All language subtitles for H-B.04of13.Night.of.the.Long.Knives.x264.AC3.MVGroup.org_track6_[eng]

Powell: Adolf Hitler caused
the deaths of 50 million people.

An entire nation
followed him to ruin.

He was hated
by those he persecuted,

and even by some of
his own commanders --

yet in 25 years,

no one managed to kill him.

Winston Churchill
had very few bodyguards,

whilst Hitler had thousands.

He needed them.

During his travels
across Europe,

there were over 40 attempts
on his life.

Now with access to captured
original SS records,

the producers of
"Churchill's Bodyguard"

can reveal
for the first time

in this new series

how fate and a small number
of hand-picked bodyguards

helped this evil genius
to cheat death

on so many occasions.

Why did no one manage to kill
Adolf Hitler?

Enough people wanted to --

but as this series shows,

it was not as simple
as it sounds.

The infamous
"Night of the Long Knives"

was Hitler settling old scores

like some Mafia boss,

wiping out
most of his deadly enemies

in one long bloody session.

But it was also
a test of loyalty

for his closest companions.

Would they step up

and commit murder for him?

He wanted everyone close to him
to taste blood that night.

The "Blood Purge,"
as it was also called,

was the climax
of a bitter rivalry

between the brown-shirted SA

and the black-uniformed SS,

over who could provide
the best protection

for Hitler and his Nazi dynasty.

It was a battle
of the bodyguards.

The Night of the Long Knives
had its origin

in the extraordinary character
of Ernst Röhm.

Born in Munich in 1887,

he came from a family of
prominent civil servants.

Röhm joined the army

and served in the trenches of
the Western Front

during World War I.

As a company commander,

he was severely wounded during
the assault on Verdun,

receiving the scars
that disfigured his face.

It was during active service

that Röhm developed a loathing

for the Prussian
military establishment.

Man: "We have got to produce
something new.

"Some new organization.

"The generals are
a lot of old fogies.

They never have a new idea."

Powell: He was
a natural revolutionary.

At the end of World War I,

the victorious Allies were
determined to make sure

that Germany could never
go to war again.

The Versailles Treaty slashed

the new Weimar Republic's army

to just 100,000 men.

Captain Röhm was one of
the elite kept on.

But Rohm's life
took a new direction in 1920

when the army instructed him
to infiltrate

a small right-wing party --

the German Workers, or "D.A.P."

It was then that
the 33-year-old captain

first heard
a former corporal speaking.

Adolf Hitler articulated

the rage Röhm felt against
the politicians

who had let down the troops,

and created the mess
that Germany was in.

In July 1921,
Hitler was elected leader

of what he renamed

the National Socialist German
Workers Party, or Nazis.

Within days,
he had selected Röhm

to organize a unit
to guard party meetings,

and disrupt those
of opponents --

the Sturmabteilung, or SA.

But Röhm was not confirmed
as its leader.

Hitler wanted someone
with a higher profile,

and he found that
in the popular war hero

Hermann Göring,
who joined the Nazis in 1922.

An ex-fighter ace,

and winner of Germany's highest
award for valor --

the "Pour le Merite,"
or "Blue Max" --

Göring was put in
over Röhm's head.

It was the beginning of a feud

which was to have
fatal consequences.

At the same time,
a smaller group of SA men

was hived off to be
a personal bodyguard for Hitler

called the Stosstrupp,
or Assault Squad.

It was the beginning of the SS,

which was eventually to become

the most fearsome and sinister
organization in the Nazi state.

As the SA grew in numbers

to become a paramilitary force
that would challenge even

the authority of
the regular German army,

the SS broke away to become
an ultra-ruthless elite.

It dedicated itself

to the personal protection
of Adolf Hitler,

and the destruction
of all his enemies outside --

and inside --
the Nazi party.

The later rivalry between
the SA and the SS

would explain
much of the ferocity

of the Night of the Long Knives,

and the eventual fate
of Ernst Röhm.

