Chapter 77 Chapter 12 The Second Revolution (5)

While cleaning is approved domestically, it is not abroad.Biting articles or editorials appeared one after another.Attacks from abroad made Hitler cower, but his chief concern was the growing suspicion among his own people that he might be affected by them.These panics were generated by whispers: one of the victims, for example, was Hitler's old enemy, Governor-General of Bavaria von Karl, *?One of the Big Three (some people translated it as "Troika" - translation note) during the tavern uprising; the music critic Willie Schmidt was arrested while playing the cello in the room, and was later arrested Killed by local stormtrooper leader William Schmidt.

Young as these seeds of doubt were, they fueled Hitler's unease.The purge of old friends and comrades really terrified him and made him afraid to show his face.He privately asked Hess, who has now become his confidant, to provide comfort to the orphans, widows, and relatives of the victim (by regret).Hess tried his best to reassure the music critic's widow that she should view her husband's death as a dedication to a great cause.He also assured her that the empire would give her a pension.Mrs Strassel and Romm's mother were also offered a pension, but the latter categorically refused - she did not believe her son was gay (to this day his brother and sister-in-law still categorically deny it) .She would not want a penny from the murderer of her son.

Hitler also tried to reconcile with Papen, inviting him to an emergency cabinet meeting on July 3 as if he had never been detained.Hitler appeared amiable and asked the Vice Chancellor to take his usual seat.Papen was furious, said this was completely impossible, and demanded to speak to Hitler alone.After the two moved to the next room, Papen told Hitler exactly about the arrests in his house and the killing of his press officer.He demanded an immediate statutory inquiry into the matter and insisted that his resignation be announced immediately.Hitler declined.So he immediately went to Bendler Strasse to meet his old friend General von Fripp.Seeing Papen, the chief of staff opened his eyes wide, as if seeing a ghost. "You see, I'm alive," said Papen, "but it's time to stop the purge." He asked. Didn't you, Flip, stop the purge in the first place?The chief of staff coyly explained that he could not act "without express orders from Blomberg or Hindenburg."The former "severely opposes intervention" and the latter is nowhere to be found.

At a cabinet meeting, General von Blomberg, representing the army, congratulated Hitler for crushing the traitors so quickly.This gave Hitler a godsend opportunity to turn his brutal actions into rationale. "In the event of a mutiny on board," Schwerin von Klossick remembered him saying, the captain could not wait until he was ashore before taking legal action.He must act when and where he rises. " None of the cabinet members (including the Attorney General, whose rightist friend was killed) disapproved.The Cabinet then proceeded to do what they had been assembled to do: to promulgate a law declaring the measures taken on June 30, July 1, and 2" to be lawful as "emergency measures for the defense of the country." . "

Papen was not alone in calling for the resignation of officials.Bavaria's justice minister also offered to step down. "Do people abandon ship in the middle of the ocean?" Hitler said bitterly. "I have quarreled with many people, but I have to hold everything together. We are an army in war." He defended Justice and revolution, he says, are incompatible, "Don't forget, every revolution has its victims!" Hitler understood that Frank had an aversion to purges, but it was now irreparable. "I have too many mortal enemies. Now, everything depends on my authority." Frank said that the police have too much power, and many party members hold the law in their own hands.Hitler replied: "Law and inspection can best serve society only if political needs are delegated to other institutions!"

Regarding the increasing number of concentration camps, Hitler actually had an answer: "If I have vast Siberia like Moscow, then I don't need any concentration camps... Who in the world is talking about the hundreds of thousands of Bolshevism? Thousands of victims? The Jewish press of the world is after me because I am anti-Semitic. Mr. Stalin is their darling." Frank tore his resignation letter to pieces. Papen was not so easily persuaded.He insisted on the remains of his press officer - the urn - and a proper burial in Schamberg Cemetery.Himmler warned that this might provoke public demonstrations, but Papen ignored them.Not only did he deliver a moving speech at the funeral, but he also wrote letters to bombard the Führer, protesting the continued imprisonment of four of his subordinates, and demanding a public investigation into the death of his press officer.Hitler changed his tactics, put on a typical patient look, and advised Papen not to act too hastily.He said Congress would hold a special session within 48 hours.Hear a comprehensive explanation about cleaning.At that point, he will, as Führer, take responsibility for everything that happened, including mishaps that occurred when he was "overzealous".

