Chapter 75 Chapter 12 The Second Revolution (3)

Trembling, Hitler climbed onto the three-engine "Junker 52".It was an improvised plane because the original plane suffered an engine failure.It was about 2:00 in the morning.He sat together in his seat, his eyes staring straight ahead in the darkness.His press director, Otto Diedrichs, was "in the dark about what happened".Later, an adjutant asked everyone to release the safety on the gun, and he realized something. Lu Ze, who knows the inside story, thinks of Rom in his heart.He chanted to himself: Hongxia, Hongxia, Thou shone upon our premature death, Yesterday I rode my horse with my head held high,

Today the bullet pierced the chest. That night, it was cloudy and rainy.At dawn, the plane landed in the gloom on the wet runway of Oberwieschenfeld Airport.This is the airfield where Hitler was humiliated 12 years ago when he had a run-in with the police and the army.The director of the airport was very sad, because the chief of staff had instructed that when the head of state's landline D-2600 was about to arrive, he should immediately notify the leadership of the stormtroopers.Due to a last-minute change of landline, only a few people were greeted at the airport - important members of the party and several military officers - "This is the most unpleasant day for me, angry", he said to them, "I want to Go to Bad Wiessee in person and receive the most severe punishment."

Hitler came to the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior in a small car and got out of the car. The Bavarian Governor and Minister of the Interior Wagner followed closely behind him.When the head of state entered the building, his footsteps were so hurried that the tails of his leather jacket flew up.He strode upstairs to Wagner's office.When he entered the living room, the head of the Upper Bavarian SA jumped up and saluted him, but Hitler rushed at him, shouting: "Lock him up!" He cursed traitors and traitors, especially the SA leaders—whose men had been lured into the streets by pamphlets. "You," he shouted, "are under arrest. Shoot you!"

At 6 o'clock in the morning, the Führer came out of the building "still terrified of excitement".The second plane scheduled to arrive with armed reinforcements had not yet arrived, but the Führer was impatient.He climbed into Kemka's car, sat next to the driver as usual, and directed him straight to Bad Wiessee.They hit the road, followed by Schreck's car.There were only eight or nine men in total, plus Miss Schroeder, the Führer's secretary.Goebbels sitting in the back kept talking about the conspiracy of the SA, but Hitler didn't say a word, staring straight ahead.At this time, the sun was emerging from the clouds in the eastern sky.Today is "Hitler weather", it seems.

In less than an hour they were in Tegernsee, huddled in an alpine porch with clear water flowing through the morning mist. "Go to Hanselbauer's apartment," he said to Kemka, "there's a dirty business in sight," so the people in Hanselbauer's apartment should be taken by surprise.It was nearly 7 o'clock at this time, and the bell of the church had already rung, calling the faithful men and women to go to the morning mass.Kemka parked the car slowly and carefully in front of the hotel.He noticed that some windows were closed, others were open, and there were no guards at the door.Hitler went in first.There was no one on the first floor, and the restaurant was empty—preparing for a banquet at noon.The landlady came out.When she saw the Führer in front of her, she was taken aback, and hurriedly said compliments such as the Führer's presence, it was a great honor, but he told her to take him to see Rohm immediately.

A group of people were guarding the doors of each room.A plainclothes knocked on Romm's door.Hitler walked in, pistol in hand.Kemka, who was standing behind the head of state, noticed that the drowsy-eyed Rom was panicked and confused, and could only keep blinking.He was alone in the bed. "Ernst," said Hitler, "you are under arrest." Hitler used the nickname "you" rather than the honorific "you."As he spoke, Hitler's anger in the Ministry of the Interior was completely gone.He was "a little nervous, but not very excited." He succinctly accused Rohm of being a traitor and told him to get dressed.Röhm protested violently and put on plain clothes, but Hitler had already walked out.Rom's words were wasted on the plainclothes left behind.

The Führer was already knocking on the door of the room opposite.The door opened, and a battalion captain named Hynes looked out sleepily.Behind him stood his bedmate, a dashing young man—his driver. "The sight disgusts me, almost makes me sick," Goebbels wrote. Hitler immediately went to the next room, leaving Luzer to search for weapons. "Luzer, I didn't do anything!" Hynes yelled, "Can't you help?" "Powerless", Lu Ze repeated the previous words embarrassingly, not justly.Perhaps out of anger, or overwhelmed by shock, Hines refused to get dressed.Hitler turned back and told him that if he resisted arrest, he would be shot on the spot, and Heineus put on his clothes.He was locked up in the laundry room with Romm and his colleagues.They were shut down with a dozen or so SA sentries (who were still asleep when the Führer stormed in), Hinners' driver, and several good-looking youths who were arrested on the spot.

