Dostler was convicted of the murder of 15 US servicemen who were captured during their mission to blow up a tunnel. Dostler was executed by firing squad. However, war criminals were, I thought, executed by hanging, in spite of any request; for example Goring asked to be shot, and his request was denied. So why was Dostler shot?
The defendants in the Nuremburg trials (and the Tokyo tribunal) were sentenced to death by hanging because it was deemed a less honorable death. This was the idea of OSS Director Bill Donovan, who was advising chief US prosecutor Robert Jackson in the preparations for the postwar tribunal.