The Nuremberg Hangings -- Not So Smooth Either (2025)

The Nuremberg Hangings -- Not So Smooth Either (1)Former high-ranking Nazis sit on trial at Nuremberg. Ten of them would ultimately be hanged — and it wasn’t pretty. (Photo: the Jewish Museum)

Before we set aside the topic of Iraq’s botched hangings, which continue to cause a fair bit of consternation there, a reader reminds us to flash back to 1946, and the conclusion of the trials at Nuremberg, in which 11 high-ranking Nazi officers were ultimately condemned to death by hanging. One of them, Hermann Göring, managed to finish himself in his cell with a cyanide capsule just hours before the execution was to take place, but the others took their trip to the gallows.

Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s foreign minister, was the first to go. From an Oct. 28, 1946 dispatch in Time magazine headlined “Night Without Dawn” (the ellipses are in the original):

At 1:11 a.m. he entered the gymnasium, and all officers, official witnesses and correspondents rose to attention. Ribbentrop’s manacles were removed and he mounted the steps (there were 13) to the gallows. With the noose around his neck, he said: “My last wish … is an understanding between East and West. …” All present removed their hats. The executioner tightened the noose. A chaplain standing beside him prayed. The assistant executioner pulled the lever, the trap dropped open with a rumbling noise, and Ribbentrop’s hooded figure disappeared. The rope was suddenly taut, and swung back & forth, creaking audibly.

The executioner was U.S. Master Sergeant John C. Woods, 43, of San Antonio, a short, chunky man who in his 15 years as U.S. Army executioner has hanged 347 people. Said he afterwards: “I hanged those ten Nazis … and I am proud of it. … I wasn’t nervous. … A fellow can’t afford to have nerves in this business. … I want to put in a good word for those G.I.s who helped me … they all did swell. … I am trying to get [them] a promotion. … The way I look at this hanging job, somebody has to do it. I got into it kind of by accident, years ago in the States “

Ten more executions would follow that evening, but for all of Sergeant Woods’ experience (and for all of the collected wisdom the military had at its disposal on proper hanging techniques), the Nuremberg executions were, it seems, a ghoulishly untidy affair.

Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., a professor of law at the University of Georgia Law School, noted that many of the executed Nazis fell from the gallows with insufficient force to snap their necks, resulting in a macabre, suffocating death struggle that in some cases lasted many, many minutes:

The ten hangings, which officially brought the Nuremberg Trial proceedings to a close, continue to exert a morbid appeal. …

The executions, in a brightly lighted prison gymnasium where three looming black wooden gallows had been erected, were witnessed by a handful of Allied military officers and eight journalists, one of whom, Kingsbury Smith of International News Service, wrote a famous newspaper article, “The Execution of Nazi War Criminals, 16 October 1946,” based on his eyewitness observations.

Although Smith discreetly omitted mentioning it, the experienced Army hangman, Master Sgt. John C. Woods, botched the executions. A number of the hanged Nazis died, not quickly from a broken neck as intended, but agonizingly from slow strangulation. Ribbentrop and Sauckel each took 14 minutes to choke to death, while Keitel, whose death was the most painful, struggled for 24 minutes at the end of the rope before expiring.

Adds just a wee bit of context to President Bush’s increasingly strong chiding of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki for the mishandling of the executions of Saddam Hussein and his aides in recent days and weeks. As we pointed out in our post yesterday, there’s been a fair amount of science applied to the art of hanging, but it seems an easy thing to go awry. Mr. Bush said yesterday that the fledgling government in Iraq “has still got some maturation to do.”

On the other hand, Mr. Wilkes does add this note on the Nuremberg executions, taken from Robert E. Conot, who wrote the book “Justice at Nuremberg”:

“It was a grim, pitiless scene. But for those who had sat through the horrors and tortures of the trial, who had learned of men dangled from butcher hooks, of women mutilated and children jammed into gas chambers, of mankind subjected to degradation, destruction, and terror, the scene conjured a vision of stark, almost biblical justice.”

(Thanks for the tip, Allen!)