In 1923, Röhm took part in
Hitler's Munich Putsch,

and was imprisoned
when this collapsed.

After his release,
Röhm waited eagerly

to revive the SA
once Hitler was also freed.

But he was
severely disappointed.

Hitler no longer favored
armed revolution.

When he re-entered politics,

he wanted to pursue
a constitutional path to power.

Hitler wanted the SA go back
to being a political militia,

guarding meetings

and providing muscle
on the streets.

But Röhm disagreed.

He wanted the SA to be

a paramilitary
revolutionary organization,

capable of seizing power
by force.

The clash culminated in 1925,
with Hitler sacking Röhm.

He thanked him wholeheartedly
for his early support,

but he could not tolerate

a revolutionary
and semi-independent SA.

Disillusioned,

Röhm sailed to Bolivia
to work as a military adviser.

It the meantime,
Hitler gave command of the SA

to an ex-Freikorps commander --

Captain Pfeffer von Salomon.

Within five years,

Hitler had achieved his aim

of winning electoral support,

and stood on the verge of

gaining power in government.

This was largely due to
Germany's plunge

into deep recession after
the Wall Street Crash of 1929.

Thousands of unemployed
and frustrated young men

joined the ranks
of the SA Brown Shirts.

It soon became a massive force

which rivaled the power of
the small Reichswehr army.

In its ranks
were many left-wingers

who believed strongly in

the Socialist aspect
of the Nazi Party.

One of these was
Walter Stennes,

leader of the SA in Berlin.

In September 1930,
he led a mutiny

accusing Hitler of betraying
the Nazis revolutionary cause.

This uprising was quelled

with the help of the SS
and the police.

But it was a dire warning
for Hitler.

He took direct command
of the SA,

and sent a message to Röhm
in Bolivia,

asking him to come back

as his deputy
and get a grip on it.

It was a tremendous gamble.

Hitler had already
sacked Röhm once

because he wanted to
turn the SA into

an independent band
of revolutionary warriors.

But now
Hitler had little choice.

The SA was getting
out of control,

and he knew Röhm was
a ruthless disciplinarian.

Events had moved on

since Röhm had last seen Hitler.

The Fuhrer had grown in stature

as a national politician --

surely that must mean that
Röhm would toe the line?

[Speaking German]

Röhm was flattered and excited
by the new task.

But as the Brown Shirt ranks

formed up behind him
in their hundreds of thousands,

he got the same yearning
to transform

this tremendous energy
into a revolution.

It was exactly what Hitler
didn't want.

But this time the SA was not

the only Nazi force in town --

Hitler could call on the SS,

and it was only too willing to
square up to the troublesome SA.

The SS's ruthless leader,
Heinrich Himmler,

had marched with Röhm during
the Munich putsch attempt,

and was theoretically
his subordinate.

But now he saw his boss
as a rival

to be undermined and destroyed.

And as Röhm's power mushroomed,

there were plenty of
other people

who would be only too happy
to destroy him --

not just to prove their loyalty
to their Fuhrer,

but also to further
their own ambitions.

Ernst Rohm proved a brilliant
leader of young thugs.

He organized the SA
like a general,

and greatly increased
its membership.

From some 100,000 men,

Röhm doubled the figure
within a year --

and by the end of 1932,

he commanded over half a million
Brown Shirts.

The potential threat
from this horde

alarmed not only the government,

but other parts of
the German establishment,

including the regular army.

The SA was now five times larger
than the Reichswehr.

Generals viewed it with envy --
and fear.

Röhm made no bones

about his ambition
to turn his Brown Shirts

into the real defenders of
the Third Reich --

a people's army
that would remove

the old-fashioned
Prussian establishment.

Many years later, Walter Stennes
described his ambitions --

Stennes: He wanted

the SA to be so powerful

that they could

control the army,

in time replace the army.

