Night of the Long Knives

The  was a purge of the Sturmabteilung (SA) leadership in the early years of the Third Reich, on 29 and 30 June 1934. The purge ordered by Adolf Hitler, who feared a plot against him and favoured a swift, preemptive strike.

Heinrich Himmler read through the death lists and oversaw the executions. Four Brownshirts were lined up at a time in front of a firing squad and shot. The corpses were removed and the next four took their place. Two thousand people were executed in the space of one day, including the entirety of the leadership. By the end of it all, the firing squad broke down. Hermann Goering retained vivid memories of the grisly experience. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich helped the Doctor chase the Master through the streets of Berlin during the purge. (PROSE: The King of Terror)

The SA, which had been Hitler's private army, (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus, AUDIO: The Alchemists) was effectively replaced by the Schutzstaffel (SS), his elite bodyguard. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia, Just War) Along with the Gestapo, it was led by Reichsfuhrer Himmler (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus, The Shadow in the Glass) and Deputy Reichsfuhrer Heydrich. (PROSE: Illegal Alien)

Parallel universe
In one of the Known Worlds of Germania, codenamed beta alpha one five, Ernst Rohm, a leading member of the SA, (PROSE: Big Bang Generation) murdered Adolf Hitler and declared himself the Führer of Germany circa 1933. After the formation of the Greater German Reich, Germania I invaded and executed Rohm and his followers in retribution. (PROSE: Warlords of Utopia)