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The stage was set for a fight-to-the-finish within the Party. The Nazis came to power, and Roehm demanded that his Brown Shirts be recognized as a national defense unit. The Führer's reply was to sick the stripling Himmler on the veteran Roehm. There followed the memorable night of June 29-30, 1934, when Himmler and Hitler, flanked by 55 men, raided the headquarters of the disorganized Storm Troopers in and near Munich, killed Roehm and his supporters. Simultaneously all over Germany the Nazi Party's most vociferous dissidents were rounded up and executed. In that slaughter of hundreds, young Himmler proved his mettle, showed the qualities of ruthlessness and brutality so necessary in his job, demonstrated his undying love for his Führer.
After that Heinrich Himmler's rise was meteoric. He soon was to become the shadow behind the swastika. The creation of a secret police in 1933 which was to work hand in hand with 55 men in ferreting out and putting down possible disaffection gave him immense power. Gestapo agents were recruited from the 55 Corps, and worked hand in hand with 55 troopers; the Gestapo, after spotting its victim, often let the 55 men carry out the arrest, trial, execution. In 1936, he was made Police Commissioner and supreme director of law & order in all Germany.
Nordic Order. Under Commissioner & Inspector Himmler Germany soon became the most policed country in the world. He purged, sacked, centralized, reorganized the regular German police until last January he was at last able to pronounce Germany's regular police force "politically reliable." Taking a leaf from the book of Dictator Joseph Stalin's Ogpu, Herr Himmler's men went into industrial centres as workmen, organized anti-Government demonstrations, watched carefully who responded. Soon the responding demonstrators landed in concentration camps.
Instead of a mere bodyguard for the Führer, the 55 was enlarged into three general groupings having widely varying duties: the General 55, the Service Troops, the Death's Head Brigade. Membership in the General 55 implies no more than attendance at meetings, participation in political demonstrations, auxiliary police service on important occasions, sporting activity.
The other two groups devote their entire time to the organization and are paid regular salaries. The Service Troops include four battalions: the Leibstandarte, the Deutschland, the Germania, the Führer. Of these, the Leibstandarte is best-known: its chief job is to guard Herr Hitler in Berlin and on all his trips. The other battalions are distributed throughout the Reich to form guards of honor for Nazi dignitaries, protect them during visits, control crowds and act as emergency troops. Motorized and equipped completely for warfare, they may well be the first to see action in the next war. They were honored by being among the first to invade Austria. They preceded Führer Hitler in his "tour" last October of the Sudetenland to make sure that every town he entered was safe.