What was Operation Hummingbird launched by Adolf Hitler in Germany in 1934?

Operation Hummingbird (German: ‘Unternehmen Kolibir’) was also known as the ‘Night of the Long Knives’. In his attempt to consolidate political power, Chancellor Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) ordered a series of political extrajudicial executions. These took place in 1934 starting on June 30 and continued for 3 days. Officially 85 individuals were executed but the estimates range from 700 up to 1,000.

In Germany, there was a paramilitary organization called the ‘Sturmabteilung’ or SA, known as the “Brownshirts”. By 1934, the German Army feared the SA’s influence and Hitler decided to execute its leader and co-founder Ernest Rohm (1887-1934) during the purge. Historians state that this purge was based on Hitler’s desire to consolidate his influence and authority over the German Army.

Other German leaders who supported Hitler in this purge included Herman Goring (1893-1946), a powerful figure in the Nazi Party, plus Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945) and Reinhard Heydrich (1904-1942), both later considered main architects of the Holocaust.

Using the paramilitary force called the ‘Schutzstaffel’ or SS under Himmler and its Security Service (SD) and the Gestapo or secret police under Heydrich, the purge was carried out.

The planners sometimes referred to the purge as ‘Hummingbird’, the code word used to send the execution squads into action. The phrase ‘Night of the Long Knives’ in the German language predates the killings and refers in German to acts of vengeance.