Its strange to me that the people knew about this night and still praised Hitler. The night of the long knives had many of the SA leaders and those who had angered Hitler killed.He had many people killed in that three day stretch. Even with two generals killed, the army supported it. Hitler had made an agreement with the army that if they supported removing Rohm and the other SA leaders, the SA men would become under the control of the army, but have to be loyal to Hitler.
The obviously could not keep this a secret and Hitler addressed the public about it, Hitler even had the cabinet declare a measure that made it legally sanctioned. Why some questioned it, many people accepted it as what had to be done and trusted Hitler. This was Hitler "protecting the little man". Then followed up with his carefully constructed speech that hit all the right notes, he was the hero, he would restore order.
Its odd to me that no one stood up after this. Even the churches, even though a Catholic Action leader had been killed. It's this overt blatant statement that bad things are coming. This is proof that Hitler will be a leader who does not value the people but will go to extreme measures to get anyone out of his way, anyone who disagrees with him. At this point it seems like there was no stopping him, no going back. He had people killed and then had the cabinet say "hey, it's okay". This bonded the army closer to Hitler, by them standing by him. This situation was a turning point for Germany, for the government and the people. It kind of showed Hitler being the supreme person, the ultimate judge of what goes on.
Hitler knew how to spread enough terror so that Germans felt powerless under his reign. With the control of the army, the most powerful force in Germany, there wasn’t much choice but to abide by Hitler’s laws. I wouldn’t necessarily say no one stood up by choice. I’m certain there would have been opposition, had Hitler and his military not been so menacing .I think Hitler’s announcement that he gave the orders of The Night of Long Knives, most likely caused more discontent and fear. No one would have known the extent of discontent amongst Germans because those who opposed Hitler wanted to stay quiet so an SS or SA didn’t find out. Also, I wouldn’t necessarily say the regular German Army wanted to pledge allegiance to Hitler. They were likely going to be seized under SA control, which was a stronger military and Hitler gave them protection to remain if they gave oath to Hitler, supporting his orders.
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