After World War II, the Nazi leaders had a simple choice:suicide, flee, or turn themselves into the hands of justice. The problem is that most of them did not feel guilty at all ... How was the fate of the people responsible for unleashing the most tragic conflict in history?
It is well known how Hitler ended his "career". The Führer took his own life when it became clear that the Third Reich would collapse.
Meanwhile, a whole circle of his staunch supporters had to decide what to do in the face of imminent defeat. Follow in the footsteps of your leader? Or maybe save yourself at any cost? Here's how the top 10 Nazis ended up.
Joseph Goebbels. One step behind Hitler
The Goebbels family committed suicide the day after Hitler, having previously killed six of their children.
In the final months of the war, Goebbels' speeches took on an exceptionally apocalyptic tone. Berlin's Gauleiter must have known then that the Third Reich would collapse, but nevertheless urged Hitler to stay in the Berlin bunker and facing the advancing Soviet army. The order to evacuate the capital was the only order from the Führer that Goebbels ever ignored.
So when Hitler took his own life on April 30, 1945, the man who was his right-hand man knew what he should do - the Führer himself showed him the way. He wandered in the garden for a moment, "waiting to be killed by the Russians." Eventually, however, he decided to take matters into his own hands. On May 1, he committed suicide. Magda Goebbels also followed in her husband's footsteps, having previously killed their six children.
Hermann Göring. Dreams of victory
Göring, sentenced to death, decided to take matters into his own hands and committed suicide the day before the planned execution.
Until May 7, 1945, Göring was alive as if everything was fine. He misjudged the intentions of the Americans who arrested him at an arranged meeting. He wanted to see Eisenhower in person, but was instead separated from his wife and daughter and locked up.
During the Nuremberg trial, he cheered on the other defendants, still considering them (and himself) as heroes. He maintained that the crisis of the Third Reich was only temporary and in a few years everything would return to "normal" . As he told the prison psychiatrist, “If I am to go to death, I will die as a martyr rather than a traitor. […] Please do not forget that the great, historic winners - Genghis Khan, Peter the Great, Frederick the Great - are not seen as murderers. "
He was sentenced to death by hanging, but the sentence was not carried out. Göring took his own life the day before the planned execution by chewing on an ampoule of cyanide. Probably one of the guards, Jack G. Wheelis, smuggled her for him.
Adolf Eichmann. Long live the Third Reich!
Years after the war, Eichmann finally faced the Israeli judiciary. He was sentenced to death.
Adolf Eichmann valued life too much to try to kill himself. So he decided to escape from justice. First, he demoted and changed his name, and later, accompanied by other SS soldiers, "disappeared in the country." He took up various activities to blend in with the crowd - he was a lumberjack, at one point he even raised chickens. Eventually, he emigrated to Argentina under the rule of Peròn.
In 1956, Eichmann was recognized by a Jew living in Buenos Aires. He wrote to the prosecutor general of Hesse, who in turn informed the secret services of Israel. However, the first time the criminal was not found and identified . It was only during the next action in 1958 that his place of residence was confirmed. Two years later he was brought before an Israeli court which sentenced him to death. Until the very end, Eichmann showed no remorse. On the gallows, just before hanging, he shouted:"Sieg heil Deutschland".
Rudolf Hess. Prisoner number seven
The Nuremberg Tribunal sentenced Hess to life imprisonment. He committed suicide behind bars, but only at the age of 93.
One of the most important officials of the Third Reich and Hitler's direct associate was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Nuremberg trial. He served his sentence in Spandau Correctional Facility, where was the only prisoner for twenty years . Since no surnames were used, he was referred to as "number seven".
As his son Wolf claimed, Hess ended up behind bars undeservedly. Moreover, he was said to be mishandled there. Gerald Posner in his book "Hiter's Children" relates:"Wolf criticized the conditions in Spandau, describing them as" very difficult ". He spoke of coarse clothes, a primitive cell measuring less than two by three meters, sleep restriction, and military rules that dictated respect to the "victors". "
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Cut off from the world (partly at his own request - he refused to receive guests), Hess tried to kill himself several times, which he finally succeeded in 1987. He hanged himself on the cable. He was ninety-three.
Heinrich Himmler. Escape from justice
Himmler turned himself over to the Allies and committed suicide by taking the poison.