Powell:
But Röhm had a major weakness --

he was a voracious homosexual.

He appointed
many of his gay friends

to high ranks within the SA,

and the Brown Shirts
were soon notorious

for their scandalous
sexual behavior.

Hitler, at that time,

had no strong feelings

against homosexuality,

and ignored the behavior of Rohm
and his comrades.

He said the SA was not
a moral institution

for grooming young ladies,
but a club for fighters.

But frequent sex scandals
did not play well

among other more prudish members
of the Nazi party.

Heinrich Himmler,

Röhm's subordinate
and head of the SS,

considered homosexuality
to be degenerate.

He wanted it rooted out.

This gave him ample excuses
to act against Röhm,

as his aide, SS general
Karl Wolff later recalled.

Interpreter:
Excesses have always happened

and will always happen.

What is decisive is how
the leadership reacts

at any given moment
to stop these excesses.

We in the SS always insisted
that action should be taken.

Powell: On January 30, 1933,
the SA celebrated

as Hitler was appointed
Chancellor of Germany --

but he headed
a coalition government,

and many members
of the political establishment

were wary of his brutal methods.

The SA helped complete
his grip on power

by grabbing control of many
government institutions

throughout the country.

[Shouting in German]

They violently crushed
opposition from the Communists.

They ran riot
in the major cities,

imprisoning and torturing

rival politicians.

British journalist Hugh Greene

later recalled
his first impressions.

Greene: When I started work
as a journalist in Germany

in the winter of 1933,

I saw the stormtroopers

in the days of their glory --

the strutting bully boys
of the streets

in every town and village,

sure that they,
four million strong,

were the masters now.

Powell: Röhm was at
the peak of his power.

But success
was going to his head.

He wasn't content with

dominating the existing
political system --

he now wanted

revolutionary changes.

The Reichswehr's generals
were well aware

that they were a prime target,

and complained to
the new Chancellor

about Röhm's parallel army.

Major-General
Walther von Reichenau,

a senior officer
in the War Ministry,

suggested that the SA might be
combined with the Stahlhelm --

a massive reservoir
of ex-soldiers --

to become a militia under
the control of the Reichswehr.

Surprisingly, Röhm seemed to
accept the idea,

but then ensured that

once the Stahlhelm
had been absorbed,

the massively enlarged SA

remained under his control.

He was now in charge of
a paramilitary army

numbering a startling
4.5 million men.

Outwitted, the generals appealed
directly to Hitler

to curb the growth of the SA.

The Fuhrer seemed reluctant
to confront his old comrade,

and attempted to cobble together
an agreement.

Behind the scenes,

Röhm was contemptuous
of the Fuhrer's peace-making.

At a dinner in March 1934,

drunk and surrounded by
his SA cronies,

he let rip his true feelings --

Man: I have not
the slightest intention

of me keeping this agreement.

Hitler is a traitor,

and at the very least
must get out.

If we can't get there with him,

we'll get there without him.

Powell: This was high treason.

One of the SA officers present
was Viktor Lutze.

Shocked by Röhm's words,

he traveled to Hitler's
private residence, the Berghof,

to report them.

The Fuhrer listened to Lutze,

but still seemed reluctant

to take action against
his old friend Röhm.

Hitler might hesitate,

but Röhm's growing power

had the effect of bringing
two dangerous enemies

together against him.

Röhm's ambitious deputy,
Heinrich Himmler,

had been engaged in
a bitter power struggle

against Hermann Göring.

The Reichsfuhrer-SS

wanted to complete his control
of Germany's police forces

by taking over that of Prussia,
which was Göring's fiefdom.

But both men
now realized that Röhm

and his massive army
were a far greater threat.

Göring agreed that Himmler
take over the Prussian force --

including its dreaded
secret police department,

the Gestapo.

In return,
Himmler would support

Göring's drive to
command Germany's armed forces,

an ambition which was
being blocked by Röhm.

