>>19498962Why yes anon, what happened to Ernst Rohm happens to be one of my favorite topics!
Hitler liked and trusted him deeply while being fully aware of his homosexuality and even his sex scandals, and would rebuke related criticisms by saying that Rohm's function isn't to be a moral authority.
>The leader of the Berlin SA, Walther Stennes, rebelled against the SA leadership and declared that he and his followers would "never serve under a notorious homosexual like Röhm and his Pupenjungen (male prostitutes)". On 3 February, Hitler dismissed Stennes's objection, stating, "The SA is not a girls' boarding school."Hitler and Rohm ended up having a falling out because, among other things, Rohm got a bit bloodthirsty and wanted to have yet another revolution against the industrialists whom Hitler needed on his side. After which Hitler got rid of the entire SA for pragmatic political reasons that had nothing to do with Rohm's homosexuality, and having to kill Rohm distressed him deeply.
But most of all I've heard that it was actually leftist parties who mercilessly shat on Rohm and used his very existence to discredit the Nazi party. They wrote and disseminated unhinged fanfiction about him allegedly raping boys and taunted the Nazi party with shouts of "SA, pants down!" All the while they were campaigning for the removal of Germany's anti-sodomy law. Even fellow leftists like Tucholsky pointed out the hypocrisy
> "We oppose the disgraceful Paragraph 175 wherever we can; therefore we must not join the choir of those among us who want to banish a man from society because he is homosexual."Which was probably why a) Hitler used Rohm's homosexuality as a cover story for why he was killed, knowing that everyone including the leftist opposition would swallow it and love it, and b) decided they needed to crack down on homosexuality after that in order to deal with all the unfounded accusations and slander.
Funny how that story goes, huh?
