Nuremberg Diary

'Nuremberg Diary' is Gustav Gilbert's narrative of the time he spent with the defendants of the Nuremberg War Crimes Trial after WWII. As the prison psychiatrist, Gilbert was given access to all the prisoners and the resulting conversations form the basis of this book. From the unrepentant, pompus bravado of Hermann Goering to the disgusting anti-semitism of Julius Streicher to the absent minded Joachim von Ribbentrop to the humbled Albert Speer, this work proves a keen insight into the men who at one time controlled an empire, but who now faced the world's final justice. Thought-provoking, chilling, and at times even moving, Gilbert's 'Nuremberg Diary' will stand forever as an important witness against Nazi barbarism.

The author, Gilbert, was an American intelligence officer who in his capacity as prison psychologist at the Nuremberg Jail had unlimited free access to the top Nazi leaders throughout their trial. He produced an invaluable book. With few exceptions, the top Nazis reveal themselves as ordinary men promoted to higher positions than their abilities merited, and willing to do or at least tolerate pretty much anything in order to hold onto them. What they say privately about each other gives a unique perspective on the interplay of personalities and motivations that produced the Nazi regime and its horrors. Foremost among those exceptions is Hermann Goering. Goering's character is rich and multifaceted. The facets can hardly be reconciled as belonging to the same person. So much about him is appealing - his intelligence, his sense of humor, his expansive good-natured bonhomie, his childlike responses to praise or reprimand. But a man can smile and smile and still be a villain. Goering uses the weaker defendants to pressure the more independent ones to toe his "party line" of maintaining loyalty to Hitler. He offers to trade or withhold testimony, inveigles his lawyer into intimidating a witness, and even threatens retaliation by the Feme kangaroo courts. In part because the author's duties required him to prevent that sort of behavior, he spent more time with Goering than with any of the other defendants. In part, though, I think he just found him fascinating.The author's duties as psychologist required that he spend considerable time with Streicher, whose leering, lascivious, bigotry probably indicated mental illness. Streicher's anti-semitism was obsessive - it was the only subject he talked about - and he incessantly lobbied anyone who would listen. Gilbert also had to monitor Hess (Bormann's predecessor) and Ribbentrop (Foreign Minister) because of Hess's recurrent amnesia and Ribbentrop's descent into depression. Hess was empty-minded even when his memory was intact. Ribbentrop was an endless stream of rationalizations, denials, evasions, and lies - truly a washrag of a man. These entries become tedious, but are instructive as an antidote to the Hollywood image of the hard, focused, strong-willed Nazi. So too with Keitel, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces High Command whom the author fairly describes as having no more backbone than a jellyfish, and with Hans Frank, Governor General of Occupied Poland. When with the author, Frank was all introspection and contrition, but in the dock with his fellow war criminals, he joined freely in their stock rationalizations.The author is sympathetic toward those defendants - Speer, von Schirach, Jodl, Fritsche - who passionately wanted the world to learn as much of the truth as possible about the Third Reich and its crimes. He usually but not always manages to restrain his animosity toward those who persisted in rationalizing or denying their guilt, particularly the vicious anti-semite Rosenberg (Nazi p

I would recommend this book as it views the trial and above all the defendants from a perspective which no other book can possibly offer. I think it important for future reader that they are aware that this is hardly a complete account of the trial itself. Other books (The Nuremberg Trial, by Ann and John Tusa for example) achieve this well enough. This book brings you into the cells and lets you hear what the defendants thought about the whole situation, until you become familiar with their different personalities. I would recommend reading some other book before this, to gain better knowledge of the trial, but definitely I would not miss this one. It'd be like reading a book first, and then having a chance to meet the actors.

Gilbert takes us into the minds of the Nuremeberg War Crinimals, a look that not everyone got to see first hand. Gilbert has in-depth conversations with the various Nazis and reflects the emotion of the everyday effects of teh trial as if you were there talking to him in a normal conversation. This book is a good source of information for a sense of state of mind for the Nazis held in the Papalce of Justice.

Gilbert somehow manages to contain his indignation with his subjects to the extent that he is able to protray the Nazi war criminals in a light that is not often associated with them. Von Ribbentrop the pathetic ashamed boot-licker, almost pity garnering, rather than the haughty "stateman" who once inspired fear in diplomats from the Bay of Biscay to the Urals. Goering, once the Marshall of the most powerful air force in the world, reduced to a playground bully. This is a very useful book for those who want to look behind the facade of the Nazi war criminals.