[freedomlover]

Yes, he should go on. Hitler put an end to the socialist, homosexual, and most violent wing of the NSDAP, in 1934.

---

I assume you are talking about the SA. Other than that, I’m not sure if you are commending Hitler or not for killing a bunch of thug street fighting anarchists (IMHO). I think that Hitler’s problem with the SA was not over politics as much as it was over power.

In my mind the Night of the Long Knives was one of Hitler’s most effective maneuvers from a power consolidation standpoint. True, the SA went down, but so did a lot of conservatives. The result was that after the purge no one felt safe from Hitler’s wrath, on either side of the “aisle”. A good thing if you’re Hitler.

Don’t get me wrong I have no respect for Hitler. But one must understand the tactics of power hungry madmen to learn from history.

[dfwgator]

The SA were run by Communists, who wanted complete government control of the economy. Hitler, knowing he needed the industrialists on his side to build his war machine, purged them to alleviate their fears.

[henkster]

Hitler’s “Night of the Long Knives” was Stalin’s inspiration for the Purges, although Stalin would probably have done the same anyway. But at any rate, after the “Night of the Long Knives” Stalin complimented Hitler on his ruthlessness to his cronies.

And then the next thing Kamenev and Zinoviev knew, they were being tortured in the basement of the Lubyanka.