Night of the Long Knives (OPERATION HUMMINGBIRD)
The Night of the Long Knives (German: About this sound Nacht der langen Messer (help·info)), sometimes called Operation Hummingbird or, in Germany, the Röhm Putsch (German spelling: Röhm-Putsch), or sometimes mockingly Reichsmordwoche,[1] was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political murders. Leading figures of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party, along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were murdered, as were prominent conservative anti-Nazis (such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch in 1923). Many of those killed were leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA), the paramilitary Brownshirts.Before its execution, its planners sometimes referred to it as Hummingbird (German: Kolibri), the codeword used to send the execution squads into action on the day of the purge.[3] The codename for the operation appears to have been chosen arbitrarily. The phrase "Night of the Long Knives" in the German language predates the massacre itself and refers generally to acts of vengeance. Germans still use the term Röhm-Putsch to describe the murders, the term given to it by the Nazi regime, despite its unproven implication that the murders were necessary to prevent a coup. German authors often use quotation marks or write about the sogenannter Röhm-Putsch ("so-called Röhm Putsch") to emphasise this.[4]
Before its execution, its planners sometimes referred to it as Hummingbird (German: Kolibri), the codeword used to send the execution squads into action on the day of the purge.
The codename for the operation appears to have been chosen arbitrarily.