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"Only a merciless bloody stroke," cried the Chancellor pounding the rostrum with his fist, "could smother the spreading revolt! ... In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German nation; thereby the Supreme Court of the German people during these 24 hours consisted of myself!" With burning indignation in his tone the Chancellor added: "If I am confronted with the opinion that only the due process of law could have balanced guilt and extirpation exactly, I issue a solemn protest against such a viewpoint."
Breast Beaters. To most observers the Chancellor seemed thus far to have been trying to convince the Reichswehr generals that he deserves the confidence of the strongest armed force in Germany. He closed with an appeal to Nazis and the S. A. Storm Troops, recently ordered not to wear their uniforms during July. Cried the Chancellor, his voice now rising with its old barking vigor: "In a few weeks time brown shirts will again dominate the streets of German towns. ... I should like to offer forgetfulness from this moment to all who were in part guilty of this act of insanity! . . . May they all beat their own breasts! . . . May they all feel themselves responsible for the most precious gift that can exist for the German people: order within and domestic peace."
Exhausted as he left the tribune amid handclaps and cheers, Chancellor Hitler threw himself into a chair, his head back, breathing heavily. While Speaker Göring boomed a speech conveying the thanks of the Reichstag, Herr Hitler's head fell forward on his breast and he seemed not to hear General Göring's bellowings: "I myself begged the Traitor Roehm on my knees to remain loyal but he only laughed. . . . The Leader's action against the mutineers is bound to win over to his side all Germans who are still on the sidelines."
As Speaker Göring subsided the tense Reichstag saw Chancellor Hitler pull himself together and stalk out amid relieved huzzas.
Aftermath. Correspondents who dashed about Berlin while the speech blared from loud speakers reported that it seemed to be received by the populace with unusual apathy. The Chancellor had been expected to read out a full list of the names of all who had been shot. He merely admitted in passing that the number is 77. Repeatedly since the blood purge diplomats of the Great Powers have been promised a German "White Book'' containing documentary evidence. After the Chancellor's speech high German officials said that the White Book will not be published "since it is now unnecessary." Snapped the London Times: "The speech carries no conviction at all. . . . The natural assumption is that if any real proof were available, then the conspirators would not have been shot out of hand, but would have been given a public trial in which their guilt would have been made manifest."
In a final effort to nail down his authority, Chancellor Hitler polished off the week by installing in the former Prussian Diet Building his new so-called "People's Court" which now supplants the German Supreme Court in trying cases of high treason (TIME, May 14). When the 32 judges of the People's Court, all appointed by Adolf Hitler, took their places last week, only twelve turned out to be men of any legal training. The others are Nazi henchmen of the Chancellor, with a sprinkling of Reichswehr officers and several aviators, friends of General Göring who during the War succeeded the late Baron Manfred von Richthofen as flight leader of the death-dealing Richthofen Escadrille.
Likely to be sentenced to death by the People's Court on evidence of treason too flimsy to have been acted on by the Supreme Court, according to German jurists, is mighty-muscled Comrade Ernst Thalmann who in 1932 won 4,982,097 votes as the Communist candidate for President of Germany.