At the end of the Second World War, the Allies indicted 24 top surviving Nazi leaders and put them on trial in Nuremberg, Germany.

With these high-ranking Nazi officials incarcerated, psychologists saw a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to study the men responsible for some of the most heinous crimes in human history.

What made them tick and why did they do what they did?

Learn more about the Nuremberg personality tests and what they discovered about Nazi leaders on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. The Second World War didn't end like other wars in the past.

Previously, a conquered ruler might have been exiled like Napoleon, or summarily executed

if there was a conflicting claim to a territory.

At the end of the first World War, the Kaiser lived the rest of his life in seclusion in the

Netherlands.

Leading German military officers were simply out of a job and found alternative employment.

World War II, however, didn't end like the First World War.

It wasn't decided by a treaty.

Rather, it was decided by total unconditional surrender and occupation.

When the war was over, the question amongst the allies was, what do we do with these Nazi

officials?

No one wanted them to get off scot-free, yet there was no precedent in military history or an

international law for prosecuting people

for crimes conducted during a war.

The British wanted summary executions.

The Soviets wanted a show trial.

The Americans, however, wanted due process. The Allies eventually

agreed that high-ranking Nazi officials who were responsible for the conduct of the

war, including civilians, were to be tried as criminals. To this end they wrote the charter of the

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