Night of the Long Knives The greatest challenge to Hitler's survival during the early years of the Third Reich came from his own brown-shirted storm troopers, the SA (Sturmabteilung) led by Chief of Staff, Ernst Röhm. The battle-scarred Röhm was a decorated World War I combat officer and a post-war street-brawler who had been with Hitler from the start. Röhm's jack-booted storm troopers were largely responsible for putting Hitler in power. On …showed first 75 words of 3128 total…

…showed last 75 words of 3128 total…a continental scale as well as a gigantic military force. Now, in the summer of 1934, there was only one man who stood between Adolf Hitler and absolute power in Germany. And that man, 87-year-old President Paul von Hindenburg, lay dying at his country estate. For several weeks, everyone awaited the Old Gentleman's demise with a nagging sense of uncertainty over what it might mean for Germany's future. Hitler, however, knew exactly what it would mean.