r/ThisDayInHistory • u/TheExorcist1973 • 2d ago
October 15, 1946 - Hermann Göring committed suicide by biting into a hidden cyanide capsule in his prison cell at Nuremberg, two hours before his scheduled execution.
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u/ABobby077 2d ago
still got off easy
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u/Bauljamic_Arlijam 2d ago
Pretty sure he died in more horror from cyanid pill than if he were hung
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u/minpin75 2d ago
I think it was more about not giving them the satisfaction of killing him
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u/FickleHare 2d ago
Yea I think he preferred going out his own way even if it was technically more painful.
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u/The_ApolloAffair 2d ago
He wanted to be executed by firing squad like a soldier, and thought that hanging was dishonorable and undignified. Not surprising for someone deeply steeped in German military tradition.
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u/Bauljamic_Arlijam 2d ago
Gotta give it to him, he chose more painful way to go than to be humiliated and paraded.
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u/Major_Excitement163 2d ago
He followed in his leader's steps and simultaneously gave a good advice on what every nazi should do
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u/Careful_Party7336 2d ago
He died the way of a coward
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u/Mountain-Possible932 2d ago
Committing a more painful suicide to avoid giving the allies the satisfaction is not cowardly.
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u/Intrepid_Hurry8511 2d ago
It is, for him tho.
He chose the easy way out that seems more acceptable to him, rather than taking his just punishment.
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u/ShackletonsVael 1d ago
It wasn't the easy way out if his method was more painful. Also, someone else stated he had requested execution by firing squad, so it seems like he was willing to take his punishment of death, he just refused to be killed by hanging. Being shot and killed, being hanged until dead, or eating cyanide, all different methods but the end is still the same in death.
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u/sprinkill 2d ago
"Hanged," mate. The word is, "hanged."
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u/Bauljamic_Arlijam 1d ago
Lol, does my commemt sound sexual the way I wrote it?
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u/wilderneyes 1d ago
Yup, lol. "Hanged" is the proper past tense for the method of execution specifically, "hung" is never used in that context and is incorrect. "Hung" can work for other types of things that you can hang (lights, wall ornaments, whatever), but not people. Unless they're, you know, hung 😏
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u/Anti_shill_cannon 2d ago
They apparently hired a guy who lied about knowing how to hang people, and based his hangings on movies
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u/sprinkill 2d ago
I mean, you kinda' have to accept that there's gonna' be some resume fraud when it comes to hangman applicants.
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u/Bauljamic_Arlijam 2d ago
Most of them dropped significantly which means their necks broke and they died instantly
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u/YawgO1999 2d ago
Hermann Göring, it got boring, alone in his cell. Hermann Göring in two hours you can go to hell. Hermann Göring bit a capsule, better than a rope. Hermann Göring go to hell, we can only hope.
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u/Restless_spirit88 2d ago
He gloated in his note that he had those capsules on him everyday in court.
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u/Vivid_Ice_2755 2d ago
Was that to clear whoever gave it to him? The guards found him very charming apparently.
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u/Restless_spirit88 2d ago
Nobody knows who gave him the cyanide.
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u/AardvarkLeading5559 2d ago
It's strongly suspected that Capt. Jack Wheelis knowingly or unknowingly gave Goering the poison hidden in a jar of salve in exchange for HG's gold pen and watch.
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u/Restless_spirit88 2d ago edited 2d ago
More than one person has been suspected. I believe there was even a confession but even then, it has been regarded as not credible.
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u/AardvarkLeading5559 2d ago
IIRC the confession came from a guard who had no access to HG's baggage.
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u/Spez_is-a-nazi 2d ago
Fun fact, the last 2 US presidents whose lives didn't overlap with Goering were Barack Obama and Chester A. Arthur.
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u/MeterologistOupost31 2d ago
Shame he didn't die from slow aphyxiation on the scaffold like some of his fellow bastards
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u/Wank_A_Doodle_Doo 2d ago
I was gonna say that hanging is supposed to snap the neck for a quick death, and then remembered the guy they brought in to be the hangman literally lied on his resume and bungled it repeatedly.
Not that I’m complaining of course, couldn’t happen to nicer people.
