Hitler's gay friend

In every dictatorship there is room for hypocrisy. This or that behaviour is wrong, and propaganda is responsible for making it known to the population, but elites do not have to follow these guidelines to the letter.

The same is reflected very well in the series El cuento de la criada (The Story of the Maid, in which, incidentally, the military follow a very Nazi-like aesthetic), in which an establishment appears that reminds us of the Kitty Hall, a curious brothel that was active during Nazism.

The case that we are dealing with today is that of Ernst Röhm, Hitler's gay friend.

Röhm had founded a group of radical nationalist officials, and Hitler approached it in 1920, as the paramilitary groups he controlled were very broad and powerful at the time.

And, beware, Röhm did not at any time hide his homosexuality, which was publicly known (you will need this information later). These groups of disgruntled soldiers were dedicated to clouding peace on the streets and undermining Weimar's weak democracy, something that hitler came as pearls to him.

From then on they became very close. So much so that, in 1923, Röhm was one of the leading figures in Hitler's attempted coup d' état, the Munich Putsch. The Munich Putsch, or Brewery's Putsch, was a failure because of haste and improvisation, and neither the paramilitary troops nor the support of a World War I hero like General Ludendorff served much purpose.

After a shooting that left fourteen coup plotters and four policemen dead, as well as a bullet in Göring's leg, Röhm and Hitler shared shower and soap for a while. It is said that this is where Röhm began to speak to Hitler, something that nobody else did.

Although Röhm was more independent than Hitler liked, Hitler made him the leader of the SA, which already had around 400,000 members. At that time the problems began: some of the SA subordinates complained and used Röhm's homosexuality to attack him.

And you know who came out in his defense?

That's right, Hitler.

The Austrian said that they were "things that belong only to the private sphere", and that the SAs were a "group of tough fighters", not a "moral institution".

But the problem of structuring the SA with regard to the Nazi party did not end, because the paramilitary group was a pressure cooker of violence hardly contained. The party used them to shake the streets when necessary, but control over them was not complete.

After becoming chancellor in 1933 (thanks, in fact, to the fear that the SAs had set up in the streets), Adolf Hitler embarked on an unstoppable journey to absolute power, and the SAs bothered him greatly. The paramilitaries were still on the streets with their "vandalism policy. For Hitler, once the SAs had crushed the left and any political opposition, daily intimidation, violence and riots became a problem.

And hypocrisy lasts as long as the usefulness of each one lasts. That you fuck whoever you want? All right, at least as long as you do your thing and it keeps working.

However, in 1934 that precarious balance would explode through the air. The SAs reached a whopping four and a half million members, and Hitler was afraid of their growing power. In addition, Röhm demanded Hitler that the small German army (limited to 100,000 by the Treaty of Versailles of 1919) be absorbed by the SA and that they become the army.

The army leadership didn't like this hair, and the head of state was one of them, Hindenburg. He asked Hitler to tackle the matter. As if that were not enough, the SA practised a personality cult centred on Röhm at that time. Hitler had been displaced from the pages of his newspaper, SA-Mann.

From the beginning of 1934 Hitler ordered the Gestapo to investigate the SA, and a number of Röhm's enemies set to work: Diels, Bormann, Hess Himmler, Heydrich, Göring... Almost all were high officials of the party and the SS (Schutzstaffel), which was part of the SA.

The SS and the Gestapo were in charge of inventing that the SA were planning a coup, and finally a forged order from Röhm calling the SA to arms was "captured".

There was a rumor among the SA that they were going to be attacked, so in some parts of the country they took to the streets, and the mess was already set up.

Hitler got angry and the party started. The early morning of June 30 began Operation Hummingbird, known as Long Knife Night, which lasted until July 2. Hitler asked to be taken to the hotel where Röhm and the SA dome rested in drunkenness.

Gun in hand, Hitler and entourage entered Röhm's room and charged him with treason. Another important SA leader was in another room, sharing a bed with a boy. They took everyone and Hitler told them everything. He was literally "out of his mind, possessed by anger, and foamed at the mouth when he began to speak. In case there was any doubt, he said it was the "worst betrayal in world history.

Judas, we're sorry for you.

Without trial or trial, the shootings began. And, despite everything,"Hitler didn't want Röhm shot," a Nazi leader noted for the services rendered. Röhm waited for his sentence, and apparently Göring and Himmler pressured Hitler, who gave in, but gave Röhm the option to commit suicide. Röhm refused to take the accusations and was killed.

Across Germany, the SS and Gestapo killed 150-200 SA leaders and the organisation began to be dismantled, which soon lost all its importance.

And, in order to create a cohesive discourse and not generate tensions, Hitler pointed out the need to put an end to the SA with twelve points that insisted on the need to put an end to homosexuality, debauchery, drunkenness... He forgot about the private sphere and also gave him a very sudden and opportune Alzheimer's, because according to some it exploded in anger when he heard about Röhm's homosexuality.

What's more, it seems that a joke started to run around Germany:"How will he look when he finds out that Göring is fat and Goebbels is lame?

And speaking of the devil. Goebbels, head of propaganda, did his thing: Piss off. Especially, he attacked the entire SA leadership because of his homosexuality, which, we insist, knew the party, and many more people, since always.

A few years later, the Nazi dictatorship hardened the persecution of homosexuals, something that seems to have been spurred on by Himmler and his SS, as they began a persecution from 1935 that brought homosexuals to prison, concentration camps and castration. It is estimated that between 1935 and 1943 some 46,000 homosexuals were convicted. Of these, between 5,000 and 15,000 ended up in concentration camps.

When the camps were liberated, the most brutal Nazi laws were repealed, and in East Germany the laws that persecuted homosexuals were also eliminated. However, they were not repealed in West Germany until 1994.