Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans 9781591810322, 1591810329

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MARIN COUNTY FREE LIBRARY

3 1111 02517 4291

s The Horrific Account of Nazi Experimeats

on Hutnans^""

,

"In this personal account oj

(

i..

Nuremberg War Crimes

in the

service Trials^

Vivien Spitz continues to contribute to the

cause of

human

rights."

-President Jimmy Carter

This

is

a chilling story of human

and ultimate

the

justice, told for

first

depravity

time by an

eyewitness— a court reporter tor the Nuremberg

war crimes

of Nazi doctors. This

trial

is

the

account of torture and murder by experiment the

name of

scientific research

in

and patriotism.

Doctors from Hell includes trial transcripts that

have not been easily available to the general pub-

and previously unpublished photographs

lic

used

as

evidence in the

The author

trial.

describes the experience of being in

bombed-out, dangerous, post-war Nuremberg,

where she ing

on the

bombs

lived for eighteen

months while work-

Once

sympathizer tossed

trial.

intt^

she lived

a Nazi

the dining

room

moments before

of the hotel

where

she arrived for dinner.

She takes us into the courtroom

to hear the dra-

matic testimony and see the reactions of the

defendants to the proceeciings. tell

t^f

The

witnesses

of experiments in which they were deprived

oxygen; frozen; injected with malaria, typhus,

and jaundice; subjected

to the

amputation of

healthy limbs; forced to drink sea water for

weeks

at a time;

This landmark

ment of

the

and other horrors.

trial

resulted

in

the establish-

Nuremberg Code, which

sets

guidelines for medical research involving beings. Doctors from Hell to

the

literature

is

a significant

on World War

II

the

human

addition

and the

human rights, and which human beings can

Holocaust, medical ethics, the barbaric depths to

descend.

'J.S.A.

$23.95

^da $30.95

Civic Center JIB Books 174.28 Spitz Spitz^ Vivien ')r^^ Doctors from hell the horrific account of Nazi experiments on humans 31111025174291 :

DATE DUE

OCT

3 2005

^JV^^I ->«=s>.

2±L

DEMCO,

INC. 38-2931

^4>

Jjoctors Irom xlell

First Sentient Publications edition,

Copyright

© 2005 by Vivien

2005

Spitz

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof,

form without permission, except critical articles and reviews.

may not be reproduced in any

in the case of brief quotations

embodied

in

is made for permission to reproduce photographs from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Museum of the Jimmy Carter Library, and the National Archives and Records

Grateful acknowledgment

Administration.

Cover design by Kim Johansen, Black design by Nicholas Cummings

Dog Design

Book

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Spitz, Vivien.

Doctors from Vivien Spitz.

—

hell 1st

:

the horrific account of

Nazi experiments on humans

/

Sentient Publications ed.

cm.

p.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN

1-59181-032-9

Human

1.

ry.

2.

—Germany— History—20th centuNuremberg —Germany— History— 20th

experimentation in medicine

Medical ethics

century.

3.

Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946. 4. National socialism Moral and ethical aspects. 5. National socialism and Trial of

—

medicine. I.

Title.

R853.H8S68 2005 174.2'8-dc22

2005006021 Printed in the United States of America 10

987654321 JtOlltOlPOBLKflllOOJ

A Limited Liability Company 1113 Spruce Boulder,

CO

St.

80302

www.sentientpublications.com

Jjoctors Irom xlell

Ihe JSIazi

rlorrilic

Account

of

^experiments on XTumans

Vivien Spitz

[oiitfii

pyBLicmions,

llc

Digitized by the Internet Archive in

2010

http://www.archive.org/details/doctorsfromhellhOOspit

i ne JViovine J inger -writes; and naving writ, JVLoves on; nor

onall lure

^or

all

it

all

back

your xiety nor NVit to

cancel nail a

your iears wasli out

a

— Ine

J_,ine,

word

ol

it.

IvuDaiyat,

Omar Jvnayyam

Jjedication

vVlioever

[sriallj

save a single

lile,

saves an entire world.

— Ihe lalmua In genocides there are perpetrators. There are victims. There are silent bystanders. There are rescuers.

This book

is

dedicated to two rescuers: the late Father Bruno

Reynders and Dr. Michel Reynders. In 1939, a Benedictine

monk was on

Germany. Hearing some commotion to his horror,

a mission in Frankfurt,

in the street,

he looked up and,

he saw an old Jew being harassed, maligned, and brutal-

ized by the passers-by.

Louvain, Belgium.

The monk was Fere Bruno Reynders of

He was

outraged by the scene to the point of nau-

sea.

When

the Nazis invaded Belgium

deporting Jews, Fere Bruno decided to

and began persecuting and

come to

the help of these inno-

cent people and, with the help of his family and able to rescue about 320 Jewish children

many

and a few

friends,

adults.

he was

Among his

cooperating relatives was his nephew, Michel, then a young teenager,

who

assisted

him

and occasional

as a messenger

escort.

Always shy and modest, when asked why he put save Jewish children. Fere

beings in

peril,

and

it

Bruno

"because they were

human

to help save their lives."

Michel

said,

was our duty

his life at risk to

Reynders never forgot these words and became a doctor, guided by the

same

principles.

