Nuremberg war trials executions

After the events of Kristallnacht , November 8 and 9, , Goering under instructions from Hitler called a high-level meeting of the party, on November 12, to assess the damage done during the night and place responsibility for it.

The intent of this meeting was two-fold: to make the Jews responsible for Kristallnacht and to use the events of the preceding days as a rationale for promulgating a series of antisemitic laws which would, in effect, remove Jews from the German economy. Kristallnacht turns out to be a crucial turning point in German policy regarding the Jews and may be considered as the actual beginning of what is now called the Holocaust.

The path to the "Final Solution" had been chosen. Hermann Goering was sentenced to death by hanging. He evade the sentence by committing suicide in his cell. Hess is not to be confused with Rudolph Hoess, commandant of Auschwitz who was tried in Warsaw in and executed at Auschwitz. According to Telford Taylor The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials, , Churchill made statements at the Yalta Conference in February, , which indicate that he did not consider Hess to be a "major war criminal" and should be given a "judicial trial.

Vera Laska, ed. These preparatory schools for murder [euthanasia centers, BSA] offered the training course for the roughnecks who learned by killing thousands of Christian German and Austrian individual victims and, thus insensitized, graduated to the main task, which was to be the genocide of millions of Jews, and eventually of Gypsies, Poles, Russians, Czechs and other less worthy Slavs. The program was administered under Rudolf Hess and, after his departure, under Martin Bormann.

Medical supervision was under Werner Heyde, M. They experimented with various gasses and injections; they photographed the effect, clocked the speed of death by a stopwatch, filmed it in slow motion and then dissected the brain -- all as an undergraduate course preparatory for genocide. Rudolf Hess was sentenced to life imprisonment. He served over 40 years of that sentence at Spandau Prison and committed suicide in at age In that capacity, he was involved in the destruction of Czechoslovakia.

During his trial, Jodl asserted that it was the Czechs who initiated it by massing troops on the German border, knowing full well that plans for the invasion of Czechoslovakia were in place at least six months prior to the invasion. He characterized the invasion of the Soviet Union as a "preventive measure" since Soviet troops were concentrated along the German border.

In regard to "crimes against humanity," Jodl was strongly implicated in promoting forced labor -- particularly against the civilian populations of Denmark, Holland, France and Belgium. His primary defense was the "higher authority" plea. At the end of the cross-examination, Jodl stated, "It is not the task of a soldier to be the judge of his Commander in Chief. May history or the Almighty do that.

Like most other security positions, Kaltenbrunner came under the direct authority of Heinrich Himmler. His position placed him in direct contact with the Einsatzgruppen.

Amen, Ohlendorf offers the following testimony:. He occupied this position until the end of the war. Eichmann occupied a position in Amt IV under Mueller and worked on the Jewish problem from approximately onwards. To my knowledge, he also occupied this position until the end of the war. AMEN: And when you say "liquidated" do you mean "killed?

Under further questioning and cross-examination, Col. Amen presented documentary and witness evidence linking Kaltenbrunner to Mauthausen, the crematoria and the extermination of Jews cf. Taylor, Ernst Kaltenbrunner was sentenced to death by hanging.

Whereas some of the defendants were relatively [difficult] cases for the tribunal because of their minimal involvement, Keitel was relatively easy because of his extensive involvement in the Nazi organization. His direct involvement in the "terror fliers" policy, which resulted in the wanton downing of British and American planes and the summary execution of the fliers and the "Night and Fog" decrees of which resulted, over the next three years, in the summary execution without court martial or trial, of military prisoners-of-war, were extremely damaging to his defense.

Even while admitting his complicity in "war crimes," Keitel declared his loyalty, as a soldier, to his commander-in- chief. Jodl was writing a letter; Ribbentrop was in earnest conversation with a chaplain; Sauckel nervously paced the floor, and Goering simulated sleep, his hands outside of the blankets.

At the forty-five, the guard noticed Goering twitching. He called for the corporal of the guard and they rushed into the cell. They saw Goering writhing in agony. When the doctor arrived the death rattle was in his throat. Goering had cheated the hangman. They found in the cell a small envelope marked H.

Goering on the outside, inside of which were three notes, one addressed to Colonel Andrus [the prison commandant] from Goering, and the cartridge case in which the vial of potassium cyanide had been preserved. As yet, the contents of the notes have not been released for publication and how Goering got the poison remains unsolved. He walked to the foot of the thirteen stairs leading to the gallows platform. He was asked to state his name. Flanked by two guards and followed by the Chaplain, he slowly mounted the stairs.

He stood on the trap and his feet were bound with a webbed Army belt. God have mercy on my soul. The trap was sprung and Ribbentrop died at In the same way, each of the remaining defendants to receive capital sentences approached the scaffold and met the fate of common criminals. 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. Hans Frank, the "butcher of Poland", said in a low voice: "I beg the Lord to receive me mercifully. I am grateful for the good treatment I have received in prison.

Seyss-Inquart, in a quiet voice, said: "I hope this execution will be the last act in the tragedy of a second world war and that its lessons will be learned, so that peace and understanding will follow. It is common to think of our own time as standing at the apex of civilisation from which the deficiencies of preceding ages may patronisingly be viewed in the light of what is assumed to be progress.

The reality is that in the long perspective of history the present century will not hold an enviable position unless the second half is to redeem its first. They stand before the record of this tribunal as bloodstained Gloucester stood by the body of his slain king. The method was hanging. The hanged Nazi leaders allegedly took a long time to die, some of them more than 25 minutes.

The executioner was John C. Woods, a sergeant in the U.