Hitler’s Closest Friend and Gay SA Leader: Ernst Röhm
LGBTQ+ Lives: WWII and the Nazi Era
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20m
He called Hitler Adi and stood beside him from the beginning.
As leader of the SA, Ernst Röhm commanded millions and dreamed of a “people’s army.” But his power—and his defiance—sealed his fate. In June 1934, Hitler’s SS struck without warning. Röhm was arrested, humiliated, and given a revolver to take his own life. When he refused, SS officers fired into his chest. His last words: “My Führer…”
The purge known as the Night of the Long Knives ended the SA—and proved that friendship meant nothing in Hitler’s Reich.
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