In Europe

practices of Röhm and his companions had been public knowledge for a long time. As early as 22 June, 1931 the
Münchener Post
, under the cynical headline ‘Brotherly Love in the Brown House’, had published an exposé concerning the sexual predilections of a number of Nazi leaders, and the blackmail attempts that had resulted from them. But that, in fact, was hardly the point.
    The way many of the victims were killed – in their living rooms, in their doorways, on the street – was reminiscent of a gangland war, and in some ways that is what it was. Hitler used the wave of killings to settle accounts once and for all with a whole slew of political opponents, but most of the victims came from his ‘own’ SA. After the Nazis seized power, Röhm's men had been allowed to do as they pleased, but before long a flood of complaints started pouring in concerning the violence and capriciousness of the SA. In her diary, Bella Fromm describes how a cocktail party she had organised, with a great number of diplomats and other top officials in attendance, had almost been ruined by a few SA men who wanted to ‘smoke out’ her house as a ‘non-Aryan’ den of spies. Only rapid intervention on the part of Hitler's personal staff prevented a diplomatic disaster. There were many such incidents – incidents Hitler the revolutionary would have applauded, but which caused Hitler the chancellorendless headaches. The SA had become a major nuisance, even for the Nazis. In 1934 the movement had four million followers, and Röhm had hopes of usurping the power of the military. Among the SA rank and file there was already talk of ‘the need for a second revolution’. After all, where were the cushy jobs, the appointments, the rewards for all their efforts? Where, in gangster teminology, was their share of the loot?
    In addition to all this, Hitler's position was also being threatened from within political circles. The nationalistic and conservative elites began to realise that unknown forces had been unleashed, ungovernable movements they could no longer control. They felt responsible for the fact that ‘this fellow’ had come to power, and wanted him to lose that power again as quickly as possible. The groups around Franz von Papen and the military top brass hoped to use the SA crisis to undermine Hitler's power. President Hindenburg was weakening with age, and they had no intention of seeing his position also fall into Hitler's hands. There was even talk of restoring the monarchy. Anything, in fact, was possible, as long as Hitler did not gain absolute power.
    On 17 June, Papen gave a speech that, coming from him, was quite sensational. He railed against all the ‘egoism, lack of character, insincerity, arrogance and dearth of chivalry’, and even criticised the ‘false cult of personality’. The same day, Hitler struck back: ‘This is the clenched fist of a nation that will strike down all who dare to undertake even the slightest attempt at sabotage.’ So when the Nazi leaders met with Hitler on 29 June, 1934, Goebbels thought the meeting was about a settling of accounts with the chic conservative circles around Papen. To his amazement, however, it turned out to be about the party's ‘own’ SA. Röhm's ‘high treason’ was never actually proven, and nothing points to any serious SA plans for a coup. The ‘evidence’ given for such plans was almost certainly trumped up.
    Foreign observers saw the work of gangsters, openly now, for the first time. The reactions were outraged. Within Germany itself, however, little protest was heard. Even the churches remained silent, although Erich Klausener, chairman of Berlin's Katholische Aktion, was among those murdered. The military hierarchy forbade its officers to attend the funeral of General Kurt von Schleicher and his wife.
    Ian Kershaw rightly notes that, without backing from the army – whichcould only profit from the dismantling of the SA – the Night of the Long Knives would have been an impossibility. The consequences were dramatic: ‘Through its complicity in the events of 30 June, 1934, the army was, now more than ever, bound to Hitler.’
    In this way, the generals walked into the same trap Papen had been caught in one year earlier. They believed they were using Hitler, but in fact the army itself had become a Nazi tool.
    My room – the nicest corner room, between the warm oak walls of the old hotel – is on the same corridor where it all took place. Snow is