Nazi Stormtrooper

Hitler and Hermann Goering with Nazi Stormtroopers at Nuremberg in 1928.

The Nazi Stormtroopers also known as the "Brown Shirts" or the SA (Sturmabteilung), were a paramilitary organization in Germany from 1919 through 1945. They were mainly known as street thugs who used violence and intimidation to enable Adolf Hitler to come to power.

After Hitler became chancellor in 1933, he began to view the SA as a liability, and its leader Ernst Roehm as a possible rival. During the Night of the Long Knives, June 30, 1934, he murdered members of the SA leadership and arrested Rohm, killing him later. The Nazi Stormtroopers were never again a threat to Hitler, although they did continue to exist until the end of World War II.