Edmund Heines - Execution

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 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)

    It is clear that in a monarchy, where he who commands the exceution of the laws generally thinks himself above them, there is less need of virtue than in a popular government, where the person entrusted with the execution of the laws is sensible of his being subject to their direction.
    —Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)

    Those who govern, having much business on their hands, do not generally like to take the trouble of considering and carrying into execution new projects. The best public measures are therefore seldom adopted from previous wisdom, but forced by the occasion.
    Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)