He

retired in

1995 as a Clinical Frofessor of the

University of Colorado School of Medicine and lives in Denver,

Colorado, with Colette, his wife of forty-four years. They have two sons and four grandsons.

vm

Hippocratic Oath

I

swear by Apollo Physician and Asclepius and Hygieia and Panaceia

and

all

fulfill

the gods

and goddesses, making them

my

according to

my witnesses,

and judgment

ability

this

that

I

will

oath and this

covenant:

To hold him who has taught me

this art as

to live

my life

in partnership

need of money

to give

him a

and

ents

offspring as equal to

them

this art

—

if

equal to

with him, and

my

if

he

paris

in

share of mine, and to regard his

my brothers in male

they desire to learn

lineage it

and

—without

to teach fee

and

covenant; to give a share of precepts and oral instruction and all

the other learning to

has instructed

my

sons and to the sons of

me and to pupils who have signed the covenant

and have taken an oath according one

to the medical law, but

no

else. I

will apply dietetic

according to

harm and I it,

him who

ability

and judgment;

will neither give a deadly I

will

will

keep them from

make

drug to anybody

who

asked for

a suggestion to this effect. Similarly

woman an abortive remedy. guard my life and my art.

not give to a I

I

injustice.

nor will

ness

my

measures for the benefit of the sick

I

will

In purity and holi-

1

L) o c t o r s

I

I

r

o

m

r"L e

1

will not use the knife, not

even on sufferers from stone,

but will withdraw in favor of such

men

as are engaged in this

work.

Whatever houses

I

may visit,

the sick, remaining free of

all

I

will

come

for the benefit of

intentional injustice, of

all

mis-

chief and in particular of sexual relations with both female

and male persons, be they

What

I

may

free or slaves.

see or hear in the course of the treatment or

even outside of the treatment

in regard to the life

which on no account one must spread abroad,

I

will

of men,

keep to

myself, holding such things shameful to be spoken about.

may it be granted to me to enjoy life and art, being honored with fame among all men for all time to come; if I transgress it and swear falsely, may the opposite of If I fulfill this

all this

be

my

lot.

oath and do not violate

it,

(contents

Foreword oy Frederick R. Abrams

xv

introduction

1

October 1^4"

1.

»

\Vestover

Air

rield,

JVxassacnusetts

2

.

5.

7

The U.S. War Department Recruitment

12

Orientation and Boarding the Plane

1

3

Emergency over the North Atlantic

1

4

Safe Landing in Paris

1

5

Boarding the Douglas C-47 Skytrain for Frankfurt

1

6

The

1

7

1

9

Final Anxiety-Ridden Flight

Xne Nuremberg^

VVar Crimes

Xrials

History's First International Criminal Trials

2

The Major Nazi Leaders'

22

Trial

The Pretrial Gathering of Evidence November 6, 1946

23

Xne subsequent xroceeding^s My First Nuremberg Home

2 7

The Palace of

Justice

25

28 3

1

My Raw Orientation Meeting My Co-workers

3 3

Daughter of the Chicago German Bund Leader

3 7

The Court Reporting Process

3 8

3 6

4-

Case No. Tribunal

1,

The

M-edical Case

41

Members

4

42

The Defendants

47

A Respite from Initial Shock

5

Grand Hotel

5 2

Thanksgiving

Day 946

December

1946

9,

Illegal

D.

y.

5 6

6

Euthanasia

6

Protection of Animals

62

December

1946

62

rlig"n-Altituae rlyxperiments

65

Autopsy Report

69

Testimony of Walter Neff

7

Testimony of Defendant Rudolf Brandt

79

Testimony of Defendant Dr. Romberg

8

rreezine -t/xperiments

8 5

Women Used For Rewarming

96

10,

JVLalaria il^xperinients Extracts from the Testimony of Father

Leo Miechalowski

-Done, JVi-UScle, and .

^erve

Jveg^eneration

1

1

10

3

1

6

111

Extracts from the Testimony of August H. Vieweg

8.

1

5 5

1

Crimes of Mass Extermination

5.

1

The Arraignments

ana

Jjone Iransplantation rlyxperiments

Extracts from the Testimony of Vladislava Karolewska

5

1

1

1

2

1

3 2

Extract from the Testimony of Expert Witness Dr.

Leo Alexander

^. ^^.ustara Cras lo. iSullanilaniiae

Xll

Experiments l^xperiments

135

139

Testimony of Jadwiga Dzido

1

44

Testimony of Dr. Leo Alexander

1

5 3

11.

Sea.

Water

High Drama

157

riyxperiments

in the

160

Courtroom

175

^uremoero^

12. JVl.y -Lile in

No. 8 Hebelstrasse

Another Historical House on Habelstrasse

Growing Nazi i3.

1-^.

Numb

Terrorists

What Humanity Meant

Bomb

Grand Hotel Dining

the

Room

r^piaemic Jaunaice (xlepatitis)

187

Extract of Testimony by Dr. Karl Brandt

188 191

^Sterilization

by X-rays

194

Denial Testimony by Viktor Brack

19 7

Xypnus £xperiments

199

Testimony by Dr. Eugen Kogon

201

Denial Testimony of Dr. Rose

204

Sterilization

i5.

to

lo. X^oison ll,xperiments

2

Testimony of Dr. Eugen Kogon ij.

Incenaiary Jjomo rlyxperiments Testimony of Dr. Eugen Kogon

i8.

210 213 215

Polygal (Blood Coagulant) Experiments

Phenol (Gas Oedema) Experiments

226

Jewisn ^Skeleton Collection

231

Infection) Experiments

23 5

2o. ILutnanasia Protest by the Bishop of

21

09

219 219 224

Pnleenion, Polyg^al, OL JPnenol Experiments Phlegmon (Inflammation and

iQ.

177 181 182 184

Limburg

237

Prosecution Exhibit 428

238

MeJical Etkics

24 7

Permissible Medical Experiments

253

Statement of

IMT

Chief Prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson

255

Xlll

22.

Judgments and iSentences Case

in tne jM^edical

25 7

Extracts from Final Statements of Defendants

Sentences— July Petitions

25.

