Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

770 DER FUEHRERmore incredible than the alleged revolt of Rohm. General von Bre-dow,a friend of von Schleicher's, was dragged out of his apartment at nightand apparently shot in his abductors' car; Gregor Strasser, arrested atnoon on June 30, fell like Rohm under bullets fired through the windowof a prison cell. The reason for these murders was not only a reason ofstate, but probably also a personal one; Goring bitterly hated vonSchleicher and Strasser. He would have gladly dispatched a thirdenemy, von Papen; but von Papen was not only 'Vice-Chancellor,' hewas also a personal friend of Hinden-burg's, who at least in the fleshwas still alive. So, Goring summoned von Papen on the morning of June30 and told him to stay at home and above all not to show himself in hisoffice, for decisions concerning the fate of the nation and the Reichwould be carried out on that day. Von Papen remained at home; whetherhe could not or would not warn his assistants is uncertain. At any rate,three S.S. men appeared at the Vice-Chancellery where von Bose, vonPapen's unsuspecting aide, was engaged in a conversation with twoindustrialists from the Rhineland. Von Bose was politely asked to stepinto the adjoining room. The visitors heard shots. The three S.S. mendeparted. Von Bose was dead.Toward noon, two S.S. men broke into the office of Erich Klause-nerof the Ministry of Communications and declared him under arrest.Klausener, a leader of the 'Catholic Action,' founded by Pope Pius XI,willingly followed them, certain that the obvious misunderstandingwould presently be dispelled. No sooner had he walked two steps thantwo bullets hit him in the nape of the neck. The heavy-set man fell onhis face and lay there with his hat on until he bled to death.In Munich, seventy-three-year-old Gustav von Kahr, who elevenyears earlier had crushed Hitler's putsch and had lived in retirementsince then, was dragged out of his home; a few days later, his horriblydisfigured corpse was found in a swamp near the Dachau concentrationcamp. Kahr was not shot; he was hacked to death with pickaxes.Fritz Beck, director of the Munich Students' Welfare Fund, a Catholiclike Klausener and von Bose, was taken out of his apartment by twoS.S. men, on June 30; two days later, his naked corpse