while passing through a wikipedia article on the Night of the Long Knives, I came across this:

"On July 3, the Reich government decided upon the Law Regarding Measures of State Self-Defense, consisting of a single article simply declaring the 'measures taken' to be 'legal State self-defense.'

"Hitler announced the purge on 13 July, claiming 61 had been executed, 13 shot while resisting arrest, and 3 had committed suicide. In announcing the purge he stated, 'If anyone reproaches me and asks why I did not resort to the regular courts of justice, then all I can say is this: In this hour I was responsible for the fate of the German people, and thereby I became the supreme judge (oberster Gerichtsherr) of the German people'". - from William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1959.

just thought it was interesting and perhaps a little frightening in its odd familiarity.