Man Says He Helped Goering Commit Suicide

[zbdent]

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A former guard at the Nuremberg trials has come forward to say he believes he provided the poison that Nazi Hermann Goering used to commit suicide hours before his scheduled execution for war crimes, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

Herbert Lee Stivers, now 78, was a 19-year-old Army private when he took notes and a capsule hidden inside a fountain pen to Goering at the request of two men who said the notorious Nazi general was ``a very sick man'' who needed medicine, the newspaper said.

Stivers said he is now convinced the ``medicine'' was the cyanide that killed Goering on Oct. 15, 1946, the night before he was to be executed. The commander of the German air force had been convicted at the Nuremberg trials the previous month.

<snip>

My note: It took him this long to figure it out? Link:

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=FF-APO-PLS&idq=/ff/story/0001/20050207/0929294430.htm

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Is he still available?

[KansDem]

oww!

}(

[Botany]

2. I buy his story .....

.... you wouldn't want to execute a man without his medicine.


:bounce:

[Gold Metal Flake]

3. Justice denied because a fool kid let his dick think for him.

Same story from Yahoo:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050207/ts_afp/usgermanywwiinazi_050207085229

"I guess she used me," Stivers said.

Huh. Ya think so? Want another 60 years to ponder it? Or maybe, you could find her phone number and try again. Yeah, that's a good idea! She'd probably like hearing from you etc...

[indigobusiness]

9. My dick does all my thinking

and it is just.

[Occulus]

17. Then what's the difference between you and Bush*?

After all, he lets his Dick do all the thinking, too. }(

[indigobusiness]

20. Better decisions.

Better thoughts.

Lower case d.

[yellowcanine]

27. Better to let your dick do your thinking occasionally than to BE a dick!

No need to mention any names, we all know who I am talking about.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

18. How was justice denied? Dead is dead.

[Goldom]

4. What is the point

of committing suicide hours before you were going to be executed? I mean, I can understand doing it to get out of a life jail sentence, or torture, but killing yourself to get out of being killed? Why?

[architect359]

5. Control

To gain some sense of control over one's destiny; to say "screw you. I get the last laugh." Kind of like saying "you can't fire me because I quit".

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. It's a final 'fuck you'. It denies the enemy the victory, and puts

destiny back in your own hands.

Gotta say, in such a situation I'd want to do the same.

[Journeyman]

7. Goeing wanted to be shot and the Tribunal insisted he be hung. . .

To be shot, in Goering's mind, was an honorable death, the death of a soldier. Only criminals are hung. Hence, the Tribunal's choice for method and Goering's desire to escape it.

[MADem]

10. No doubt he realized the after effects

The corpse looks hideous after a hanging, and the crap, literally, from your last meal, not to be too graphic, is out there for all to see.

It was as others have said, all about control. Not surprising, really.

I guess the kid who delivered the goods is seeing the end draw nigh, and wants to come clean before he leaves this mortal coil.

[Charon]

25. No doubt he realized the after effects

Not to mention that several of the hangings at Nuremburg were botched
by the amateur executioners used there. Several of the condemed were decapitated when they were dropped to far.

[tabasco]

8. Cowardice.

I would take the poison over the rope any day.

[neverforget]

13. Tojo tried to commit suicide and nearly succeeded but the US saved

him so we could execute him later by hanging him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideki_Tojo

[Skittles]

16. cowardice

the same bastard who sent untold numbers of people to their deaths could not face his own at the hands of another

[DivinBreuvage]

26. Cowardice? Göring was an evil bastard, but he was no coward.

He served the entire length of the First World War, spending the last three years as a combat pilot. During this time he shot down 22 enemy planes, was awarded several decorations including Prussia's highest honor, and rose to command the "Red Baron's" elite combat wing after the Baron and a successor were killed. These are hardly the accomplishments of a coward, and being a German fighter pilot in WWI demanded a special type of mettle in any event.

He was also severely wounded when the police opened fire on the Beer Hall Putschists, whereas certain mustachioed comrades may or may not have thrown themselves to the ground.

It seems to me that "cowardice", like many once-powerful words, is fast becoming meaningless 21st-century marketing speak for people who deny us the satisfaction of punishing them. Göring is a coward because he denied the Allies the token victory of killing him themselves. Suicide bombers are cowards because they deny the forces of order the ability to imprison, interrogate, and execute them. Insurgents are cowards because they deny the most powerful army in the history of the world ^TM the convenience of machine-gunning them in an open plain.

The day is coming soon when we will reflexively slap the yellow tag of cowardice on the jerk who beats out our favorite on American Idol or the meter maid who tickets our SUV at the parking meter.

[MrSlayer]

19. Cheating the hangman is the last way to win.

It's a "Fuck You" to the authorities and lets you go out on your own terms.

[RPM]

11. so do we charge him or give him a medal??? n/t

[Turley]

28. Where did you hear that?

Interest piqued

[RPM]

29. nowhere

jsut speculating

[devilgrrl]

12. FWIW, I heard Eichmann's hangman intentionally strangled him...

but placing the knot at the side as opposed to the back of the neck. How sadistic is that?

:scared:

[AlienGirl]

14. I heard the same thing

[Journeyman]

21. I can't imagine this would have happened. . .

\as the State of Israel went to great lengths to maintain all the trappings of legality and Western jurisprudence throughout the trial. Because of the conditions under which Eichmann was kidnapped and brought to Israel, it was imperative -- in David Ben-Gurion's mind -- that his trial be a "show trial" of both Nazi crimes and Israeli justice.

In Eichmann in Jerusalem, Hannah Arendt writes that Adolf Eichmann went to the gallows with great dignity. The Israelis provided him his final meal, a bottle of red wine, which he half drunk. He refused the help of a minister, since, as a Nazi, he asserted he was no Christian and didn't believe in life after death. He walked the fifty yards from his cell to the gallows "calm and erect, with his hands bound behind him." When the guards tied his ankles and knees, he asked that they loosen the bonds so he could stand straight. He refused use of a hood.

Arendt makes no mention of Eichmann's final moments, but I imagine -- given the care that went in to his trial and the preparation for his execution -- that he was treated as humanely as possible.

[Pallas180]

23. not as sadistic as the thousands Eichmann hung and

butchered as sadistically as possible.

You got empathy for Charles Manson too?

[Tweed]

15. He didn't do it soon enough

Both admit to the assistance and help Goering.

[Historic NY]

22. It was always a bit of a mystery.....how he got it....others were

looked at as being guilty. In the end the mystery is solved and no harm is done....Goering was going down for the count.

Would we have executed Rommel, if he lived?

[Pallas180]

24. No, he would have been recruited for the pentagon like so many

of the Nazis were.