exempted from dismissal at Hindenburg’s
request. Terror was exercised against specific
opponents. Dachau was the first concentration
camp, established near Munich in 1933 by
Heinrich Himmler, head of the Bavarian Political
Police. It became the model for others, and by
the summer of 1933 some 30,000 Germans were
held in concentration camps. Himmler soon
advanced to become the Reichsführer of the SS
(Schutzstaffel) and head of the police throughout
the Reich. The courts and police also continued
to function.
Germany was left as a mosaic where the normal
process of law and administration continued to
function fairly in some instances. In other areas
the Nazis or the terror arm of the SS were
supreme, and no appeal to the courts was possible.
Jewish students were for a time permitted to con-
tinue their university studies on a quota system.
Until 1938, some Jewish businesses continued to
trade, a few even later, though many went bank-
rupt. ‘I always go as far as I dare and never farther’,
Hitler told a meeting of party leaders in April
- So Hitler, at the same time as he breached
the vital principles of basic civic rights, gave the
outward appearance of acting mildly and reason-
ably, and always in conformity with proper ‘laws’.
And did not the person of President Hindenburg
guarantee decency? The German people did not
realise how the president was losing power to
Hitler. But knowledge of the concentration camps
was a deterrent to any thought of opposition from
all except the most courageous.
Hitler was especially careful to appease the
army. He assured it of an independent status and
of its position as the sole armed force in the state.
The army wished to draw on the young storm
troopers whom it would train as a large armed
force that could quickly augment the regular army
in time of crisis. This meant the subordination of
the SA to the needs of the army. The head of the
storm troopers, Ernst Röhm, had entirely differ-
ent ideas. The storm troopers were not only a
separate army in the state, but he saw them under
his command as the untainted force which would
carry through the complete Nazi revolution in
opposition to Hitler, who appeared willing to
compromise with the old elements of power, the
army and industrialists. Hitler reacted ruthlessly
and, with the help of the Reichswehr during what
became known as the Night of the Long Knives
on 30 June 1934, had Röhm and many senior
officers of the SA murdered. The same opportu-
nity was taken to murder General von Schleicher,
Gregor Strasser and two of Papen’s close associ-
ates, as a warning to Papen’s nationalist ‘allies’.
Hitler, with the connivance of the army, had now
openly set himself above the law.
On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg, the one man
more revered than Hitler, died. He was buried at
an impressive funeral ceremony and for the last
time Hitler took a back seat. With Hindenburg
were laid to rest symbolically the last vestiges of
the Prussian Junker and military traditions of
honour and service. The moment Hindenburg
died Hitler took another important step towards
supreme power. A plebiscite merged the offices of
president and chancellor: Hitler, who now
became the Führer and Reich chancellor. The
Reichswehr generals, believing that they would
still control all military decisions, did not oppose
Hitler’s demand that the army should swear a per-
sonal oath of loyalty to him as head of state.
Enormous power was now concentrated in
Hitler’s hands. But still he moved with caution,
step by step, accepting that he would need time
to achieve his goals.
The year 1934 also witnessed the belated small
beginnings of protest against the implications of
Nazi anti-Semitism though only as far as it
affected the Church’s own administration, and
the largely unsuccessful attempts by Hitler to sub-
ordinate the Protestant Church. That Hitler did
not choose immediately to crush the opposition
of the Confessional Protestant Church movement
and other protests, however, was due not to mod-
eration, as people mistakenly thought, but to his
caution, his wish to dominate only gradually all
spheres of German life. He bided his time.
Hitler had a clear view of priorities. At home
the most important issue was unemployment. If
he could get the out-of-work back into factories
and construction, enable the small businesses to
become sufficiently profitable again, and provide
security and promotion opportunities for civil ser-
vants and army officers, their support for him