# Nuremberg executions **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621 "2010-10-19T03:01:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/1 "2010-10-19T03:01:08Z")
How many war criminals were executed after the trials? Google doesn’t help me much here. It seems Albert Pierrepoint hanged some 200 of them. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/2 "2010-10-19T03:23:31Z")
[Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials) says 10. I think you are conflating “war criminals” with “Nuremberg Trials.” ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/3 "2010-10-19T03:25:10Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials) says 10. > > I think you are conflating “war criminals” with “Nuremberg Trials.” Perhaps so. How many War criminals were executed by the Allies after trial? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/4 "2010-10-19T03:27:56Z")
Twelve defendants were sentenced to death. Hermann Göring committed suicide in custody, and Martin Bormann had committed suicide in Berlin in 1945. The defendants hanged were: Hans Frank Wilhelm Frick Alfred Jodl Ernst Kaltenbrunner Wilhelm Keitel Joachim von Ribbentrop Alfred Rosenberg Fritz Sauckel Arthur Seyss-Inquart Julius Streicher Twenty-four people were sentenced to death at the Subsequent Nuremberg Trials. Of those, 11 had their sentences converted to life sentences. The defendants executed were: Paul Blobel Viktor Brack Karl Brandt Rudolf Brandt Werner Braune Karl Gebhardt Waldemar Hoven Joachim Mrugowsky Erich Naumann Otto Ohlendorf Oswald Pohl Wolfram Sievers EDIT: Hm. Unless my math is wrong, there is a man missing from the second list. . ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/5 "2010-10-19T03:48:16Z")
But there must have been many more. What tribunals sentenced people like Amon Goeth? Clearly there must have been a wider process than just the Nuremberg trials (which were for the major players) in place. How many did they pick up? (Or drop, to be more accurate.) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/6 "2010-10-19T03:52:14Z")
> **[Subsequent Nuremberg trials | See also](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsequent_Nuremberg_Trials#See_also)** > > 1.Auschwitz Trial held in Kraków, Poland in 1947 against 40 SS-staff of the Auschwitz concentration camp death factory | > 2.Frankfurt Auschwitz Trials, 1963–1965 | > 3.Majdanek Trials, held against Majdanek extermination camp officials. Longest Nazi war crimes trial in history, spanning over 30 years | > 4.Chełmno Trials of the Chełmno extermination camp personnel, held in Poland and Germany. The cases were decided almost twenty years apart | > 5.Sobibor Trial held in Hagen, Germany in 1965, concern... Nuremberg Trials Dachau Trials Auschwitz trial Belsen Trial Frankfurt Auschwitz trials Mauthausen-Gusen camp trials Ravensbrück Trial Göth was executed after the Supreme National Tribunal at Krakow. ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/7 "2010-10-19T03:55:22Z")
There were a great many Nazis executed after the war who had nothing to do with the Nuremberg trials. To name just two, Poland hanged [Amon Göth](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_G%C3%B6th) and Norway shot [Vidkun Quisling](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling). ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/8 "2010-10-19T04:12:02Z")
From the Wikipedia entry for [Albert Pierrepoint](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Pierrepoint): \*\*"Among the notable people he hanged: ## A total of 202 German war criminals executed between 1945 and 1949, following a series of war trials e.g. the Hamburg Ravensbrück Trials. The list of condemned includes Irma Grese, the youngest concentration camp guard to be executed for crimes at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and Auschwitz (aged 22), Elisabeth Volkenrath (Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz), and Juana Bormann (Auschwitz), plus another 10 men including Josef Kramer (Camp Commandant at Belsen) and Fritz Klein. All 13 were condemned at the Belsen Trial and subsequently executed at Hamelin Prison on 13 December 1945 at half-hour intervals. The women were hanged individually, the men in pairs. Executing a large number of war criminals in a single day was not unusual for Pierrepoint. For example, he performed the following 11 executions at Hamelin Prison on 8 October 1946, which resulted from the Neuengamme War Crimes Trial earlier the same year: Max Pauly SS Dr Bruno Kitt Anton Thumann Johann Reese Willy Warnke SS Dr Alfred Trzebinski Heinrich Ruge Wilhem Bahr Andreas Brems Wilhelm Dreimann Adolf Speck"\*\* I wasn’t really aware there were so many different trials. Nuremberg is all you ever seem to hear about. (_Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman_ is an excellent film, too.) ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/9 "2010-10-19T04:37:39Z")
How many were exonerated or had their verdicts set aside posthumously? Jodl is one. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/10 "2010-10-19T04:46:31Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > How many were exonerated or had their verdicts set aside posthumously? Jodl is one. I don’t think either of those is true of Jodl, strictly speaking. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/11 "2010-10-19T04:50:38Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > How many were exonerated or had their verdicts set aside posthumously? Jodl is one. At the main trial at Nuremberg: of the 22 defendants, 11 were given the death penalty, 3 were given life imprisonment, four were given imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years, and 3 were acquitted. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/12 "2010-10-19T05:10:37Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > I don’t think either of those is true of Jodl, strictly speaking. At the _München Hauptspruchkammer_ in 1953, “Jodl in effect was found not guilty of the main charges brought against him at Nuremberg…the verdict against Jodl was a a mistake” (Eugene Davidson, _The Trial of the Germans_) and property seized from him was returned to his widow. Maybe “in effect” isn’t “strictly speaking,” but there seems to have been a recognition that Jodl wasn’t as bad as the others, or to put it another way, Jodl was no worse than many other commanders who never faced a postwar trial for their lives. > [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > At the main trial at Nuremberg: of the 22 defendants, 11 were given the death penalty, 3 were given life imprisonment, four were given imprisonment ranging from 10 to 20 years, and 3 were acquitted. Yes, but I meant _among those executed_. Jodl was one of the eleven. I’m just guessing that if this happened with one of the “big” defendants, it could have happened with more of the smaller fry. Or perhaps nobody bothered to reexamine the smaller trials in later years? ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/13 "2010-10-19T06:29:30Z")
