This book is based on interviews by an American psychiatrist who interviewed defendants and witnesses at the Nuremberg trails. There were two main themes to many of the interviews. One, the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles were what made it possible for Hitler to take power. And secondly, the blame for the atrocities and exterminations fell on Goebbels, Himmler, Bormann and Heydrich. This was very convenient seeing as all of them were dead at this point. Of course the defendants trotted out the old lines that they knew nothing or were just following orders.

The interviews also showed just how average most of these people were. They did go into a bit of family history in most cases. Interestingly some of the defendants said they should be hung to take the blame off the general German population. And some proposed a union of European countries, much like the current EU, to hold off the advances of Russia.