Educational purpose only. This post documents historical practices related to executions and aims to educate about historical procedures. We do not glorify violence or hate.
The Horrors of WW2 Pole Hanging Execution
One of the most brutal execution methods deployed to punish war criminals at the end of World War II was pole hanging. Used extensively in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, this method was notorious for being gruesome and frequently botched. But why was it so bad?
This article examines the mechanics of pole hanging and the reasons it often resulted in a slow, agonizing death rather than a swift one.
1. What Was Pole Hanging?
Pole hanging was an Austro-Hungarian execution method that was later adopted by Czechoslovakia and Hungary . Unlike the long-drop gallows designed to break the neck instantly, this was a short-drop variant that relied on strangulation.
The method worked as follows :
The condemned person stood before a vertical pole, approximately 3 meters high, with a hook at the top.
A rope was attached around the prisoner’s feet and routed through a pulley at the base.
The prisoner was hoisted to the top of the pole using a sling across the chest and under the armpits.
A narrow-diameter noose was looped around the neck and secured to the hook at the top.
The chest sling was released, and the prisoner was rapidly jerked downward by assistants pulling the foot rope.
The executioner, standing on a stepped platform beside the condemned, would place his heel under the prisoner’s jaw to increase the force on the neck vertebrae, then manually dislocate the neck by forcing the head to one side.
This method was the standard form of execution in Czechoslovakia from 1918 until the abolition of capital punishment in 1990 . Nazi war criminal Karl Hermann Frank was executed this way in Prague in 1946 .
2. Why Was It So Brutal?
A. Strangulation, Not Neck Break
The primary reason pole hanging was so terrible is that it was designed to kill by strangulation rather than by breaking the neck. Unlike the long-drop method used in Britain, which aimed to cause instant unconsciousness by snapping the cervical vertebrae, the pole method was a “short-drop” variant .
The drop was too short to generate enough force to break the neck cleanly. Instead, the noose would tighten around the throat, crushing the windpipe and cutting off blood flow to the brain—but slowly.
B. The “Jerk” Could Fail
The manual jerk downward by the executioner’s assistants was supposed to tighten the noose and cause a carotid reflex leading to rapid unconsciousness . However, if the jerk was not forceful enough, or if the noose was not correctly positioned, the victim would not lose consciousness quickly.
C. A Deliberately Slow Death
In some cases, the method was intentionally brutal. During the Nazi occupation of Hungary, executions by pole hanging were carried out in public streets as a deterrent. A report from 1945 describes a mass execution in Košice: condemned prisoners were placed on a lorry, a rope was fixed around their necks, and as the lorry moved forward, they were left hanging from lamp posts . This method—using a moving vehicle rather than a pulley—was designed for maximum public humiliation and prolonged suffering.
3. The Botched Executions
The pole method was also frequently botched. Historical records show that a significant number of executions—across various methods—went wrong .
A. The Prague Execution of Karl Hermann Frank
When Nazi war criminal Karl Hermann Frank was executed in Prague in 1946, thousands of spectators came to watch . The execution was carried out by the pole method. While the procedure was completed, other hangings of the era were notoriously problematic .
B. The Problem of Weight Loss
A common issue with hangings at the end of the war was that condemned prisoners had lost significant weight during incarceration . The executioners had not accounted for this. Because the victims were lighter than expected, the drop did not generate enough force to break the neck, leaving them to strangle slowly.
4. A Legacy of Horror
Pole hanging was a crude and brutal method. It did not offer the quick, “humane” death that executioners in other countries had perfected with the long-drop technique. Instead, it relied on strangulation, manual force, and the hope that the neck would dislocate—which it often did not.
For the victims—many of whom were war criminals, but also ordinary people caught up in the chaos of postwar justice—the experience was one of prolonged agony. As one witness described: “The rope was suddenly taut, and swung back & forth, creaking audibly” . In many cases, death took 14 to 24 minutes .
Primary Sources:
Wikipedia — Hanging methods (Pole method)
PHDN Archives — Execution documents
Executed Today — Karl Hermann Frank execution
UN War Crimes Commission — Czechoslovak execution reports