Final moments of Nazis executed at Nuremberg and The 10 Nazis who were hanged after him one after the other in one hour and 34 minutes.


Final moments of Nazis executed at Nuremberg and The 10 Nazis who were hanged after him one after the other in one hour and 34 minutes.

Hermann Göring was a leader of the Nazi Party. He was condemned to hang as a war criminal in 1946 but took his own life instead

Inside the cells: The prison psychologist remembers

On 3 January 1946, Albert Speer disrupted Göring's united front by announcing that he had attempted to assassinate Hitler in February, and planned to deliver Himmler to the allies. Gustave Gilbert interviewed Göring and Speer in their cells soon afterwards.

Göring's cell
Tonight Göring looked tired and depressed. "This was a bad day," he said. "Damn that stupid fool, Speer! Did you see how he disgraced himself in court today? How could he stoop so low as to do such a rotten thing to save his lousy neck? I nearly died with shame! To think that Germans will be so rotten to prolong this filthy life. Do you think I give that much of a damn about this lousy life?" He faced me squarely with blazing eyes. "For myself, I don't give a damn if I get executed, or drown, or crash in a plane, or drink myself to death! But there is still a matter of honour in this damn life! Assassination attempt on Hitler! Ugh! I could have sunk through the floor. And do you think I would have handed Himmler over to the enemy, guilty as he was? Dammit, I would have liquidated the bastard myself! Or if there was to have been any trial, a German court should have sentenced him! Would Americans think of handing over their criminals to us to sentence?"
He was called to see his attorney, and as we left the cell he reverted to his usually pose of jocularity for the benefit of the guards and any prisoners who might be listening.
Edited extract from Nuremberg Diary by Gustave Gilbert (Da Capo Press)



End of the trial: Guardian report on the executions, 16 October 1946

Hermann Göring last night died by his own hand. Two and a quarter hours before he was to be executed he took poison under the eyes of the American security guard watching him every moment through the grating in the door of his cell.

Without the guard noticing any unusual movement, Göring – who asked for a soldier's death before a firing squad and was refused – slipped a phial of cyanide of potassium into his mouth and crushed it with his teeth. He thus used the same type of poison and phial adopted by Heinrich Himmler, who committed suicide 17 months ago.
While Göring was lying in the prison morgue, the 10 other Nazi leaders sentenced to death with him were hanged in the bomb-blasted gymnasium of the prison, its dirty walls lit up by 10 blazing lights in the ceiling. The 10 Nazis were hanged one after the other in one hour and 34 minutes.
It was 1.11am when Ribbentrop, the first to be hanged in Göring's place, walked through the gymnasium door, his face white but set, his grey hair ruffled. It was 2.45 when Seyss-Inquart – shouting "I believe in Germany!" – fell to his death.
Not one of them broke down. Each was given a chance to say a last word, and only Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi party philosopher and most prolific writer of them all, could find no word except a murmured "nein" to leave to history.

Ribbentrop said firmly "God protect Germany", and then: "My last wish is that German unity should remain and that an understanding between the east and west will come about and peace for the world."



Julius Streicher, the Jew-baiter, unrepentant to the end, shouted "Heil Hitler" as he was led up the steps. From the top of the scaffold he shouted: "The Bolsheviks will hang you all next. Jewish holiday! Jewish holiday, 1946! Now it goes to God."
Kaltenbrunner, asked if he had any last words, said in a mild voice: "I have loved my German people and my Fatherland from the bottom of my heart. I have done my duty by the laws of my country. I regret that my people were not led by soldiers only and that crimes were committed in which I had no share. I fought honourably. Germany – good luck."

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