Editing Nazi Germany (section)

=== Consolidation of power ===
The SA leadership continued to apply pressure for greater political and military power. In response, Hitler used the ''[[Schutzstaffel]]'' (SS) and [[Gestapo]] to purge the entire SA leadership.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=309–314}} Hitler targeted SA ''[[Stabschef]]'' (Chief of Staff) [[Ernst Röhm]] and other SA leaders who—along with a number of Hitler's political adversaries (such as [[Gregor Strasser]] and former chancellor [[Kurt von Schleicher]])—were arrested and shot.{{sfn|Evans|2005|pp=31–34}} Up to 200 people were killed from 30 June to 2 July 1934 in an event that became known as the [[Night of the Long Knives]].{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|pp=306–313}}

On 2 August 1934, Hindenburg died. The previous day, the cabinet had enacted the "[[Law Concerning the Head of State of the German Reich]]", which stated that upon Hindenburg's death the office of Reich President would be abolished and its powers merged with those of Reich Chancellor.{{sfn|Overy|2005|p=63}} Hitler thus became head of state as well as head of government and was formally named as ''[[Führer|Führer und Reichskanzler]]'' ("Leader and Chancellor"), although eventually ''Reichskanzler'' was dropped.{{sfn|Evans|2005|p=44}} Germany was now a totalitarian state with Hitler at its head.{{sfn|Shirer|1960|pp=226–227}} As head of state, Hitler became Supreme Commander of the armed forces. The new law provided an altered loyalty oath for servicemen so that they [[Hitler oath|affirmed loyalty to Hitler personally]] rather than the office of supreme commander or the state.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=317}} On 19 August, the merger of the presidency with the chancellorship was approved by 90 per cent of the electorate in a [[German referendum, 1934|plebiscite]].{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=230}}

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1968-101-20A, Joseph Goebbels.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Joseph Goebbels]], Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda|alt=A black and white photo of a man wearing a suit and tie. His body is facing to the left while his head is turned towards the right.]]
Most Germans were relieved that the conflicts and street fighting of the Weimar era had ended. They were deluged with propaganda orchestrated by Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda [[Joseph Goebbels]], who promised peace and plenty for all in a united, Marxist-free country without the constraints of the Versailles Treaty.{{sfn|Kershaw|2001|pp=50–59}} The Nazi Party obtained and legitimised power through its initial revolutionary activities, then through manipulation of legal mechanisms, the use of police powers, and by taking control of the state and federal institutions.{{sfn|Hildebrand|1984|pp=20–21}}{{sfn|Childers|2017|p=248}} The first major [[Nazi concentration camps|Nazi concentration camp]], initially for political prisoners, was opened at [[Dachau concentration camp|Dachau]] in 1933.{{sfn|Evans|2003|p=344}} Hundreds of camps of varying size and function were created by the end of the war.{{sfn|Evans|2008|loc=map, p. 366}}

Beginning in April 1933, scores of measures defining the status of Jews and their rights were instituted.{{sfn|Walk|1996|pp=1–128}} These measures culminated in the establishment of the [[Nuremberg Laws]] of 1935, which stripped them of their basic rights.{{sfn|Friedländer|2009|pp=44–53}} The Nazis would take from the Jews their wealth, their right to intermarry with non-Jews, and their right to occupy many fields of labour (such as law, medicine, or education). Eventually the Nazis declared the Jews as undesirable to remain among German citizens and society.{{sfn|Childers|2017|pp=351–356}}