Persues Press, 2001
This is a serious book by a German historian about why Hitler may have been motivated to do away with a number of those killed during the so-called "Night of the Long Knives" in June,1934, including Ernst Roehm (Röhm). Dr. Machtan does not try to prove anything. He paints a picture of Hitler's close relationship with Roehm in the 1920s and the battle to distance the Nazis from homosexuality in the 1930s – an anti-gay move led by Joseph Goebbels. Machtan is fair rather than wild and sensational in his approach, painting an interesting picture of goings-on in Germany after World War I.
Lothar Machten is an assistant professor of History at Bremen University.
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