The Nuremberg
executions took place on October 16, 1946, shortly after the conclusion of
the Nuremberg Trials. Ten prominent members of the political and military
leadership of Nazi Germany were executed by hanging: Hans Frank, Wilhelm Frick,
Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Wilhelm Keitel, Joachim von Ribbentrop,
Alfred Rosenberg, Fritz Sauckel, Arthur Seyss-Inquart, and Julius Streicher.
The sentences were
carried out in the gymnasium of Nuremberg Prison by the United States Army
using the standard drop method instead of long drop. The executioners were
Master Sergeant John C. Woods and his assistant, military policeman Joseph
Malta. Woods may have miscalculated the lengths for the ropes used for the
executions, such that some of the men did not die quickly of an intended broken
neck but instead strangled to death slowly. Some reports indicated some
executions took between 14 minutes to 28 minutes. The Army denied claims that
the drop length was too short or that the condemned died from strangulation
instead of a broken neck. Additionally, the trapdoor was too small, such that
several of the condemned suffered bleeding head injuries when they hit the
sides of the trapdoor while dropping through.
The bodies were
rumored to have been taken to Dachau for cremation, but were instead
incinerated in a crematorium in Munich and the ashes scattered over the river
Isar. Kingsbury Smith of the International News Service wrote an eyewitness
account of a reporter watching the hangings. His historical press account of it
appeared with photos in newspapers.
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TWELVE
EVIL MEN TO HANG! (SOURCE: http://www.mullocksauctions.co.uk/lot-42663-wwii_%E2%80%93_verdict_at_nuremberg_edition_of_the.html)
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Master-Sergeant
Woods readies the Gallows at Nuremberg in 1946.
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INTERNET SOURCE: http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/Nazi-Execution-Smith16oct46.htm
The Nuremberg Trials
The Execution of Nazi War Criminals
KINGSBURY SMITH / International News Service 16 Oct 1946
Nuremberg Gaol, Germany 16 October 1946
On
1 October 1946, the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg delivered its
verdicts, after 216 court sessions. Of the original twenty-four defendants,
twelve (including Martin Bormann, tried in absentia) were sentenced to death by hanging. The author of this account, Kingsbury Smith of the International News
Service, was chosen by lot to represent the American press at the executions.
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Hermann
Göring’s corpse after he committed suicide (PHOTO SOURCE: http://ww2gravestone.com/general/goering-hermann-wilhelm)
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Hermann Wilhelm Goering cheated the gallows of Allied justice by committing
suicide in his prison cell shortly before the ten other condemned Nazi leaders
were hanged in Nuremberg gaol. He swallowed cyanide he had concealed in a
copper cartridge shell, while lying on a cot in his cell.
The
one-time Number Two man in the Nazi hierarchy was dead two hours before he was
scheduled to have been dropped through the trap door of a gallows erected in a
small, brightly lighted gymnasium in the gaol yard, 35 yards from the cell
block where he spent his last days of ignominy.
Joachim von Ribbentrop, foreign minister in the ill-starred regime of Adolf
Hitler, took Goering's place as first to the scaffold.
Last
to depart this life in a total span of just about two hours was Arthur
Seyss-Inquart, former Gauleiter of Holland and Austria.
In
between these two once-powerful leaders, the gallows claimed, in the order
named, Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel; Ernst Kaltenbrunner, once
head of the Nazis' security police; Alfred Rosenberg, arch-priest of
Nazi culture in foreign lands; Hans Frank; Gauleiter of Poland; Wilhem
Frank, Nazi minister of the interior; Fritz Sauckel, boss of slave
labor; Colonel General Alfred Jodl; and Julius Streicher, who
bossed the anti-Semitism drive of the Hitler Reich.
As
they went to the gallows, most of the ten endeavored to show bravery. Some were
defiant and some were resigned and some begged the Almighty for mercy.
All
except for Rosenberg made brief, last-minute statements on the scaffold. But
the only one to make any reference to Hitler or the Nazi ideology in his final
moments was Julius Streicher.
Three
black-painted wooden scaffolds stood inside the gymnasium, a room approximately
33 feet wide by 80 feet long with plaster walls in which cracks showed. The
gymnasium had been used only three days before by the American security guards
for a basketball game. Two gallows were used alternately. The third was a spare
for use if needed. The men were hanged one at a time, but to get the executions
over with quickly, the military police would bring in the man while the
prisoner who proceeded him still was dangling at the end of the rope.
The
ten once great men in Hitler's Reich that was to have lasted for a thousand
years walked up thirteen wooden steps to a platform eight feet high which also
was eight square feet.
Ropes
were suspended from a crossbeam supported on two posts. A new one was used for
each man.
When
the trap was sprung, the victim dropped from sight in the interior of the
scaffolding. The bottom of it was boarded up with wood on three sides and
shielded by a dark canvas curtain on the fourth, so that no one saw the death
struggles of the men dangling with broken necks.
