Execution of Auschwitz commander Rudolph Hoss and the trials of Nazi officers at Nuremberg, Germany
--WARNING: DISTURBING PICTURES ON THIS PAGE--
"Captured on March 1946 by British troops disguised as a farmer, Rudolf Hoss was tried and hanged on a short drop gallows in Auschwitz concentration camp right across where his office used to be. Short drop hanging was used to choke slowly a person to death where as a long drop is to break his neck from the drop and die quickly. Of the 22 Nazis brought to justice at the Nuremberg tribunals only 12 received a death sentence. Ten were hanged and two committed suicide, one was Hermann Goering commander in chief of the Luftwaffe and second in command after Hitler, using a tiny cyanide capsule that he managed to hide with all the searches while he was in jail. So Goering actually escaped hanging few hours before his execution. To die by hanging is to die in the most disrespectful way with no dignity like a common criminal, suicide was preferred over hanging. For the rest of the Nazis, seven received jail terms and three were acquitted. One of them(Rudolf Hess) is believed to have been murdered. He was found chocked to death. Some believe it was a suicide, that he hanged himself. But according to the doctor who examined his body there were marks on his neck that says otherwise. And these could only have been caused by someone who intentionally used a rope to choke him to death."
"Hermann Goering founded the Gestapo(Hitler secret Police) and he is believed to have been behind the idea of the final solution or the holocaust, the extermination of the Jews."
Patrick Zakhm
To Auschwitz-1 WW2 Nazi concentration camp page - To Auschwitz-2 Birkenau Camp page
PLEASE NOTE : All these shots below are clickable. Clicking on any of them will show you bigger pictures
Rudolf Hoss below moments before his hanging
This is Goering in sun glasses below and to his left is Rudolf Hess