The Execution of the Nuremberg Verdict – the Hangings and Hermann Göring’s Suicide – report from the French ...

The Execution of the Nuremberg Verdict – the Hangings and Hermann Göring’s Suicide – report from the French newspaper Le Patriote, dated October 17, 1946.

Issue of the French newspaper ״Le Patriote du Sud-Ouest״, dated October 17, 1946, reporting on the execution of the Nazi war criminals as the Nuremberg verdicts were carried out. The headline reads: L’ex-maréchal du Reich a pu s’empoisonner quelques instants avant l’exécution – De quelles complicités a-t-il bénéficié ? “The former Reich Marshal managed to poison himself moments before the execution. From what complicity did he benefit?” The issue includes extensive coverage of the hangings of the Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg, carried out the day before.

Issue published the day after the Nuremberg executions, reporting on Hermann Göring’s suicide by cyanide just moments before his scheduled hanging, while Ribbentrop, Keitel, Rosenberg, Sauckel, Frank, Jodl, and others were executed as planned. Alongside photographs of the condemned war criminals and the Jewish-American executioner John C. Woods, who carried out the hangings on the night of October 15–16, 1946, the paper reports that in the early morning hours the condemned were led to the gallows and executed by hanging. The executions took place in a courtyard that had served, until the previous Sunday, as a basketball court for the prison guards overseeing Nuremberg Prison. Three gallows were erected, though only two were used, with the third kept in reserve in case of malfunction. It was also reported: “A member of the official U.S. Army photographic services told a correspondent from the French press agency in Nuremberg this afternoon that, unbeknownst to most of the forty-five witnesses to the ten executions last night, many photographs were taken during the hangings.” The newspaper gives the exact time of execution for each of the condemned and notes that trucks arrived to collect the bodies, transporting them to an undisclosed location in order to prevent fanatical Nazis from turning the graves of their former leaders into pilgrimage sites. Regarding Göring’s suicide, the report details that at 10:45 p.m., a prison guard activated the alarm and summoned the prison doctor- but it was too late. Göring was already dying and passed away moments later. A strong smell of cyanide emanated from the body. The commander of the prison’s security unit declared at a press conference that he had no idea how Göring had obtained the poison. Three American security officers were appointed to launch an immediate investigation into the circumstances of his death. 

The paper also presents worldwide reactions to the news that Hermann Göring had managed to take his own life, evading the sentence of hanging. The general sentiment toward the prison authorities was one of outrage: “It is a disgrace” that Hitler’s deputy managed to escape justice. 

The issue also contains detailed coverage of the final words spoken by each of the executed men:  Joachim von Ribbentrop, the first to be hanged, declared: “My last wish is for Germany to achieve unity, and for an understanding between East and West. I wish peace upon the world.”

– Julius Streicher shouted “Heil Hitler!” and added: “The Jewish Purim 1946!”– Fritz Sauckel cried out: “I am innocent. My sentence is unjust. May God protect Germany…”, – Alfred Rosenberg remained silent, displaying cold composure. The rest of the condemned expressed their final allegiance to Germany, many using their last words to defend or glorify the Reich.

Le Patriote du Sud-Ouest was a regional daily newspaper in post-liberation France, founded in 1944 in the Toulouse area as a continuation of the Resistance press tradition. In the years that followed, it operated as part of the new journalistic framework of the Fourth Republic, with a distinctly anti-Nazi stance. Ideologically, it supported patriotic positions, called for the political “purging” of collaborators, and placed strong emphasis on the accountability of Nazis and their European accomplices. The paper was printed and distributed in southwestern France, usually in a daily format, and formed part of the journalistic current that closely documented the Nuremberg Trials and the early political reorganization following the Liberation.

4 pages. Complete issue. 63 × 42 cm. Fold marks present. Tears along the folds (some repaired). Good condition.