Fri 27 Sep 2019, 08:57 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour Party
The final programme in the series explains how Hitler becomes dictator of Germany. Although he was chancellor in early 1933, power still rested with the Presidency of Hindenburg and the heads of the military. Hitler and his storm troopers had been useful in crushing the left and the trade unions but the conservative right feared the demand of the storm troopers to remove the traditional elites that ran Germany. Hitler was facing opposition from both within the Nazis and from outside.
The leader of the storm troopers, who numbered nearly four million, was Rohm who was promised the replacement of the current military with his own. Hitler opposed this, fearing that Hindenburg would oppose this and sack him as Chancellor. Goring and Himmler, leaders of the Gestapo and the SS, drew up a dossier, claiming that Rohm was preparing a coup. It was an open secret that Rohm was gay and even supported a gay rights campaign group. Most of the Nazi leadership were socially conservative and regarded Rohm as ‘not normal’.
At the same time Von Papen, the Vice-Chancellor, made a speech critical of the Nazis and intended to visit Hindenburg with the aim of dismissing him. Hitler was able to persuade Von Papen that they could meet Hindenburg together. Hitler decided it was time to strike and ordered the SS to execute or arrest Rohm and other leaders of the storm troopers. At the same time he ordered the arrest of Von Papen and had his staff shot. The SS had claimed that the conservative right were also behind this plot.
Around 100 were shot in what has been described by historians as ‘the night of the long knives’. Hindenberg was in full support of crushing Rohm and the Stormtroopers. The ailing President was won over by Hitler and legislation was proposed that the posts of President and Chancellor should be combined after his death. Hitler and the Nazis rise to power in Germany was to have grave consequences for all in Europe and beyond. Historians believe that it was preventable. Only when the international labour movement, armed with a socialist programme, can prevent the possibility of history repeating itself.
