Nuremberg Diary by G. M. Gilbert Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Nuremberg Diary
Book Review: Private confessions of top Nazis
Summary: 4 Stars
A unique revelation of what the surviving Nazi big-shots really thought about what they did (in their own words, off the record). Several own up to their horrific guilt, and others pass the buck (one or two justifiably, as the court determined), and a couple have nervous breakdowns. Reveals how they tried to manipulate each other's testimony.Book Review: Psycholgically Appealing
Summary: 5 Stars
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.Book Review: Read This; Then Watch "Nuremberg" (TNT dvd)
Summary: 5 Stars
A great companion to the TNT Network movie "Nuremberg" of a few years ago (available on dvd). You'll come away with a good understanding of an important era of history.Book Review: Reveals the personalities of the top Nazis on trial
Summary: 5 Stars
Gilbert weaves the tale of the Nuremburg trial as seen through the eyes of the defendants being tried. He describes the reaction of the defendants to the various parts of the prosection's case, to the witnesses, to the documented activities of their fellow defendants, and to the testimony of the defendants themselves.So we see the contempt of the military clique (Raeder, Doenitz, Jodl, Keitel) toward the politicians (Frank, Frick, Funk, et al), the self-righteous disdain shown by the three ultimately acquitted defendants (Schact, Fritsch, von Papen). We see Goering take off his headset when witnesses talk about the death camps and the atrocities, so as not to have to face those realities.
And we hear them talk about each other behind the back. After Keitel testifies to all the orders he transmitted, even horrendous ones, he insisted he merely passed them on from Hitler, and hence was not culpable. "He is an honest man" says Doenitz to von Papen. "Yes, a man without a mind of his own, but an honest man" replies von Papen. Schact overhears, and chimes in "Yes, not a man at all, but an honest man."
As the trial draws to conclusion, the defendants use their personal testimony to settle scores with some other defendants. We hear Schact tell the court and the world how Goering used to receive dignitaries at his palace wearing a toga, with lipstick and painted fingernails. "He didn't have to say that" whines Goering. "I didn't wear lipstick."
The picture Gilbert shows us is darkly comedic, rather than tragic. These guys seem more like characters out of "Hogan's Heroes" than sinister figures of the third reich. Yet these guys were deadly, as Gilbert shows by synopsizing some of the evidence against them.
If you haven't read this book, be sure to give it a shot. Well worth reading. It's the best chance you'll have to understand what made those Nazis tick.
Book Review: The Lunatics who Ran the Asylum
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is the "fly on the wall" account of the surviving Nazi leaders in their final chapter of their infamous history.
Gustave Gilbert was the American Jewish psychoanalyst that the Army placed in the Nuremberg Trials as both a suicide deterrent and a "spy" to glean information on what made those monsters tick. He interferes very little as the deposed leaders "spilt their guts" out to him as they awaited sentencing.
His account of what transpired is now used as a reference in classes on psychology for aberrant and psychopathic personalities. This book is full of surprises! Some are comedic, most are ghastly.
He reports on Streicher's fanaticisms and bombastic speeches about "Hitler and the halo on his head." He reports on the once arrogant Ribbentrop being reduced to a washrag without the support of his "fuhrer." All cases of blind militarism, puffed arrogance, and fanatical foolishness are represented in this collection of papers, detailing how mundane losers can become madmen in the right set and setting.
Of particular interest is his observations of Goering. That man prided himself on being the world's "school bully." Yet he was a moral coward, who doped himself during the war rather than have his childish hero-fantasies crushed. It took a man like Gilbert to crush Goering's goadings and proddings of the other defendants with promises of "Marble Caskets."
Through Gilbert's influence, most of the Nazi leadership finally recognized their errors and sins.
This book should be a "must read" for those interested in why such calamities happen in world history. Also it should be a "must read" for those crazy neo-nazis and Holocaust deniers out there. Gilbert got all his information on the whole Nazi "religion" straight from the horses mouths.