Editing Ernst Röhm (section)

==Reactions to the purge==
While some [[Germans]] were shocked by the killings of 30 June to 2 July 1934, many others saw Hitler as the one who restored "order" to the country. Goebbels's propaganda highlighted the "Röhm-Putsch" in the days that followed. The homosexuality of Röhm and other SA leaders [[Röhm scandal|was made public to add "shock value"]], even though it had been known to Hitler and other Nazi leaders for years.{{sfn|Kershaw|2008|p=315}}

On 3 July 1934 the purge of the SA was legalised with a one-paragraph decree: the ''Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defence'', a step that historian Robin Cross contended in 2009 was done by Hitler to cover his own tracks.{{sfn|Cross|2009|p=94}} The Law declared, "The measures taken on 30 June, 1 and 2 July to suppress treasonous assaults are legal as acts of self-defence by the State." At the time no public reference was made to the alleged SA rebellion, but only generalised references to misconduct, perversion and some sort of plot.{{sfn|Fest|1974|p=468}}

In a nationally broadcast speech to the Reichstag on 13 July, Hitler justified the purge as a defence against treason.{{sfn|Fest|1974|pp=473–487}}{{sfn|Shirer|1960|p=226}} Before the events of the Night of the Long Knives concluded, not only was Röhm dead, but more than 200 additional people had been killed,{{Efn|Rudolf Pechel claims the number was much higher, placing the death toll at 922.}} including Nazi official Gregor Strasser, former chancellor General [[Kurt von Schleicher]], and [[Franz von Papen]]'s secretary, [[Edgar Jung]].{{sfn|Moulton|1999|p=470}} Most of those murdered had little to no affiliation with Röhm but were killed for political reasons.{{sfn|Klee|2016|p=503}}

In an attempt to erase Röhm from German history, almost all known copies of the 1933 propaganda film ''[[The Victory of Faith]]'' (''Der Sieg des Glaubens'')—in which Röhm appeared—were destroyed in 1934, probably on Hitler's order; however, at least one copy has survived destruction. A new film called ''[[Triumph of the Will]]'' (''Triumph des Willens'') was shot in its place in 1935, with Victor Lutze replacing Röhm and the SA playing a much lesser role.{{sfn|Ullrich|2016|p=532}}{{Efn|''The Victory of Faith'' was long thought to have been lost until a single copy was found in storage in Britain in the 1990s. See: [https://archive.org/details/TheVictoryOfFaithsiegDesGlaubens The Victory of Faith, Internet Archive] The 1935 film ''[[Triumph of the Will]]'' (''Triumph des Willens''), produced in 1934, showed the new Nazi hierarchy, with the SS as the Nazis' premier uniformed paramilitary group and Röhm replaced by Viktor Lutze. But by then, the role of the SA was much less prominent than in the early years. See: Charles Hamilton (1984), ''Leaders & Personalities of the Third Reich'', Vol. 1, p. 312}}