Law Relating to National Emergency Defense Measures (3 July 1934) — the purge legalized retroactively
event
After murdering its own stormtrooper leadership and assorted rivals over three days in 1934, the German government passed a one-sentence law declaring the killings legal.
Who they are
Signed on 3 July 1934 — the day after the purge ended — by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Interior Minister Frick and Justice Minister Gürtner, and printed in the official law gazette like any ordinary statute.
What they do
The entire law is one sentence: the measures taken on 30 June and 1 and 2 July 1934 'shall be considered as national emergency defense.' The killings it refers to are the purge known as the Night of the Long Knives.
How it works
The murders came first; the law came after, turning them retroactively lawful because the state said so. The text quoted on this page is the Nuremberg trial's translation of the law as printed in the 1934 Reich law gazette.
Why it matters
It is a document of a state exempting itself from its own criminal law — first the act, then the carve-out that makes the act legal. This site tracks that pattern, the exemption fork, across eras; here it stands in a statute's own words.
The engine's record — word for word
[Report #201] **In plain terms:** after the state killed the leadership of the SA and assorted rivals over three days (the Night of the Long Knives, 30 June to 2 July 1934, with Kurt von Schleicher and Gregor Strasser among the dead — Wikipedia, Night of the Long Knives), the Reich government enacted a one-sentence law declaring those killings lawful.
THE WHOLE LAW, VERBATIM (Nuremberg translation of Document 2057-PS; 1934 Reichsgesetzblatt Part I, page 529): 'The measures taken on 30 June and 1 and 2 July 1934 to counteract attempt at treason and high treason shall be considered as national emergency defense.' Dated Berlin, 3 July 1934; signed by Reich Chancellor Adolf Hitler, Reich Minister of the Interior Frick, and Reich Minister of Justice Dr. Guertner.
ENGINE READING: a state-scale instance of the Exemption Fork (Concept #146) — the state performs the killings, then authors the statute exempting itself from its own penal code. Statutory sibling of nuremberg_laws_1935: there the law un-persons a population (exemption-against); here it immunizes the state's own act (exemption-for). The full victim count is NOT settled by this record and stays open for a sourced pass. Held as historical/legal fact; name no holder.
Follow the trail
statutory-sibling
Nuremberg Laws (1935) — Reich Citizenship + Blood Lawexemption fork at state scale: 1934 the state immunizes its own killings, 1935 it un-persons a population — both statutes, both held
signed
Adolf Hitler (1889-1945)signed the one-sentence law legalizing the purge killings, 3 July 1934 (2057-PS)
killed-then-legalized
Ernst Röhm (1887-1934) — SA chief, killed in the purge his death legalizedshot at Stadelheim 1 July 1934; the 3 July statute declared it lawful
killed-then-legalized
Gregor Strasser (1892-1934) — the party's northern organizer, killed 1934killed 30 June 1934; the 3 July statute declared it lawful
killed-then-legalized
Kurt von Schleicher (1882-1934) — the last pre-Hitler Chancellor, murdered 1934the last pre-Hitler Chancellor, shot 30 June 1934 — the purge reached past the party's own ranks
covered-the-acts-of
Heinrich Himmler (1900-1945)[Report #201 wiring] the statute legalized killings carried out by 'the SS under Himmler and the Gestapo/SD under Heydrich, which between them carried out most
covered-his-acts-too
Hermann Göring (1893-1946) — Luftwaffe chief, Four Year Plan, suicide before execution[Report #201 wiring] the purge record: Hitler was 'urged on by Hermann Göring and Heinrich Himmler', and "Göring's personal police battalion also took part" — t
enacted-by-its-state
NSDAP — the Nazi Party (DAP 1919 → NSDAP 1920 → 1945)[Report #201 wiring] the 3 July 1934 statute was enacted by the Reich government the party held
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