In April 1934,

the two men persuaded Hitler to
put the Prussian police force --

including the Gestapo --
under Himmler.

By combining
the SS and the Gestapo,

Himmler now had
a powerful machine

to take on the SA.

The Reichsfuhrer-SS instructed
his ruthlessly efficient deputy,

Reinhard Heydrich,
to draw up plans

to eliminate Röhm.

He was determined that
henceforth he would control

the internal security
of the Reich,

and be the man
ultimately responsible

for Hitler's bodyguard.

In mid-1933,
the threat that the SA

might pose to Hitler's safety

had seemed proven --

a Brown Shirt was spotted in
the grounds of the Berghof.

SS security guards thought he
was acting suspiciously

and arrested him.

A gun was found on him,

and he seemed intent on
assassinating the Führer.

Now, nine months later,

the three most ruthless men
in the Third Reich --

Göring, Himmler and Heydrich --

were determined
to destroy Ernst Röhm.

Only their leader Adolf Hitler
remained indecisive.

Himmler and Heydrich began to
gather evidence against the SA.

But apart from a few
SA arms dumps,

there was surprisingly
little proof

of any plans
to rebel against Hitler.

It was mainly
unsubstantiated rumor.

Despite this,
the plotters were soon rewarded.

For Hitler was now forced

to recognize
the harsh political necessity

of acting against Röhm --

whatever pangs of guilt
he might feel about betraying

his old street-fighting comrade.

On April 10, 1934,
he went to Wilhelmshaven

and boarded the pocket
battleship Deutschland.

The official reason was to
review a naval exercise.

But while on board
he held a secret meeting with

General Werner von Blomberg,
the minister of war,

General Werner von Fritsch,
commander of the army,

and Admiral Erich Raeder,
head of the navy.

Hitler agreed to curb
Röhm and the SA

in return for military support

to make him president
when Hindenburg died.

Nevertheless, Hitler still
hoped to avoid force.

On June 4, 1934,

he had a five-hour
private discussion with Röhm

in the Reich Chancellery
in Berlin.

He tried to convince him

to scale down the activities
of the SA.

Röhm agreed to take a break.

He would go to Bad Wiessee,
a resort south of Munich.

The entire SA was ordered to
stand down for the summer.

But the pressure on Hitler

continued to grow.

On June 16, in Venice during

his first state visit to Italy,

his fellow dictator,
Benito Mussolini,

urged him to muzzle the SA.

And the next day,
without warning, in Marburg,

Franz von Papen, the non-Nazi
Vice-Chancellor of Germany

and one of the men who had
miscalculated so badly

in bringing Hitler to power,

made a speech criticizing

the excesses
of the Nazi regime --

by which he meant
Ernst Röhm's Brown Shirts.

The Nazis managed to stop
the speech from being broadcast

and seized all the newspapers
which printed it,

but von Papen's action had
wakened a more formidable foe.

On the June 21,

President Hindenburg
summoned Hitler to meet him.

The aged head of state

told his chancellor

that unless he acted immediately
against the SA,

martial law would be declared

and the army used to crush it.

Hitler now knew
he must act quickly.

Time had run out for Röhm.

He was a sacrifice
that must be made

if the Nazis were to remain
in power.

Himmler's SS plotters
went into action.

As his adjutant Karl Wolff
later described,

secrecy was paramount...

Interpreter: Contingency
planning was very secret,

nothing was done in writing,

all preparations were verbal.

One did not want to alert
the SA.

Powell:
Himmler, Heydrich, and Göring

were ready to use
the opportunity

to settle old scores,

and death lists were prepared.

Interpreter: These lists were
mainly drawn up

between Himmler and Göring.

Göring had to approve
all the names.

Göring had been put in overall
charge of the entire operation,

"Operation Hummingbird."

Powell:
Sometimes, embarrassingly,

it was found that
the lists included

allies of the other side.