Croing

20,

1

947

2

265

Jiome

2

69

2

72

2

74

Appointment

as Reporter in the U.S.

House of Representatives Holocaust Television Series President's

Commission on

275 the Holocaust

Days of Remembrance Meeting 2^.

64

and Executions

Culture Shock

The

258

Hitler's

2 76

277

Court Reporter

2 78

Confronted oy xxolocaust Jjenial Wounds Reopened

283 2

The Holocaust Awareness

Institute

Meeting Elie Wiesel

84

284 285

Interview by the Steven Spielberg

SHOAH Foundation

285

Confronted by Holocaust Denial Again

286

More Challenges More Holocaust Denial

287

Appearance on Broadway with Tony Randall

289

Afterword

Appendix:

288

29 ^Statistics

on tne Al.edical Case

1

295

Notes

2 9 7

Bioliograpny

3

Acknowledgments

3

1

3

Atout

3

1

7

XIV

tlie

Autlior

9

orew^orc

I wish

I

were writing

this as

a foreword to a book that simply reminds

readers of an aberration that happened once-upon-a-time in

over half a century ago, but in

I wish

I

could report that

it

many

it

group that had the medicine.

It

was not an

and doctors of

was not a few.

cally co-opted scientists

it

aberration.

was the behavior of only a few misguided

individuals that led the scientists

perverse path, but

respects

Germany

It

that country

down

was a preponderance of

a

politi-

and physician opportunists. The professional

largest percentage of

Nazi Party members was

was not a minority of professional outcasts

of sorting civilian prisoners for either

work

that approved

or execution, nor did their

fellows ostracize the doctors that carried out atrocious experiments. In fact,

was the doctors

it

ostracized. Protesters

they were

/ wish

that upheld the ethics of medicine that

sometimes shared the

fate

of the persons

were

whom

trying to protect. I

could write that after the

trials at

Nuremberg, the lessons

learned and the international laws and codes that followed had put an

end

to

genocide,

torture,

and experimentation on unconsenting

human beings, but the laws and codes continue to be flouted. It is essential to revisit history as Vivien Spitz documented it, contemporaneously.

We

must remain aware

that, despite the

veneer of civilization

and the outward manifestations of culture and refinement, insidious

JL)

Irom liell

octor.s

impulses remain in every country and no nation has a

atavistic

monopoly on There careful

is

atrocity.

good science and

there

is

bad science

—

in the sense of

and accurate theory and experimentation. Facts have no

dogma and

scientific fact-finding benefits society,

be divorced from

its

human

context.

When

the scene

it is,

tragedy. Science

and ideology are treacherous

ounce of science

is

mixed with a ton of

but no science

partners.

may

set for

is

When

zealotry, catastrophic results

can be anticipated. This explosive mixture led to the disaster

German

scientific activities

an

in

of medical experimentation and eugenic

research. Vivien Spitz provides witness to testimony that reports atrocities

performed by professionals whose betrayal of

trust

beyond outrageous, because they are members of a profession

is

osten-

human welfare. There have been many theories about how and why this happened in a country considered to be among the most cultured and civilized of its day. What can lay the sibly dedicated to

foundation for the scale of such horrendous behavior? It

serves a

to unite the

demagogue well

up a scapegoat or a public enemy

to set

populace behind him and by so doing, enable them to

overlook incursions on

human

rights

through fear and ignorance.

serves him well to designate a group as other and,

them

as inferior,

subhuman, and

laws of civilized society. Hitler's

Germany

Think

first

Do

spring to

ineligible for the protection

the Jews, Gypsies,

mind

as

you read

It

for that reason, treat

of the

and homosexuals of

this?

of the early history of the United States. Here are

examples that speak to unethical medical experimentation long before the Nazi era. In the 1800s in the

Hamilton of Georgia placed a stroke. Dr.

American south,

slave in a pit

Walter Jones of Virginia and

oven

Dr.

Thomas

in order to study heat

several colleagues

poured

scalding water over sick slaves in an experiment to cure typhoid fever.

Consider that Dr. slave

women

of

J.

Marion Sims perfected an operation on a

Alabama

series

of

that cured a maternal birth injury that

untreated, caused continuous flow of urine

"Father of Gynecologic Surgery," Dr.

from the vagina. The

Ephraim McDowell of

Kentucky, before successfully removing an ovarian tumor from a white patient, had

XVI

first

operated on four slaves. Dr. Crawford

Long of

X ore^vord

Georgia conducted a controlled demonstration of anesthesia by amputating two fingers fi"om a slave boy other without. There

no record

is

—

one with ether and the

that either finger

was

diseased. In

1856, the Medical Journal of Virginia proposed severe sanctions be

imposed on a surgeon his leg

after investigating the accusation

had been amputated

for

an ulcer

of a slave that

"just to let the students see the

operation." Regardless of medical necessity, the master could permit or prohibit surgery

on "property" he owned. The master made no

complaint, therefore there was no remedy.^

What

of eugenics, academic forerunner of the racial purity doc-

trine that justified

abuse of "undesirable elements" of society? The

rediscovered findings of

Mendel

at the turn

the ideas of social Darwinism. Evolution

of the century advanced

was studied widely among

nations, but for unprecedented implementation of eugenic theory,

again you must look to the United States.

It

was hard

to

the institution of slavery to a theology that created

God's image, especially

in a nation

where

all

men were

accommodate

humankind

in

created equal.

Conventional wisdom that assumed inferiority of the black person

and of the mentally cy

deficient

was explained by

—as retrogression from the

them

authentic

to be subject to treatment

eugenic

movement progressed

century, congenital degeneracy

theories of degenera-

human,

therefore allowing

normal humans would

in the

not.

