Blind Obedience and Denial: The Nuremberg Defendants

"...offers a unique and valuable insight into the psychology of human beings who violate the laws of war. Anyone interested in war crimes generally and the IMT in particular should read this interesting book." ― Journal of Military History

A revealing yet accessible examination of the Nuremberg trial, and most crucially all 23 men who stood accused, not just the most infamous—Speer, Hess, and Göring. This account sets the scene by explaining the procedures, the legal context, and the moments of hypocrisy in the Allies’ prosecution—ignoring the fact that the Katyń massacre was a Soviet crime and overlooking carpet bombing.

Author Andrew Sangster discusses how the word “Holocaust” was not used until long after the trial, probably due to Russian objection as they had lost many more people, and because the Allies generally were not innocent of anti-Semitism themselves, especially Russia and Vichy France. However, the defendants to a person immediately recognized that this was the singular issue which placed them on the steps of the gallows, and their various defenses on this charge are therefore crucial to understanding the trial. Sangster also explores how the prisoners related to one another in their approach to defending themselves on the charge of genocide and extermination camps, especially in facing the bully-boy Göring.

This new study utilizes not only the trial manuscripts, but the pre-trial interrogations, the views of the psychiatrists and psychologists, and the often-overheard conversations between prisoners—who did not know their guards spoke German—to give the fullest exploration of the defendants, their state of mind, and their attitudes towards the Third Reich, Hitler and each other as they faced judgement by the victors of the war.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction

Two Critical Issues
Procedures
Hermann Göring 1893–1946
Rudolf Hess 1894–1987
Joachim Von Ribbentrop 1893–1946
Wilhelm Keitel 1892–1946
Ernst Kaltenbrunner 1903–46
Alfred Rosenberg 1893–1946
Hans Frank 1900–46
Wilhelm Frick 1877–1946
Julius Streicher 1885–1946
Hjalmar Schacht 1877–1970
Walther Funk 1890–1960
Karl Dönitz 1891–1980
Erich Raeder 1876–1960
Baldur Von Schirach 1907–76
Fritz Sauckel 1894–1946
Alfred Jodl 1890–1946
Arthur Seyss–Inquart 1892–1946
Franz Von Papen 1879–1969
Albert Speer 1905–1981
Constantin Von Neurath 1873–1956
Hans Fritzsche 1900–53
Robert Ley 1890–1945
Reflections
Final Thoughts

Glossary And Abbreviations
Appendix
Bibliography
Endnotes
Index