Stormtroopers

A New History of Hitler's Brownshirts

By: Daniel Siemens

Narrated by: Roger Clark

Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Germany's Stormtroopers engaged in a vicious siege of violence that propelled the National Socialists to power in the 1930s. Known also as the SA or Brownshirts, these "ordinary" men waged a loosely structured campaign of intimidation and savagery across the nation from the 1920s to the "Night of the Long Knives" in 1934, when Chief of Staff Ernst Röhm and many other SA leaders were assassinated on Hitler's orders.

In this deeply researched history, Daniel Siemens explores not only the roots of the SA and its swift decapitation but also its previously unrecognized transformation into a million-member Nazi organization, its activities in German-occupied territories during World War II, and its particular contributions to the Holocaust. The author provides portraits of individual members and their victims and examines their milieu, culture, and ideology. His book tells the long-overdue story of the SA and its devastating impact on German citizens and the fate of their country.

©2017 Daniel Siemens (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Some history I knew, with more added.

An impressive and well researched book about the SA, a group in Nazi Germany not that well known.

Well done.

I liked this book, but would have had a less excitable reader. Lots of good information.

Well-Rounded Discussion

A thorough discussion of the history of the SA, that seeks to carry the story past the Rohm Purge/Night of the Long Knives. The author shows that, while SA influence clearly peaked in 1933-34, it continued to play various and changing roles right through the end of the regime in 1945. These included everything from a training ground for Wehrmacht soldiers (and providing at least 1 SA regiment), to policing functions in occupied territories, to air raid clean ups, to acting as "Aryan" settlers in eastern Europe (though many of these goals were limited or frustrated, especially by the SS). Most effectively, the author demonstrates that the lenient approach to the SA at Nuremberg and subsequent picture of it as a largely ineffective, yet patriotic group has both glossed over SA crimes within and outside Germany and led to their post 1934 history largely being ignored. As such, this work makes a solid contribution to the historiography of the SA in general and its broader role in the Third Reich.

A gripping narrative with all the "receipts"--and key lessons for how to prevent coups in 2024+

This compelling history offers many keys to understanding the multifaceted appeal and complex, ‎sometimes self contradictory organization of coup plotting organizations and their fascist ‎paramilitary enforcers (SA, Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys now back in view at Trump rallies). ‎As of 2024, potential coups in the U.S., Brazil, and European countries are foreseeable and may ‎be preventable. January 6, etc. gave a preview—and raised many questions about how fascists gather momentum and how to stop or divert them. This book ‎provides a variety of answers for those concerned about how a country with many good, liberal, ‎democratic values can go bad quickly.‎

It also helps explain how the violence-prone political factions of far right and far left feed off of each other--not only by creating a villain to unite against, but by actually drawing from some of the same people: The Nazis and SA, for brief periods, accepted ideological diversity and even included enclaves that promoted straightforward socialist policies & ideologies. This temporary big tent helped openly racist reactionaries appeal to certain perpetually frustrated and/or financially needy members of the far-left. This would not last--but would prevail long enough to advance Nazis into national leadership.

Siemens also offers nuances helpful for evaluating today's democracy-minded politicians. For example, even some anti-fascist Social Democrats idealized physically strong young men as the reshapers of a newly powerful nation, in phrases that could be "hard to distinguish" from Nazi/fascist slogans.

Tedious

It appears that the bulk of the book is taken up by using Nazi acronyms and then giving the long winded translation. After a chapter or so, I got tired of listening. It's like spending a day reading the ingredients labels on every cereal packet at the supermarket.