I guess most people ask themselves at some time, how do rational, seemingly decent human beings come to the point of sanctioning, organising and then carrying out the systematic destruction of around 11 million people, (give or take), with 6 million of them being Jewish? It is a tough one, and it is even tougher to understand, should one even want to try understanding it.
"Interrogations" by Richard Overy goes some way into seeing how those brought to trial at Nuremberg dealt with the reality of what they had done and how they tried to explain it. The book gives some background information on the charges brought against them, the people carrying out the interrogations and so on. There are a couple of chapters on individuals such as Goering, Hess and Von Papen. Other chapters are based on topical issues, like genocide, Hitler himself, and so on.
It is interesting the way which legal implications of the trials developed. One example is the way in which organisations themselves were deemed "criminal" and then anyone associated with them was open to arrest. The Nazi prisoners protested the move, of course.
Of the individuals, I found Goering the most fascinating, in the sense that he did not seem to attempt any avoidance of responsibility. Others tried to distance themselves, or in the case of Speer, tried to show himself as a neutral civil servant. Goering never seemed to do that, and just accepted his part in it.
People interested in the Nazi phenomena and the Holocaust of the Jews and other victims of the Nazi death camps, "Interrogations" is "essential reading", as another reviewer stated. Thoroughly engrossing and thoroughly recommended.
