Hermann Göring died by suicide on the night before he was due to be executed after the Nuremberg trials. He took a hidden cyanide capsule in his cell and died from poisoning.

What happened at Nuremberg

  • Göring was tried at Nuremberg after World War II and convicted of major war crimes, including crimes against humanity.
  • The tribunal sentenced him to death by hanging, rejecting his request to be executed by firing squad, which he saw as more “honorable” for a former military leader.

How he actually died

  • On the night of October 15, 1946, just hours before his scheduled hanging, Göring ingested a cyanide capsule in his prison cell and died there.
  • His suicide shocked the guards and officials, because he was considered one of the most closely watched prisoners in the world at that time.

The cyanide capsule mystery

  • Later accounts and investigations confirmed that he used cyanide, but the exact way he obtained or concealed the capsule has remained a subject of debate among historians.
  • One widely cited explanation is that he had the capsule hidden for a long time, possibly in a personal item such as a container of pomade, and managed to keep it through multiple searches.

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