First publication of photographs of the execution of the sentences in Nuremberg in the American magazine “Life.” ...

First publication of photographs of the execution of the sentences in Nuremberg in the American magazine “Life.” November 1946

The American magazine “Life, ” which first published the only photographs taken after the execution of the sentences in Nuremberg - the hanging of the Nazi war criminals / extensive articles on the postwar world. Complete issue - November 4, 1946.

On the middle pages, under the headline: “The executed Nazi leaders - official photographs give the world a final view of the war criminals, ” there appear side by side photographs of those sentenced to death - Göring, Ribbentrop, Jodl, Frick, and others. The newspaper reports that these are the only official photographs taken at the time the sentences were carried out. They were taken by Ed Ward P. McLaughlin, a U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer, who was granted permission to take one photograph of each body lying on a simple wooden coffin in the gymnasium where the executions took place. The decision to publish these photographs, thereby giving the world a final view of the senior German war criminals, was not unanimous. The British voted against their publication on moral grounds, and no British publication reproduced them. The council forbade the publication of the photographs in the German press, yet, curiously, did not prevent foreign magazines from publishing them in Germany. The publication of the photographs at that time was intended to refute rumors claiming that the hangings had not in fact been carried out. The newspaper reports that: “Although blood appears on Keitel and Frick, their facial features were not disfigured. After dying on the gallows with their necks broken, blood appears to have flowed from their eyes and noses, which, according to most physicians, is a natural result of death by hanging. Göring, whose right eye is still open, appears as though he is looking at his death. Last week, Allied investigators concluded that he had probably concealed his five-centimeter vial of poison in his navel or in his digestive tract at the time of his capture, and at other times in a ‘hidden recess’ beneath the toilet seat in his prison cell.”

In this issue, the new postage stamps were also published for the first time. About a year earlier, the Allied Control Council had announced a competition for new German postage stamps to replace the Nazi designs. It expected a few hundred submissions, but in fact nearly 7,000 design proposals were received. Among the submitters were German artists, as well as housewives. Some of the stamps carried anti-Nazi messages, including designs depicting the flags of the United States and Britain crushing the swastika. Ultimately, five winning stamps were selected (shown in the issue at the top of pages 12–13), among them the “Dove of Peace” stamp (the winning design) and stamps depicting agricultural labor.

The issue also reports on Queen Elizabeth arriving in New York aboard a luxury liner, an interesting article on historic buildings that survived the war in Europe, on the struggle of the Jews for independence in Eretz Israel and the development of the Jewish Yishuv alongside the Arab population, Albert Einstein, and more.

148 pages. 35 cm. Very good condition.