If the "Night of the Long Knives" 1934 had not happened, how if at all would Nazi Germany been different?

Question

In 1934, Hitler had Ernst Rohm and most of the leadership of the SA killed because he feared they were going to remove him. If this hadn't happened, would Nazi Germany still have been the menace it became later, or would it have developed differently? If so then how?

Answer 1

Hitler had to to get rid of the SA as he had just done a deal with the Army, who saw the SA as a threat in that Rohm was trying to create a Nazi Party alternative to the Reichswehr. In return for the Reichswehr's loyalty, particularly the loyalty of the officer class, to Hitler the SA and it's leadership had to go.

Rohm and the Strasser brothers were also seen as being on the "left wing" of the Nazi Movement in that they were calling for a "worker's revolution" now that the national revolution had succeeded. That did not sit well with Hitler's financial backers.

If the "Night of the Long Knives" had not occurred in 1934 it is likely that something similar would have happened before 1940. Hitler's plans required a professional army not a bunch of street brawlers and thugs.

While events may have developed slightly differently Nazi Germany would still have been a threat to Western civilisation.

Answer 2

I think Nazi Germany would had been weaker with Ernst Roehm and the leadership of the SA were alive. Roehm was as popular if not more than Hitler in spite of his blatant homosexuality and others in the leadership of the SA. It is rumored that Hitler killed them because Roehm and the leaders of the SA knew too much about hitler's supposed social and political past . Germany ould not had been united bcause there were 2 distinct camps in Germany that had developed and one had to go if Germany would become united and strong. In short , the SA had lived out their purpose and were becoming more of an embarrassment than an asset and the Himmler influence had grown so much in the meantime and with SS backing therefore the SA days were numbered.

Answer 3

No, but the terrorists organizations in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip certainly are. Yasser Arafat incited anti-Semitism and ordered terrorist acts against Jews. The Hamas Charter calls for the destruction of Israel and Hamas seeks to eventually fulfill that goal. Israel gave the Gaza Strip independence and the Gazans repay Israel by electing an anti-Semitic Islamist group called Hamas. Palestinian terrorist groups basically want a new holocaust. The former Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini was a Nazi collaborator and supported the idea of exterminating the Jews. Modern Palestinian terrorists are just following in al-Husseini's footsteps. Yes, Israel has committed war crimes, but so had the Allies during WWII. Fatah, Hamas, etc are the true reincarnation of the National Socialists, and they brainwash Palestinian children with anti-Semitism and turn many of them into child soldiers, suicide bombers, and human shields. When I look at Israel, I see a proud country making scientific achievements and providing a homeland for the Jewish people. When I making Palestine, I see a barbaric nation that admires Hitler and branched off from Jordan and Arab invaders. The image below shows Palestinian terrorists under the command of Yasser Arafat doing the Hitler salute.

Answer 4

I think nothing would have changed. Hitler was too powerful by then. It just made him feel more secure and served as a warning to others.

Answer 5

if not that night, probably just another day. Hitler had the momentum and the result would of unfortunatly been the same.