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How did the SA intimidate opponents during the March 1933 election campaign?
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Third Reich
A Nazi Party rally at Nürnberg, Germany, in 1933.
During the March 1933 election campaign, the SA (Sturmabteilung) utilized state-sanctioned violence to systematically intimidate political opponents and suppress opposition parties.1
Operating with the "freedom of the streets," the SA engaged in the following tactics:
- State-Sanctioned Policing: Hermann Göring, as minister of the interior for Prussia, recruited 50,000 auxiliary police officers, the majority of whom were members of the SA and SS.1
- Suppression of Opposition: Regular police forces were explicitly forbidden from interfering with SA activities. This allowed the SA to break up political meetings, assault speakers, and suppress the newspapers of rival parties.1
- General Intimidation: The organization relied on its established history of street violence and physical assaults to create an atmosphere of fear, ensuring that the Nazi Party could dominate the political landscape during the lead-up to the March 5, 1933, elections.213
The use of such violence to dismantle democratic processes and silence dissent is fundamentally contrary to the ethical principles of human rights and the rule of law.