Gustave Gilbert


Gustave Mark Gilbert was an American psychologist best known for his writings containing observations of high-ranking Nazi leaders during the Nuremberg trials. His 1950 book The Psychology of Dictatorship was an attempt to profile the Nazi German dictator Adolf Hitler using as reference the testimonials of Hitler's closest generals and commanders. Gilbert's published work is still a subject of study in many universities and colleges, especially in the field of psychology.

Early life and education

Gilbert was born in the state of New York in 1911, the son of Jewish-Austrian immigrants. He won a scholarship from the School for Ethical Culture at the College Town Center in New York. He attended the City College of New York where he majored in German before switching to psychology. In 1939, Gilbert obtained his PhD degree in psychology from Columbia University. Gilbert also held a diploma from the American Board of Examiners in professional psychology.
During World War II, Gilbert was commissioned with the rank of First Lieutenant. Because of his knowledge of German, he was sent overseas as a translator.

Nuremberg trials

In 1945, after the end of the war, Gilbert was sent to Nuremberg, Germany, as an interpreter for the International Military Tribunal for the trials of the high-ranking World War II German prisoners. Upon arrival, Gilbert was appointed to serve as prison psychologist, with the duty of working with a psychiatrist to evaluate and observe but not to treat the detainees. Before and during the trial process Gilbert became, along with psychiatrist Douglas Kelley, the confidant of Hermann Göring, Joachim von Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Hans Frank, Oswald Pohl, Otto Ohlendorf, Rudolf Höss, and Ernst Kaltenbrunner, among others. Gilbert and Kelley administered the Rorschach inkblot test to the 21 surviving Nazi leadership captives prior to the first set of trials. Gilbert also participated in the Nuremberg trials as American Military Chief Psychologist and provided testimony attesting to the sanity of Rudolf Hess.
Gilbert also administered IQ tests to the Nazi leadership. Hjalmar Schacht scored highest with 143 points, followed by Arthur Seyss-Inquart and Göring. Julius Streicher scored lowest with 106 points.
In 1946, after the trials, Gilbert returned to the United States, where he engaged in teaching, research and writing. In 1947 he published part of his diary, consisting of observations taken during interviews, interrogations, "eavesdropping" and conversations with the German prisoners, under the title Nuremberg Diary.
In one interview with Göring, Gilbert discussed how national leaders generate popular support for war:

Later life

In 1948, as Head Psychologist at the Veterans Hospital at Lyons, NJ, Gilbert treated veterans of World Wars I and II who had suffered nervous breakdowns.
In 1950, Gilbert published The Psychology of Dictatorship: Based on an Examination of the Leaders of Nazi Germany. In this book, Gilbert made an attempt to portray a profile of the psychological behavior of Adolf Hitler, based on deductive work from eyewitness reports from Hitler's commanders in prison in Nuremberg.
In 1961, when he was the chairman of the psychology department of Long Island University in Brooklyn, Gilbert was summoned to testify in the trial of Adolf Eichmann in Jerusalem. Gilbert testified on May 29, 1961, describing how both Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Rudolf Höss tried in their conversations with him to put the responsibility for the extermination of the Jews on each other's doorstep. Nevertheless, Eichmann appeared in the accounts of both men. Then he presented a document, handwritten by Höss, that surveys the process of extermination at Auschwitz and different sums of people gassed there – under Höss as commandant and according to an oral report by Eichmann. The court decided not to accept Gilbert's psychological analyses of the prisoners at Nuremberg as part of his testimony.
Gilbert died on 6 February 1977.

In film and fiction

Gustave Gilbert has been portrayed by the following actors in film, television and theater productions:
The character "Abe Fields" in Michael Koehlmeier's 2008 book Abendland is based on Gustave Gilbert. In the book, Abe Fields sits in on the trials as psychologist and speaks to the defendants.

Selected works

  • . Nuremberg Diary. Farrar, Straus and Company: New York.
  • . "Hermann Göring: Amiable Psychopath". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 43, 211–229.
  • . The Psychology of Dictatorship: Based on an Examination of the Leaders of Nazi Germany. New York: The Ronald Press Company.
  • . "Stereotype persistence and change among college students". Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 46, 245–254.