After the end of the war, Himmler "found" himself and handed himself over to the enemy:on May 23, 1945, he arrived, accompanied by two soldiers, at the Civil Interrogation Camp near Lüneburg. He introduced himself and signed to prove his identity. So he was captured and transferred to the nearby Allied headquarters. There he completed his life. This is how Peter Longerich described it:
[In-place] has undergone a further general medical examination. During it, he resisted opening his mouth. The doctor, Captain Wells, discovered a bluish tinted object in them. When Wells tried to remove it, Himmler turned his head sharply to prevent it from happening. He bit the capsule and fell. They wanted to remove the poison from the mouth, but gave up after fifteen minutes. Himmler could not be brought back to life. A closer examination revealed that the poison was cyanide.
Jürgen Stroop. Revenge of the Poles
In 1951, Jürgen Stroop was brought before a Polish court. He was sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out in the spring of 1952.
The Americans captured Stroop on May 8, 1945. Already in Munich, a military court sentenced him to death for issuing an order to shoot Allied airmen who were saving themselves by jumping with a parachute, but the sentence was not carried out.
The Polish Military Commission for the Investigation of German War Crimes also asked for Stroop. Attorney Kozłowski, who dealt with this case, said in 1963:"I had to sign a pledge on behalf of the Polish government that if he would not be sentenced to death, we would return him to the American authorities for the execution of their sentence ”.
The Stroop trial was completed in 1951. The convict maintained all the time that he was a prisoner of war, not a criminal. However, he did not escape justice. He was executed in the Mokotów prison on March 6, 1952.
Amon Göth. A sadist in disguise
Amon Göth was also tried and executed by the Polish judiciary.
Jews imprisoned in the camp in Kraków-Płaszów used to say that "looking at Göth, you saw death". This sadistic Nazi, who enjoyed carrying out executions, was arrested on September 13, 1944 by ... SS officers. Reason? He appropriated Jewish property that legally belonged to the Third Reich . However, he did not go to trial and the accused landed in a psychiatric institution in Bad Tölz.
In May 1945, the American military arrested him. He was wearing a Wehrmacht uniform and had not confessed to being an SS officer. He was brought to trial again - this time in Poland. He was found guilty of killing an "unidentified number of people". He was sentenced to death by hanging and carried out in the Montelupich prison in Kraków. The cremated remains were thrown into the Vistula.
Hans Frank. A converted criminal
"Butcher from Poland" - Hans Frank - converted during the trial. He was sentenced to death. Just before his execution, he begged Jesus for mercy.
After the war, Frank escaped to the West with the stolen property and works of art. The Americans found him, however, and captured him on May 4, 1945. As his son, Niklas, recalled in the book "Hitler's Children":"He knew that he would be arrested soon. Earlier that day, he had given his mother a thick roll of money. There was no kiss, no showing of affection. It looked like paying a hooker ”.
However, Frank did not predict what would happen to him at the hands of the soldiers. Immediately after arriving at the Miesbach prison, he was severely beaten. That same evening, he tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide. After being transferred to Berchtesgaden, he made another attempt - and failed again.
When the charges were brought against him in Nuremberg, he was one of the few to say that he was taking "a monstrous responsibility" and added that "a thousand years will pass and this German guilt will not be wiped out." Before the execution, he only prayed. Just before dying, on the gallows he called out, "Jesus, have mercy!".
Karl-Otto Saur. Profitable exchange
Karl-Otto Saur escaped justice. He exchanged his freedom for evidence against the Third Reich.
After the war, Karl Saur was arrested by the Americans, and then from 1948 he acted as a witness in the Nuremberg trial. Accepted the offer of immunity in exchange for providing evidence against German industry . He was classified as "Follower" during denazification.
According to one of his sons, Saur was not actually an anti-Semite, moreover - he even helped a few friends of Jewish origin during the war. It does not change the fact that he was an active member of the Nazi war machine. And that he avoided punishment. He died in July 1966 in his own home, surrounded by his relatives.
Josef Mengele. Crime without penalty
Dr. Mengele has managed to escape from justice.
Dr. Mengele, who stood out for exceptional brutality even against the background of the most hardened Nazis, was never tried. And this despite the fact that until his old age he did not renounce his belief in the rightness of his views. When his only son Rolf visited him, then 66-year-old Josef kept repeating the same song :“Claimed that he had evidence of the dissimilarity or abnormality of the Jews. However, he was unable to come up with any convincing argument. ”
The meeting between father and son took place in Brazil. Earlier, Dr. Mengele hid in Paraguay and Argentina, where he fled right after the war. There he was also supposed to come across Eichmann, to whom he allegedly offered free medical tests. The latter, however, cautiously refused. The Angel of Death died on February 7, 1979, during a vacation at the seaside. He was buried under a false name.
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