Rudolf’s grandson Rainer was one of the descendants (most were collateral, great-niece, great-nephew, etc) of the top Nazis featured in the 2011 film, Hitler’s Children.
The photo of Höss standing on the hanging stool was shown in the film. I wasn’t surprised, considering it was the Poles who hanged him, that it was by short drop.
I got interested in US Army hangings because I had a question about the way it was done in Lee Marvin’s The Dirty Dozen and started researching it.
I’ve found several news stories from the Nuremberg executions stating they used “standard” drop hanging, but I have a copy of the army regulation for executions from that period and it prescribes long drop hanging. It doesn’t seem to make much sense to bring in a man whose profession was long drop hangings (MSgt John Woods), and who had done more than 300 of them, only to have him do standard drop.
Still looking for a better-placed and authoritative source.
The Czechs had the most interesting way of hanging.
Czechoslovakia used a stout vertical wooden pole (or post) of around 3 meters in height and around 30-40 cm in width, with a metal hook or eye bolt or pulley at the top to which a rope noose was attached. There was either a ladder or steps up to a small platform at the back of the pole for the executioner to stand on. The pinioned prisoner was placed with their back to the pole and then lifted up either manually by the hangman’s assistants, on a simple board platform or by a cloth or leather sling running under their armpits so that the executioner could put the noose round their neck. At the signal they were now jerked downwards by the assistants thus tightening the noose. This jerk combined with the thinness of the cord typically caused a carotid reflex and led to rapid unconsciousness. It is unclear when pole hanging ceased although it was definitely in use until after the end of World War II and was used on various war criminals such as Karl Frank and Herta Kasparova. A video of the hanging of Karl Hermann Frank which took place on the 22nd of May 1946 in Prague’s Pankrác prison is currently available on YouTube. He was lifted up to the top of the pole by a sling and then dropped about two feet, the hangman covering Frank’s face with his hand. The ankle rope ran over a pulley or wheel. This film clearly demonstrates how pole hanging worked and does not give the impression that Frank struggled after suspension.