Göring insisted that
Rudolf Diels,

former head of the Gestapo,
be saved.

He had served Göring well,

not least by opposing
Heydrich and Himmler's plots.

In order to keep up
the facade of normality,

Göring went with Röhm
to the wedding of

the Berlin SA commander,
Karl Ernst --

a man whose name he had already
put on the death lists.

Like some Mafia Godfather,

having made his decision,

the Fuhrer wanted
everyone close to him

to dip their fingers
into the blood of the comrades

they were about to kill.

Everyone must demonstrate
their loyalty --

and that included many of
Hitler’s personal bodyguards.

On June 25, 1934,
Rudolf Hess

delivered a furious speech
aimed at Röhm.

Interpreter:
Woe to him who breaks faith

in the belief that he can serve
the revolution

by causing revolt.

Woe to him
who sinks his flat feet

among the fine threads of
the Fuhrer's careful plans,

hoping to force the pace.

He is an enemy
of the revolution.

Heil Hitler!
Sieg heil! Sieg heil!

Unaware of the cataclysm
which was building up,

Röhm and his senior
SA commanders now headed south

to the Pension Hanselbauer
at Bad Wiessee.

They relaxed
rather than plotted --

but meanwhile
the plot against them

was coming to the boil.

On June 28,
Hitler flew out of Berlin

for a wedding in Karlsruhe...

and then onto Essen

to begin a tour of work camps
in the Rhineland

He stayed at the Hotel Dreesen
on the banks of the Rhine.

On the afternoon of the 29th,

he cut short his visits
and went back to the hotel.

That evening he was joined by
senior Nazis,

among them Joseph Goebbels,

who warned him that an SA putsch
seemed imminent.

Shortly afterwards,
Göring telephoned to confirm

that Karl Ernst had put
the SA in Berlin on alert --

the implication was
that the coup had begun.

At 9:30, Viktor Lutze,

the SA officer
who had revealed Röhm's boast

about removing Hitler, arrived,

and assured Hitler of
the loyalty

of the bulk of the SA.

Then Hitler telephoned Röhm
in Bad Wiessee,

telling him to meet him
the next morning.

At the same time, Sepp Dietrich,

commander of
the SS-Leibstandarte regiment,

was told to fly to Munich
and take command of

the SS forces there.

In Berlin, the rest of
Hitler's Leibstandarte

were made combat ready
at their base at Lichterfelde.

Two final phone calls
convinced Hitler

that he was taking
the right action.

[Telephone ringing]

The first came just after
midnight from Himmler in Berlin.

He said that Karl Ernst had now
ordered a general mobilization

of the SA units
in the German capital.

It was a lie.

The streets were quiet,

and most of the Berlin SA
had gone on leave.

The second call
was from Adolf Wagner,

the Bavarian Minister of
the Interior.

He said that SA troopers

were protesting against Hitler
in the streets of Munich

That was a lie, too.

But it was too late.

The Nazi party

had Röhm in its sights
and would not let him go.

At 1:00 in the morning
of June 30th,

Hitler left the hotel
for Bonn airport.

Dietrich was telephoned
in Munich

and instructed to take
his SS units

to Bad Wiessee
and await Hitler's arrival.

At Bonn airport,
Hitler's personal transport,

a Ju-52,
was warmed up.

Hitler's car took about half
an hour to reach the airport.

Then at 1:50
the plane took off for Munich.

As it did so,
Himmler and Heydrich in Berlin

were alerted that
Hitler was on the move.

They went to
the Gestapo headquarters

at Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse.

As his plane flew south,

Hitler braced himself for
what was going to be

the most deadly day
of his rule so far.

This would be the test of
his control of the Nazi party.

Would the men he most trusted
stand by him?

Or would he end up being
betrayed and killed?

At the Pension Hanselbauer,

his intended victims slept on --

unaware of the horror
which was heading their way.

