| | Ultimately, the Nazi Party ended up winning many seats in the parliamentary elections, and Hitler made a strong showing in the German presidential election against Hindenburg, thereby establishing himself as a strong political force. Thereafter on January 30, 1933, the SA, alongside the SS, turned out in full uniform to celebrate his election victory, and also awaited for him to make an appearance alongside crowds of men, women and children with Nazi banners.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/named.htm</ref> | | Ultimately, the Nazi Party ended up winning many seats in the parliamentary elections, and Hitler made a strong showing in the German presidential election against Hindenburg, thereby establishing himself as a strong political force. Thereafter on January 30, 1933, the SA, alongside the SS, turned out in full uniform to celebrate his election victory, and also awaited for him to make an appearance alongside crowds of men, women and children with Nazi banners.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/named.htm</ref> |
| − | To consolidate power, Hitler needed the backing of two groups considered fundamental to Germany's well-being: the big-business industrialists - such as I.G. Farben and Krupp - and the army. Both eyed the SA as an uncontrolled mob, and Röhm as a power-seeker and wanting control over the army; indeed, evidence that he was an avid homosexual only added fuel to the fire,<ref name="Hitler: A Biography" /> although Hitler assured them that he had no plans to replace the army with the SA.<ref name="The Reichstag Burns">http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm</ref> In addition, in order to ensure Nazi control was consolidated within the government, [[Hermann Göring]], by that time the Minister of the Interior of Prussia, had hundreds of police officers who had been loyal to the Weimar Republic replaced with Nazi officials loyal only to Hitler, and also gave strict orders that the police not interfere with the SA, or the SS, under any circumstance, thus ensuring the SA could get away with beating up, harassing, and even murdering anyone with impunity.<ref name="The Reichstag Burns" /> On February 22, the SA, through Göring, managed to gain the power of the police force by setting up an auxillary arm of the police force that allowed for 50,000 men strong. On February 24, the SA raided the Communist headquarters in Berlin, and then, via the list of members of the Communist party, proceeded to list all 4,000 members of the German communists, with Göring falsely claiming that they uncovered a Communist plot to have the excuse to do so. On February 27, members of the SA led by Karl Ernst proceeded to commit arson on the Reichstag, with Marinus van der Lubbe, a Communist arsonist who sought to instigate a revolution via arson, to also aid in the fire. After the resulting Reichstag Fire Decree was passed, the SA alongside the SS proceeded to raid known Communist hideouts and even private homes via trucks and then abduct them with the excuse of putting them under "protective custody, where many of them ended up beaten and tortured at the various SA barracks. Eventually, on March 5, after the elections, armed SA and SS members proceeded to raid the Reichstag to throw out legitimate office holders to replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners, using the aforementioned Reichstag Fire Decree as their justification. They then placed several political enemies in "wild" concentration camps, hastily constructed that were stockades with little more than barbed wire, and run by SA leaders. On May, there were flooded applications for them, with some going for the SA and SS after Hitler put a hiring freeze. 50,000 of the SS men were later thrown out by [[Heinrich Himmler]], with the older members cynically calling them "March Violets."<ref name="The Reichstag Burns" /><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-dachau.htm</ref><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/dictator.htm</ref> | + | To consolidate power, Hitler needed the backing of two groups considered fundamental to Germany's well-being: the big-business industrialists - such as I.G. Farben and Krupp - and the army. Both eyed the SA as an uncontrolled mob, and Röhm as a power-seeker who wanted control over the army; indeed, evidence that he was an avid homosexual only added fuel to the fire,<ref name="Hitler: A Biography" /> although Hitler assured them that he had no plans to replace the army with the SA.<ref name="The Reichstag Burns">http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/burns.htm</ref> In addition, in order to ensure Nazi control was consolidated within the government, [[Hermann Göring]], by that time the Minister of the Interior of Prussia, had hundreds of police officers who had been loyal to the Weimar Republic replaced with Nazi officials loyal only to Hitler, and also gave strict orders that the police not interfere with the SA, or the SS, under any circumstance, thus ensuring the SA could get away with beating up, harassing, and even murdering anyone with impunity.<ref name="The Reichstag Burns" /> On February 22, the SA, through Göring, managed to gain the power of the police force by setting up an auxillary arm of the police force that allowed for 50,000 men strong. On February 24, the SA raided the Communist headquarters in Berlin, and then, via the list of members of the Communist party, proceeded to list all 4,000 members of the German communists, with Göring falsely claiming that they uncovered a Communist plot to have the excuse to do so. On February 27, members of the SA led by Karl Ernst proceeded to commit arson on the Reichstag, with Marinus van der Lubbe, a Communist arsonist who sought to instigate a revolution via arson, to also aid in the fire. After the resulting Reichstag Fire Decree was passed, the SA alongside the SS proceeded to raid known Communist hideouts and even private homes via trucks and then abduct them with the excuse of putting them under "protective custody, where many of them ended up beaten and tortured at the various SA barracks. Eventually, on March 5, after the elections, armed SA and SS members proceeded to raid the Reichstag to throw out legitimate office holders to replace them with Nazi Reich commissioners, using the aforementioned Reichstag Fire Decree as their justification. They then placed a number of political enemies in hastily constructed "wild" concentration camps, which were stockades with little more than barbed wire, and run by the SA. On May, there were flooded applications for them, with some going for the SA and SS after Hitler put a hiring freeze. 50,000 of the SS men were later thrown out by [[Heinrich Himmler]], with the older members cynically calling them "March Violets."<ref name="The Reichstag Burns" /><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-dachau.htm</ref><ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/dictator.htm</ref> |
| | On April 1, 1933, a week after the Enabling Act had been passed by the Nazis, the SA during the resulting boycott stood in front of any Jewish shops, department stores, professional offices, and various business places and picketed in front of them with signs saying "Germans, defend yourselves against the Jewish atrocity propaganda, buy only at German shops!" However, this ended up a failure on the part of the SA due to the German populace largely ignoring the signs in order to get discounts, as well as getting shopping chores out of the way (as it occurred on a Saturday), in addition to the smaller stores owned by Observant Jews being closed for the Sabbath in either case.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-boycott.htm</ref> | | On April 1, 1933, a week after the Enabling Act had been passed by the Nazis, the SA during the resulting boycott stood in front of any Jewish shops, department stores, professional offices, and various business places and picketed in front of them with signs saying "Germans, defend yourselves against the Jewish atrocity propaganda, buy only at German shops!" However, this ended up a failure on the part of the SA due to the German populace largely ignoring the signs in order to get discounts, as well as getting shopping chores out of the way (as it occurred on a Saturday), in addition to the smaller stores owned by Observant Jews being closed for the Sabbath in either case.<ref>http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/triumph/tr-boycott.htm</ref> |