Hermann Göring’s cyanide suicide at Nuremberg is still considered an unresolved historical mystery, but historians generally narrow it down to two main possibilities, with one now seen as the most likely.

Quick Scoop: What’s Known

  • Göring was under extremely tight security in Nuremberg prison and was scheduled to be hanged on the night of 15–16 October 1946.
  • Just hours before his execution, he was found dead in his cell after ingesting a potassium cyanide capsule.
  • The U.S. Army launched an investigation because it appeared impossible that such a high‑profile prisoner could obtain poison under those conditions.

Main Theories on How He Got Cyanide

  1. Hidden among his personal effects (older theory)
    • Early on, some investigators and commentators suggested Göring had concealed a cyanide capsule in a personal item that slipped through searches, such as:
      • A jar or tin of skin/hair cream among his belongings.
   * Possibly other toiletries or everyday objects that might have been returned to him and not inspected thoroughly.

 * This theory rests on the idea that Göring, like some other senior Nazis, had kept suicide pills on him and managed to preserve one despite Allied custody.

 * However, given the repeated searches and the length of his custody, many historians now see this as less convincing.
  1. Smuggled by a sympathetic or compromised guard (most widely accepted today)
    • Modern historians and specialist discussions tend to view a guard‑assisted delivery as the most plausible scenario.
 * Arguments for this:
   * Contact with anyone other than guards was tightly controlled, making a guard the most realistic intermediary.

   * Göring was known to be personally charming and skilled at building rapport, especially with soldiers, which could have helped him manipulate or befriend one of his guards.

   * A later U.S. Army review conceded that at least one guard may have been bribed or influenced to help him.

Specific Guard Confessions and Stories

Over the decades, several more detailed stories emerged, usually from former guards late in life:

  • Herbert Lee Stivers’ claim
    • Herbert Lee Stivers, a 19‑year‑old U.S. Army guard at Nuremberg, later claimed he unwittingly passed Göring the cyanide.
* According to his account:
  * He was approached by German civilians, including a woman he believed was involved with anti‑Communist circles, who gave him what they said were “medicine” or “documents” to deliver to Göring.

  * He said he handed Göring a fountain pen that actually contained a cyanide capsule hidden inside.

  * Stivers kept quiet for decades, fearing punishment, and only told his story publicly many years later.

* His account matches the popular “smuggled in a pen” version often repeated in documentaries and articles.
  • Other variants in historical and forum discussions
    • Some accounts suggest Göring may have persuaded a guard to fetch a personal item (such as a jar of cold cream) from storage that contained a cyanide pill the guard did not realize was there.
* Others echo the idea of a concealed capsule inside a pen or similarly innocuous object delivered by a guard.

These accounts differ on details, but they all reinforce the same basic pattern: the cyanide reached Göring through a guard, whether knowingly or unknowingly.

What Do Historians Think Today?

Most modern overviews of Göring’s life and death treat the cyanide capsule’s origin as not definitively proven , but they lean toward the guard‑assistance explanation.

  • Many historians and expert discussions summarize it this way:
    • The most plausible explanation is that one of Göring’s guards, charmed, bribed, or ideologically sympathetic, smuggled in or handed over the cyanide capsule—possibly hidden in a pen or other small object.
* The older theory that he kept a capsule hidden in his toiletries (like skin or hair cream) is considered possible but less likely, especially given the prolonged and intensive security measures.

In short: we do not have a single piece of conclusive proof, but the best‑supported view is that Göring obtained the cyanide with the help (deliberate or unwitting) of at least one guard at Nuremberg, rather than having it secretly on him all along.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.