Bomber boys - bbc one

[WTE_Galway]

Do remember a little history in these discussions.

The first concentration camp, Dachau, was setup in March 1933 and immediately started processing "dissidents" including academics, writers, unionists and members of the communist party.

By June 1934 the only force capable of opposing Hitler was Ernst Röhm's SA (an exceptionally unpleasant organization in its own right) that was quickly and ruthlessly eliminated in the Night of the Long Knives when all of its upper leadership were imprisoned and executed.

By the time of the invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939 the concentration camps had been operating for 6 years and anyone even slightly critical of Hitler was efficiently rounded up and bundled off.

It is simply not true that ordinary Germans failed to oppose Hitler. Between 1933 and 1945 approximately 3.5 million ordinary Aryan German citizens were sent to concentration camps simply for opposing the Nazis and 77,000 of those were executed.

Note those 77,000 executed people were NOT members of persecuted groups such as the gays, gypsies or Jews and they were not criminals. These were ordinary Germans who opposed Hitler.

[Kongo-Otto]

Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

Do remember a little history in these discussions.

The first concentration camp, Dachau, was setup in March 1933 and immediately started processing "dissidents" including academics, writers, unionists and members of the communist party.

Well you are right and wrong in this one. First of all Dachau was the first official KZ,there have been "KZ's" before, it started right until Januar 30th 1933 when the SA begun arresting people right off the streets and put them in so called "Wilde KZ's" which means "wild KZ" without any control of higher authorities, this "Wild KZ" were on a regional scale, they were used to torture and kill opposing people and sometimes also used to "pay personal bills".
This "Wild KZ's" were completely closed as by January 1934 as the SS gained full control over the Police and Security sector. Some of those "wild KZ's" could only be closed by hevily armed Police under SS Command due to SA resistance. All in all there have been up to 48 "wild Kz's" until the close up of the last ones in January 1934.

Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

By June 1934 the only force capable of opposing Hitler was Ernst Röhm's SA (an exceptionally unpleasant organization in its own right) that was quickly and ruthlessly eliminated in the Night of the Long Knives when all of its upper leadership were imprisoned and executed.

If you really think that the SA would have opposed Hitler, you are totally wrong, that would never had happend.
I copied this out of wiki, it fit the topic very good:
"Adolf Hitler moved against the SA and its leader, Ernst Röhm, because he saw the independence of the SA and the penchant of its members for street violence as a direct threat to his newly gained political power. He also wanted to conciliate leaders of the Reichswehr, the official German military who feared and despised the SA—in particular Röhm's ambition to absorb the Reichswehr into the SA under his own leadership. Finally, Hitler used the purge to attack or eliminate critics of his new regime, especially those loyal to Vice-Chancellor Franz von Papen, as well as to settle scores with old enemies."

The whole wiki article is very good about the topic "Night of the long Knives"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Long_Knives