SA in the face of the murder of a beloved leader (Röhm) and hundreds of close comrades was a curious spectacle. At that moment probably Röhm, and not Hitler, had the power of the Reichswehr behind him. But these incidents in the Nazi movement have by now been overshadowed by the ever-repeated spectacle of self-confessed “criminals” in the Bolshevik parties. Trials based on absurd confessions have become part of an internally all-important and externally incomprehensible ritual.
