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Ben Dinovelli IB World History 12 Sturmabteilung (SA) In 1921, Adolf Hitler created his own private army called Strumabteilung (German for Storm Section). The SA, known as storm troopers or brown shirts because of their uniform, was known for disrupting opposition political meetings and defending Hitler from potential attacks. Captain Ernst Roehm of the Bavarian Army was deemed as the organization’s first leader. By 1934 the SA had grown to 450,000 men and was one of the main forces behind Hitler’s initial rise to power. After 1933, when Hitler took power, many of Hitler’s fellow officers feared that the SA would gain too much political influence and exert its military prowess. Some even thought that the SA would try to take over as the replacement for the German army. Although Hitler initially liked Roehm, the negative criticisms by Hitler’s supporters towards Roehm and the rumors of a potential SA-led coup to overthrow Hitler caused his opinions to change. In response, Hitler ordered the Night of the Long Knives, a series of political murders that killed off the SA leadership and reduce the organization’s power. After 1934, the SA was superseded by the Schutzstaffel (SS). Battle of Stalingrad A World War II battle that took place between July 17, 1942 – February 2, 1943 between Nazi German and Soviet Union forces. On July 22, 1942, Germany started Operation Barbarossa, a Nazi offensive attack to weaken and conquer the Soviet Union. One of the bloodiest battles of the war, the fighting was so intense that the average life expectancy of a Soviet citizen in the Battle of Stalingrad was 24 hours. The battle signified a turning point in the Eastern front as German forces were too damaged to be fully recovered. In November of 1942, the Red Army, through Operation Uranus, launched a two-prong attack that surrounded the German forces inside Stalingrad. The Russian winter set in and by February all of the German forces in the city had surrendered or been eliminated. After Stalingrad, Germany had no more victories on the Eastern front. Munich Beer Hall Putsch The Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, or the Munich Putsch, was Hitler’s attempt to overthrow the Weimar government of Ebert and establish a right wing nationalistic one in its place. In September 1923, the Chancellor Gustav Stresemann had decided that Germany could only proceed after hyperinflation and agreed to work with the French as opposed to against them by paying the reparations stated in the Treaty of Versailles. To the nationalists in Germany, this was an admittance of guilt for starting the First World War which was intolerable to many Germans. Hitler, the leader of a radical nationalist party, was one of them. On Nov 8th, 1923, Bavarian Prime Minister, Gustav Kahr addressed a crowd in a beer hall in Munich. Hitler, Roehm, and about 600 SA troops stormed and took control of the beer hall. After attempting to march on Munich after, he and his troops were surrounded by the police and Hitler was put on trial for treason. Although it had little political results, the incident was used later on by the Nazis for propaganda purposes. Lumpenproletariat German for “rogue proletariat,” it was a term coined by Marx to describe members of the working class who were incapable of being class conscious and thus were of a little to no use to a potential revolution. Reinhard Heydrich A high ranking German Nazi officer nicknamed “The Man with an Iron Heart” by Adolf Hitler. Heydrich chaired the Wannsee Conference in January 1942, where the idea of die Endlösung der Judenfrage (Final solution to the Jewish Question)—the extermination of the Jewish race – was conceived. He played a role in several early major events involving the Nazi’s ascension to power and quickly rose through the ranks. Despite his status, he was not invincible and was assassinated in Prague in 1942 by members of the British Special Ops forces. Despite his death, his influencing on the Third Reich was inreplaceable. The Holocaust was still carried out. Operation Reinhard, which set up several extermination camps to eliminate Jews shortly after his death, was named in his honor. Although he died early on in the war, his legacy had a lasting influence in terms of his impact on the Holocaust.