It was Friday, July 13, and the perimeter of the Kroll Theater was heavily guarded.An old diplomat commented: "In other countries, I have seen a lot of situations where the government is in dire straits, but even in the most dangerous period of the Tsarist government, I have never seen this situation." From the Prime Minister's Office to On the way to the podium, there were heavy police and SS guards on both sides, and the various lounges of the theater were repeatedly searched.The large and small entrances are guarded by troops wearing steel helmets and holding large knives, and many plainclothes spies are stationed in the auditorium. "The ambassadors of the United States, France, and Russia refused to attend—and no one could fail to see that a period of fury, hostility, and fear had begun among those who created the regime."

At 8 o'clock in the morning, Hitler with a stern face stepped onto the podium.He held on to the podium as if trying to balance himself.He held out his arm in a stiff salute, then spoke in a harsher voice than usual, as if assuring the audience that he, Hitler, was once again in control.He gave a long and moving explanation of the purge.He explained that the purge was necessary because of treasonous actions by various groups.He refers to these groups as "sabotage elements" and "pathological enemies of the state." That's a description of himself early on — and the role he now plays in world politics.With the skill of a natural storyteller, he describes how events unfolded, right down to the dramatic decision he made to take part in the counter-insurgency himself.His performance put everyone in the theater under a spell—except foreign observers.Across the country, people gathered around the radio to listen to him -- equally enthralled.At the U.S. embassy, ​​Ambassador Dodd, who had sworn never to listen to the German Chancellor again, nor to meet with him except on official business ("I have a horrible feeling when I see this man"), was also listening to Hitler, but Do not believe his claim that only 74 masterminds - including several civil servants and party members - were killed in the scandal.Nor did he believe in the execution of three SS soldiers who had "shamelessly abused" detainees.This last remark was apparently intended to convince Papen that the murderer who had slaughtered innocents like his press officer had been punished.This spirit of reconciliation also extended to those who had participated in the rebellion and had not yet been punished, with Bodhisattva's offer of amnesty. "The treasure available to the German people is internal order and peace at home and abroad. Let us all take responsibility for this. At this juncture in history, I am ready to take responsibility for what has happened in the past 24 hours. During these 24 hours During the hour, I made the most angry and painful decision; at the critical moment of anxiously considering how to firmly grasp the most precious thing this world bestows upon us—the Germanic people and the Germanic Empire—fate taught me again! "

The carefully selected audience stood up and applauded enthusiastically.At the moment of the climax, the main purpose of the meeting was immediately accomplished: Congress unanimously passed a bill legalizing the massacre as an "emergency measure to protect national security."In this way, Hitler obtained a license to kill after the fact.Not even a single word of objection.Lawmakers deified Hitler, making him the only source of law. Defense Minister von Blomberg was not alone in the military approving Hitler's brutal purge of the SA and the killing of Generals von Schleicher and von Breidov.The officer corps took the deaths of the two comrades calmly and turned a blind eye to Hitler's actions on the grounds that repression is a guarantee of domestic peace. "Our conclusions on the matter," recalls Karl Dönitz, "were entirely influenced by a cabinet resolution. This resolution invoked the state of emergency and legally approved all the measures taken."

The feelings of the officers infected the ordinary soldiers.A few days later, the troops marched.When Hitler's convertible drove past a group of soldiers, the soldiers cheered him loudly. "Such spontaneous marches," the French military attaché reported, "are rare in the German army." Only a handful of officers dared to speak out, and their leader was almost as old as Hindenburg.The eminent officer, Field Marshal August von Mackensen, called the President several times, hoping that he would stop the bloodbath.But the answer he got was always that the old man was sick and could not speak.Due to repeated setbacks, Mackensen went to Hitler in person and asked him to re-establish the normal order of public life.His words moved the Führer, and it took him a while to say: "It may be what you said, Monsieur Field Marshal, but I can't help it. I can't go back."