June 30, 1934,

Hitler reached Munich
at 4:00 in the morning,

intent on murder.

He went first to the Bavarian
Ministry of the Interior,

where local SA commanders

had been told to gather.

They were arrested and taken to
Stadelheim prison.

Then he set out
from party headquarters

for Bad Wiessee,
to confront

the rebel Brown Shirts
face-to-face.

For this dangerous mission,

he chose to be accompanied by
his closest and oldest comrades,

among them former bodyguards,
such as Emil Maurice

and Julius Schreck.

Erich Kempka drove --
he was Hitler's

personal chauffeur
and one of the eight-strong

elite close escort,
the SS-Begleitkommando.

Viktor Lutze and Joseph Goebbels

were also part of the hit squad.

They arrived at Bad Wiessee

at 6:30 am.

The Pension Hanselbauer
was unguarded,

and the SS men burst in.

Then Hitler and two bodyguards,
revolvers in hand,

raced up to the first floor
where Röhm was asleep.

As the door was kicked open,
Hitler shouted, "You traitor!"

Dazed and confused by the sudden
appearance of his old friend,

Röhm meekly put on his clothes.

Then Hitler went to a nearby
room and hurled open the door.

Senior SA commander
Edmund Heines

had forgotten to lock it,

and was found in bed
with his chauffeur.

Hitler's reaction was witnessed
by a hotel employee,

Hans Hausjell.

Interpreter: And Hitler was
screaming like a madman,

"You pigs,
you should be shot."

[Continues in German]

Powell: The arrested SA men

were locked in the basement
of the hotel.

Shortly after 7:30,

Hitler, Lutze and Goebbels
set off back to Munich

with the arrested
senior SA commanders.

Wisely, they chose to return
by the longer route

round the south of the lake,

in case SA men loyal to Röhm

decided to attempt an ambush on
the more direct northern route.

In Munich,
the arrested SA chiefs

including Ernst Röhm,

were taken to
Stadelheim Prison.

By 10:00,
Hitler and his accomplices

had reached the Brown House
party headquarters.

From there, Goebbels telephoned
Göring in Berlin

and uttered the single word
"Kolibri” -- "Hummingbird"

It was the code for
the Blood Purge to begin.

Himmler and Heydrich
now unleashed

the Berlin part
of the murderous plan.

Karl Wolff was one of the key
men in carrying it out.

[Speaking German]

Interpreter: I was alerted
during the night of June 30th

at my flat in Berlin
with orders to pack the minimum,

toilet things,
a clean shirt --

and to report to Göring's
private residence.

We were each given a room

equipped with
special telephone lines.

We spent the next three days,
up till July 3rd,

making telephone calls.

I think we made something like
7,000 calls --

the wires at one time
were literally glowing.

Powell: SS agents fanned out
all over Berlin

to start rounding up
the enemies on their hit lists

and taking them to
the Leibstandarte headquarters

at Lichterfelde.

Over the next 24 hours,

scores of confused men

were taken from the cells
and shot --

many of them still shouting
"Heil Hitler,"

unable to believe that they were
regarded as traitors.

The hit squads disposed of
some important victims

more summarily.

General Kurt von Schleicher,

the last Chancellor
before Hitler,

was enjoying
a sunny day at home.

Two SS men entered his study
and shot him dead.

When his wife ran in,
she was shot, too.

The problem was

the General had nothing to do
with any SA revolt.

Gregor Strasser,
an early rival to Hitler

for the leadership of
the Nazi Party,

was tortured by the Gestapo
before being shot.

Hitler's vengeance
reached back a long way...

Ritter von Kahr, the former
prime minister of Bavaria

who crushed the Munich Putsch,

was found hacked to pieces
in a wood near Dachau.

Like a mobster chief,
Hitler was settling old scores,

and his henchmen lined up
to prove their worth.

