Courtroom 600 is part of the Memorium Nuremberg Trials museum. (Nataliia - stock.adobe.com)

A new historical drama by James Vanderbilt is set to release in theaters worldwide on Nov. 7, 2025. “Nuremberg” follows the experience of Lt. Col. Douglas Kelley (Rami Malek), a U.S. Army Military Intelligence Corps chief psychiatrist, during the early Nuremberg Trials as he analyzes the competency of Herman Göring (Russell Crowe), a powerful Nazi leader and Adolf Hitler’s chosen successor.

Read more about the “Nuremberg” movie.

The movie tackles the obsessiveness Kelley develops for finding a psychosis to explain Nazi behavior and the connection that develops between the two men. While the movie is a work of fiction, it is based on author Jack El-Hai’s nonfiction book “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist,” published in 2013.

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg defendants (National Archives, College Park, MD, USA)

Source

The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg is better known simply as the Nuremberg Trials. Opened on Nov. 20, 1945, the tribunal was held to try 22 high-profile defendants from the Nazi leadership. The four Allied nations of France, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union were each represented by a judge and a prosecutor.

The Nazi officials were indicted on four counts:

Before trial, all 22 defendants were interviewed by mental health professionals to determine whether they were competent to stand trial by Kelley in his role a chief psychiatrist, as depicted in the new movie. They were also evaluated by chief psychologist 1st Lt. Gustave Gilbert who also helped with interpretation. All defendants were deemed to be sane and fit for trial.

The main cell block in the Nuremberg prison, where defendants standing trial before the International Military Tribunal are being incarcerated. (National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, USA)

Source

Kelley did expect to find some kind of common deficiency or psychiatric explanation for the Nazi leadership’s mindset and acceptance of atrocities. However, in the end, he concluded that they were not psychotic, but that they did share authoritarian and ambitious personalities that can be found across populations. Kelley said that the circumstances of the time allowed them to garner power, and cautioned that such a rise could occur again.

Lt. Gilbert disagreed; he concluded that the defendants all exhibited psychopathic schizoid, narcissistic and paranoid personality types, and that their authority was never challenged because of the expectation for blind obedience and the denouncement of reason within Nazi culture.

Kelley returned to the U.S. six weeks into the trials and was replaced by psychiatrist Maj. Leon Goldensohn, who continued to monitor the mental health of the defendants as the trials progressed.

Judgement at the The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg (National Archives, College Park, MD, USA)

Source

In the end, on Oct. 1, 1946, the verdict was read and 19 Nazis were convicted; 12 were sentenced to death by hanging, while the rest served prison terms ranging from 10 years to life. Göring was among those with a death sentence, but the night prior to his execution he ingested potassium cyanide and died in his cell.

Kelley went on to write a book in 1947 called “Twenty-two Cells in Nuremberg” about his experience during the Nuremberg trials and his conclusions about the mental state of Nazi leadership. On Jan. 1, 1958, Kelley took his own life in the same method used by Göring.