Show description

A few days after the purge, she discovered that her telephone was being tapped and her calls monitored. ”32 On July , Fromm recorded that a young photographer in her office who was a member of the SS returned to work, having been absent since the day of the purge: Finally, this morning, he came in— a changed man. He was jittery and uneasy and was constantly watching the door. When questioned as to his strange behavior, he broke into tears and stammered: “I had to shoot in the Gestapo cellar.  times I shot.

It was von Blomberg and the Reichswehr who, for the moment, held the key to Germany’s transition after the president’s imminent death. Forced to choose between the army and the SA as a base of support, Hitler determined to solve the problem by dramatic means. On June , General Werner von Fritsch placed army units throughout the country on a state of alert. Three days later the army officially expelled Röhm from membership in the German Officers’ League and from all veterans’ associ- ations. The following day General von Blomberg pledged the army’s full support of Hitler in an article published in the Party’s official newspaper, the Völkischer Beobachter.

Hitler continued: If they should at any time attempt, even in a small way, to move from their criticism to a new act of perjury, they can be sure that what confronts them today is not the cowardly and corrupt bourgeoisie of  but the fist of the entire people. 18 Papen was outraged at Goebbels’ censorship of his speech in the press as a whole. On June , the deputy chancellor, along with two of his conservative colleagues, Neurath and Finance Minister Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk, went to see Hitler to protest Goebbels’ actions and threaten their resignations.