KEYNOTE: Introduced by Eleanor Hancock who is a Senior Lecturer in History at the Australian Defence Force Academy. Ernst Rohm was one of the key architects behind the rise of the Nazi Party. From 1919 until 1923, following the defeat of Germany in the First World War, Rohm served in the Freikorps and then NSDAP-the Nazi Party. He served as the party's patron, promoter and watchdog, and helped found the SA, the thuggish workforce behind Nazi political activity leading up to 1933. It has been stated that the rise to power of both Hitler and the Nazi Party could not have happened without Rohm's organizational skill, authority and influence. He took part in the Beer hall putsch in 1923, but was sufficiently disillusioned by 1925 with the prospects for Nazism that he stood for the Reichtag instead. Rohm wrote and published his memoirs in 1928-entitled A Traitor's Story-the year he both resumed working for the Nazis and left to serve in the Bolivian army for two years. Later editions included his time in Bolivia and the notorious Rohm-Heimsoth letters. Rohm proved to be an eloquent writer and he was candid about his experiences and his relationship with the Fuhrer. He wrote, ?Hitler and I were linked by ties of sincere friendship?. Little did Rohm known where that friendship would end. AUTHOR: Ernst Julius Rohm was born in Munich in 1887. He was co-founder of the SA (Storm Troopers), and later was its chief of staff. Rohm was killed in the so-called Night of the Long Knives, June 29-30 1934, in Wiesse. SELLING POINTS: ? Important memoir by Hitler's SA Chief of Staff and early member of the Nazi Party, and who was once called ?the man who invented Hitler' ? Documents the rise of the Nazis during the Weimar Republic period ? First English language translation *
