It began with a night of murder. On June 30th 1934, following Hitler's orders, SS commandos killed the leaders of the Nazi Storm Troopers, the SA. This "night of the long knives" launched the SS on its path to become the most powerful institution of terror in the Third Reich.

Led by Ernst Röehm, the units of the SA, had paved the way for Hitler's seizure of power. Having achieved this goal, Hitler wanted to be rid of the brown-shirted thugs, who were despised by the middle classes.

Rumours of an allegedly imminent putsch by the SA sufficed to stage a "St Bartholomew's massacre". SS units and police forces raided the SA quarters in Bad Wiessee, Bavaria. Hitler himself informed his former close friend Röhm that he was under arrest, and thus he disposed of the man who had made the brown hordes malleable to his will.

The wave of terror also eliminated prominent conservative opponents of the regime. Among them were Hitler's old companion Gregor Strasser and the former Chancellor of the Reich, Kurt von Schleicher.

The real winner of this internecine power struggle, however, was the SS under its hitherto little known Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler.

The Schutzstaffel was to be a National Socialist elite, a leading caste, bound in blind obedience to its leader. "SS man, Thy Honour is Thy Loyalty" was drummed into the chosen few. And loyal the SS was to be - following its idol along the path of barbarism and genocide.

What really happened in the night of June 30th 1934? Who were the wire-pullers behind the scenes? The exciting protocol of a relentless battle for power in which the winners were those who, soon afterwards, were to commit the worst atrocities in the history of humankind.