As

the

United States in the twentieth

was presented

in scientific terms as

a

hereditary disease, along with congenital pauperism, congenital prostitution,

and congenital

more than

criminality.

Beginning in Indiana in 1907,

half the state legislatures were persuaded to pass laws per-

mitting

"involuntary asexualization."

between

sterilization

and

They did not

distinguish

castration. Epilepsy, feeble-mindedness,

and

insanity were grouped together as indications for sterilization, to

avoid future generations with these afflictions.

1.

Martin

S.

Pernick Ph.D., "The Patient's Role

in

Medical Decision Making:

A

Social

History of Informed Consent in Medical Therapy, " in Appendices, Study on the Foundations

of Informed Consent,

Commission

for the

Volume

3

of Making Health Care Decisions (President's

Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and

Behavioral Research, October 1982).

XVll

"

1

J_)

oc to

As

r ,s

I

r

o

m

Bell

c

1

succumbed

the states

Supreme Court

to this pseudoscience,

Wendell Holmes added authority

Justice Oliver V.

rx

Supreme Court decision

in the

in 1927. Carrie

infamous Buck

Buck, the eighteen-

year-old illegitimate daughter of an allegedly feeble-minded mother, herself gave birth to a child. Carrie reportedly nine,

and her

matured, long normal.)

The

was alleged

child

after the case

was

had the mental age of

to be feeble-minded.

(As the child

closed, the child proved to be quite

Virginia law permitted involuntary sterilization,

board of the institution

in

which Carrie

and the

recommended

lived

it.

Schoolteacher and self-anointed "expert" Harry Laughlin was a pro-

author and speaker on the subject of eugenics.

lific

He was

asked to

review her records. Without seeing the patient, he stated that she was a

member of the

"shiftless, ignorant,

and worthless

class of anti-social

whites" and the possibility of her feeble-mindedness being due to nonhereditary causes

was "exceptionally remote."

prescient brief, noted the peril to society

if

Carrie's lawyer, in his

the sterilization law were

upheld, warning:

A reign of doctors will be inaugurated and in the name of science

new

classes will be added, even races

within the scope of such a regulation

tyranny

It

may

was upheld

may be

brought

and the worst forms of

be practiced.

—

in the oft-quoted phrase of Justice

Holmes,

"three

generations of imbeciles are enough.

In 1932, Harry Laughlin wrote:

Our

studies

soundly

show

also that the compulsory feature

established in long practice.

They show

is

now

also that the

subject for sterilization does not necessarily have to be an

inmate of an

institution, but

ty from the public at large. It

may

be selected with equal legali-

remains to be seen whether the

normal individuals

state

can extend

who

have come from exceedingly inferior stocks, judged by

sterilization to apparently

the constitutional qualities of their close kin.

XVlll

r

How

chilling

from society

oreword

an idea that some authority could pick out people

at large

and

sterilize

own

them, not even based on their

shortcomings, but based on "constitutional qualities" discerned in

Who, you might ask, would do this selecting? As you answer in Hitler's Germany was to appoint teams of doc-

their relatives! will see, the

do

tors to

so.

Sterilizations in

Germany and the conquered countries were

sanc-

tioned and enforced by government edict, but in America, governors

vetoed several of the state laws and the judiciary reversed others on Constitutional grounds. There has been a determined opposition to the

movement from

its

on exposing the

inception, sometimes based

appallingly flawed science underpinning eugenic sterilization, some-

times based

on

more fundamentally on human

sometimes based

rights,

religious teachings. Nevertheless, even after the revelations at

Nuremberg, a few Mississippi's law

states

continued eugenic

had not been rescinded, allowing

ry sterilization of "the socially inadequate." rations

sterilization. ^

for the

As recently

were made to victims of compulsory

As of

1995,

compulso-

as 2003, repa-

sterilization in

North

Carolina. Despite that, people convicted of criminal activity continue to be offered It

reduced sentences

would appear

that the

if

they agree to sterilization.

Germans lagged behind

their

American

colleagues in implementing the eugenic endorsements of doctors

and

German

col-

anthropologists. In 1924, Professor

F.

Lenz chided

his

leagues for falling so far behind America in exploiting genetic knowl-

edge in the interest of racial hygiene. Hitler read the

by E. Bauer, E. Fischer,

and

F.

German textbook

Lenz, The Principles of

Human

and Race Hygiene, while he was imprisoned in Landsberg in and the racial elements were written into Mein Kampf. The

Heredity 1923,

German to be

(lives

unworthy

jurist.

Professor

eugenic doctrine of Lebensunwertes Lebens

lived)

—described

in

a

book written by a

Binding, and a psychiatrist. Professor

Germany

Hoche

—was never implement-

ed in America. However

in

under a ruthless

Nazi regime led from compulsory

2.

political

Phillip E. Reilly, The Surgical Solution:

the United States (Baltimore,

MD:

a program of racial cleansing steriliza-

A History of Involuntary Sterilization in

Johns Hopkins University Press, 1991).

XIX

J_)

octors Irom ricll

murder (euphemistically termed euthanasia).

tion to

mass murders were rampant and

special

when

good fortune

in 1943,

Dr

Later,

when

Fischer wrote, "It

is

the

a rare

for a theoretical science to flourish at a time

the prevailing ideology

welcomes

diately serve the policy of the State."

it,

He

and

imme-

findings can

its

continued as an influential

part of the medical establishment after the war. In the introduction of

the

book Cleansing

documents the

the Fatherland,^ Christian Pross

postwar collusion of the medical establishment

in

whitewashing

many who supported Nazi policy, naming names and noting only a few who were belatedly called to justice. Often the majority, purporting to protect the honor of the German medical profession, ostracized the whistleblowers, who then lost faculty appointments or promotions.