> [@spark240](#): > > At the _München Hauptspruchkammer_ in 1953, “Jodl in effect was found not guilty of the main charges brought against him at Nuremberg…the verdict against Jodl was a a mistake” (Eugene Davidson, _The Trial of the Germans_) and property seized from him was returned to his widow. > > Maybe “in effect” isn’t “strictly speaking,” but there seems to have been a recognition that Jodl wasn’t as bad as the others, or to put it another way, Jodl was no worse than many other commanders who never faced a postwar trial for their lives. > > Yes, but I meant _among those executed_. Jodl was one of the eleven. I’m just guessing that if this happened with one of the “big” defendants, it could have happened with more of the smaller fry. Or perhaps nobody bothered to reexamine the smaller trials in later years? The German court had no authority to overturn the International Tribunal’s verdict, so it wasn’t technically overturned. As for your question, a number of those condemned to death had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment by High Commissioner John J McCloy, and generally served far less than that. As I understand it, this was done as the US started to see West Germany as an ally against the Soviets rather than an occupied enemy. Those who had their sentences overturned included such nice gentlemen as [Waldemar Klingelhöfer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waldemar_Klingelh%C3%B6fer), who personally murdered dozens of people and ended up serving about 11 years in prison, and [Martin Sandberger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sandberger), who was sentenced to death in 1947, had his sentence commuted to life imprisonment, released in 1958, and died last March at the ripe old age of 98. In fact, of the 14 death sentences handed down at the Einsatzgruppen trial, only 4 were carried out, and all of the prisoners were released by 1958. I’m not sure about any post-executions rulings, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sizzles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@Sizzles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sizzles)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/14 "2010-10-19T12:21:52Z")
Each of the occupied countries held trials after the war to punish collaborators; > **[Pursuit of Nazi collaborators](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_of_Nazi_collaborators)** > > The pursuit of Nazi collaborators refers to the post-World War II pursuit and apprehension of individuals who were not citizens of the Third Reich at the outbreak of World War II but collaborated with the Nazi regime during the war. Hence, this article does not cover former members of the NSDAP and their fates after the war. > There were a number of motives for the apprehension of suspected collaborators. The main motives were: revenge for those murdered, especially those murdered on ethnic g... ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/15 "2010-10-19T13:37:40Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > . . . Martin Bormann had committed suicide in Berlin in 1945 . . . [Nitpick] [Bormann was killed while attempting to flee Berlin](http://hitlernews.cloudworth.com/death-of-leading-nazis/death-of-martin-bormann.html). His skeleton was found by construction workers in 1972. Both dental and DNA studies confirm it was him. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/16 "2010-10-19T20:48:35Z")
Your cite also says he committed suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2010, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/17 "2010-10-19T23:33:57Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Joachim von Ribbentrop Reading the Wiki articles on these guys, (I’m not much of a WW2 buff), hoo boy was [that](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_von_Ribbentrop) guy a collossal asshole. He was a fuckup at every single stage of his career. Here’s a favorite, from his time as Ambassador to Britain: > [@](#): > > In February 1937, Ribbentrop committed a notable social gaffe by unexpectably greeting King George VI with a “Heil Hitler!” Nazi salute which nearly knocked the King over as he walked forward to shake Ribbentrop’s hand. Apparently everyone who ever met him couldn’t stand him. Except Hitler, only because he was such an unbelievable ass-kisser, which made all the other Nazis hate him as well. During the trial, Göring said they should hang him for his stupidity. Damn. ---
**Author:** ![calgreg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@calgreg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calgreg)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/18 "2010-10-21T00:13:45Z")
The winners never have war criminals. Perhaps it’s time to give that another look. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/19 "2010-10-21T00:16:33Z")
> [@calgreg](#): > > The winners never have war criminals. Perhaps it’s time to give that another look. Thanks for your input. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nuremberg-executions/557621/20 "2010-10-21T06:41:01Z")
> [@calgreg](#): > > The winners never have war criminals. Perhaps it’s time to give that another look. It kind of depends what you mean by “winners”. The Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Kosovar Albanians more or less got what they wanted out of the Balkan Wars and yet the ICTY has prosecuted \*some \*of them. NATO have got off scot-free for it, though. It’ll be interesting to see what, if anything, the ICC does with the recent report on [possible genocide](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/01/un-report-rwanda-congo-genocide) at the hands of the US-backed Kagame regime in Rwanda. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong on this but I think the list of ICTR prosecutions was a Tutsi-free zone.