It’s ironic that Hitler’s “Night of the Long Knives” (when the Nazis arrested and eventually murdered numerous brownshirts and their leader, Ernst Roehm) acquired that name because Hitler himself used the expression in a speech that he gave immediately after the event. In the speech, he accused Roehm of having been planning a “NIght of the Long Knives” himself, directed at Hitler and the other Nazi leaders. Quite unintentionally, the phrase came to describe Hitler’s actions.
It’s ironic that Hitler’s “Night of the Long Knives” (when the Nazis arrested and eventually murdered numerous brownshirts and their leader, Ernst Roehm) acquired that name because Hitler himself used the expression in a speech that he gave immediately after the event. In the speech, he accused Roehm of having been planning a “NIght of the Long Knives” himself, directed at Hitler and the other Nazi leaders. Quite unintentionally, the phrase came to describe Hitler’s actions.