If Hitler had been captured by the Allies alive, would he have been executed and when?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

I'm sure he probably would've been tried at Nuremberg, probably as the last one (sort of a grand finale) and likely hanged sometime in 1947.

[President Johnson]

Hanged together with the other leading Nazi criminals on October 16, 1946 (several were executed that day; Goering committed suicide the night before).

[LBJer]

There's no doubt he would have been executed at some point.

But what do you mean by "the Allies"?  Because his treatment at the hands of the Soviets would probably have been significantly different than what it would have been if he had been captured by the western Allies (although he would ultimately have been executed by either).

Hitler being at the mercy of Stalin would have been the quintessential example of poetic justice. 

[DaleCooper]

He would've been tried at Nuremberg and executed along with the others, assuming that Soviet soldiers didn't kill him without a trial upon finding him in Berlin. There were a number of Nazi war criminals that got executed elsewhere, including the one portrayed in Schindler's List, but Hitler certainly would've been tried at the Nuremberg Trials.

[Calthrina950]

I think it's highly likely that the Soviets would have been the ones capturing Hitler, and that they would have taken him back to Russia, possibly paraded him in Moscow, and then executed him in very quick order. He probably would not have lived long enough to be tried at Nuremberg. Hitler, of course, was aware of this, and that is why he committed suicide. He didn't want to "be made a spectacle of" by the Russians - which they would have had every right to do, considering the twenty million casualties he and the Nazis inflicted upon their country.

[Sir Mohamed]

I agree that he would have been executed along with the other war criminals, though he may have found another way to committ suicide while in custody.

[NYDem]

In an alternate history where he gets captured by the Western Allies (maybe after some kind of attempted retreat to the Alps or Norway?), he gets hanged at Nuremberg. If he's alive captured by the Soviets there's a bit more of a question, but I agree with others in the thread: They may not have bothered with the formality of a trial with him.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

He gets pardoned and starts a post-career. He becomes a famous artist until his death in 1972, starting correspondences with Andy Warhol and other famous painters.

[RINO Tom]

One of the key goals of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was to strip the defendants of any sense of privilege or rank.  Military awards/credentials were stripped, badges/ribbons were removed from their uniforms, the firing squad as an alternative to hanging was denied in every instance, etc.  This was done to emphasize that these were criminal charges against the defendants and their actions were not those of military men or “respectable opposition” like in past wars. 

Hitler would have been unceremoniously thrown in the dock just like the others, likely taking the spot of Schacht who arguably should not have even been on trial at all (they only tried as many men as could fill the dock in that court room during the first/main trial).  Anything more or less would just pad the man’s ego and make him a potential martyr for lingering Nazi diehards.

P.S.  I highly recommend the following titles on Audible for all who find this topic interesting:

• The Nuremberg Trial by John Tusa
• The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn
• Pastor Gerecke’s memoirs about the prisoners (not a book but easily findable online)

It’s an excellent exercise in humanity to have an in-depth exposure to these men as they stared execution and their past actions in the face.

[Skill and Chance]

One of the key goals of the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg was to strip the defendants of any sense of privilege or rank.  Military awards/credentials were stripped, badges/ribbons were removed from their uniforms, the firing squad as an alternative to hanging was denied in every instance, etc.  This was done to emphasize that these were criminal charges against the defendants and their actions were not those of military men or “respectable opposition” like in past wars. 

Hitler would have been unceremoniously thrown in the dock just like the others, likely taking the spot of Schacht who arguably should not have even been on trial at all (they only tried as many men as could fill the dock in that court room during the first/main trial).  Anything more or less would just pad the man’s ego and make him a potential martyr for lingering Nazi diehards.

P.S.  I highly recommend the following titles on Audible for all who find this topic interesting:

• The Nuremberg Trial by John Tusa
• The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn
• Pastor Gerecke’s memoirs about the prisoners (not a book but easily findable online)

It’s an excellent exercise in humanity to have an in-depth exposure to these men as they stared execution and their past actions in the face.

Given the geography of the war, wouldn't there be about a 99% chance the Soviets would get him first?  Whatever they do, I don't see them waiting for Nuremberg!

About the only way he could end up in US/British hands would be if the coup in 1944 had succeeded (with him being captured instead of killed) and there was a negotiation to end the war early.

[buritobr]

Maybe if the Red Army caught him alive, the soviets (and even the western allies) could think that it would be better to execute him fast instead of  allowing him to use the court as a propaganda, like he used in the 1920s

[NewYorkExpress]

My gut instinct is that had Hitler been tried at Nuremberg, he would have been the only defendant acquitted.

