Editing Heinrich Himmler (section)

=== Consolidation of power ===
In early 1934, Hitler and other Nazi leaders became concerned that Röhm was planning a coup d'état.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=306–309}} Röhm had socialist and populist views and believed that the real revolution had not yet begun. He felt that the SA—now numbering some three million men, far dwarfing the army—should become the sole arms-bearing corps of the state, and that the army should be absorbed into the SA under his leadership. Röhm [[lobbying|lobbied]] Hitler to appoint him [[defence minister|Minister of Defence]], a position held by conservative General [[Werner von Blomberg]].{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=24}}

Göring had created a Prussian [[secret police]] force, the ''Geheime Staatspolizei'' or [[Gestapo]] in 1933 and appointed [[Rudolf Diels]] as its head. Göring, concerned that Diels was not ruthless enough to use the Gestapo effectively to counteract the power of the SA, handed over its control to Himmler on 20 April 1934.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=54}} Also on that date, Hitler appointed Himmler chief of all German police outside Prussia. This was a radical departure from long-standing German practice that law enforcement was a state and local matter. Heydrich, named chief of the Gestapo by Himmler on 22 April 1934, also continued as head of the SD.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=61}}

Hitler decided on 21 June that Röhm and the SA leadership had to be eliminated. He sent Göring to Berlin on 29 June, to meet with Himmler and Heydrich to plan the action. Hitler took charge in Munich, where Röhm was arrested; he gave Röhm the choice to commit suicide or be shot. When Röhm refused to kill himself, he was shot dead by two SS officers. Between 85 and 200 members of the SA leadership and other political adversaries, including Gregor Strasser, were killed between 30 June and 2 July 1934 in these actions, known as the [[Night of the Long Knives]].{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=308–314}}{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=31–35, 39}} With the SA thus neutralised, the SS became an independent organisation answerable only to Hitler on 20 July 1934. Himmler's title of ''Reichsführer-SS'' became the highest formal SS rank, equivalent to a [[field marshal]] in the army.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=316}} The SA was converted into a sports and training organisation.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=313}}

On 15 September 1935, Hitler presented two laws—known as the [[Nuremberg Laws]]—to the Reichstag. The laws banned marriage between non-Jewish and Jewish Germans and forbade the employment of non-Jewish women under the age of 45 in Jewish households. The laws also deprived so-called "non-Aryans" of the benefits of German citizenship.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=543–545}} These laws were among the first race-based measures instituted by the Third Reich.

Himmler and Heydrich wanted to extend the power of the SS; thus, they urged Hitler to form a national police force overseen by the SS, to guard Nazi Germany against its many enemies at the time—real and imagined.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|pp=86, 87}} Interior Minister Frick also wanted a national police force, but one controlled by him, with [[Kurt Daluege]] as his police chief.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}} Hitler left it to Himmler and Heydrich to work out the arrangements with Frick. Himmler and Heydrich had greater bargaining power, as they were allied with Frick's old enemy, Göring. Heydrich drew up a set of proposals and Himmler sent him to meet with Frick. An angry Frick then consulted with Hitler, who told him to agree to the proposals. Frick acquiesced, and on 17 June 1936 Hitler decreed the unification of all police forces in the Reich and named Himmler Chief of German Police and a State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}} In this role, Himmler was still nominally subordinate to Frick. In practice, however, the police were now effectively a division of the SS, and hence independent of Frick's control. This move gave Himmler operational control over Germany's entire detective force.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}}{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=204}} He also gained authority over all of Germany's uniformed law enforcement agencies, which were amalgamated into the new ''[[Ordnungspolizei]]'' (Orpo: "order police"), which became a branch of the SS under Daluege.{{sfn|Williams|2001|p=77}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-45534-0005, Kz Mauthausen, Besuch Heinrich Himmler, Franz Ziereis.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.55|Himmler, [[Ernst Kaltenbrunner]], and other SS officials visiting [[Mauthausen concentration camp]] in 1941]]

Shortly thereafter, Himmler created the ''[[Kriminalpolizei]]'' (Kripo: criminal police) as an umbrella organisation for all criminal investigation agencies in Germany. The Kripo was merged with the Gestapo into the ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' (SiPo: security police), under Heydrich's command.{{sfn|Longerich|2012|p=201}} In September 1939, following the outbreak of World War II, Himmler formed the ''[[SS-Reichssicherheitshauptamt]]'' (RSHA: Reich Security Main Office) to bring the SiPo (which included the Gestapo and Kripo) and the SD together under one umbrella. He again placed Heydrich in command.{{sfn|Gerwarth|2011|p=163}}

Under Himmler's leadership, the SS developed its own military branch, the ''[[SS-Verfügungstruppe]]'' (SS-VT), which later evolved into the [[Waffen-SS]]. Nominally under the authority of Himmler, the Waffen-SS developed a fully militarised structure of command and operations. It grew from three regiments to over 38 divisions during World War II, serving alongside the ''[[German Army (Wehrmacht)|Heer]]'' (army), but never being formally part of it.{{sfn|McNab|2009|pp=56, 57, 66}}

In addition to his military ambitions, Himmler established the beginnings of a parallel economy under the umbrella of the SS.{{sfn|Sereny|1996|pp=323, 329}} To this end, administrator [[Oswald Pohl]] set up the ''[[Deutsche Wirtschaftsbetriebe]]'' (German Economic Enterprise) in 1940. Under the auspices of the SS Economy and Administration Head Office, this holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses.{{sfn|Evans|2008|p=343}} Pohl was unscrupulous and quickly exploited the companies for personal gain. In contrast, Himmler was honest in matters of money and business.{{sfn|Flaherty|2004|p=120}}

In 1938, as part of his preparations for war, Hitler ended the [[Sino-German cooperation until 1941|German alliance with China]] and entered into an agreement with the more modern [[Empire of Japan|Japan]]. That same year, Austria was unified with Nazi Germany in the [[Anschluss]], and the [[Munich Agreement]] gave Nazi Germany control over the [[Sudetenland]], part of [[Czechoslovakia]].{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=641, 653, 674}} Hitler's primary motivations for war included obtaining additional ''[[Lebensraum]]'' ("living space") for the Germanic peoples, who were considered racially superior according to [[Nazism|Nazi ideology]].{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=34}} A second goal was the elimination of those considered racially inferior, particularly the Jews and [[Slavs]], from territories controlled by the Reich. From 1933 to 1938, hundreds of thousands of Jews emigrated to the United States, [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine]], the United Kingdom, and other countries. Some converted to Christianity.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=554–558}}