An original look at the Nuremberg trial through the diaries of Leon Goldensohn, the American psychiatrist of the main nazis murderers before their execution

We are familiar with images of the hearings at the Nuremberg trials. But to this day, no one has taken us into the cells and minds of the accused. Leon Goldensohn, a 34-year-old American Jewish psychiatrist, spent six months visiting the 4 main Nazi war criminals. Based on these unique and recently uncovered documents and reconstitutions of the main events, this film discloses for the first time the personal thoughts of the Nazis: Hermann Goering, Rudolf Hoess, Hans Franck and Julius Streicher. These interviews raise serious questions concerning the psychic mechanisms and mysteries that set off acts of barbarity.
Several documentaries have already been made about the Nuremberg trials, drawing essentially from the abundant archive footage shot in court. But to this day, no film had taken us into the cells of the defendants.
Sixty years after the verdict, "The Secret Nuremberg Notebooks" unveils the hidden side of the trial - this blind spot where the accused, locked behind bars in the Nuremberg prison, accepted to confide in a psychiatrist.
From January to July 1946, psychiatrist Leon Goldensohn, then only 34, conducted regular interviews with the defendants of the trial in the privacy of their cells. He belonged to a small team whose mission was to explore the psychological roots of Nazi crimes.
Following the steps of Goldensohn's exploration, the film leads us into the cells and the minds of four Nazi dignitaries: Herman G?ring, Hans Frank, Julius Streicher, and Rudolf Hoess. How do those criminals behave in front of the psychiatrist? Are they sadly ordinary men or dangerous psychopaths? Do they feel any guilt when faced with the horrors they are responsible for?

A Film by Jean-Charles Deniau ; Roche Productions for France 3, LCP - Assemblee nationale, Planete, History Channel UK, RTBF, YLE, SVT, CBC-RDI Canada, ERT, TSR and RTE