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u/LemonCharity 1d ago
Ik with the Soviets they specifically chose short hangs. Short rope asphyxiates, long snaps your neck. The Soviets would go short… and public, so everyone in town square would watch them dance on the rope
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u/thighmaster69 2d ago
You don't really die from asphyxiation from hanging. I mean, it's possible, but it takes less pressure to stop the jugular and carotid arteries than it takes to crush the windpipe, and it'll kill you faster. Most of the suffering from short-drop hangings are from struggling; if you don't and let the rope sink in, it takes just seconds to go unconscious, although it takes another 15ish minutes to die. During this time you will have violent convulsions as the brainstem desperately gives its last gap, but this happens while you are unconscious. It's just horrifying for onlookers as it happens. Honestly I would take that way to go out over a cyanide pill, which seems decidedly unpleasant.
It's important to know this because half of all people found dead by hanging are found in a seated position or their feet still touching the ground. My belief is that many people who are "testing the waters" with hanging (or autoerotic asphyxiation) mistakenly believe they can just stand back up. You can't if you're unconscious.
Source: I had a phase maybe 10 years ago where I morbidly spent hours on r/watchpeopledie
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u/deadletterdept 2d ago
The man who did the hangings at Nuremberg was actually really incompetent and lied about his previous experience as an executioner/hang man and because of this the deaths weren't clean. There were issues with the drop distance and trap door sizes and some of the men struggled and we're slowly strangled over over the course of 15 minutes to a half hour.
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u/NoCard753 1d ago
If you asphixiate when being hanged, it means the hangman did a poor job.
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u/tlrider1 1d ago
Yes... Thats the reference here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_C._Woods
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u/Cautious_Use_7442 1d ago
And died at 39 changing a lightbulb
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u/camimiele 2h ago
“On July 21, 1950, Woods was accidentally electrocuted when he tried to change a light bulb while standing in a pool of water.”
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u/jacobiner123 1d ago
Even if he did... it doesn't matter...
Their suffering didn't bring back the victims of the holocaust, it doesn't educate those who come after, it doesn't help anyone deal with what happened, and it wouldn't rebuild the monuments and the history lost to the pointless war.
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u/tinyElliss 1d ago
That would be very much botched execution. Hangings were quite fast in most cases.
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u/MeterologistOupost31 1d ago
A lot of them were actually botched because the hangman lied on his CV. Keitel took half an hour to die.
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u/General_Guest7846 2d ago
real shame.
You think ICE agents and some members of the Trump administration will receive the same treatment one day?
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u/Apart-Brick672 2d ago
Divisiveness bot
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u/ElectronicUpstairs39 2d ago
If hanging is done properly it is actually a very fast execution. I believe the most difficult part may be the walk to the gallus. Herman Goring was determined not to be executed by somebody who may the Jewish. Six million Jews lost their life under this extreme right wing nationalistic simplisticly minded party. What I fear most is that this kind of ultra nationalism is coming back again. We must never forget. No nation is immune.
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u/ReferenceInitial5176 2d ago
You’re right, if done properly, hanging is very fast and comparatively humane. But it wasn’t done properly. The US accidentally hired a hangman who lied about his experience and as a result, nearly every execution at Nuremberg was botched. Keitel notably smashed his face on the gallows itself, and many of the Nazis died by prolonged asphyxiation as opposed to a quick snap of the neck. That’s not why Goring killed himself; he killed himself because he wanted to be in control of his narrative. It’s also not to say that I can be too bothered about the mishired hangman. I generally don’t approve of the death penalty, but a precedent had to be established for the international prosecution of heinous war crimes.
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u/iTz_RuNLaX 18h ago
Göring requested the firing squad though, he just didn't want to be hanged.
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u/ReferenceInitial5176 10h ago
No; he’d discussed his suicide long before he ever saw trial or what exactly was to be done with him was even established. He just wanted to go out on his terms, and not the Allies. That sounds reasonable enough if you forget what he was in there for.
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u/ElectronicUpstairs39 2d ago
Yes, I heard of this. I don't believe in capital punishment either. Unfortunately the US is not all that keen or a agreeable in recognising the international prosecution of war crimes particularely if it does not suit them.
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u/supervillaindsgnr 2d ago
Is there a theory as to how he got access to cyanide capsules while in a maximum security prison?
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u/TheExorcist1973 2d ago
There seems to be 3 main stories: 1) Göring claimed in his suicide note that he had kept the cyanide hidden on him the entire 11 months of his trial. 2) In 2005, a former 19-year-old U.S. Army guard named Herbert Lee Stivers came forward claiming he unwittingly smuggled the poison. 3) A U.S. guard, such as Lieutenant Jack G. Wheelis, who grew close to Göring, chatted with him, and supplied him with personal items and gifts might have given it to him. A second capsule was later found in Göring’s confiscated luggage, supporting the idea that outside access or lax contraband screening played a role.