Back in Munich,
ex-bodyguard Emil Maurice

was dispatched to kill
Father Bernhard Stempfle --

a man who knew too much

about Hitler's relationship
with Geli Raubal.

He was found with three bullets
in his heart and a broken spine.

This murder helped rehabilitate
Maurice in Hitler's eyes.

He was forgiven for
being so unwise

as to also have
a relationship with Geli.

Kurt Gildisch was another one
of Hitler's bodyguard

who needed to prove his loyalty.

Just that month he had been
sacked from command

of the Begleitkommando
because of his drink problem.

Based in Berlin,
Gildisch's first task

was to kill Erich Klausener,

head of Catholic Action
and a critic of Hitler.

Having done this,
he was sent by air to Bremen

to arrest Karl Ernst,
whose wedding

Göring had attended
just a few days earlier.

Ernst was leaving on a cruise
for his honeymoon

when Gildisch intercepted him.

He thought it was
a Nazi wedding joke

in extremely poor taste,

and submitted to

being handcuffed
and flown back to Berlin.

Mercilessly, Gildisch escorted
him to the Lichterfelde barracks

for summary execution.

While the blood flowed
in Berlin,

back in Munich,

Hitler faced
a crucial decision --

at the top of the list of
senior SA commanders

now being held at Stadelheim
was his old comrade Ernst Röhm.

Could he really betray a man
who had stood by him

in the early struggles?

While Hitler struggled
with his decision

about whether
Ernst Röhm should die,

it was the turn of Sepp Dietrich
to prove his loyalty.

He was instructed to select
a firing squad,

and then proceed to
Stadelheim prison

with a list of six
senior SA officers

who were to be
executed immediately.

Röhm's name was not on the list.

Dietrich arrived at the prison
at 6:00 p.m.,

but was told by its governor

that the order for execution
had not been signed.

Dietrich returned to
the Brown House,

but Hitler had
already left for Berlin.

Adolf Wagner,
Minister of the Interior,

had to sign the list on
behalf of the Führer.

As the first SA officer
was led out

into the courtyard
of the prison,

he asked Dietrich,
whom he knew well,

what was going on.

Dietrich replied bleakly

that he had been condemned to
death by the Führer.

An SS officer
then confirmed the sentence,

and the Leibstandarte
firing squad shot him.

But even Dietrich
could not stand

seeing the entire massacre
carried out --

he left before the last
Brown Shirt was executed.

By the end of that
blood-filled day,

the men who had been chosen
to protect Hitler against attack

were no longer
passive bodyguards,

but active assassins.

The final death tally
for the Night of the Long Knives

was at least 85.

The families of many victims
received letters

claiming that they had been
court-martialed and shot

for treason.

German radio and newspapers

hailed the murders as
the justified crushing

of an attempted coup
against the government.

As Hitler flew back to Berlin

on the evening of the 30th,

the life of one of his oldest
comrades hung in the balance.

Ernst Röhm was still alive,

and Hitler seemed unconvinced
of the need to kill him.

Now that the threatened
SA revolt had been crushed,

surely he could be let off.

But on his arrival
he was confronted by

colleagues who had
very different ideas.

It took
several hours of argument

next morning at
the Reich Chancellery

for Hitler to be convinced
that Röhm must die.

The Fuhrer kept hoping

his old friend would spare him
the decision

by committing suicide,
but Röhm refused.

He could not believe
he had done anything wrong

to cause the wrath
of his friend and leader.

Eventually, Hitler succumbed.

At about 2:00 in the afternoon,

SS Concentration Camp commander
Theodor Eicke

was dispatched
to Stadelheim prison.

With two SS gunmen
to back him up,

Eicke arrived at 3:00 p.m.
on July 1, 1934.

Röhm was sitting in
cell number 474,

stripped to his waist
and sweating heavily.

Eicke strode into the cell

and told Röhm that
the Fuhrer had given him

one more chance
to redeem himself.