Von
Ribbentrop entered the execution chamber at 1:11 a.m. Nuremberg time.
He
was stopped immediately inside the door by two Army sergeants who closed in on
each side of him and held his arms, while another sergeant who had followed him
in removed manacles from his hands and replaced them with a leather strap.
It
was planned originally to permit the condemned men to walk from their cells to
the execution chamber with their hands free, but all were manacled following
Goering's suicide.
Von
Ribbentrop was able to maintain his apparent stoicism to the last. He walked
steadily toward the scaffold between his two guards, but he did not answer at
first when an officer standing at the foot of the gallows went through the
formality of asking his name. When the query was repeated he almost shouted,
'Joachim von Ribbentrop!' and then mounted the steps without any sign of
hesitation.
When
he was turned around on the platform to face the witnesses, he seemed to clench
his teeth and raise his head with the old arrogance. When asked whether he had
any final message he said, 'God protect Germany,' in German, and then added,
'May I say something else?'
The
interpreter nodded and the former diplomatic wizard of Nazidom spoke his last
words in loud, firm tones: 'My last wish is that Germany realize its entity and
that an understanding be reached between the East and the West. I wish peace to
the world.'
As
the black hood was placed in position on his head, Von Ribbentrop looked
straight ahead.
Then
the hangman adjusted the rope, pulled the lever, and Von Ribbentrop slipped
away to his fate.
Field
Marshall Keitel, who was immediately behind Von Ribbentrop in the order of
executions, was the first military leader to be executed under the new concept
of international law - the principle that professional soldiers cannot escape
punishment for waging aggressive wars and permitting crimes against humanity
with the claim they were dutifully carrying out orders of superiors.
Keitel
entered the chamber two minutes after the trap had dropped beneath Von
Ribbentrop, while the latter still was at the end of his rope. But Von
Ribbentrop's body was concealed inside the first scaffold; all that could be
seen was the taut rope.
Keitel
did not appear as tense as Von Ribbentrop. He held his head high while his
hands were being tied and walked erect towards the gallows with a military
bearing. When asked his name he responded loudly and mounted the gallows as he
might have mounted a reviewing stand to take a salute from German armies.
He
certainly did not appear to need the help of guards who walked alongside,
holding his arms. When he turned around atop the platform he looked over the
crowd with the iron-jawed haughtiness of a proud Prussian officer. His last
words, uttered in a full, clear voice, were translated as 'I call on God
Almighty to have mercy on the German people. More than 2 million German
soldiers went to their death for the fatherland before me. I follow now my sons
- all for Germany.'
After
his blackbooted, uniformed body plunged through the trap, witnesses agreed
Keitel had shown more courage on the scaffold than in the courtroom, where he
had tried to shift his guilt upon the ghost of Hitler, claiming that all was
the Führer's fault and that he merely carried out orders and had no
responsibility.
With
both von Ribbentrop and Keitel hanging at the end of their rope there was a
pause in the proceedings. The American colonel directing the executions asked
the American general representing the United States on the Allied Control Commission
if those present could smoke. An affirmative answer brought cigarettes into the
hands of almost every one of the thirty-odd persons present. Officers and GIs
walked around nervously or spoke a few words to one another in hushed voices
while Allied correspondents scribbled furiously their notes on this historic
though ghastly event.
In
a few minutes an American army doctor accompanied by a Russian army doctor and
both carrying stethoscopes walked to the first scaffold, lifted the curtain and
disappeared within.
They
emerged at 1:30 a.m. and spoke to an American colonel. The colonel swung around
and facing official witnesses snapped to attention to say, 'The man is dead.'
Two
GIs quickly appeared with a stretcher which was carried up and lifted into the
interior of the scaffold. The hangman mounted the gallows steps, took a large
commando-type knife out of a sheath strapped to his side and cut the rope.
Von
Ribbentrop's limp body with the black hood still over his head was removed to
the far end of the room and placed behind a black canvas curtain. This had all
taken less than ten minutes.
The
directing colonel turned to the witnesses and said, 'Cigarettes out, please,
gentlemen.' Another colonel went out the door and over to the condemned block
to fetch the next man. This was Ernst Kaltenbrunner. He entered the execution
chamber at 1:36 a.m., wearing a sweater beneath his blue double-breasted coat.
With his lean haggard face furrowed by old dueling scars, this terrible
successor to Reinhard Heydrick had a frightening look as he glanced around the
room.
He
wet his lips apparently in nervousness as he turned to mount the gallows, but
he walked steadily. He answered his name in a calm, low voice. When he turned
around on the gallows platform he first faced a United States Army Roman
Catholic chaplain wearing a Franciscan habit. When Kaltenbrunner was invited to
make a last statement, he said, 'I have loved my German people and my
fatherland with a warm heart. I have done my duty by the laws of my people and
I am sorry my people were led this time by men who were not soldiers and that
crimes were committed of which I had no knowledge.'
