The Sa Generals And The Rise Of Nazism

Rating:
Summary: "Meine Ehre Heisst Treue, Du Braun Kompanie...."
Review: This is one dry piece of reading, but given the dearth of material available on the SA, it is a necessary excursion for anyone interested in the men who got the Nazi Party into power....and then became its first victims.

It is important to note this is NOT a history of the SA proper: it is an examination of the men who made up the SA's most senior leadership (gruppenfuhrers, obergruppenfuhrers, & stabschefs) during the SA's era of power, roughly 1925 - 1934. Author Campbell divides his terse and somewhat mechanically-written text into sections which divide the SA's leadership into categories based on their background, record of service, and idelogoical motivation. He doesn't go into a biography of all the nearly 200 men who held these senior ranks, but rather picks men who best represent each category.

Although Campbell's writing style is about as dry as oatmeal, he makes some penetrating insights, such as how the SA's decision to use an entirely different system of ranks than the German army reflected Hitler's belief that leadership was not something you inherited by virtue of birth or by commission, but rather something based on merit. He also does a good, if terse, job of examining the backgrounds of the senior SA leaders, men like Rohm, Lutze, and von Salomon, as well as the often strained relationship between the SA and the Nazi Party.

Campbell's book is not a primer; it assumes a fair to good knowledge of Hitler, the Party, and the political situation in Germany following WWI. Of course, if you're reading this, you already have one. "SA Generals" will definetly build on that.

Unlike their progeny, the SS, the story of SA, the real "storm troopers" is largely untold; but without them, there would have been no Hitler. If the SS was the sword with which Hitler maintained his throne, the SA was the billy club that got him there. Campbell deserves praise for shedding some light on the subject.