2-611-968 - Keystone Archives/Heritage Images

Hermann Göring and Gregor Strasser, senior Nazis, Germany, 1930s. A decorated World War I fighter ace who flew with Baron Manfred von Richthofen's squadron, Göring (1893-1946) (right) joined the Nazi party in 1922. The following year he was involved in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch alongside Adolf Hitler. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Göring became one of the new regime's leading figures. He commanded the Gestapo until 1934, when he handed its command over to Heinrich Himmler, and from 1935 onwards was commander of the Luftwaffe, the German air force. Strasser (1892-1934) (centre) was also a senior figure in the Nazi party in the 1920s and early 1930s. His personal and ideological rivalry with Hitler led to his arrest and assassination by the Berlin Gestapo in the so-called 'Night of the Long Knives', the purge of the party carried out between 30 June and 2 July 1934.