* * *
—
A week earlier, on October 16th, Cronley had stood with Cohen and the twenty-odd other witnesses, an international mix—British, French, American, Soviet—of civilians and military officers who had served during the Tribunal.
When Cohen earlier had asked if he wished to be there, Cronley practically came to attention and replied, “Colonel, I consider it my bounden duty to bear witness to the conclusion of what many have called history’s greatest trial.”
After nearly a year of trials—which began with an hours-long moving speech by Justice Jackson, the chief prosecutor for the United States—the verdicts finally were handed down.
Those on trial had been charged with four counts: Count 1, participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of a crime against peace; Count 2, planning, initiating, and waging wars of aggression and other crimes against peace; Count 3, war crimes; and Count 4, crimes against humanity.
The majority of those found guilty were sentenced to be hanged, while others faced imprisonment.
Cronley felt particularly compelled to see Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring, who had been found guilty on all four counts, hanged after Colonel Cohen, on the eve of the first executions, had brought up the fact that many of those sentenced to death were complaining.
“How the hell can they complain?” Cronley said. “The court said Göring was—I can almost recite this from memory—‘almost always the moving force, second only to his leader’ and ‘the leading war aggressor, both as political and military leader.’ Not only that but he admitted to his heinous crimes. To repeat, how the hell can he complain about his death sentence?”
“Not about the sentence of death,” Cohen said. “Rather, the method. Göring wishes to protect his military honor. He said he would have no problem being taken out and shot—a soldier’s death—but that to be hanged was, quote, the worst possible thing for a soldier, unquote.”
“Seems to me all the more reason to string the bastards up,” Cronley said.
There were others, Cohen said. Among them: Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel—Oberkommando der Wehrmacht chief, guilty on all four counts—and Generaloberst Alfred Jodl—his deputy who signed
orders for the summary execution of Allied commandos and was found guilty on all four counts and sentenced to death—had demanded a firing squad. Admiral Erich Raeder—guilty on the first three counts and sentenced to life imprisonment—petitioned the Allied Control Council “to commute this sentence to death by shooting, by way of mercy.”
“All have been denied,” Cohen announced, looking down at a sheet on his desk and reading from it. “The Tribunal spelled it out: ‘They have been a disgrace to the honorable profession of arms.’ And ‘these men have made a mockery of the soldier’s oath of obedience to military orders. When it suits their defense, they say they had to obey; when confronted with Hitler’s brutal crimes, which are shown to have been within their general knowledge, they say they disobeyed. The truth is, they actively participated in all these crimes, or sat silent and acquiescent . . .’” Cohen paused, looked up at Cronley, and then added, “And Göring is scheduled to be hanged first tomorrow.”
“And I will be there.”
* * *
—
Not an hour later, Cohen answered his ringing office phone.
“Jesus Christ!” he said, slamming the receiver back in its cradle.
He looked at Cronley as he jumped to his feet.
“Some son of a bitch apparently just granted Göring’s last wish. That bastard bit a cyanide capsule that had been concealed in a jar of hair pomade . . .”
* * *
—
Early the next morning, at 0100 hours, Cronley stood next to Cohen in the group near the three gallows.
They turned when they noticed that there was some motion at the foot of the wooden steps to the first gallows. Master Sergeant Woods could be seen walking behind it. He soon returned, followed by two soldiers leading another man, who, dressed in black silk pajamas, was almost invisible in the shadows.
Cronley noticed on Woods’s hip was a long-bladed knife in a scabbard and wondered if it was one more of the hangman’s quirks.
“That’s Joachim von Ribbentrop,” Cohen said, in a low voice.
Cronley glanced at his watch. It showed eleven minutes past one.
The former foreign minister for Hitler had his hands bound and manacles on his feet.
“He can thank his pal Göring for that,” Cohen said. “Before that son of a bitch took the coward’s way out, the Tribunal was going to allow as a courtesy that they be unbound.”