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The week's question
In March 2025, in the thread "Re: OT, out", Umm asked the members: "Do you think it is because America is made up of magical soil that makes businesses based in America magically profitable?" This week it is put to everyone again. The button below opens the small thread re-asking it - read what others have said so far, then give your own answer as an ordinary reply.
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Author: ges ✧❂🐝 HONORARY
SHREWD   😊 😞
Number: of 86258 
Subject: Re: Yet another botched execution
Date: 10/02/26 3:07 PM
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Interestingly...

The Nuremberg executions were carried out using the "standard drop" method, which fell somewhere between a short drop and a long drop.
However, because the executioner, U.S. Army Master Sergeant John C. Woods, significantly miscalculated the process, the hangings effectively functioned like a short drop, resulting in slow strangulation for several of the condemned.

And accounts of the condemned struggling for many minutes...

Reports from journalists and eyewitnesses who were inside the gymnasium during the [Nuremberg executions](en.wikipedia.org - Nuremberg executions) indicate that several of the condemned Nazi leaders struggled for 14 to 28 minutes before finally being pronounced dead. [1]
Because their necks did not snap instantly upon the drop, they died of slow asphyxiation and strangulation. Specific details recorded from the execution room highlight the length of their struggles: [1]

*
* Joachim von Ribbentrop: The first to be executed, Ribbentrop dropped through the trapdoor at 1:11 a.m. but his neck did not break. Witnesses behind the canvas curtain reported hearing groaning and gasping, and his body twitched as he strangled slowly for 14 minutes before his heart stopped. [2, 3]
* Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel: Keitel suffered one of the most prolonged and painful deaths of the night. His struggle lasted for 24 minutes after the trapdoor opened before he was declared dead. [3]
* Julius Streicher: The notorious propagandist kicked and thrashed violently after dropping. Witnesses reported that the rope was still moving and swinging long after he fell. It took several minutes for him to lose consciousness, and he continued struggling until he suffocated.
*

A dark canvas curtain was draped around the bottom of the gallows to shield the official witnesses from seeing the physical writhing and "death struggles" taking place under the stage. However, the sounds of gasping, heavy swinging of the ropes, and the prolonged time it took for the military doctors to pull back the curtain and officially pronounce each man dead confirmed the lengthy agony of the process.

In case anyone thinks hanging was humane.
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This community has written 86,214 posts about US Policy. The article-length ones it recommended most:
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