Same Day, Different Century

Night of the Long Knives

Zach Ipsen

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On June 30, 1934, Adolf Hitler ordered the execution of his own men, the loyalists who had built the Nazi movement with him through years of political struggle. The purge known as the Night of the Long Knives targeted SA commander Ernst Röhm and extended to political enemies across Germany. By the time it ended, scores were dead, a cabinet had voted to call murder self-defense, and Germany had crossed a line it would not cross back over for a generation.