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AMS in pencil, in German, signed "W. Keitel," three pages both sides, 8 x 13, October 10, 1945. A lengthy autobiographical account prepared by Ketiel for Major Douglas Kelley, the U.S. Army psychiatrist assigned to evaluate the Nuremberg defendants' mental state ahead of trial. Keitel recounts his family background, childhood, education, and military career, from joining the 46th Field Artillery Regiment in 1901 through his First World War service and eventual appointment as chief of the Armed Forces High Command under Adolf Hitler. He also writes extensively about his health and family, including serious illnesses, the wartime deaths of two of his children, and the fate of relatives scattered or displaced at the end of the war.
Turning to his own condition, Keitel describes a life consumed by military duty and claims that years of relentless work, the volume of wartime events, and months of captivity had weakened both his health and memory. He closes with a detailed account of prison life, complaining of weight loss, restricted exercise, poor lighting, inadequate furnishings, and mounting physical and psychological strain, while praising the treatment he had received from American doctors and the prison commandant. In very good to fine condition, with uniform toning and small chips, tears, and paper loss to the fragile top edge. Accompanied by a full English translation.
Written just weeks before the opening of the Nuremberg trial, the statement offers an unusually personal portrait of Hitler's former chief military adviser as he submitted to psychiatric evaluation by Douglas Kelley. Kelley interviewed Göring, Hess, Keitel, and the other leading prisoners, administering psychological tests and collecting biographical material to determine whether any showed signs of insanity or diminished capacity, while also probing the broader question of how seemingly ordinary men could participate in mass atrocity. Prepared only days into Keitel's examination period, this document captures him cooperating directly with that process, laying out his life, health, family history, and wartime career in his own words for Kelley's file.
Notably, Douglas Kelley is portrayed by Rami Malek in the recent historical drama film Nuremberg (2025), directed by James Vanderbilt.
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