer to is a simple one no Hitler is caught between the two forces that brought him to power on the one hand there's the demands of the sa on the other the public criticism from the conservatives both are a danger to him 3 days after Von pin's speech he visits president Hindenberg to try and reassure him but he finds an inflexible Hindenberg who declares that if the problem of the sa is not solved once and for all he's ready to decree martial law and hand the government over to the Army Hitler would be out Hindenberg is threatening him with a military coup d'a [Music] the fear of the rice spere and the other institutions of power grabbed by the SA or even just an increase in its power was quite real it was not a fantasy in June 1934 room is quietly enjoying his holiday at Lake Tey south of Munich in the Bavarian Alps taking walks and canoeing despite all the tensions and threats he can feel mounting about the sa he's convinced he can trust Hitler and count on his friendship that unwavering loyalty between brothers and arms thing can call into question the last time they met on the 4th of June they agreed to calm the situation by putting the essay on leave and waiting until the start of the new year to decide its future and room obtained permission from the furer to hold before that one last major meeting in Munich it's due to take place in just a few days and Hitler has promised to be there how is room to know that behind his back the inner circle of Nazis who have Hitler's ear are plotting against him to get the furer to eliminate him at the drezen hotel Hitler dines alone but he is constantly besieged by dozens of messages calls and dispatches from Berlin sent by Goring himler and hydri the ever more powerful number two of the regime Goring the head of the SS himler and his Deputy hydri are the highest placed conspirators and Nazi dignitaries all ready to deliver the coup to gross against one of their own by entirely inventing an imminent coup by room to overthrow Hitler to fabricate the evidence for it himler and hydri have a particularly effective tool the SS and its intelligence service the SDS the SS considered itself a totally disciplined organization absolutely loyal to the party leader while the sa only thought of self and wi its own way so conflicts had often Arisen in which the SS was used as a kind of internal party police against the [Music] sa Hitler knows full well that for the past two months himler and hyri have been mobilizing all the SS services to prepare in the shadows a major operation against the SA hydri has the upper hand over the SD the intelligence service that has files on all the dignitaries of the sa as well as on a large part of the German population he has all he needs to draw up lists of people to be eliminated as a priority lists that he will submit to himler and then to Goring [Music] himler and hydri all use the growing conflict between Hitler and room they prepare and provide all necessary evidence to Hitler with his encouragement thus grows a wave of radicalization in which room will be increasingly isolated the na way of government is feudal there's an Overlord called Hitler who ultimately rules on both the disputes between Clans and the struggles of the lower echelons he decides according to what best suits him or those solutions that seem to him the most radical the commanders in rank just below the overlord the hyers gorings Gerbes ribon trops and rs Etc all absolutely hate each other and Rome is no exception he hates the others as they hate him moreover with all his activism and all his plans he worries the other Sidekicks of the furer and they're intelligent enough to sit on all their own constant quarreling for a while in order to unite against him Goring for example as head of the Prussian Administration finds himself up against room who's trying to extend his own influence himler as a head of the political police is absolutely loyal to Hitler so he too is up against room finally there's the rights there which believes itself in danger because of room's political and Military Ambitions they're thus forms between these various factions LED of course by Hitler a constellation that shares a common interest in the elimination of the leaders of the sa himler hyrich and guring can count on another of arr's adversaries the Army it offers to provide the necessary arms for the operations as well as its support out in the field everything's organized everyone's in place but it's all put on hold on Hitler's decision alone himler hyrich and guring urge him to act speedily and to turn on his old friend Aron Str at 11:00 a.m. Goring sends Hitler a final report detailing the alleged PCH that room is preparing it plunges Hitler into a state of exhilaration and frenzied rage at 1:00 in the morning it's himmler's turn to call Hitler from Berlin he tells him that the sa has mobilized for today Saturday Hitler starts screaming and cursing and hurridly leaves the hotel for the Airfield at Bond once Hitler walks through that door the criminal Relentless night of the Long Knives has begun for he had other plans the fight against the Jews and the war were Hitler's most important goals to achieve his goals Hitler will go to Munich to confront room and the leaders of the sa in person he will eliminate them by the Dozen in an unprecedented wave of political assassinations his old friend Aon Strom will be one of the first to be thrown in prison and the last to be executed then Hitler will be truly triumphant Hitler PES zigy now he will be the sole true master of Germany the Knight of the Long Knives will be the opening act to all the horrors of Nazism [Music]

Channel: SLICE Full Doc

Views: 39,327

Keywords: documentary, free documentary, raw, history, nazism, hitler, night of the long knives, WW2, historical events, terror, third reich, political purge, germany, europe

Id: L55kJuw2QzQ

Length: 46min 7sec (2767 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 19 2024