Many

science archives, rewritten after the war,

show conspicu-

ous absence of the history of medicine between 1933 and 1945.

why

easy to see

It is

the Nazis based

much

of their master race

ideology upon American foundations. Sterilization law was passed in

Germany

in

1933 (twenty-six years after Indiana did

careful study of California's law. In 1936, Laughlin for

German journals) and

so),

following

(who had

written

other Americans received honorary degrees

from the University of Heidelberg. Eugenics programs

in

Germany

practiced the ideas that were proposed but not undertaken in the U.S. It

began

after Hitler

became Chancellor, with

the compulsory

sterili-

zation law for "congenital mental defects, schizophrenia, manicdepressive psychosis, hereditary epilepsy 1937,

all

German

Drs. Abel, Schade sterilized

and severe alcoholism." In

"coloured" children were to be sterilized and

and Fischer provided expert reports

—

after

—physicians

300 children. In 1939, Psychiatrists Heyde, Maus, Nitsche,

Panze, Pohlisch, Reisch, C, Schneider, Villinger, and Zucker and

thir-

ty-nine other physicians screened 250,000 mental patients for serious-

ness of

illness, curability,

were marked

for death.

and genetic

The Chief of

factors.

Of

Gotz

patients

and 2,000

Aly, Peter Chroust, Christian Pross; Cleansing the Fatherland: Nazi Medicine and

Racial Hygiene, trans. Belinda Press, 1994).

XX

group, 75,000

the regional SS soon reported he

had supervised the shooting of 4,400 Polish mental

3.

this

Cooper (Baltimore,

MD:

John Hopkins University

Tore word

from a Prussian

institution. In 1940,

carbon monoxide was the agent

of choice, and 70,000 mental patients in

German

were

hospitals

reported in meticulously kept records to have been killed, but cause of

was

death

In

falsified.

1941,

with

of

invasion

the

Russia,

Einsatzgruppen (unique units of soldiers) with the specific mission of

murdering Jews, Gypsies, and mental

conquered

into

In

moved with the armies

patients,

territories.

December of 1941 Himmler asked ,

comb

out the "euthanasia" to

the doctors that

the concentration

camps

had

carried

for those

who

were unable to work or were otherwise undesirable, resulting in a vast

number of deaths by

the poison gas Zyklon B.

The same

year,

Professor Fischer speaks of Jews as "beings of another species." This sort of

pronouncement by someone regarded

as

an authority dehu-

manizes victims and gives predisposed people permission to act on their

most sordid impulses.

Dr.

Mennecke,

in

January of 1942, wrote of a large contingent of

moving

doctors and male and female nurses

camp

extermination

at

Chelmno. In December of

opened an

500 feeble-minded patients, and

institution

which they were

where

killed

and

"idiots

and

epileptics"

their brains

set

up an

that year,

summer he had been

Hallevorden reported that over the sect the brains of

Poland to

to

Dr

able to dis-

Dr. Schneider

were studied,

after

examined. Dr Hallevorden

continued his work and reported in 1944 that he had 697 brains, including those he dissected himself His

own

records

show

that in

1944 Dr Mengele sent sera from twins he had infected with typhoid, eyes from Gypsies, and internal organs from children to be studied at the anthropology institute. After the war. Dr. Hallevorden admitted that

he had provided the extermination camps with containers and

fixatives.

camp

He

saying,

reported to an interrogator that he had approached the

"Look here now

boys,

if

you

are going to

kill all

these

people at least take the brains out, so that the material can be lized." In 1949,

he published from the

Max

uti-

Planck Institute (where he

remained a department head) the case of a brain disorder of a child

born of a mother

who had been

accidentally injured by carbon

monoxide poison. Hallevorden's brain

collection

was shared

for study

XXI

^

±J o c t o r

I

.s

r

iT oil

o in

with the University of Frankfort until 1990,

when

it

was buried

in a

cemetery in Munich."^

No

nation compared in scale with the meticulously organized,

highly prioritized, deliberate atrocities in 1945. In

all,

ilizations

German

reports of at least 350,000 ster-

between 1934 and 1939. The

the judges

had been

there are official

Germany between 1933 and

sterilizations

stopped because

and doctors were busy with the war and because murder

substituted for sterilization. In addition to the hundreds of

thousands of mental patients murdered quickly, there were an

mated eighty thousand mental tal institutions that

came ers,

patients in

esti-

German and French men-

died of starvation after the "euthanasia" program

to a halt. Millions

among

the Jews, Gypsies, Slavic slave labor-

homosexuals, and Russian and Polish soldier-prisoners were

killed

with the help of expert doctors

and those

What

fit

who

selected those

fit

to

work

only for experimentation or death.

has transpired in the world of medicine since the horrifying

examples of deviant doctors were exposed

—the doctors about whom

Vivien Spitz writes? In the aftermath of the war,

Japanese doctors used Chinese civilians to before and during

WWII.

prosecuted, so the

US

Unlike the

test

German

it

was learned

germ warfare agents

doctors, they

could acquire the data for

that

were not

germ warfare

its

gram without

disclosing strategic information that

presented in a

trial.

pro-

would have been

Despite the notoriety of the behavior and the codes and declarations that resulted,

the 1940s

American doctors established

studies starting in

and continuing over three decades, during which American

citizens in civilian hospitals

were subjected to radiation without

consent, in the interest of learning

how

their

to defend the country against

atomic war. After these experiments became declassified. President Clinton

established

Experiments

in

the

Advisory

Commission on Radiation

1993 to investigate and suggest compensation for the

4. Ibid. 5.

Benno Muller-Hill, Murderous Science: Elimination by Scientific Selection of Jews, and Others in Germany 1933-1945, trans. George R. Fraser, (Oxford: Oxford

Gypsies,

University Press, 1984).

xxu

x

LSD

surviving subjects. Also exposed were the death of

American

who were

soldiers,

oreword

experiments that caused

experimented upon with-

out their knowledge. In the \966

New England Journal of Medicine,

cited twenty-two unethical

conducted

Dr.

