Nuremberg Diary

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Nuremberg Diary (ISBN 0-306-80661-4) is Gustave Gilbert's account of and interviews he conducted during the Nuremberg Trials of Nazi Leaders, including Hermann Göring, involved in World War II and the Holocaust. The book was published in 1947.

Gilbert served as a prison psychiatrist in Nuremberg, where he had close contact with those on trial.

[edit] An excerpt

Below is an extract of a conversation between Hermann Wilhelm Göring and Allied prison psychologist Dr. Gustave Mark Gilbert, as relayed in Dr. Gilbert's Nuremberg Diary (New York: Farrar, Straus and Company, 1947), pp. 278-279:

We got around to the subject of war again and I said that, contrary to his attitude, I did not think that the common people are very thankful for leaders who bring them war and destruction.

"Why, of course, the people don't want war," Goering shrugged. "Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

"There is one difference," I pointed out. "In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

This excerpt was most notably used by United States Senator Robert Byrd on October 17, 2003 during a speech on the floor of the Senate criticizing President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq.