The Relevance of Nuremberg

by Bill Lasarow

May 2, 2026

Los Angeles, California

Ai Wei Wei, “Oil Spills,” 2006, glazed porcelain in ten parts, dimensions variable. Courtesy of Artsy, artsy.net.

But first … A downright hilarious irony having to do with Caligula’s arrogant, buried-in-his-ballroom bubble mismanagement of his little excursion in Iran: the price of gasoline at the pump is the equivalent of a Big Socialist Government’s implementing the price-per-gallon increase to fund the transition to renewables. Despite the overt hostility of the American Fascist Party to solar, wind, etc., the promise of much more expensive fossil fuel could hardly be better designed to get more EVs sold (a 14% increase in March sales was the immediate response to this adventure). Where might this force other environmental practices in the private sector? My best guess is that the response of consumers and private companies over the next year and beyond will far outstrip any of the nonsense “money saving” policies of this so-called government. Combating climate change, it turns out, may never have had a more committed friend. Or more to the point, a more useful enemy.

The first punchline that the recent film “Nuremberg” delivers is a familiar courtroom drama. This is the point in the trial and the screenplay in which Hermann Göring, who has been using the psychiatrist Dr. Douglas Kelly as a foil to prepare for this very moment, is on the verge of avoiding the death penalty. Just as it appears that Göring has finally won his joust with lead prosecutor Robert Jackson, one final question comes from the British solicitor Sir David Maxwell Fyfe: “Do you still believe in Hitler?” The historical record of Göring’s response: “I am not here to deify or glorify Hitler. I am here to say that I have kept my pledge [to him], even now, because I believe in keeping an oath of loyalty not only in good times but also in bad.”

Gerhard Richter, “Abstract Painting,” 1990 oil on canvas. Courtesy of Gerhard Richter.

The prior sword play recedes, rendered unnecessary all along. And when we cut to the chase, the screenplay’s Göring must still say “Sieg Heil.” What does the record say? Now we can call that up … amazing. The basic details are historical. But that scene is still a writer’s conceit. The story could have been written another way: Göring is not found guilty of crimes against humanity punishable by death. Then in his mid-50s, a lifetime barring him from public life would have meant something, so long as it was enforced. Albert Speer was incarcerated in the unique prison at Spandau for 20 years. Göring would have been able to rejoin his wife and daughter, at least on occasion, who knows, he might have also been freed after 20 years to enjoy the kind of forgiving, if misguided, celebrity that his more contrite colleague gained as he aged and released books that so many of us were eager to read.

But the real closing statement occurs in what plays as an epilogue. Dr. Kelly concludes in his new book about Göring more or less what Hannah Arendt expressed in “The Banality of Evil.” A confluence of a group of like-minded people is required to oversee great public benefit. But such groups also are formed to commit great and deadly injustices committed with alacrity. Because in America the model of organized crime has long been the mafia, the governing model of fascism in Europe here resembles an extortion racket. The Emoluments Clause? Voting rights? Racial and gender equity? Without meaningful regulation and enforcement the mafia boss (Caligula of course) simply does as he pleases, no matter the provisions and principles of the Constitution. The broadest expression of his own militia on the ground, ICE (… and others), is a direct product of threats of violence that often begin with the dictator’s social media proclamations. After a decade of insults and death threats the overall social decay has organically metastasized and escalated. The transparent greed of the ruling family drives decision-making on an ascending curve, up to and including the shaping of foreign policy and alliances based on radically favorable business deals.

Taryn Simon, “A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I-XVIII,” 2011, archival inkhet prints comprised of 4 components, overall 84 x 191 1/4”. Courtesy of © Taryn Simon and Gagosian Gallery, New York.

Then there are the foot soldiers, themselves cannon fodder who either sign up in hopes of their own payday, or who do so willingly because they believe that the progress of women, minorities and immigrants pose a threat … to what exactly? Hitler convinced much of the German public that the Jews and other minority groups posed an existential threat to some racially pure German society that they only imagined. Their notion of science, then and now, was to place the cart before the horse. In exchange we give up our personal freedom to varying degrees and are expected to passively expose ourselves to the possibility of accepting the dismantling of the middle class and the social safety net.