This
was the man, one of whose agents - a man named Rudolf Hoess - confessed at a
trial that under Kaltenbrunner's orders he gassed 3 million human beings at the
Auschwitz concentration camp!
As
the black hood was raised over his head Kaltenbrunner, still speaking in a low
voice, used a German phrase which translated means, 'Germany, good luck.'
His
trap was sprung at 1:39 a.m.
Field
Marshal Keitel was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. and three minutes later guards
had removed his body. The scaffold was made ready for Alfred Rosenberg.
Rosenberg
was dull and sunken-cheeked as he looked around the court. His complexion was
pasty-brown, but he did not appear nervous and walked with a steady step to and
up the gallows.
Apart
from giving his name and replying 'no' to a question as to whether he had
anything to say, he did not utter a word. Despite his avowed atheism he was
accompanied by a Protestant chaplain who followed him to the gallows and stood
beside him praying.
Rosenberg
looked at the chaplain once, expressionless. Ninety seconds after he was
swinging from the end of a hangman's rope. His was the swiftest execution of
the ten.
There
was a brief lull in the proceedings until Kaltenbrunner was pronounced dead at
1:52 a.m.
Hans Frank was next in the parade of death. He was the only one of the condemned to
enter the chamber with a smile on his countenance.
Although
nervous and swallowing frequently, this man, who was converted to Roman
Catholicism after his arrest, gave the appearance of being relieved at the
prospect of atoning for his evil deeds.
He
answered to his name quietly and when asked for any last statement, he replied
in a low voice that was almost a whisper, 'I am thankful for the kind of
treatment during my captivity and I ask God to accept me with mercy.'
Frank
closed his eyes and swallowed as the black hood went over his head.
The
sixth man to leave his prison cell and walk with handcuffed wrists to the death
house was 69-year-old Wilhelm Frick. He entered the execution chamber at 2:05
a.m., six minutes after Rosenberg had been pronounced dead. He seemed the least
steady of any so far and stumbled on the thirteenth step of the gallows. His
only words were, 'Long live eternal Germany,' before he was hooded and dropped
through the trap.
Julius
Streicher made his melodramatic appearance at 2:12 a.m.
While
his manacles were being removed and his bare hands bound, this ugly, dwarfish
little man, wearing a threadbare suit and a well-worn bluish shirt buttoned to
the neck but without a tie (he was notorious during his days of power for his
flashy dress), glanced at the three wooden scaffolds rising menacingly in front
of him. Then he glanced around the room, his eyes resting momentarily upon the
small group of witnesses. By this time, his hands were tied securely behind his
back. Two guards, one on each arm, directed him to Number One gallows on the
left of the entrance. He walked steadily the six feet to the first wooden step
but his face was twitching.
As
the guards stopped him at the bottom of the steps for identification formality
he uttered his piercing scream: 'Heil Hitler!'
The
shriek sent a shiver down my back.
As
its echo died away an American colonel standing by the steps said sharply, 'Ask
the man his name.' In response to the interpreter's query Streicher shouted,
'You know my name well.'
The
interpreter repeated his request and the condemned man yelled, 'Julius
Streicher.'
As
he reached the platform, Streicher cried out, 'Now it goes to God.' He was
pushed the last two steps to the mortal spot beneath the hangman's rope. The
rope was being held back against a wooden rail by the hangman.
Streicher
was swung suddenly to face the witnesses and glared at them. Suddenly he
screamed, 'Purim Fest 1946.' [Purim is a Jewish holiday celebrated in the
spring, commemorating the execution of Haman, ancient persecutor of the Jews
described in the Old Testament.]
The
American officer standing at the scaffold said, 'Ask the man if he has any last
words.'
When
the interpreter had translated, Streicher shouted, 'The Bolsheviks will hang
you one day.'
When
the black hood was raised over his head, Streicher's muffled voice could be
heard to say, 'Adele, my dear wife.'
At
that instant the trap opened with a loud bang. He went down kicking. When the
rope snapped taut with the body swinging wildly, groans could be heard from
within the concealed interior of the scaffold. Finally, the hangman, who had
descended from the gallows platform, lifted the black canvas curtain and went
inside. Something happened that put a stop to the groans and brought the rope
to a standstill. After it was over I was not in the mood to ask what he did,
but I assume that he grabbed the swinging body of and pulled down on it. We
were all of the opinion that Streicher had strangled.
Then,
following the removal of the corpse of Frick, who had been pronounced dead at
2:20 a.m., Fritz Sauckel was brought face to face with his doom.