Henry Beecher

post-Nuremberg experiments

in

America,

in university, Veteran's Administration, military,

and

pri-

vate hospitals. They included experiments in which doctors withheld penicillin diers

some

—known to prevent rheumatic fever—from cohorts of

who had

Some

exudative strep throat.

received sulfa,

which resulted

cases of rheumatic heart disease.

ment had been

discussed,

much

soldiers received placebo,

more than seventy unnecessary

in

No

consents for experimental treat-

less signed.

Another case report described a poorly researched attempt ate antibodies

by injecting malignant melanoma

her mother in order to see

girl into

sol-

if

immune

cells

to cre-

of an afflicted

substances could be

generated for treatment. The patient died the next day, demonstrating the dubious value of the experiment.

The unwarranted

risk to the

mother, although she consented, eventuated in her death fifteen

months

of malignant melanoma.

later

The most notorious American experiment had begun before war and was not a

part of Dr. Beecher's article.

ure to treat over four hundred black

—

natural course of the disease"

comes of

syphilis

had

as

not clearly

if

men

It

concerned the

the fail-

for syphilis, "to observe the

centuries of observing the out-

demonstrated

this.

The Tuskeegee

study began in 1933. Despite the availability of penicillin, the subjects

continued without therapy until 1972. despite several papers that described

of

all,

it

Service.

Not

until the

in scientific journals. Saddest

second Clinton administration were an apology

offered, too late for

and mental ravages of the

In the

one protested the study

was done under the auspices of the U.S. Public Health

and reparations physical

it

No

book

many who

died or suffered the

disease.

Medicine Betrayed, sponsored by the British Medical

Association in 1992, a working party investigated and compiled abuses of

human

rights to

which doctors contributed

reported, for example, psychiatric abuse in the

Cuba, where

substantially.

They

USSR, Romania, and

psychiatrists treated political dissidents as mentally

ill

XXlll

JJortors Ironi nc'll

candidates for institutionalization. In Japan, social and cultural indication, rather than medical,

when

tion

a family

seemed

to be the basis for institutionaliza-

member brought

disgrace

on the family name.

Punitive amputations by doctors under Islamic law were cited.

From

Chile there were reports of cases in which doctors revived tor-

tured prisoners so political police interrogations could continue.

The

investigators detailed other specific instances of physician participa-

tion in torture in Greece,

Germany,

Brazil,

Philippines, India,

What

Kashmir, Argentina, the former East Turkey, Venezuela, Mauritania,

Salvador,

El

South Africa, Uruguay, and on and on.

kind of doctor can be involved in these

activities?

What

are

Some German doctors sought the among peers through contributing to

the motives of "doctors from hell"?

glory of professional distinction the welfare of

humanity

—humanity only as an abstract

were committed to a dispassionate

them to tation.

seize a socially sanctioned opportunity for

human experimen-

Other German doctors claimed they merely continued a prac-

—that of healing. For

gy, the illness

was of the body of the

sion by those of inferior blood that

"health") of the state.

To them

it

state.

The

disease

their ideolo-

was an

all

es that

was not unlike the amputation of a

were necessary to promote the well-being of the

were most often those in a structure with such as the military or police

"who were

state,

with

identified utterly.

The authors of Medicine Betrayed pointed out force.

following orders."

cracy played

The

part as well, for

its

responsibility for

its

They were

the ones, then

mission,

and now,

calculated detachment of bureauit

allowed individuals to disclaim

any outcomes, because each step of a murderous

Another obtained the rounded up the

that the torturers

own culture and

process was delegated to a different person.

XXIV

obliter-

impulses of compassion and ruthlessly pursued those impuls-

which they

how

inva-

would weaken the "purity" (read

gangrenous limb or excising a malignant growth. The doctors ated

They

enabled

intellectual science that

with which they were familiar

tice

idea.

bullets.

targets.

A

Someone

could they be at fault?

One provided

the gun.

third loaded the gun. Yet another else far

away pulled

the trigger, so

x oreword

book about

In his

the physicians involved,^ Robert Lifton con-

ceived of the idea of "doubhng." This he described as a psychological state that

was necessary

to avoid

mental disintegration under extreme

circumstances. Doubling allowed a person to maintain the normal

intimacy of

human

relationships with those in the "real" world while

simultaneously allowing themselves to carry on otherwise unthink-

same

able behavior by the

"self" in a parallel world. Several of the

involved doctors later committed suicide.

and

it

because of remorse

because of fear of the shameful consequences of expo-

guilt or

sure?

Was

Or was

it

simply the collapse of their ideology, the end of an

unrestrained era for them, with no professional future in sight? Christian Pross^

comments on the diary of Dr. Voss and the

ure the doctor derived from the "special bonuses" of war sorship at Posen

"How

nice

it

and the crematorium

would be

if

we could

drive the

tifully,

just as in Leipzig."

my

He

—a

profes-

quotes the diary,

whole pack of them

[the

two wagonloads of Polish ashes

Poles] through such ovens. Yesterday

were taken away. Outside

there.

pleas-

office, the robinias are

blooming beau-

The Commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf

Hoss, described in his autobiography the mass murders and the suffering they caused him, but he neglected to mention the three carloads

of valuables removed from Auschwitz.

