October 16th, 1946.
Nuremberg Prison, Germany.

The world waited for justice.

Inside the courtroom of the Nuremberg Trials had sat the most powerful surviving men of the Third Reich:

Hermann Göring.
Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Wilhelm Keitel.
Ernst Kaltenbrunner.
Hans Frank.

The architects of war.

The men blamed for genocide, mass murder, and the deadliest conflict in human history.

Now they were about to die.

But what happened inside the execution chamber that night shocked witnesses so badly that many later described the hangings as botched, gruesome, and horrifyingly slow.

Some Nazis reportedly took more than 20 minutes to die.

And the reason why became one of the darkest controversies of postwar justice.

THE WORLD’S MOST INFAMOUS WAR CRIMINALS

The Nuremberg Trials had sentenced leading Nazi figures to death for:

• War crimes
• Crimes against humanity
• Launching aggressive war

Among those condemned were:

• Joachim von Ribbentrop
• Wilhelm Keitel
• Alfred Jodl
• Julius Streicher
• Ernst Kaltenbrunner
• Hans Frank
• Fritz Sauckel

Each would die by hanging.

Or so the Allies planned.

THEN HERMANN GÖRING CHEATED THE GALLOWS

Hours before the executions began, chaos erupted.

Guards rushed into Hermann Göring’s prison cell and discovered the former Reichsmarschall lying dead on the floor.

He had swallowed a cyanide capsule.

Nobody fully understood how he obtained it.

Some suspected a sympathetic American guard secretly helped him.

Göring had escaped the hangman at the last moment.

And the Americans were humiliated.

THE EXECUTIONER WHO SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN THERE

The remaining executions moved forward anyway.

That decision would become disastrous.

The man responsible for the hangings was U.S. Army executioner John C. Woods.

There was just one major problem:

Many historians believe Woods barely knew what he was doing.

He reportedly lied about his execution experience to secure the position.

Woods claimed he had worked as a hangman in Texas and Oklahoma.

But at the time, those states used electrocution instead of hanging.

Even worse, Woods had previously been discharged from military service and described as:

“Obviously poor service material.”

Yet this was the man chosen to execute the highest-profile war criminals on Earth.

THE FATAL MISTAKE: THE WRONG TYPE OF HANGING

British execution experts preferred the “long drop” method.

That system calculated the prisoner’s height and weight to break the neck instantly.

But the Americans used a much less reliable method:

The standard drop.

The drop distance was shorter.

Too short in many cases.

Instead of snapping the neck quickly, prisoners slowly strangled to death.

And that was only the beginning of the disaster.

THE GALLOWS WERE BADLY BUILT

Three wooden gallows were constructed inside the prison gymnasium at Nuremberg.

But the structures reportedly had major flaws.

The trap doors were too small.

When prisoners fell, their bodies struck the sides of the opening, slowing the drop.

That reduced the force needed to break the neck.

The result:

Slow strangulation instead of instant death.

Worse still, one trap door malfunctioned violently.

It reportedly slammed upward after opening and struck some prisoners in the head, leaving them bloodied.

VON RIBBENTROP TOOK 14 MINUTES TO DIE

The first Nazi led to the gallows was former Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

His final words reportedly included a wish for peace between East and West.

Then the hood was lowered.

The lever pulled.

Ribbentrop disappeared through the trapdoor.

But death did not come quickly.

Witnesses later reported he struggled for approximately 14 minutes before finally dying.

The hanging had failed to break his neck.

BLOOD ON THE EXECUTION FLOOR

Wilhelm Keitel followed next.

Witnesses said the former field marshal walked to the gallows with rigid military discipline.

But when he fell through the trapdoor, disaster struck again.

The faulty door reportedly smashed into his head, causing severe bleeding.

Photographs later showed Keitel’s body heavily bloodied after the execution.

The chamber of death was becoming a nightmare scene.

JULIUS STREICHER’S HORRIFYING DEATH

The most disturbing execution of the night belonged to Julius Streicher — the fanatical antisemitic publisher of Der Stürmer.

Witnesses said Streicher panicked completely.

He screamed.

Kicked wildly.

And shouted:

“The Bolsheviks will hang you one day!”

Then the trapdoor opened.

But something went terribly wrong.

Instead of dying instantly, Streicher strangled slowly while witnesses reportedly heard groaning from behind the black execution curtain.

According to accounts from the chamber, executioner John Woods eventually entered behind the curtain and physically pulled down on Streicher’s body to speed up the strangulation.

The scene horrified observers.

SOME MEN TOOK OVER 20 MINUTES TO DIE

Several condemned Nazis reportedly remained alive for shocking lengths of time after the drop.

Instead of clean executions, many deaths became prolonged suffocations.

The world expected swift justice.

Instead, witnesses saw bodies twisting slowly at the ends of ropes inside a bloodstained gymnasium.

THE EXECUTIONER WHO CLAIMED “IT WENT PERFECTLY”

After the executions ended, John C. Woods stunned many reporters with his reaction.

He proudly declared:

“I never saw a hanging go off any better.”

Then he added:

“I hanged those 10 Nazis, and I’m proud of it.”

But criticism quickly followed.

Some historians later accused Woods of deliberately placing certain nooses incorrectly to ensure slower deaths — particularly Julius Streicher’s.

Whether through incompetence or revenge, the executions became infamous.

THE BODY OF GÖRING BROUGHT OUT LAST

After the hangings ended, Hermann Göring’s corpse was wheeled into the room to prove he had truly died.

Witnesses described his face as twisted in agony from cyanide poisoning.

Even in death, Göring had denied the Allies the spectacle of his execution.

WHY THE NUREMBERG HANGINGS BECAME CONTROVERSIAL

The failures of the executions came down to several factors:

• Poorly designed gallows
• An inexperienced executioner
• Incorrect hanging methods
• Trapdoor malfunctions
• Insufficient drop distances

Together, they created a horrifying spectacle.

One that many witnesses never forgot.

THE DARK IRONY OF NUREMBERG

The men executed that night had overseen unimaginable suffering across Europe.

Millions murdered.

Entire cities destroyed.

Concentration camps filled with corpses.

Yet even their own deaths became chaotic, violent, and grim.

Not the swift justice many expected…

…but a final horrifying scene in the long shadow of World War II.