meetings.
Goebbels, whose position yesterday was one of doubt, triumphantly broadcast tonight that “Hitler never was so much the master as now. The whole world,” he said, “can see Germany calm and in order.”
It is understood that following references to an unnamed power supporting von Schleicher and Roehm in their alleged “conspiracy,” the French and Czechoslovakian embassies vainly inquired of the Foreign Office in the Wilhelmstrasse which foreign power conspired.
Only one clash was reported by the authorities today when they said brownshirts had engaged with Goering’s police in Charlottenberg. Spectators cheered for the police, it was said.
The estimate of the dead as a result of the breaking up of the alleged “conspiracy” was set today, unofficially, at thirty.
Forewarned, Hitler, aided by Prussian Premier Goering, the loyal elite guard, the police and the Reichswehr, the standing army moved with dramatic suddenness yesterday against the factions in his own private army which had become disaffected.
ROEHM AND HEINES BOTH DIE
Roehm, on sick leave from command of the storm troops, was arrested by Hitler personally at Wiensee, was stripped of his command and ousted from the Nazi party. He was executed. Heines was found by Hitler in an adjoining room and he also died—exactly how is unknown.
Karl Ernst, commander of the Berlin storm troops, was found near Bremerhaven, and according to an official statement, was shot and killed while attempting to resist arrest.
Other Nazi leaders slain were District Group Leader August Schneidhauber of Munich, Group Leaders Wilhelm Schmid of Munich, Hans Hays of Saxony and Hans Peter von Heidelbrock of Pomerania.
Hitler himself directed the capture of the Nazi leaders congregated near Munich, and Goering, in Berlin, took charge of activities there. For several hours, while loyal Hitler forces were striking, the authorities closed the Austro-German border and suspended cable, telegraph and telephone service to points outside the Reich.
NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS DISTORTED
The first official intimation the German people had of the “revolution” came during the day when long lines of steel-helmeted Reichswehr troops and police marched through the main thoroughfares, quietly, determinedly. The absence of brownshirts, scheduled to doff uniforms for a month’s vacation but ordered to strip off their storm troop trappings at noon under an emergency decree, also incited popular curiosity. Newspapers, long used to reporting everything but news, handled developments nervously and the reports, distorted and fanciful, came by word of mouth rather than through the press.
Disciplinary gaps in the storm troop organization were readily plugged as Hitler appointed Viktor Lutze to the command of all storm troops. Lutze was initiated into his new duties by a series of eleven demands from the Fuehrer. Hitler said that he demanded blind obedience, unquestioning discipline, good deportment, simplicity of living and personal sacrifice to the general welfare. He demanded this from Lutze, and Lutze, in turn, made similar demands from the brown shirts.
GOERING PLAYS MOUTHPIECE
Prussian Premier Hermann Goering furnished the press with the most thorough official accounts of the “Second Revolution,” about which it was said he had known for many days. While Hitler flew from Bonn to Munich and back to Berlin, ostensibly on official business, he maintained constant communication with Goering, who had set traps for the conspirators.
Hitler himself attended and ordered the arrest of Roehm, one of his most intimate friends. Hitler had found both Roehm and Heines in the former’s summer home near Munich. After having ordered Roehm, in bed at 5 p. m., to prepare for arrest, the Fuehrer stepped across the hall where, it is reported, he found Heines in bed with a boy. Heines was shot at once, but by whom has not been announced.
Meanwhile in Berlin, Goering swooped just as suddenly on other reactionaries. He cornered von Schleicher in his summer home at Neubabelsburg, a Berlin suburb made famous as the home of UFA and other large motion picture concerns, and arrested him. Von Schleicher, long an advocate of restoration of the monarchy, was shot dead “while resisting arrest,” according to official communiques. The same reason was given for the shooting of Karl Ernst, group leader of the Berlin storm troops, who was done to death near Bremerhaven.
CONFINE VON PAPEN
Colonel Franz von Papen, who recently attacked Nazi policies, was held briefly in protective detention but released. He was ordered to remain at his home.
Because of the timorousness of the German press and its lack of contact with official news sources, it is not expected that full details with regard to casualties and events leading up to the “revolution” will be divulged for some time. The attitude of Hitler himself has been clarified from the outset. With regard to the execution of rebels, Goering has said:
“Der Fuehrer personally went to Weissee (near Munich) accompanied by several of his men, in order to nip any attempt at opposition in the bud.
“The execution of the arrests was accompanied by a spectacle so bad morally that every trace of pity must needs vanish.
“Some of these storm troop leaders had brought boys with them for lustful purposes. One of them was caught in a most despicable situation and arrested.
“Der Fuehrer gave orders for the pitiless excision of this pest and boil. He will not tolerate in the future that millions of decent people shall be compromised by individuals with abnormal tendencies.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
