The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Göring, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WWII - Paperback

This Douglas Kelley book is Jack El-Hai's history of the Army psychiatrist who examined Hermann Goering and Nazi leaders before Nuremberg.

In 1945 Kelley arrived at a detention center in Luxembourg holding more than fifty senior Nazis, hoping to find the trait that set them apart from everyone else. The longer he talked with Goering, the more he was drawn in.

On screen

It is the basis for the film Nuremberg, starring Russell Crowe and Rami Malek.

From the research side

El-Hai writes on medical history for magazines including The Atlantic and Scientific American, and Amazon reviewers single out how thoroughly the book is researched.

From the publisher

NOW THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE NUREMBERG In 1945, an improbable relationship between the fallen Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goering, and ambitious US Army physician, Douglas Kelley, becomes a hazardous quest into the nature of evil, amid the devastation of Europe at the end of World War II In 1945, after his capture at the end of the Second World War, Hermann Göring arrived at an American-run detention center in war-torn Luxembourg, accompanied by sixteen suitcases and a red hatbox.

Joining him in the detention center were fifty-one senior Nazis, of whom Göring was the dominant figure. To ensure that the captives were fit for trial at Nuremberg, the US army sent an ambitious army psychiatrist, Captain Douglas M. Kelley, to supervise and evaluate them.

To Kelley, it was the professional opportunity of a lifetime: to discover a distinguishing trait among these arch-criminals that would mark them as psychologically different from the rest of humanity. But Kelley's quest would prove to be a dangerous one.

The more he spoke with the Nazi captives, the more he began to understand and appreciate their perspective--and the more he would fall for their charms.