And so we have stepped irretrievably away from the era shaped by the Great Depression, the Second World War, the launch of a system of international law that began with the Nuremberg Trials and lead to the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations, the recovery of Europe and Asia enabled by the Marshall Plan, and the social miracles produced by key New Deal and Great Society programs.

Trevor Paglen, “They Watch the Moon,” 2010, C-Print, 36 x 48”. Courtesy of the artist

There is now a small class of overseers empowered to vet and issue orders without legal or moral constraints, guided only by the predatory instincts of the worst among us. Those orders ultimately come, directly or indirectly, from the one person at the top of the power pyramid. We are now living in an America where, however dishonestly and illegally achieved, the mafia model and the culture it logically produces are today operating the U.S. federal government. The worst barbarism of the Nazi Party has not come to the Fascist Party of America because so many Americans, aware of that past history and influenced by the shining example of our own Civil Rights Movement, refuse to give in.

The danger of a future de-Nazification, in the event the war was lost, was well understood by the Nazis. Hitler himself issued the Nero Decree, ordering the self-destruction of the German nation, knowing very well that the Allies would uncover the death camps. Göring and his fellow collaborators understood the consequences of this very well. So does Caligula and his inner circle, who have thankfully not yet approached the ultimate moral horror of the Final Solution. It is millions of Americans engaged in a vast and energetic backlash who are to be thanked for that. And therein lies the next great era of our history. The opportunity lies before us to reinvent the Founders’ vision grounded on a stronger framework and a fresh dedication to the moral principles that can no longer be taken for granted.

Shimon Attie, “Almstadtstrasse 5 (formerly Grenadierstrasse 24): Slide projection of former Jewish resident and hat shop, ca. 1930, Berlin,” 1993, color photograph and on-location installation.

With that in mind, it is worth recounting the final scene of the movie “Nuremberg” verbatim:

Ori Gersht, “Untitled 02 (Amalgamation),” 2024, archival pigment print, 48 1/2 x 39 1/4”. Courtesy of Tally Dunn Gallery, Dallas.

Interviewer: I have to be honest, Dr. Kelley. I find some of the conclusions in your book quite unbelievable. You were dealing with the Nazis, who you must admit are unique people.

Dr. Douglas Kelley: They are not unique people. There are people like the Nazis in every country in the world today.

Interviewer: Not in America.

Kelley: Yes, in America. Their personality patterns are not obscure. There are people who want to be in power. And while you say they don’t exist here, I would say I’m quite certain there are people in America who would willingly climb over the corpses of half the American public if they knew they could gain control of the other half.

Interviewer: Doctor, please.

Kelley: They stoke hatred. It’s what Hitler and Göring did, and it is textbook. And if you think the next time it happens, we’re going to recognize it because they’re wearing scary uniforms, you’re out of your damn mind.

Interviewer: More with our panel when we return.

[Kelley begins to leave and a producer speaks to him]

Producer: Yeah, uh-huh. They’re not going to invite you to stay for the next segment. Let’s go. And just so you know, trashing our country is probably not the best way to sell your book.

# # #

Magdelena Abakanowicz, “Agora,” 2006, hollow, seamless, rusted iron, each 106 figures are 9 feet tall. Courtesy of Polish Ministry of Culture and Grant Park, Chicago.

For the record, Kelley’s biography in brief is that growing up he fought a fascination with suicide. His book, “The Nazi and the Psychiatrist,” indeed did not sell. He was very active in his field of study, the psychological motivations of criminals. He struggled with alcoholism. At the age of 45 he suffered a burn in a minor kitchen accident. His wife and three children watched in horror as he drank down a potassium cyanide capsule. And died.

“Trashing the country is probably not the best way to sell your book.” Now that is a chilling and prescient punchline, and one that every American needs to engage in some soul searching about. The truth that Kelley exposed for all to reject: “If you think the next time it happens we’re going to recognize it because they’re wearing scary uniforms, you’re out of your damn mind.”

So here we are, and the battle has been joined.

Bill Lasarow, Publisher and Editor, is a longtime practicing artist, independent publisher, and community activist. He founded or co-founded ArtScene Digest to Visual Art in Southern California (1982); the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles (1987); and Visual Art Source (2009). He is also the founder (2021) of The Democracy Chain. In 2025 he relaunched SquareCylinder with co-publishers Mark Van Proyen and DeWitt Cheng.