(23 April), when he would consider Hitler incapacitated. The telegram was intercepted by Bormann, who convinced Hitler that Göring was a traitor and that the telegram was a demand to resign or be overthrown. Hitler responded angrily and ordered SS troops to arrest Göring. Soon afterward, Hitler removed Göring from all of his offices and ordered Göring, his staff and Lammers to be placed under house arrest at Obersalzberg. Lammers was taken prisoner by American forces, but in the meantime, his wife, Elfriede (née Tepel), committed suicide near Obersalzberg (the site of Hitler's mountain retreat) in early May 1945, as did his daughter, Ilse, two days later. Postwar insights After the war's conclusion, Lammers provided Allied interrogators with some insights into the nature of the Third Reich's hierarchy. Postwar mythology was such that many were convinced Hitler had completely ostracised the aristocratic officers under his command, but the truth was somewhat different. Lammers reported to the Allies that Nazi kingpins and high-ranking Wehrmacht officers received lavish gifts, severance packages, expropriated estates and huge cash awards. Recipients of such benefits included Generals Heinz Guderian, Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist, Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, Gerd von Rundstedt, and one of the Holocaust's chief architects, Reinhard Heydrich. Trial, conviction and death In April 1946, Lammers was a defense witness at the Nuremberg trials. Starting in April 1949, he was tried in the Ministries Trial, one of the subsequent Nuremberg trials, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The sentence was later commuted to 10 years by US High Commissioner John J. McCloy, and he was released from Landsberg Prison in January 1951. Lammers died on 4 January 1962 in Düsseldorf and was buried in Berchtesgaden in the same plot as were his wife and daughter. References Informational notes Citations Bibliography External links from The Simon Wiesenthal Center 1879 births 1962 deaths German jurists German people convicted of crimes against humanity German people convicted of war crimes Heidelberg University alumni Members of the Academy for German Law Nazi Germany ministers Nazi Party officials Nazi Party politicians People convicted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals People from Lubliniec People from the Province of Silesia Prussian Army personnel Recipients of the Iron Cross (1914), 1st class SS-Obergruppenführer University of Breslau alumni