The Nuremberg Hangings -- Not So Smooth Either (2025)

FAQs

Who was found not guilty at the Nuremberg trials? ›

Three of the defendants were acquitted: Hjalmar Schacht, Franz von Papen, and Hans Fritzsche. Four were sentenced to terms of imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years: Karl Dönitz, Baldur von Schirach, Albert Speer, and Konstantin von Neurath.

Who was the American executioner at Nuremberg? ›

“American Hangman. Mastersergeant John C. Woods. The United States Army's notorious executioner in World War II and Nürnberg”

What are the criticism of the Nuremberg trials? ›

' It has been attacked with a variety of objections: ex post facto, novelty and confusion, threat to the great traditions of Anglo-American justice, disrepute for the judiciary, the power of the victors masquerading as law, a barrier to the development of a democratic legal order in Germany.

How many Germans were executed at Nuremberg? ›

Of those convicted, 12 were sentenced to death. Three defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and four to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years. On October 16, executions were carried out by hanging in the gymnasium of the courthouse.

Who committed the most war crimes in WWII? ›

Most of these crimes were Carried out by the Axis powers who constantly violated the rules of war and the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War, mostly by Imperial Japan.

Who was the executioner of Nuremberg? ›

John Clarence Woods (June 5, 1911 – July 21, 1950) was a United States Army master sergeant who, with Joseph Malta, carried out the Nuremberg executions of ten former top leaders of the Third Reich on October 16, 1946, after they were sentenced to death at the Nuremberg trials.

Are any of the Nuremberg trials still alive? ›

Ferencz died at an assisted living facility in Boynton Beach, Florida, on April 7, 2023, at the age of 103. He was the last surviving prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.

Who was the famous German executioner? ›

Johann Reichhart (29 April 1893 – 26 April 1972) was a German state-appointed judicial executioner in Bavaria from 1924 to 1946. During the Nazi period, he executed numerous people who were sentenced to death for their resistance to the German government.

What is the Nuremberg Code? ›

The Nuremberg Military Tribunal's decision in the case of the United States v Karl Brandt et al. includes what is now called the Nuremberg Code, a ten point statement delimiting permissible medical experimentation on human subjects.

Was the Nuremberg trial fair? ›

Other critics of the IMT noted that Nazi defendants could not appeal their convictions. Despite these condemnations, the IMT is widely considered today to have been a remarkably fair execution of justice. Moreover, it achieved several key objectives outlined by its architects.

What was the most important Nuremberg trial? ›

The Nuremberg Tribunal also concluded that three of the seven indicted Nazi organizations were “criminal organizations” under the terms of the Charter: the Leadership Corps of the Nazi party; the elite “SS” unit, which carried out the forced transfer, enslavement, and extermination of millions of persons in ...

How many Japanese were executed after WWII? ›

More than 4,000 people were convicted of war crimes in other international tribunals, and about 920 of them were executed. Tojo and the six others who were hanged were among 28 Japanese wartime leaders tried for war crimes at the 1946-1948 International Military Tribunal for the Far East.

What percentage of Nuremberg was destroyed? ›

Original film and sound recordings shown in the Art Bunker recall the air raids that demolished Nuremberg in World War II. Ninety percent of all the buildings in the Old Town were left in ruins.

How many German prisoners of war were killed? ›

Body count of German prisoners

Other Losses contends that nearly one million German prisoners died while being held by the United States and French forces at the end of World War II. Specifically, it states: "The victims undoubtedly number over 800,000, almost certainly over 900,000 and quite likely over a million.

How many Japanese were executed for war crimes? ›

The Tokyo trials were not the only forum for the punishment of Japanese war criminals, merely the most visible. In fact, the Asian countries victimized by the Japanese war machine tried far more Japanese -- an estimated five thousand, executing as many as 900 and sentencing more than half to life in prison.

What happened to the bodies after the Nuremberg Trials? ›

Hermann Göring committed suicide just a few hours before the execution of his sentence. After the hangings, the bodies were transported to Munich and cremated in the crematorium of the Ostfriedhof Cemetery.

What were the verdicts of the Nuremberg trial? ›

The Nuremberg Trial lasted from November 1945 to October 1946. The tribunal found nineteen individual defendants guilty and sentenced them to punishments that ranged from death by hanging to fifteen years' imprisonment.

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