We prefer to

think of this behavior as so egregious that

it

merits a

novel explanation. Pross, on the other hand, offers an explanation that supports the idea of the "banality of evil" so aptly phrased by

Hannah

Arendt. "Along with the homeless, the beggars, the inmates of insane

asylums and the Jews of the Eastern European ghettos, the

German

who

required

authorities eliminated the visible poor, those people

'unnecessary expenditures' during their lifetimes. Their mistreatment

and liquidation provided housing, employment,

assets

and old age

pensions for others." The killing of the "useless provided beds for physically

wounded

soldiers

and

civilians during all out

tying mental hospitals, foster homes,

6.

and

war by emp-

institutions for the handi-

Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide

(Basic Books, 1986). 7.

Cleansing the Fatherland.

XXV

LJoctor^ from Hell

capped." The dismissal of Jewish scientists from the Kaiser Wilhelm

Consortium provided dozens of openings

and opportunities

for

and funds of research ed

scientists

advancement grants.

cial joint letter to Hitler,

in addition to

Few of

and doctors objected.

for professional

the

On

promotion

usurping the reins

many hundreds

of associat-

the contrary, they sent an

offi-

pledging specifically to the goals of the Nazi

hierarchy.

Add dists to

martial music, torchlight parades, and the

skill of propaganmanipulate the emotions, commingling national pride and

hatred for a fabricated internal enemy. All that, plus awareness of the egocentric nature of ries to

human beings,

dispels the

need

for esoteric theo-

explain the behavior of a nation not yet recovered from the

humiliating and impoverishing consequences of a lost war. the jobs for individuals created by a

new war and

Look

to

the sudden permis-

sion to take over the businesses of a disenfranchised segment of the citizenry.

See the opportunity to work out the frustrations and disap-

pointments of daily authority.

Look

on the scapegoat provided by governmental

to the practical benefits to the

sive confiscations of tive eaters,"

life

and the

German

of mas-

state

wealth and property, elimination of "unproducprofitable

economics of

necessity of supporting the slaves,

who were

slave labor without the

expendable and

in

seem-

ingly endless supply.

Vivien Spitz has reminded us graphically that

be aware of the baser instincts of

human beings

we must constantly while we aspire to the

Outward manifestations of piety and righteousness do not protect the citizenry. Each belt buckle that German soldiers wore had embossed upon it Gott Mit Uns (God Is with Us). Over the door of nobler.

the courthouse in the Palace of Justice

complex

in

Nuremberg were

engraved the Ten Commandments. The group that established those

commandments was precisely the group that was deprived of citizenship, human rights, and even life, under the laws promulgated in the name of that very city the anti-Jewish Nuremberg Laws of 1935. Are we at risk here in America? Addressing narrowly only the

—

duties of physicians, there

is

this caveat. Certainly, doctors are

practicing in the poisonous atmosphere of Hitler's

Germany

or any

other totalitarian government. Yet, even an American doctor

XXVI

not

may

r

introduce bias, unethical and possibly subconscious,

when he

oreword

or she

is

asked to think about the entire population to be treated, rather than to serve the individual patient

eration of

who

community and of

izenship, but there

must be

is

seeking help.

the greater limits.

good

Whenever

It is

is

true that consid-

an obligation of

cit-

the doctor begins to

exclude patients from medical services or uses professional

skills

against the patient's interest or deviates from a position of individual patient advocacy in therapy or in research, he or she starts slippery slope.

The law can

and specify the

limits,

the doctor's integrity fession

—and above

all,

28,

a

minimal duties of a physician

but the future of the profession depends

and adherence

upon

to the ethical premises of the pro-

the appreciation of our

Fredrick R. Abrams,

December

indicate the

down

common

humanity.

M.D.

2004

XXVll

Introduction

r^acn generation ol Americans nas ol its its

own cnoosine, by wnicn

spirit

is

to lace

cJnaracter

its

measured ana

is

tested.

—i

resident

Dr. Julius Moses was a general practitioner and 1932. He refused

German

circumstances not

physicians

to

conform

who would

Jimmy

in Berlin

V^arter

between 1920

to the developing mindset of

eventually link theory

and

practice in

medicine to a marriage between science and crimes against humanity. In 1930 seventy-five children died at the hands of grossly negligent doctors during vaccine injections. Dr. lic.

Moses informed

the pub-

Thereafter he contributed to guidelines developed for scientific

human

experiments passed by the National Health Authority,

stress-

ing the individual rights of the patients.

In 1932

Moses warned that in a National

doctors' duty

would be

incurably sick

"valueless,"

would be considered "human

would put him

the embodiment of

treated.

ballast," "trash,"

and "unproductive," thus requiring

Moses was

He warned

who were curable would be

destroyed. His prescient warning Dr.

Third Reich the

to create a "new, noble humanity."

further that only those patients

The

Socialist

that

they be

in jeopardy.

the physician's conscience.

Doctors Irom rd ell

Even power at

after

Adolf Hitler and the National

Socialist Party

came

to

Moses, a Social Democrat, did not emigrate. In 1942,

in 1933,

age seventy-four, he was sent to the Theresienstadt concentration

camp

where he died of starvation shortly

in Czechoslovakia,

there-

after.

On

September

Human

Anthropology, It

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of

the

1927,

15,

Genetics, and Eugenics

was opened

was divided into four departments: Anthropology,

A

Eugenics, and Experimental Genetic Pathology.

