Execution
Hitler's chauffeur Erich Kempka claimed in a 1946 interview that Edmund Heines was caught in bed with an unidentified 18-year old male when he was arrested during the Night of the Long Knives, although Kempka did not actually witness it. According to Kempka, Heines refused to cooperate and get dressed. When the SS detectives reported this to Hitler, he went to Heines' room and ordered him to get dressed within five minutes or risk being shot. After five minutes had passed by, Heines still had not complied with the order. As a result, Hitler became so furious that he ordered some SS men to take Heines and the boy outside to be executed.
Heines, Röhm, and many other SA leaders were executed shortly after their arrest. Hitler identified Heines as one of the principal members of a "small group of elements which were held together through a like disposition" in his Reichstag speech of 13 July 1934.
Heines' younger brother, Oskar (born on 3 February 1903 in Munich) was also an SA officer. On the morning of 1 July 1934, he heard a radio report concerning the execution of his brother. Soon after, SA-Obersturmbannführer Oskar Heines and SA-Obersturmbannführer Werner Engels reported to the Polizeiprasidium in Breslau where they were immediately placed under arrest by SS men. From there, they were driven that night to a forested area near Deutsch-Lissa. At dawn on 2 July 1934, the two were shot on orders of SS-Obergruppenführer Udo von Woyrsch.
Read more about this topic: Edmund Heines
Famous quotes containing the word execution:
“I am gradually drifting to the opinion that this Rebellion can only be crushed finally by either the execution of all the traitors or the abolition of slavery. Crushed, I mean, so as to remove all danger of its breaking out again in the future.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“Some hours seem not to be occasion for any deed, but for resolves to draw breath in. We do not directly go about the execution of the purpose that thrills us, but shut our doors behind us and ramble with prepared mind, as if the half were already done. Our resolution is taking root or hold on the earth then, as seeds first send a shoot downward which is fed by their own albumen, ere they send one upward to the light.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I will soon be going out to shape all the singing tomorrows.”
—Gabriel Péri, French Communist leader. Letter, July 1942, written shortly before his execution by the Germans. Quoted in New York Times (April 11, 1943)