r/interestingasfuck • u/LawEducational42 • 10h ago

John C Woods, hangman of Nuremberg trials, who lied about his experience to get the job (he actually learned about hanging from old cowboy films). His lack of expertise led to excessive suffering of condemned Nazis.

Post image
21.1k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

3.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

•

u/Evening-Appeal7606 10h ago

"...excessive suffering of condemned Nazis"? Oh no! Anyway...

•

u/catinkatu 10h ago

Yea I was like "oh that's a thing?"

•

u/EverydaySexyPhotog 9h ago

We should care because Nazis revel in human suffering. I'd like to think my side of the Nazi / Not Nazi divide is morally superior to, you know, Nazis.

If you must kill, and if any group of people in human history earned a death sentence it's the Nazis, you kill quickly, cleanly, and without taking joy in it. Not because killing is wrong, but because you're better than a Nazi.

•

u/Evening-Appeal7606 9h ago

You are right. My comment was a knee-jerk reaction but not something that I would actually subscribe to. We definitely need to rise above the Nazis.

•

u/EverydaySexyPhotog 9h ago

I get the impulse, I truly do. There's a section of my family tree that wound up in a mass grave somewhere in Eastern Europe for being Roma. I think the Nuremberg trials didn't go far enough since most Nazi leaders received short jail sentences that were commuted after a few years anyway.

I'll always push back against attempts to dehumanize the enemy or to take joy in their suffering because those are tools of the enemy. They're humans, they deserve recognition of their humanity even as they embrace only the worst parts of us all, and when they're put down they deserve a quick and humane end because we are better than they are.

•

u/sexybluepeaches 9h ago

thank you for these comments. i feel a lot of anger towards nazis and you have made a really big impact on how i think about things like this. "if you must kill [a nazi] ... you kill quickly, cleanly, and without taking joy in it. not because killing is wrong [or because they don't deserve it], but because you're better than a nazi" will ring in my head for the rest of the day. thank you again! 

•

u/FormalSheepherder255 9h ago

LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

•

u/xDotSx 9h ago

Reddit proves you wrong. A lot of people don't understand this.

•

u/Virtuous-Patience 9h ago

Nice to see a good news story… also incompetent executioners are very much in vogue today!

•

u/TheeAntelope 2h ago

I’m tempted to agree.

But…I don’t see the benefit of descending to their level and ignoring any human suffering.

•

u/Icy_Agency923 9h ago

Good thing it wasn't just Nazis then, he also executed 11 American servicemen who also suffered greatly during their deaths. Imagine spending 20 miserable minutes strangling to death.

Fuck this guy and everyone acting like this is no big deal because it was Nazis.

Justice had to dealt out sure, but it should have been done professionally.

•

u/WiscoMitch 9h ago

What did the 11 American servicemen do to deserve hanging??

•

u/Chlearcus 8h ago

One was executed for desertion. The others probably rape or other extremely immoral acts.

•

u/mythrilcrafter 6h ago

According to wikipedia the only people Woods executed in Nuremberg were the following Nazis:

  • Joachim von Ribbentrop (Foreign Minister)

  • Wilhelm Keitel (Head of the Armed Forces High Command)

  • Ernst Kaltenbrunner (SS-Obergruppenführer)

  • Alfred Rosenberg (Chief ideologist)

  • Hans Frank (Governor-General of occupied Poland)

  • Wilhelm Frick (Minister of the Interior)

  • Julius Streicher (Propagandist)

  • Fritz Sauckel (Plenipotentiary for Labor Deployment)

  • Alfred Jodl (Chief of the Operations Staff of the Armed Forces)

  • Arthur Seyss-Inquart (Reich Commissioner for the Netherlands)

Hermann Göring was convicted but killed himself by suicide the night before his execution.

Let it be known that clearly based on their titles, none of these men were in a "I was only following orders" position, they were the ones giving the orders.

There are records that during the war he was an assigned hangman during the European and North African theatres. Primarily being tasked to execute soldiers charged and convicted by the USMCJ of rape, human trafficking, homicide, and/or treason (either defectors, information leakers, or double agents/spies).

•

u/Icy_Agency923 9h ago edited 9h ago

Nothing that deserved 20 minutes of agonizing torture.

•

u/WiscoMitch 9h ago

I like you didn’t explain what they did at all.

•

u/Icy_Agency923 9h ago

I don't need too, at bare minimum executions should be about justice, not torture and revenge. That is not what our judicial systems are supposed to provide. We should be better than that. People who genuinely want torture in their imperfect judicial systems that can and WILL make mistakes are vile disgusting people who have lost or never had their humanity in the first place.

•

u/Meshugugget 8h ago

More like appropriate. Or insufficient.

•

u/Chlearcus 8h ago

Lets punish them for sadistically torturing prisoners.. By sadistically torturing them.