Why Female Traitors Were Executed By Pole Hanging

Added: 2026-05-18

[00:00:00]During World War II, there were many women who betrayed their nations and who sided with the German army or the occupiers who came to their towns, cities, and lands.

[00:00:11]These women were often seen as the worst kind of traitors. In France, women who collaborated and slept with the Germans were said to have been found guilty of horizontal collaboration, and they were later, following the liberation of parts of their country, treated terribly in public. They had their heads shaved and were forced to run the gauntlet, and many were beaten and battered by large crowds of angry people.

[00:00:35]But inside countries to the east, many women were subjected to even worse treatment as they were publicly executed for their involvement with the enemy.

[00:00:45]This included women who helped to translate during interrogations, and they would then be targeted following the end of the war.

[00:00:52]But inside, specifically Hungary and Czechoslovakia, there were some female traitors who were pole hanged.

[00:00:59]Pole hanging was an extreme execution method used exclusively inside these countries, but the executioners claimed it was more humane than even using a gallows.

[00:01:10]But why did this happen?

[00:01:13]Pole hanging was an execution method used inside countries which had formerly been under the control or influence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

[00:01:22]It was very different to a traditional gallows and was carried out normally in public in front of the eyes of thousands of people.

[00:01:29]Specifically, the method used a 3-m wooden post or a metal pole, and the execution had a number of different steps.

[00:01:37]The condemned was brought in front of the pole or post first, and then the executioner and his assistant worked together to bring life to an end. A rope was attached around the feet of the condemned and was then passed through a pulley at the bottom of the pole.

[00:01:51]The condemned was then held in place at the top of the post through the use of a chest sling across their middle, and this kept them suspended at the top until the drop was released. A narrow noose was then passed around the neck of the prisoner, and this was then secured to a hook at the top of the post. When the death sentence was read out and everything was checked, the chest sling was released, and the prisoner would then rapidly jerked downwards with the drop, and the assistant executioner guided the fall via a foot rope. The executioner would be stood behind the post, and when the drop was released, he attempted to shove the neck to one side in an attempt to dislocate the neck manually.

[00:02:30]Often, when this went correct, executioners claimed the death could occur within seconds, but a lot of the time, the method was rather unsuccessful as someone would slowly strangle in front of a crowd.

[00:02:42]Particularly during and after World War II, there were a number of women who were subjected to this execution method, and specifically, they were condemned as they were said to have betrayed their nations and have been traitors.

[00:02:55]One of these women was Maria Nagy, who was executed in front of a large crowd inside the city of Budapest.

[00:03:02]There isn't a huge amount of information available about the crimes and actions of Maria Nagy. However, it is known that she was condemned as a war criminal and that she had particularly tortured young women, presumably inside of a concentration camp or a prison.

[00:03:17]Her name is rather typically Hungarian, too, and with her execution, which took place in March 1946, she was brought out in front of a large crowd and was then attached to the post.

[00:03:29]The executioner and his assistants worked together, and when the plank she was stood on was removed, the executioner brought her life to an end, practically strangling her against the post.

[00:03:40]Now, Maria Nagy was said to have been a traitor and, specifically, a collaborator with the Germans, and this was why she went to her execution.

[00:03:49]This public execution method was meant to shame her and bring humiliation to her in front of a large crowd. It was also a public statement that she had betrayed the nation and all of those she was in front of, and that the old regime was finished. It also sent a clear message that collaborators would definitely be punished. The hooded body of Maria Nagy was then left hanging in a public square for some time, and this sent another warning that traitors would also be punished. Another woman who was executed by pole hanging was Hertha Kasparek.

[00:04:24]She was a Czech citizen who could also speak German.

[00:04:27]As a young woman, she was mocked by her peers, but during the war, she would get her own back and get some revenge. She worked for the Germans and the German occupiers, and specifically, she worked for the Gestapo spies in the city of Trieste, her hometown.

[00:04:45]She translated documents and conversations for them during interrogations and also reported on those who resisted the German occupation in her hometown.

[00:04:55]But in the final months of the war, Hertha Kasparek willingly fraternized with the Germans and SS soldiers, and she specifically asked the SS to execute four young men who had, before the war, been cruel to her at school. These hadn't, during World War II, done anything which would have led to their deaths, but all four of them were executed later that day by firing squad.

[00:05:20]Hertha Kasparek said later at her war crimes trial that, I quote, "I know that I caused the deaths of several people. I acted out of revenge."

[00:05:30]What she had specifically done is betrayed her people, her hometown, and her country. And on the 13th of September 1946, over a year after the end of the Second World War, Hertha Kasparek was brought out for her execution.

[00:05:45]At around 6:30 p.m., thousands looked on, and she was then taken to the execution post. She wept and fell to her knees when she first saw it, and guards then had to carry her there.

[00:05:58]As she was helped onto the pole, she screamed and screeched, and the executioner put the chest sling around her.

[00:06:05]He worked very quickly and secured the noose around her neck and then released the drop. For some time, Hertha Kasparek struggled on the post, and her head violently twitched from side to side until a doctor declared that she was, in fact, dead.

[00:06:22]The executioner then threw his white gloves to the ground to symbolize his disgrace in hanging her, and following her pole hanging, Kasparek was placed inside of a coffin and was then buried in a grave in front of the large crowd still.

[00:06:37]These two women at the end of World War II were executed for betraying their nations and countries, and what they had done was to get involved in the brutality of the German occupations.

[00:06:47]They didn't have to carry out the actions that they did. They didn't have to get involved in death and suffering, and their actions brought a significant amount of pain to their fellow countrymen and women during the war.

[00:07:00]There were a number of men who were also subjected to this treatment at the end of the conflict. Inside of Hungary, this included members of the Arrow Cross Party, a collaborationist government made up of Prime Minister Ferenc Szálasi and his cronies.

[00:07:16]These were all executed in exactly the same way and place as Maria Nagy, and they may have even been hanged on exactly the same post.

[00:07:25]They were condemned in the same manner, and also there was a Hungarian priest, András Kun, who had rampaged throughout the city slaughtering wherever he went.

[00:07:35]But the execution method of pole hanging was used to execute a number of people at the end of World War II, mostly for the crime of betraying their nation.

[00:07:43]They were in front of a large crowd condemned in what was meant to shame and bring humiliation for them and their families in their final moments.

[00:07:52]After the drop from the pole had been released, a white sheet was thrown over them in what became a rather final and haunting image for the female traitors who betrayed their nation and, ultimately, were pole hanged for it.

[00:08:05]Thanks for watching.

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