Wearing
a sweater with no coat and looking wild-eyed, Sauckel proved to be the most
defiant of any except Streicher.
Here
was the man who put millions into bondage on a scale unknown since the
pre-Christian era. Gazing around the room from the gallows platform he suddenly
screamed, 'I am dying innocent. The sentence is wrong. God protect Germany and
make Germany great again. Long live Germany! God protect my family.'
The
trap was sprung at 2:26 a.m. and, as in the case of Streicher, there was a loud
groan under the gallows pit as the noose snapped tightly under the weight of
the body.
Ninth
in the procession of death was Alfred Jodl. With the black coat-collar of his
Wehrmacht uniform half turned up at the back as though hurriedly put on, Jodl
entered the dismal death house with obvious signs of nervousness. He wet his
lips constantly and his features were drawn and haggard as he walked, not
nearly so steady as Keitel, up the gallows steps. Yet his voice was calm when
he uttered his last six words on earth: 'My greetings to you, my Germany.'
At
2:34 a.m. Jodl plunged into the black hole on the scaffold. He and Sauckel hung
together until the latter was pronounced dead six minutes later and removed.
The
Czechoslovak-born Seyss-Inquart, whom Hitler had made ruler of Holland and
Austria, was the last actor to make his appearance in this unparalleled scene.
He entered the chamber at 2:38 1/2 a.m., wearing glasses which made his face an
easily remembered caricature.
He
looked around with noticeable signs of unsteadiness as he limped on his left
foot clubfoot to the gallows. He mounted the steps slowly, with guards helping
him.
When
he spoke his last words his voice was low but intense. He said, 'I hope that
this execution is the last act of the tragedy of the Second World War and that
the lesson taken from this world war will be that peace and understanding
should exist between peoples. I believe in Germany.'
He
dropped to his death at 2:45 a.m.
With
the bodies of Jodl and Seyss-Inquart still hanging, awaiting formal
pronouncement of death, the gymnasium doors opened again and guards entered
carrying Goering's body on a stretcher.
He
had succeeded in wrecking plans of the Allied Control Council to have him lead
the parade of condemned Nazi chieftains to their death. But the council's
representatives were determined that Goering at least would take his place as a
dead man beneath the shadow of the scaffold.
The
guards carrying the stretcher set it down between the first and second gallows.
Goering's big bare feet stuck out from under the bottom end of a khaki-coloured
United States Army blanket. One blue-silk-clad arm was hanging over the side.
The
colonel in charge of the proceedings ordered the blanket removed so that witnesses
and Allied correspondents could see for themselves that Goering was definitely
dead. The Army did not want any legend to develop that Goering had managed to
escape.
As
the blanket came off it revealed Goering clad in black silk pyjamas with a blue
jacket shirt over them, and this was soaking wet, apparently the results of
efforts by prison doctors to revive him.
The
face of this twentieth-century freebooting political racketeer was still
contorted with the pain of his last agonizing moments and his final gesture of
defiance.
They
covered him up quickly and this Nazi warlord, who like a character out of the
days of the Borgias, had wallowed in blood and beauty, passed behind a canvas
curtain into the black pages of history.
source: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/NurembergNews10_16_46.html
8nov2005
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Master Sergeant John C. Woods
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Above clockwise: Streicher, Jodl, Sauckel, Frick,
Ribbentrop; below, clockwise from topright, Keitel, Rosenberg, Seyss-Inquart,
Frank, Kaltenbrunner, Goering.
Although
the Nuremberg Trials had been a media circus, only a selected group of
reporters were allowed into the execution chambers of the Nazi war criminals.
The authorities feared that the Nazi leaders would get sympathy or they would
become martyrs if the executions turned into a media spectacle. Eight
journalists from Big Four countries were selected by lottery, but only one
photographer (and he was from U.S. Army) was allowed behind the close doors to
report the last moments inside the prison.
The
French judges suggested the use of a firing squad for the military condemned,
but the other judges deemed undignified execution by hanging more appropriate.
The hangings were carried out on 16 October 1946 by the executioner John
C. Woods. Of the 12 defendants sentenced to death by hanging, two were not
hanged: Hermann Göring committed suicide the night before the execution and
Martin Bormann was not present when convicted. The remaining 10 defendants
sentenced to death were hanged. The bodies were brought to Dachau and
burned (the final use of the crematories there) with the ashes then scattered
into a river.
The
pictures of the executed corpses made by Edward F. McLaughlin (the U.S army
photographer) were released in November (to dispel the rumors that the hangings
which were conducted secretly, were bungled or never carried out), and were
received by much disapproval. Many feared the criminals becoming the martyrs
through these pictures. The British government voted against releasing the
pictures on moral grounds, and no British publications reproduced them,
honoring their government’s desires. The pictures were forbidden in the German
press. LIFE magazine, above, however , reproduced them.
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