New English Edition Reexamines Kelley’s Nazi Evaluations, Emphasizing Ordinary People Behind Atrocity

A new English-language edition of Nuremberg, Nazi and the Psychiatrist revisits the work of American Army psychiatrist Douglas D. Kelley, who evaluated the mental state of Nazi leaders after World War II and drafted reports on figures such as Hermann Göring ahead of the Nuremberg Trials.

The book traces Kelley’s meticulous, sometimes obsessive, process as he sifted through vast records and even details as specific as the materials used for window panels at a detention hotel in Mondorf-les-Bains, Luxembourg, where high-ranking defendants were kept before trial. It follows Kelley’s early aim to locate the sources of evil and how he became absorbed by Göring’s charisma and the notion that “evil” can manifest through ordinary people.

Among the figures Kelley interviewed were Göring, Rudolf Höss, the Auschwitz commandant; Julius Streicher, the publisher of the anti-Semitic Der Stürmer; and Alfred Rosenberg, a principal ideologue of Nazi racial theory. Kelley sought to identify common traits that could explain how a regime could unleash mass atrocity, hoping such insights might help prevent future catastrophes.

A central finding presented in the book is that Nazi leaders were not a separate species; they were ordinary people. The text quotes Kelley’s view that leaders like Göring were not a unique breed and that people with similar impulses could be found in many societies, including the United States.

The narrative is noted for its vivid, almost novel-like prose. It has been described as the kind of material that inspired a film about the era, with Hollywood stars Russell Crowe and Rami Malek associated with a project titled Nuremberg.

Beyond the historical case studies, the book also follows Kelley’s own life in the aftermath. After the trials, he moved into criminology at the University of California, Berkeley, advising police and defense lawyers. The pressures and paranoia from his experiences strained his personal life, including a violent incident with his wife, and he ultimately died by swallowing cyanide in front of his family.

translator Chae Jae-yong notes the work challenges simplistic portrayals of groups and hateful language, stressing that “war begins at borders, but the mind that makes war possible travels without borders.” The book’s overarching point is that no one possesses immunity to evil and that society must learn from history to guard against repetition.

For U.S. readers, the book offers a stark lens on leadership, propaganda, and how moral and psychological factors enable totalitarian crime. Its historical microcosm—how ordinary people can become complicit in atrocity—speaks to contemporary debates over extremist movements, political rhetoric, and the resilience of democratic institutions, as well as the role of psychology and psychiatry in national security and policymaking.