While discussing the next steps, Hitler ordered Kemka to go to a nearby apartment to capture Rohm's cousin and driver Max Vogel.Vogel was in bed with a girl—the only thing of that kind that morning.Vogel is a good friend of Kemka, but he has no choice but to announce with regret that he has been arrested.As they headed to the garage, Vogel made a strange request: Could he drive Romm's car one more time?Kemka apologized.So Kemka stood on the running board and let Vogel turn a few times on the road. Just as Kemka and his prisoners arrived in front of Hanselbauer's apartment, a truck with about 40 stormtroopers drove up.This group of fully armed stormtroopers came from Munich and were the "guards of the headquarters" of Rohm.Their commander was still locked up in the laundry, and they resented it.Wilhelm Bruckner, one of Hitler's adjutants, shouted for them to return to Munich immediately.They didn't listen, but looked at the adjutant angrily.It seems that a battle is inevitable.

Hitler stepped forward. "Did you hear what Bruckner said?" Although his tone was soft, it was an order.He ordered the group of guards to return to Munich immediately. "On the way, you will meet the SS, and they will disarm you." It was his attitude, not his words, that disarmed them.The truck drove away. The prisoners were loaded into two large cars.Under the escort of armed personnel, the convoy started to set off.Leading the way was Hitler's "Methetis".Those stormtroopers who went to the dinner were stopped by Hitler and questioned one by one.All persons named on Goebbels' hastily drawn list were disarmed and ordered to join the convoy.

The fleet keeps growing.By the time the convoy arrived at the "brown building", it was already around 9:00 am.Prior to this, the army had laid down a defense line in the building.Hitler thanked the troops for coming to their aid and repeatedly stated that he never wanted to use them against the SA.Once inside the building, Hitler ordered Goebbels to pass the code word to Goering by telephone.Cleaning has started. "I ordered to shoot at the leader of this rebellion, and then ordered that all those who poisoned the well in our family life and those who poisoned outside will be killed, and none will be left behind." These words evoked Dr. Bloch reveals the depths of Hitler's emotional turmoil.

