Similarly, a decree promulgated by Hitler providing for supervision of premilitary training by the SA declares:
“The offices of the Party and State are to support the SA in this training program and to value the possession of the certificate for the SA military insignia.” (2383-PS)
The complete control of the SA by the Nazis at all times is shown by the so-called “Roehm Purge” of June 1934 (see 2407-PS). Roehm had been Chief of Staff of the SA for several years, and was responsible for the development of SA into a powerful, organization. SA members were required to take a personal oath of fidelity to Roehm. But when his policies conflicted with those of the Nazi leaders, he was removed, murdered, and replaced by Victor Lutze. This drastic action was accomplished without revolt or dissension in the ranks of the SA, and with no change in its objectives or program. The SA remained “a reliable and strong part of the National Socialist Movement * * * full of obedience and blind discipline,” whose function was to “create and form the new German citizens.” (2407-PS)
The importance of the SA in the Nazi plan for the utilization of the people of Germany is shown in Hitler’s pronouncement “The Course for the German Person,” which appears in the issue of “Der SA-Mann” for 5 September 1936, at page 22. Hitler’s statement reads as follows:
“The boy, he will enter the Young Volk, and the lad, he will enter the Hitler Youth, the young man will go into the SA, in the SS, and in other units, and the SA and SS men will one day enter into the labor service and from there to the Army, and the soldier of the Volk will return again into the Organization of the Movement, the Party, in the SA and SS and never again will our Volk decay as it once was decayed”.
Thus the SA was constantly available to the conspirators as an instrument to further their aims. It was natural that Victor Lutze, the former Chief of Staff of the SA, in a pamphlet entitled “The Nature and Tasks of the SA,” declared:
“The SA cannot be independent of the National Socialist Movement but can only exist as a part of it.” (2471-PS)
B. Participation by the SA in the Conspiracy.
The principal functions performed by the SA in furtherance of the objectives of the conspiracy may be classified into four distinct phases, each of which corresponds with a particular phase in the progression of the conspiracy.
The first phase consists of the use of the SA and its members as the instrument for the dissemination of Nazi ideology throughout Germany. The employment of SA for this purpose continued throughout the entire period of the conspiracy. In the second phase, the period prior to the Nazi seizure of power, the SA was a militant group of fighters whose function was to combat all opponents of the Party. In the third phase, the period of several years following the Nazi seizure of power, the SA participated in various measures designed to consolidate the control of the Nazis, including the dissolution of the trade unions, the persecution of the church, and Jewish persecutions. During this period the SA continued to serve as a force of political soldiers whose purpose was to combat members of political parties considered hostile to the Nazi Party. The fourth aspect of SA activities consisted of its employment as an agency for the building up of an armed force in Germany in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, and for the preparation of the youth of Germany for the waging of an aggressive war.