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Historium Documentary

Nazi Leaders' Final Words Before Execution at Nuremberg

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On October 16, 1946, ten high-ranking Nazi officials were executed by hanging following the judgments of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. From Wilhelm Keitel to the deeply defiant Julius Streicher, the final words spoken on the gallows revealed a chilling mix of delusion, unyielding nationalism, and dark historical significance. This short documentary explores the haunting last moments of the architects behind one of the darkest chapters in human history. Web: https://historium.media Contact: contact@historium.media Music: Historium Soundtrack Library

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English transcript
0:00 Do you ever wonder what some of the Nazis convicted at Nuremberg said in their
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0:04 final moments?
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0:06 On the night of October 16th, 1946, ten Nazi leaders condemned by the International Military
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0:13 Tribunal were executed by hanging, and the words they spoke just before death were chilling.
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0:20 Wilhelm Keitel, head of the German Armed Forces High Command, was convicted on every count
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0:25 laid out in the tribunal's charter.
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0:28 As he stood on the gallows, he said, I call on Almighty God to have
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0:33 mercy on the German people.
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0:35 More than two million German soldiers went to their deaths for the fatherland before me.
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0:40 I now follow my sons.
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0:42 All for Germany.
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0:44 Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi Germany's foreign minister, was also convicted on all counts, just like
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0:52 Keitel.
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0:53 Before his execution, he said, God protect Germany.
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0:56 God have mercy on my soul.
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0:59 My last wish is that German unity be preserved, that understanding between East and West
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1:05 be achieved, and that peace may prevail in the world.
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1:09 Arthur Seyss-Inquart, the Reich Commissioner for the occupied Netherlands, was likewise convicted on all
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1:15 four counts.
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1:17 His final words were, I hope that this execution will be the last act in
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1:22 the tragedy of the Second World War, and that the lesson learned from this war
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1:26 will be that peace and understanding must exist among peoples.
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1:31 I believe in Germany.
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1:33 Then there was Julius Streicher, the Gauleiter of Franconia and editor of the violently antisemitic
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1:40 weekly newspaper Der Stürmer.
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1:43 He was convicted only of crimes against humanity.
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1:46 Even so, he was the most openly defiant of them all in his final moments.
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1:52 He had to be pushed up the stairs, and as he stepped onto the platform,
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1:56 he shouted, Heil Hitler!
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1:58 He then turned toward the witnesses and yelled, Purim Festival, 1946!
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2:04 It was a mocking reference to the Jewish holiday of Purim.
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2:08 In the Book of Esther, Haman and his ten sons are hanged.
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2:12 By saying this, Streicher was implying that the ten Nazis executed that night were a
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2:18 kind of Purim gift to the Jews.
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2:22 And there was also Adolf Eichmann, who was executed in Israel in 1962 for his
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2:28 role in the deaths of one and a half million Jews.
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2:31 His final words were reportedly, I hope you will all follow me.

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