I wasn't meaning to say that they were "only superficially bad", but that they were extremely ill-omened -- the sort of organization that was capable of almost

I wasn't meaning to say that they were "only superficially bad", but that they were extremely ill-omened -- the sort of organization that was capable of almost anything, and that no gentleman would associate with. But, as you point out, they were very bad very early -- Roehm and the Sturmabteilung were purged in 1934 (!), and Kristallnacht was late 1938 (while restrictions on Jewish store owners etc. were earlier). "North Korea in the '70s" sounds about right -- I'd underestimated just how quickly things happened with that regime. The mere "no gentleman" phase was probably over before they came to power...