Köpenick's week of bloodshed
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Köpenick's week of bloodshed (German "Köpenicker Blutwoche") is the name given to a week of arrests, torture, and killings by the SA between 21 and 26 June 1933. The victims were civilians, and the Berlin suburb of Köpenick, where it took place, was thought by the new government (and others) to contain particularly large numbers of Communists and Jews.
Events were choreographed by SA-Sturmbannführer Herbert Gehrke.[1] Approximately 500 opponents of National Socialism, identified as political non-conformists and Jews[clarification needed] were detained by the local SA brigade, supported by police and SA groups from other parts of Berlin.[1] Detainees were subjected to humiliation, torture, and murder. At least 23 died.[2] Some died subsequently from the effects of torture: others survived but carried permanently the physical and mental scars of their ordeals. The Köpenicker Blutwoche was a high-profile early manifestation of changes set in place following Germany's January 1933 régime change: the deaths of "martyred" party members during the week of violence were heavily publicized by the party Gauleiter of Berlin, Joseph Goebbels.[2] After the Nazi era came to an end, some of the perpetrators were tried and sentenced between 1947 and 1950.[1][3]
The Köpenicker Blutwoche was only one of a whole range of "actions", both planned and spontaneous, undertaken by the SA and other Nazi institutions in the months following January 1933, targeting their political opponents, as the Nazis implemented their consolidation strategy, and established their dictatorship. Nevertheless, in the National Assembly (Reichstag) Election of March 1933, in the Berlin electoral district alone, the two principal left-wing parties, the SPD and the KPD (Communists), had between them mustered 1,377,000 votes.