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u/Pelosi-Hairdryer 1d ago
Nobody knows for sure since point 1 was Goering may have wrote that as an "FU" to the Colonel Andrus, point 2 I believe might have been debunked by most historians, which leaves point 3 with Lt. Wheelis, but it's all circumstantial evidences. We'll never know the truth but in the end, Goering is lost to history and today is considered one of the most evil people in history.
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u/Pelosi-Hairdryer 2d ago
The most plausible theory was the US guardsman who was supposed to be with him apparently gave him the container that had the capsule. That US guardsman was named Jack Wheelis who was also in charge of the personal storage luggage for the defendants as well. Unfortunately there is no concrete evidence or smoking gun to tie to Wheelis other then circumstantial evidences. There's a famous picture of Wheelis asking Goering for an autograph on the book and both men loved hunting and this started that friendship or kinship between the two. After the trial, Wheelis was reported by his son that he took home ALOT of Goering's belong such as a wrist watch worth thousands of dollars or so, a pocket watch, and many others. Sadly Wheelis died later on so whatever secrets he had, he took them with him.
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u/ExtremelyLocal 1d ago
Hmmm an American Nazi sympathizer. Can’t say I’m shocked
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u/DunkeyColdMedina 2d ago
I like that cyanide poisoning is probably less humane than what they were going to do to him.
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u/Ok-Buyer5027 2d ago
It's a toss up because they had one of the worst hangmen ever.
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u/Pelosi-Hairdryer 2d ago
The picture of Keitel's face hitting the trap door was very macabre, but given the crime of what he did and the shameful act that brought dishonor to his family, I saw he got what was coming to him.
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u/quovadist 2d ago
oh wow, i was just watching Nuremberg on Netflix a few hours ago. I didnt even know today was HG's day
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u/Academic-Answer-5061 1d ago
Just a quick piece of information:
Getting hanged was and still is not seen as an honourable death to soldiers.
Being hanged was a common practise to punish criminals, thieves, rapists, murderers,...
Although being seen as a criminal and murderer by todays standards, Mr. Göring might have seen himself as a soldier, nor a civilian.
And yes, it is linked to his past as honoured pilot of First World War and the military past of his family.
Without trying to make any comparisons or showing sympathy for the ideology and beliefs of the Third Reich:
Equal behaviour can be witnessed in many warrior cults, who try to distinguish themselves from common society.
For example the Samurai preferred to commit suicide by "seppuku", than being executed.
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u/Yoinkitron5000 2d ago
I wonder if he thought that cyanide just made you go to sleep and didn't realize that its actually an extremely painful and time consuming way to die.
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u/KookySurprise8094 2d ago
It is?
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u/Yoinkitron5000 2d ago
Yep. While it is possible for ot to kill in a few seconds with highly concentrated cyanide gas, in pill form it takes at least a few minutes where the person who took it will feel like they're dissolving from the inside out which is basically what is actually happening.
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u/ecstatic_carrot 2d ago
dissolving? I thought it blocked oxygen absorption
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u/Yoinkitron5000 2d ago
It does that too while also burning your digestive tract. Its unpleasant in multiple ways!
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u/pheasant99 2d ago
no he just wanted to cheat the hangman
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u/Pelosi-Hairdryer 2d ago
Yep, he just wants an easy way out unlike the German soldiers who died for nothing.
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u/Andyseawolf 2d ago
Years later the USA has a planned controlled execution and makes a mess of it 🤷
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u/WayoftheBear 2d ago
They made a mess of those ones too. Their executioner was an alcoholic who blagged his way into the job despite having no experience. He botched pretty much all of the executions he did.
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u/pquince1 1d ago
What would it be like to die that way? All the internet will do is give me suicide hotlines.
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u/Fartbottler 1d ago
It binds to the hemoglobin in your blood so that oxygen can’t, and you suffocate to death on a cellular level
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u/szblb 1d ago
How he had a cyanide capsule in a cell? Somebody smuggled it for him?
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u/GiftOfDrift 1d ago
Some spys used to hide a capsule in a false tooth, he could of done that or had it "hidden somewhere", but it could of been smuggled into him also too though.
