Ernst Röhm

It had me thinking of like Dan Carlin, the history podcaster did an episode talking about Hitler's inner circle and, And how it was this same dynamic where everybody is like, you know, they're they're like slavishly devoted to the leader, but also always trying to one up each other.

So it's like if Herman Goring is getting too uppity, it's like Hitler will shower some praise on Martin Bormann or, you know, Himmler and or Ernst Röhm.

And it's like they're all battling to be the second Hitler.

And I'm sure Trump does probably some of the same stuff, too.

The termination of this enemy would culminate on July 2nd, 1934.

The incident, known as the Night of the Long Knives, would see the murder of Ernst Röhm, the head of the Sturmabteilung,

Hitler and the party leadership had arrived at the point where they felt they had to take on the SA, the

Sturmabteilung.

Goebbels, uh-- Himmler was too young, so Himmler didn't serve at the front.

Himmler, though, became a, a, a, a very close, uh, he became very close to Ernst Röhm, in part because Himmler, uh, Himmler was in heavy action with the Free Corps against the KPD.

And, I mean, Röhm really was a brute and really was a gangster, okay? Himml- Himmler dropped bodies if he gained the respect of Röhm.

There's no way that he didn't, okay? So, I gotta consider Himmler to be an exception.

Uh, Goebbels, uh, the case of Goebbels is, is interesting.

Goebbels was a cripple, too.

But it, uh, that, uh, that's, that's, uh, that, that's, that's an entire, uh, that's an entire other issue.

But my point is it was, it was, it was, it was exceptional, okay? Um, and, uh, this, the, the mythology of, of the Great War, even for a guy, uh, even for, even for a man like Himmler, who, who came of age literally, you know, as, as, as the, as the armistice was implemented, uh, you know, he, he grew up in the aftermath, and he grew up fighting in the street with men like Röhm, like, as, as his kinda, as his, uh, as his kind of role models.