He had a way with words,and twisting them to his own ends, and it's not like ideas, especially about racial purity and antisemitism were unpopular among the Allies-indeed, I'd say a clear majority,if not more than that supported some element of the Nazi ideology in all of the allied nations (even the Soviet Union, antisemitism was very popular there). It was Hitler's actions that were repulsive, and with Hitler actually in court to defend them, I'd foresee an acquittal on all charges (or at least any that would get sent to prison for more than a few years, let alone executed).

[RINO Tom]

^ All I can say is that this is ridiculous, and I encourage you to learn more about the trials.  Being casually antisemitic is not the same thing as Nazi ideology.  This is the kind of revisionist thinking that had some posters on this bored claiming that the segregationist South was sympathetic to Nazi ideology even though it was the most anti-Nazi/pro-Anglo area of the country since the outbreak of war and most pro-Nazi sentiment came from isolationists in the Midwest.  If you look at the evidence used to convict the defendants, there is absolutely zero chance Hitler is acquitted.  Zero.

[Frodo]

I assuming you mean the Soviets, since they were the ones designated Berlin as their prize early on.  

I think Stalin would probably have had Hitler marched through the streets of Moscow before being sent to one of the more notorious gulags where we would likely have never heard from him ever again.  A hanging or a bullet to the back of the head would probably have been deemed too clean a death for Hitler.  

Hitler committed suicide for a very good reason.  He knew Stalin took his betrayal of that 1939 pact personally, and probably had something very 'special' planned for him if he were ever taken alive.  He would have counted himself fortunate if Stalin handed him over to the Nuremberg Tribunal instead.    

[NewYorkExpress]

^ All I can say is that this is ridiculous, and I encourage you to learn more about the trials.  Being casually antisemitic is not the same thing as Nazi ideology.  This is the kind of revisionist thinking that had some posters on this bored claiming that the segregationist South was sympathetic to Nazi ideology even though it was the most anti-Nazi/pro-Anglo area of the country since the outbreak of war and most pro-Nazi sentiment came from isolationists in the Midwest.  If you look at the evidence used to convict the defendants, there is absolutely zero chance Hitler is acquitted.  Zero.

I'm not saying all of the defendants would be acquitted. Indeed, everyone except Hitler probably would still be convicted on all charges in this scenario.

But Hitler's own propaganda skills and way with twisting words, would be what gets him off in the end.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Two points that need to be made, apparently.

1. It is a fundamental error to ascribe anything remotely resembling rational thought to Hitler by 1945. He was, by that point, completely in the grip of his own fantasies and quite clearly believed that he was in some kind of personal Götterdämmerung, in which his downfall and defeat meant the complete death of Germany and of German civilization etc. Amongst other things, this means that there was never any realistic chance of him being captured alive.

2. He wasn't a magician and if he somehow had been captured and put on trial, there is genuinely no doubt that the result would have been his speedy conviction and execution. The point about the Nuremburg trials is that everyone knew that the defendants were, for the most part, entirely guilty: the idea was to demonstrate this, for all time, to the World. There were some marginal cases as well, but they were marginal cases. Most of the verdicts were (rightly!) predetermined to such an extent that Nikitchenko said 'death to the defendants!' as a toast on at least one occasion.

[Meclazine for Israel]

Infographics

If Hitler Has Been Captured

https://youtu.be/uRG9heDxau4

[LBJer]

^ All I can say is that this is ridiculous, and I encourage you to learn more about the trials.  Being casually antisemitic is not the same thing as Nazi ideology.  This is the kind of revisionist thinking that had some posters on this bored claiming that the segregationist South was sympathetic to Nazi ideology even though it was the most anti-Nazi/pro-Anglo area of the country since the outbreak of war and most pro-Nazi sentiment came from isolationists in the Midwest.  If you look at the evidence used to convict the defendants, there is absolutely zero chance Hitler is acquitted.  Zero.

I'm not saying all of the defendants would be acquitted. Indeed, everyone except Hitler probably would still be convicted on all charges in this scenario.

But Hitler's own propaganda skills and way with twisting words, would be what gets him off in the end.

Insane.  While there are serious grounds for criticizing the Nuremberg trials, the judges who presided over them weren't MAGA idiots.  If Hitler ended up being one of the defendants, there's no way he'd avoid being both convicted and executed. 