Mackensen was determined to tell Hindenburg the truth.He assisted in the drafting of a memorandum detailing the murders of Generals Schleicher and Breidov and demanding that the perpetrators be punished.It also urged the president to expel Blomberg, Goebbels, Rey, Nieuwright, and two other Nazis from the cabinet and transfer state power to a watchdog group.There was no Hitler in the nomination, presumably to remain Chancellor under a military dictatorship. The end of this memorandum is very emotional: "Your Excellency saved Germany three times; at Danenburg, after the war, and at the moment of your election as Reich President. Please save Germany for the fourth time! The generals and senior military officers who signed this memorandum swear to be loyal to you and the motherland to the last breath.” Mackensen mediated through the General Staff and obtained the signatures of 24 generals and senior military officers, many of whom were similar to those of Hindenburg and Shirley. Letcher belonged to the same regiment.The memorandum's final date was July 18, but it arrived in Neudecke on the 20th.However, this heroic act was of no avail.The memo was likely seized by those around him; had he read it, he had failed to take any action. It appears that influential sections of German society were either intimidated or won over; what had been Hitler's personal catastrophe turned out to be a sort of victory for him.The purge ended the separatism that had grown up to torment his party.With just one move, the stormtroopers fell into a slump. What the SA lost was Himmler's gain.On the same day that Mackensen's memorandum arrived in Neudecke, Hitler promoted the SS to an independent organization, allowing it to organize armed forces.This is a heavy blow to the military.The army had sanctioned the bloodbath of the stormtroopers on its honor, only to meet a far stronger opponent. The price the party paid was small: it lost many of its most ardent members, idealists in the SA. "You have to understand that we lost everything," said Hein Luke (who later became a trusted lieutenant in Hitler's favorite Otto Skotzny commando), "we Sleeping on a mat in the kitchen, the three of us breakfasted on cubes of beef worth ten cents." Luke was arrested 20 times during his struggle for power, and his story was not out of the ordinary. "In the end, to put it bluntly, we were betrayed. What we wanted was a new society, but we suddenly discovered that the reactionaries were on our side. Long live! Patriotism! No more revolutions. June 30 Day is the logical consequence of a movement that is now being undermined by Hitler." People like Luke were convinced that Rohm was simply trying to drag Hitler back to the old revolutionary path, socialism. "It was Hitler who made real enemies within his own camp. As far as my friends and I were concerned, Hitler as a human being was finished." Another young stormtrooper leader, Werner Norman, was also disenchanted and furious.Although he later became Goebbels' personal secretary, he will never forget all this. The "Röhm incident," he said not long ago, "was of great importance to the development of the Third Reich, because it was the first lawless and illegal act sanctioned by the Wehrmacht, by state institutions and legal persons throughout the country. This is totally lawless and illegal, but no one stood up and said, 'enough is enough, don't let it go any further'. Not even the church. And these people can't say they didn't know anything about it. Everyone knew it happened Everything. I think this is the beginning of the end from which there is no going back." Thus, at what seemed to be the apex of Hitler's popularity, there was a painful deep scar in his own camp.Tens of thousands of the most active Nazis will never forget that humiliating weekend.SA leaders, who felt betrayed by Hitler, declared a state of underground war.A few weeks later, their hostility towards the SS became public.It was in the restaurant of the Prussian Hof in Stetting.At that time, Victor Luzer and about 20 SA and three SS commanders were drinking beer there. "One day," the new commander of the SA uttered the truth after drinking, "the unjust and arbitrary action of June 29 will be avenged." Luzer openly threatened that it was Himmler who encouraged Rohm. and his SS. "Who the hell is doing what Rom supposedly did? The Stormtroopers? These beasts aren't the work of the Stormtroopers, at least, not by the Stormtroopers alone. The other side is far worse. Want me to give you your name? I can show my name right away!" An SS man wanted to silence the drunk Luzer, but he continued, "I want to say that even if I am expelled tomorrow or sent to a concentration camp, I will not Say it!"