Ernst Rohm Term Papers

River Williams

Ms. Baker

College English 102

20 March 2022

Ernst Rohm On June 30th, 1934, Hitler would order a political purge of over 100 government and Sturmabteilung officials. This political massacre came to be known under many names, including The Night of The Long Knives, The Great Blood Purge, and Operation Hummingbird. Perhaps, the most prominent of these names, though, is the Rohm Purge, named after Ernst Rohm. Ernst Rohm was one of these men killed, and at one point, was Hitler’s right-hand man. When Hitler had him executed, it signaled the end of an era: the era of revolution, and a beginning of a different and much more sinister era: that of Nazi reign, WWII, and the Holocaust. Ernst Rohm was born November 28, 1887, in Munich,

In fact, Rohm may have taken pride in his sexuality. According to Encyclopedia of World Biography Online, Rohm in fact “believed homosexual men were superior to all others”, citing historical figures such as Caesar and Alexander the Great. However, Rohm’s homosexual tendencies conflicted innately with the values held by the Nazi Party. Additionally, many of Rohm’s SA were also homosexuals, which weakened some public perceptions against them. William Delong suggests that his homosexuality was part of the reason Hitler would eventually have Rohm killed, writing that “many in the Party disliked that Röhm was a homosexual and keeping him around could reflect poorly on Hitler.” Despite the party disliking Rohm’s homosexuality, Hitler seemed to be unbothered by it (“Ernst Rohm” [Encyclopedia of World Biography

While their relationship was certainly strained, they were still very close for much of their political careers. In fact, Rohm was the only senior leader in the Nazi Party to address Hitler as Adolf instead of “Mein Führer” (Delong). The Holocaust Historical Society, Rohm was one of few people that Hitler would address as “du”, the more personal pronoun in German. Hitler’s continued support of Rohm despite their differences and strife shows just how close and personal they were at one point. Even though Hitler had a very personal relationship with Rohm, eventually it would come to a bloody