He left a pistol on a table
beside a newspaper

with a headline screaming
that Röhm had been

dismissed and arrested.

But Röhm did not pick up
the pistol.

His old friend had no reason
to demand his death.

After 15 minutes,
Eicke re-entered the cell

and two shots were fired.

[Two gunshots]

Although felled,
Röhm was still breathing.

A third shot to the chest
finished him off.

[Gunshot]

At almost the same moment

that his old comrade
was being murdered,

Hitler was watching a march past

of the band of
the Berlin state police.

Hitler the man
claimed to be depressed

at the slaughter of so many

long-serving party members.

However,
for Hitler the politician,

the Night of the Long Knives
was a triumph.

As Albert Speer, his architect
and confidant later reported --

Speer: Hitler was happy because
he heard from Hindenburg

that he okayed

the whole action,
and Hindenburg made a remark --

he said, "When history is made,
blood must be shed."

Powell: The generals, too,
were delighted.

They no longer had to fear
the SA as a rival,

and rewarded Hitler's
blood sacrifice

by pledging to support to him

when President Hindenburg died.

The power of the SA
was broken.

Many Germans both inside
and outside the Nazi party

breathed more easily.

Viktor Lutze, betrayer of Röhm,

became head of an SA
cut down in size

and kept on mainly for

ceremonial purposes.

The other big winner was,
of course, Heinrich Himmler --

his SS was now
the undisputed master

of Hitler's security services.

Göring's Gestapo
had already been absorbed

into the SS machine,
and now Röhm was dead.

No one could rival Himmler,

and no one could resist
his black-uniformed guards.

In a speech to the Reichstag
on July 13, 1934,

Hitler justified his action
by saying that

Röhm had planned
to have him assassinated.

Himmler had eliminated
this threat.

Some of Hitler's
closest companions,

many of them his
personal bodyguards,

had proved their loyalty by
killing his enemies.

They now knew better
than to step out of line.

Hindenburg died
on August 2, 1934,

and his body was transported
to a mausoleum at Tannenberg --

the scene of
his greatest victory

in World War I.

With Hindenburg out of the way,

Hitler absorbed
the title of President

into his own role as Chancellor,

making himself
absolute head of state.

From now on, he was known
simply as the Fuhrer --

the leader of his people.

The German army gave its
ultimate blessing

to Hitler's dictatorship.

Everyone in the armed forces

took an oath of allegiance
not to the nation,

but to Hitler personally.

Interpreter: I swear before God
this sacred oath.

I will render
unconditional obedience

to Adolf Hitler, the leader of
the German nation and people,

supreme commander
of the armed forces.

I will be ready
as a brave soldier

to sacrifice my life

at any time for this oath.

Powell: By doing this,
the German army

submitted completely to Hitler.

It created a whole new

army of bodyguards
sworn to protect him.

It seemed Hitler
had silenced all his enemies,

but Nazi in-fighting
was not completely over.

Far from making Hitler
more secure,

the Night of the Long Knives
added angry, betrayed SA men

to the long list of his
potential assassins.

Over the next year,
assassins from their ranks

calling themselves
Röhm's avengers

killed more than
150 SS officers.

Ernst Röhm's spirit at least
had a bloody revenge.

There was
another group of Germans

who took no pleasure at all

in Hitler’s rise to absolute
power -- Germany's Jews.

Hitler had already made it clear
that his regime was dedicated

to removing them utterly
from German society.

Some Jews hoped that,

now that Hitler
had what he wanted,

he might leave them alone.

He had used anti-Semitism
as a crude electoral weapon

but now it might be dropped.

With this in mind,
from 1934 to 1938,

Jewish emigration out of
Nazi Germany

actually slowed down.

But other Jews saw this merely
as the lull before the storm.

They believed that if
German law and democracy

could no longer protect them,

then they would have to take
their own measures

to defend themselves.

And that meant
killing Adolf Hitler.

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