Like many other army officers , Oster welcomed the Nazi regime but his opinion changed after the 1934 '' Night of the Long Knives '' in which the '' Schutzstaffel '' ( SS ) murdered many of the leaders of the rival '' Sturmabteilung '' ( SA ) and their political opponents , including General Kurt von Schleicher , the second-last Chancellor of the Weimar Republic and '' Generalmajor '' ( Major General ) Ferdinand von Bredow , former head of the '' Abwehr '' . In 1935 , Oster was allowed to re-join the army but never on the General Staff . By 1938 , the Blomberg – Fritsch Affair and '' Kristallnacht '' ( the state pogrom against Jews in Germany ) , turned his antipathy into a hatred of Nazism and a willingness to help save Jews . During the Fritsch crisis , Oster met '' Generaloberst '' ( Colonel General ) Ludwig Beck , Chief of the General Staff , for the first time , making the connections for the Oster Conspiracy of September 1938
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Hans Oster