From Publishers Weekly:

Hitler’s June 1934 purge of the Storm Troopers (the SA)–known as the Night of the Long Knives–did indeed change the world, eliminating SA head Ernst Röhm and other “enemies of the party” and consolidating Hitler’s power. But the events of that night take up only a few chapters of Maracin’s account.

Much of the rest of the book describes the background of the Nazi Party’s key players–Hitler, Göring, Himmler, for example–whose lives are already well known. The final section of the book details the last days of WWII. Maracin, a freelance writer who relies exclusively on secondary sources, is accurate in his account of events–as he points out, the Nazis were probably responsible for the Reichstag fire that later served as their excuse to launch the purge–but he fails to provide any new information or perspective, and his analysis is too often superficial. For example, the leading Nazis, he writes, “were essentially all losers” none of whom could “satisfactorily earn a living as a civilian for a sustained period of time.” B&w photos.

Review 1: “Historical Bits” and “recommended for larger World War II and German history collections.” — Library Journal

Review 1: Fascinating, but not enough about the Night, January 30, 2005 — By Kurt A. Johnson (Marseilles, Illinois, USA)

In this fascinating little book, author Paul R. Maracin tells the story of the Nazi destruction of the SA (Brown Shirts) on June 30, 1934. The book begins by telling the story of the rise of the Nazi party, through a series of biographies of the prominent Nazi leaders. Over the course of more than half the book, these biographies take the reader from World War I, though the ruthless activities of the Nazis, and on to the squabble between Hitler and Rohm (the leader of the SA), and the orgy of violence that was the Night of Long Knives.

After taking so long to reach the Night, the activities of those two days are covered in a surprisingly quick and almost perfunctory manner. After that, the story moves on to cover the rest of the history of the Nazi party, finally ending with Nuremburg, and the fate of the surviving plotters of the Night.

OK, what can I say about this book? First of all, I must say that I really enjoyed reading it. I have not read much about the Nazi leaders, and the crimes that they committed. This book did an excellent job of introducing me to them, and showing me what they were actually like. That alone was worth my time in reading the book.

On the other hand, though, so little of this book is actually given over to the events of those “forty-eight hours that changed the history of the world” that the title seems almost misleading.

But, that said, I found this to be a fascinating and enlightening book that told me a lot about the Nazis and the Night of Long Knives that I have never read before. So, I would say that if you already know a lot about the Nazis and are interested in the events of that Night, then you might be rather disappointed. If, like me though, you do not know a lot about the Nazis, then you will enjoy this book.

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