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

^ All I can say is that this is ridiculous, and I encourage you to learn more about the trials.  Being casually antisemitic is not the same thing as Nazi ideology.  This is the kind of revisionist thinking that had some posters on this bored claiming that the segregationist South was sympathetic to Nazi ideology even though it was the most anti-Nazi/pro-Anglo area of the country since the outbreak of war and most pro-Nazi sentiment came from isolationists in the Midwest.  If you look at the evidence used to convict the defendants, there is absolutely zero chance Hitler is acquitted.  Zero.

The Southern elite is very English and lacked an industrial and middle class base as such at the time.

The Midwest was much more German and was simultaneously both more proletarian and much more middle class than the South.

If you consider the origins of the Nazis' as both siphoning off working class support as well as absorbing middle class types scared by the reds, it makes sense that there would be little support for Germany in the South and to the extent their was such sympathy it would be in the Midwest and Germans enclaves in places like Queens. Still, the vast majority of German-Americans were indeed loyal to the United States.

I think this is a byproduct of labeling every right wing government fascist without understanding the basis and support for various right wing regimes and just assuming that all of them would see each other as kindred spirits because of their mutual racism. The world as ever, is more complex than the one dimensional analysis employed by modern revisionists seeking to redefine all of history as racists versus their opponents.

White controlled South Africa as part of the British Commonwealth, fought with the Allies for example.

[Middle-aged Europe]

^ All I can say is that this is ridiculous, and I encourage you to learn more about the trials.  Being casually antisemitic is not the same thing as Nazi ideology.  This is the kind of revisionist thinking that had some posters on this bored claiming that the segregationist South was sympathetic to Nazi ideology even though it was the most anti-Nazi/pro-Anglo area of the country since the outbreak of war and most pro-Nazi sentiment came from isolationists in the Midwest.  If you look at the evidence used to convict the defendants, there is absolutely zero chance Hitler is acquitted.  Zero.

I'm not saying all of the defendants would be acquitted. Indeed, everyone except Hitler probably would still be convicted on all charges in this scenario.

But Hitler's own propaganda skills and way with twisting words, would be what gets him off in the end.

If Hitler had a "way with words" why did he fail so hard with talking the Allies into surrendering, I wonder?

[NewYorkExpress]

^ All I can say is that this is ridiculous, and I encourage you to learn more about the trials.  Being casually antisemitic is not the same thing as Nazi ideology.  This is the kind of revisionist thinking that had some posters on this bored claiming that the segregationist South was sympathetic to Nazi ideology even though it was the most anti-Nazi/pro-Anglo area of the country since the outbreak of war and most pro-Nazi sentiment came from isolationists in the Midwest.  If you look at the evidence used to convict the defendants, there is absolutely zero chance Hitler is acquitted.  Zero.

I'm not saying all of the defendants would be acquitted. Indeed, everyone except Hitler probably would still be convicted on all charges in this scenario.

But Hitler's own propaganda skills and way with twisting words, would be what gets him off in the end.

If Hitler had a "way with words" why did he fail so hard with talking the Allies into surrendering, I wonder?

Winston Churchill was very stubborn.

[The Mikado]

Hitler would have been unceremoniously thrown in the dock just like the others, likely taking the spot of Schacht who arguably should not have even been on trial at all (they only tried as many men as could fill the dock in that court room during the first/main trial).

Schacht's defense of "This is a war crimes trial, the war started in 1939, and Hitler fired me in 1938" that got him acquitted was so obvious it's a minor miracle they decided to put him on trial to begin with. Schacht did some reprehensible things, but the whole point of Nuremberg made it so that you couldn't arbitrarily execute him for being a top Nazi but needed connection to actual crimes against the peace or war crimes.

[Diabolical Materialism]

Captured by the Allies: Put on trial and is either hanged or splits a pill with Goering.

Captured by the Soviets: Marched through Red Square in a cage and then strangled like Vercingetorix

[Senator Incitatus]

My gut instinct is that had Hitler been tried at Nuremberg, he would have been the only defendant acquitted.

He had a way with words,and twisting them to his own ends... It was Hitler's actions that were repulsive, and with Hitler actually in court to defend them, I'd foresee an acquittal on all charges (or at least any that would get sent to prison for more than a few years, let alone executed).

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Russia was the first to Germany they were never gonna give him over to UK or US this was the Great Depression era not now, where Stalin was in charge, do you think Stalin was gonna give Hitler to UK or US, to torture no, that's why Bin Laden was hidden so long if Bush W captured Bin Laden he would of been tortured