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u/MrPoopyButthole10101 1d ago
Do they keep that tooth in all the time? Seems scary one day you’re eating lunch, feel a crunch then you dead lol
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u/GiftOfDrift 1d ago
I think it was more engineered then that, spys used them alot, as being found meant death & they would be tortured on both sides
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u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago
There are certain coatings that could prevent it being digested, if accidentally swallowed, so it could be something that needs biting down on first plus needs removing from the hole it’s stored in for more redundancy
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u/AgentCirceLuna 1d ago
I had something like this as a plot device in my fiction and you’d need to tap out a sequence then hold it for long enough to work.
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u/Original-R-Kelly-Fan 13h ago
yes, it’s thought he was able to get a guard to sympathize and provide it
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u/NoGravitasForSure 7h ago
There is a confession of an American prison guard. But we will never know for sure.
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u/Direct_Obligation570 1d ago
He wanted a firing squad because that was a soldiers death, hanging was for common criminals.
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u/Sisyphe_84 1d ago
La capsule était cachée dans une montre rangée avec ses effets hors cellule. Il avait sympathisé avec son interrogateur, un commandant américain chasseur comme lui.
Qui a commis, par sympathie, l'erreur de la lui ramener...
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u/superschmunk 2d ago
Coward till the last day
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u/East-Ice-3199 2d ago
Not what the word coward means. He knows that cyanide is way worse than hanging, he just didn’t want them to get the kill.
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u/Carl_the_bald 1d ago
Wasn't the executioner a bungling amateur? In that case, cyanide would be a better choice 😄
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u/AdConnect5660 2d ago
And a horde of nazis was shipped off to america to establish the space race.
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u/Coelachantiform 1d ago
Convenient that you left out the country that claimed the most nazi scientists.
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u/labiamajorapudendi 1d ago
Well, cooperating with the Nazis to commit genocides and even holding military parades in occupied territories together got people to know each other.
So no wonder Nazis went there, they felt at home.2
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u/musemester 1d ago
Went or was captured and sent?
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u/Gruntsbreeder 1d ago
Ah yes once again certain other country that collaborated with said nazis to split Europe between them and took even more of those nazis is always forgotten
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u/HandToDikCombat 2d ago
So the world's most successful space program took some of us research and brain power from some less than reputable places...
You rooted for the Terminator in the second movie, didn't you?
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u/Budget-Capybara 2d ago
Um. What?
Many of them knowingly collaborated with the Nazi regime, knew of slave labor use and the myriad deaths at their hands. The guy who invented the life support systems for Gemini and Apollo? Conducted experiments on the prisoners at Dachau.
Science at the cost of ethics and humanity is not good science.
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u/kaygeebeast75 1d ago
What was their option B?
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u/Budget-Capybara 1d ago edited 1d ago
Edit: I realize now you're saying the scientists options: many german scientist did leave Germany in the early years of the regime. Some were forcibly removed from academic posts in the 30s.
I mean, a lot of scientists resisted and or left Germany and areas of German occupation whether they were Jewish or not.
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u/ReferenceInitial5176 2d ago
Not as many as were stolen in the night by the Soviets in Operation Osoaviakhim
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u/Awkward_Squad 1d ago
Wernher von Braun who took the US to the moon learned his trade bombing London with the V2 rocket.
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u/rollo_read 2d ago
They still carried him out an strung up what was left of him in the piano wire gallery.
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u/Platomik 1d ago
what a coward.
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u/tinyElliss 1d ago
Being hanged instead of shot would be humiliating for soldier, so poision was middle ground, more accepttable than hanging.
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u/meonmeislandme 1d ago
it wasn't an act of cowardice he refused to be hanged instead of being shot
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u/ExtremelyLocal 1d ago
Found the Nazi sympathizer
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u/meonmeislandme 1d ago
i am not a nazi sympathizer
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u/voluntarydischarge69 2d ago
A fine example to political leaders across the world
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u/Daressalaam5 2d ago
If you click the links you’ll realise they’re talking about the user they replied to
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u/VecioRompibae 2d ago
I'm baffled it got so many downvotes, I guess understanding capabilities are low
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u/Baraga91 1d ago
Understanding capabilities? I deleted my comment because I got corrected, but you can see how that looks sus, right?
As a rule, if it looks like someone is spreading Neo-crap, I'm not clicking on their linkfest or my algorithm will start pushing more of that crap, so yeah, I feel my reaction was to be expected 😛
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u/Top-Cupcake4775 2d ago
control freak