The leaders of the stormtroopers captured by the SS have filled the Stadelheim prison.Leaders who remained in the "brown building", such as Roehm, asked to see Hitler, and when they were refused, they asked to see Goebbels.Goebbels was busy on the phone with Goering, and the call was not over. The last prisoner had been escorted into the armored vehicle and headed for Stadelheim.Rohm was placed in a cell not far from the one he had been in after the failed beer hall uprising. Inside the "Brown Mansion", General von Epp demanded that Rohm be court-martialed.This made Hitler very disturbed, so he lost his temper early in the morning.Rohm, he cried, was a traitor, and the evidence was overwhelming.His firing surprised General Epp, but he had nothing to say for a moment.As he stepped out of the building, he murmured to the adjutant, "Crazy!" A moment later, at 11:30, the meeting of the leaders of the stormtroopers held in the spacious conference room began.At this point, Hitler had not yet regained his composure, and his speech to the jittery audience was nothing more than a complaint about the SA, but the words did not match the words.During the hour-long tirade, Hitler's audience stood uneasily.Hitler's saliva flew wildly, fascinating one of the audience. "He often choked up because of emotion." He accused Rohm of trying to kill him in order to hand over Germany to her enemies.Rohm and his accomplices will be shot, he said. The shooting had not yet begun because Hitler was still waiting for Sepp Diedrichs (General of the Guards) to come and carry it out.After a while, he came and explained to the scowling Hitler that one of the reasons for being late was that the truck tires were old and the road was muddy and not moving fast.Although Hitler was annoyed by his lateness, no orders were issued that day.He put Didierich on standby, saying he would still have to consult with advisers before deciding the fate of the defendants. Three hours have passed, and the order has not yet come down. While Hitler hesitated, his colleagues in Berlin began executing prisoners.The code word (“hummingbird”) was all that the Himmler-Heydrich-Göring trio needed, and as soon as it arrived they immediately put their long-planned plot into practice.When Papen reported to Göring's office, he expressed his distaste for being "full of SS sentries with machine guns".Then he was surprised to learn that Hitler had authorized Goering to deal with the insurgents in the capital.Papen repeatedly protested on the grounds that he was the deputy prime minister, and when the prime minister was away, the power should belong to him.He insisted that Hindenburg declare a state of emergency and bring in the Wehrmacht to maintain law and order.Goering refused.He and Himmler's SS were in complete control of the situation.Papen protested repeatedly, but Goering kept interrupting him.Goering ordered the Deputy Prime Minister to go home immediately for his own safety.Before Papen arrived home, the streets of Berlin were full of hitches.Enemies of the new regime were arrested everywhere.A force surrounded Papen's offices, shot his chief news officer and arrested other staff.The Deputy Prime Minister might have died too; because, as soon as he entered the house, the house became a prison.Papen discovered that the telephone lines at home had been cut, and that a police officer was sitting in the living room, and that the officer had kept him from communicating with the outside world. It was Saturday and it was hot.Few Berliners know that extraordinary events have taken place in the capital.For many who hang out under the Tiergarden and Pineapple trees, the main concern is that the weather will get hotter as the sun rises.However, the reporter Delmer was so worried that he gave up the interview in the morning and hurried back to the office. "Still writing reports on 'the perils of Hitler's dictatorship', this is really sticking your head out," he kept saying to himself.What if nothing happened?But when his car was stopped by a police cordon, all his worries disappeared. "Something did happen." Police with steel bandits and submachine guns were surrounding Rohm's luxurious apartment, which was located on a corner of the Rue Thiergarten. In the suburbs, General von Schleicher's cook led two Gestapo officers to the ex-Chancellor's study.When one of the uninvited guests asked him if he was Schleicher, the former chancellor looked up and replied: "Yes".Before the words fell, the two opened fire.Mrs. Schleicher, who was listening to the radio in the corner, ran towards her husband who was shot, and fell to the ground.Schleicher was shot dead on the spot, and his wife was taken to the hospital where she died. In Munich, Hitler was still undecided about the final sentence of Rohm and his colleagues.In the conference room, the discussion was so loud that even Sepp Didierich, who was standing in the outer room, heard it through the double doors.At around 5 pm, the door of the meeting room opened.Hess' assistant, Martin Bowman, emerges from the inside.He led Didierich to Hitler. "Go back to the barracks," the Führer instructed.He also issued an order that Didieri felt was squeezed out of him: "Pick out an officer and six soldiers and execute the leader of the stormtroopers for treason." Didierich checked a list that Bowman had handed him.All those caught in Stadelheim were on the list, but Hitler singled out only a dozen of them, including Heines and the head of the Upper Bavarian SA—but not Ernst Rohm.Hitler still did not dare to make that decision. When Bavarian Justice Minister Hans Frank learned that many SA leaders were being held in Stadelheim, he decided to go there himself and take over the case.On arrival, he ordered the SA prisoners to be handed over to the state's police brigade, and then went himself to Rohm's cell. "What does that mean?" Rom asked. "What happened?" Frank didn't know much, and he couldn't give much guarantee. He only hoped that everything would be done according to legal procedures.Romm replied that he had prepared for the worst. "I have put life and death above all else, please take care of my relatives. They are all women, and they depend entirely on me." When Frank opened the cell door, Roma held his hand tightly, "All revolutions" , he said, "everyone devours their own children." No sooner had Frank returned to his office than Sepp Diederich came with a colleague to announce that he had been ordered to shoot a group of SA leaders.He produced a list of places that Hitler had personally visited.Frank, flabbergasted, said that under no circumstances could these men be executed.The Führer himself gave the order, said Didierich.Frank persuaded him to call the Brown Mansion again for instructions.He spoke with Hess first.After a while, Didierich handed the microphone to Frank. "Hitler has something to tell