Sturmabteilung
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The Sturmabteilung, or SA, was the original paramilitary militia under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party of Germany. The organisation played a significant role in Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and
Hitler and Hermann Göring with SA stormtroopers in front of Frauenkirche, Nuremberg in 1928
The SA unit in Nuremberg, 1929
Marketing for the SA's Sturm Cigarette Company also promoted military service.
The SA unit in Berlin in 1932
Night of the Long Knives
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The Night of the Long Knives, also called the Röhm purge or Operation Hummingbird, was a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from 30 June to 2 July 1934. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, urged on by Hermann
Sturmabteilung
…after Hitler's release from prison, he ordered the creation of another bodyguard unit in 1925 that ultimately became the Schutzstaffel (SS). During the Night of the Long Knives (die Nacht der langen Messer) purge in 1934, the SA's then-leader Ernst Röhm was arrested and executed. The SA continued to exist but lost almost all…
Kurt Daluege, chief of the Ordnungspolizei; Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS; and Ernst Röhm, head of the SA, August 1933
SA leader Ernst Röhm in Bavaria in 1931
Franz von Papen, the conservative vice-chancellor who ran afoul of Hitler after denouncing the regime's failure to rein in the SA in his Marburg speech. The photo was taken in 1946 at the Nuremberg trials.