Thyssen welcomed the suppression of the Communist Party , the Social Democrats and the trade unions . In 1934 he was one of the business leaders who persuaded Hitler to suppress the SA , leading to the " Night of the Long Knives " . Thyssen accepted the exclusion of Jews from German business and professional life by the Nazis , and dismissed his own Jewish employees . But as a Catholic , he objected to the increasing repression of the Roman Catholic Church , which gathered pace after 1935 : in 1937 he sent a letter to Hitler , protesting the persecution of Christians in Germany . The breaking point for Thyssen was the violent pogrom against the Jews in November 1938 , known as '' Kristallnacht '' , which caused him to resign from the Council of State . By 1939 he was also bitterly criticising the regime 's economic policies , which were subordinating everything to rearmament in preparation for war
Kristallnacht
Kristallnacht
Fritz Thyssen