you." Hitler began by yelling: "Are you refusing to carry out my orders? Do you sympathize with these criminal scum? I will uproot these guys!" Frank retorted that there was not even a written order, only six names. "I made the mark on the name myself," Hitler said softly. "These gentlemen are criminals against the Reich. I am the Reich Chancellor. This is a question about the Reich and has never been your concern." In Stadelheim, the first six victims were led to the hospital, each escorted by two policemen. "The Fuehrer and the Reich Chancellor sentence you to death," an SS leader shouted, "The execution will begin now." When the leader of the Bavarian stormtroopers, August Schneiderhuber, realized that the beheading officer was Diedrichs, he blurted out: "Sepp, my friend, what happened? We You are completely innocent!" Diedrich stood to attention with a straight face and said, "The Führer sentences you to death! Long live Hitler!" The first man was sent before the firing squad.He refused to cover his eyes.Gunshots echoed in the courtyard.Both have since expressed contempt for being blindfolded.Didierich beheaded several people.When it was Schneiderhuber's turn, he had to walk away. "I've had enough!" It was already dark when Hitler's car drove to the airport. "I have pardoned Rohm," he assured General von Epp, who came to see him off, "for his service." Hitler sat at the front of the "Junker 52".Ball flew the plane to Berlin.Along the way, Hitler sat sullenly, not saying a word. To the average Berliner, on the surface they see little to suggest that the country is in turmoil.It is true that gossip abounded in the town; the Sallodenberg-Sauser Street had also experienced a traffic jam due to the barricades of the police station and the coming and going of military vehicles.It was also known that arrests were being made in the house, but the atrocities were carried out in secret.Few people know that General von Schleicher and his wife have been killed.Little is known that Gregor Strassel was caught at the lunch table and placed in Cell 16 of the Gestapo prison.There, the killers hiding in the shadows shot in from the window, and Strassel dodged back and forth like a mouse in a cage, and was finally shot and injured.A killer walked into the cell and finished him off.In this way the enemies of Goebbels and Göring were destroyed, while they died loyal to the Führer. In Berlin, the general ringleader of this purge was Goering.In the afternoon of the same day, Goering gave a brief introduction to foreign journalists in the Propaganda Department. "Goering came in full uniform," wrote a Gestapo official. "He did not step onto the stage, but slowly and slowly. Before he began to speak, he made a long pause to impress. He Leaning slightly forward, resting his chin on one hand, his eyes are rolling, as if afraid of what he has revealed." When he mentioned Schleicher's connection to the Rohm-Strassell plot, someone asked, What is the current situation of the former Prime Minister? "He was so stupid that he dared to resist."Göring said, with what one chronicler called a wolf smile, "He's dead." Later that day, the German National Press Agency published a telegram sent by the Fuehrer to Victor Luzer, which on the one hand excused the purge and on the other hand appointed Luzer to replace Rohm.The telegram listed more than a dozen "tasks" for the new SA commander and his subordinates at all levels.The first task was: "I demand blind obedience and absolute discipline from the stormtrooper commander. The same must be demanded from every stormtrooper." Severe reprimands for drinking, drinking, and public rioting. "I have a special wish that every mother can give her son to the SA, to the party or to the 'Hitler Youth' without fear that her son will become morally corrupt there." Therefore, the SA Leaders who misbehaved were expelled from the SA and expelled from the party. "I ask my stormtrooper leaders to be human, not absurd orangutans." These words, coming out of the moment, were met with ridicule by most foreign observers.But the average German relished it, relieved that the Führer shared their distaste for the lawlessness of the SA. He further called on each stormtrooper leader to "must be loyal and honest to the Wehrmacht without any second thoughts" in order to "prove that he is a true leader, friend and comrade." At the end, he praised the veterans of the stormtrooper Afterwards—"those who conquered Germany, not smart people who joined in 1933 or later"—he first mentioned his personal guard: "I hope that every SS soldier All must be educated to become highly trained National Socialist fighters." By evening, the number of people killed had reached a frightening level.Schleicher's friend, General von Berdorf, was shot at the front door of his house.The acting police chief of Breslau was beaten to death with a short rifle; an SS cavalry officer was assassinated in the smoking room.The writer of Papen's latest controversial speech lay frozen in the dungeon of the Gestapo prison on Prinz Albrechtstrasse.Executions were also carried out at the Richterfeld barracks under SS supervision.Among those executed here were the Minister of Transport, the head of Catholic Action, and Carl Ernst, who was taken back from his honeymoon.Ernst's last words were: "Heil Hitler!" The stormtroopers were in disarray.Some units were put on alert, issued with pistols, and ordered to find traitors - only to be surrounded by SS troops and detained.Others were beaten by Himmler's men in the streets, and some were shot dead on the spot.Some were on the list, deserved to be arrested or killed, but were spared because of the intercession of friends in the SS.It was a night of terror and a night of lost illusions for tens of thousands of people who felt they had sacrificed everything for the party. It was not until 10 o'clock in the evening that Hitler's plane landed at Tamberhof Airport.There were very few people to greet him at the airport—just Göring, Himmler, Fripp, several Gestapo officials, and a policeman.The first person to step out of the landline was the Führer himself. He was wearing a brown shirt, a bow tie, a leather jacket and a pair of military boots. "He was hatless, pale, unshaven, a little sallow, and a little swollen," recalled a Gestapo official.After shaking hands with everyone, Hitler took Goering and Himmler aside and listened carefully to their reports.Himmler handed him a list.As the Führer's finger slowly moved down, Himmler and Goering were whispering. As the three headed to the car (followed by a guard at a distance), Hitler revealed that Roehm himself would not be executed.He said he had assured General von Epp.Goering and Himmler found it difficult.If the rebel leaders were forgiven, the massacre of the day would be ridiculed.The car was on the road, and the three of them were still arguing.