"The term

means

'eugenics'

human

of the studies in

results

to establish a

genetics

in Berlin.

Genetics,

1931 report stated:

connection between the

and

measures in

practical

population policy." After Hitler

came

to

power

Genetic Health

in 1933, a Superior

Court was established. Thus began the perverse degradation of

German medicine and

the

demonic human experimentation and mur-

der of thousands of innocent people by willing

Some

doctors

may have had pangs

chance to experiment on humans.

The

was exposed

in

World War

II

human

rights

world

tures of the

modern

—

at the

civilized

society that

and

unmatched tice at the

its

in

May

mass genocide of

history. Evil

Nuremberg war crimes

which humankind

is

many

culcivi-

all

its

of the Jews of Europe,

concentration and death camps,

was an event

was brought before the bar of jus-

trials,

further exposing the depths to

capable of sinking.

Out of these landmark

Nuremberg Code, which ical research involving

trials

came

the establishment of the

sets the guidelines

human

beings.

still

in use today for

Thus a new standard of

medical behavior was established for the post-World

which human

1945.

into a cesspool of evil with

vortex five million non-Jews as well. This

human

8,

Germany was a

uncivilized.

marched

its

which

life,

Germany by the

and the Soviet Union on

which, annihilated six million in sucking into

and the dignity of

rights

have historically been violated in

state-sponsored, planned

era in

jumped

^

with the defeat of Nazi

States, Britain, France,

Basic

lized,

of conscience, but

doctors.

darkest evil of the violent twentieth century resulted in the

mass violation of basic human United

German

War

med-

ethical

II era,

an

rights has been given paramount importance.

introduction

This document requires, consent of the ual to control

among

other things, the voluntary informed

human subject, which protects the right of the individhis own body. The code also instructs doctors to weigh

the risk against the expected benefit

and

and

to avoid unnecessary pain

suffering.

In writing this book,

I

worked from a condensed

11,538-page court reporters' record (which

transcript of the

helped prepare), deemed

I

the "record that will never forget," from our National Archives.

Chapter

of Doctors from Hell answers the question frequently

1

How

asked of me:

did you happen to go to

medical case of the war crimes

Department

trials?

in 1946 at age twenty-two,

Nuremberg

to report the

Recruited by the U. I

endured a

S.

War

terrifying flight

over the North Atlantic on a military C-54 with troops going over to relieve

war-weary soldiers in Germany.

Chapter 2 covers the International Military Tribunal

trial

of the

major Nazi leaders charged with crimes against humanity and calculated genocide.

The

case

was

titled

In the Matter of the United States

of America, the French Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain

and Northern sus

Ireland,

Hermann Wilhelm Chapter 3

sets

and the Union of Soviet Goering, et

Socialist Republics ver-

al.

up the twelve Subsequent Proceedings, of which These twelve

the medical case

is

American judges

in military tribunals.

the

first.

On

trials

were held before

October 25, 1946, The

United States of America versus Karl Brandt,

et al,

charged twenty

doctors and three medical assistants with war crimes and crimes against

humanity before Military Tribunal

and military

1.

These twenty doctors educated

were not

political

who had

taken the Oath of Hippocrates to heal and cure, but were

leaders, but highly

scientists

turned into torturers and murderers through their participation in the

Nazi regime. Chapter 4 describes the case of the Nazi doctors, as well as

my

personal story of difficult and hazardous living in the cold, snowy,

bombed-out anywhere.

city

of Nuremberg, where there was no heat or hot water

—

1

J_/

octors irom

JH. e

In chapter 5

I

1

recount the specifics of high-altitude experiments in

which concentration camp inmates were forced chambers and sent In chapter

6,

to sixty-eight

inmates

thousand

testify to freezing

feet

into high-altitude

without oxygen.

experiments in which

vic-

tims were placed in long, narrow tanks of ice water for up to three hours, at

which point death occurred.

Chapter 7 gives

details of malaria

hundred inmates, including a

large

experiments in which twelve

number of

were infected with controlled mosquito

Polish Catholic priests,

bites or injected

with malaria-

infected blood.

One

of the most savage,

sadistic,

and inhumane experiments

involving bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration and bone transplantation

—

is

covered in chapter

8.

Sections of bone, muscles, and nerves,

including whole legs taken off at the hips, were removed from inmates to attempt to transplant

Chapter 9

wounded and

details

them

to other victims.

experiments in which inmates were

artificially

and spread

infected with mustard gas. Burns appeared

over their entire bodies wherever drops contacted the skin. Lungs and

organs were eaten away. Sulfanilamide experiments, described in chapter 10, were con-

many

ducted on

Polish Catholic priests in Dachau.

They were

wounded, and the wounds were infected with streptococcus, gas gangrene,

and

tetanus.

Wood

shavings and ground glass were forced into

the wounds. Sulfa drugs, which would have healed these wounds,

were withheld. In chapter 11,

ments.

I

give an account of the Nazis' sea water experi-

German, Czech, and Polish Gypsies were given no food and

forced to drink salty sea water for five to nine days.

During

my turn in

the courtroom, survivor witness Karl Hollenrainer rushed from the

witness stand with a knife and attempted to stab Dr. Beiglboeck in the prisoners' dock.

Chapter

1

2 gives the reader a break from the horror and

story of the

December 1946 holiday

from home.

My

colleagues and

I

my

first

try to regain a

the

Christmas away

were given a chance

from our psychological wounds and malcy.

period,

tells

to recuperate

modicum

of nor-

introduction

In chapter 13,

1

on Polish

describe epidemic jaundice experiments

Jews. These inmates suffered untold pain and

many

deaths.

Sterilization experiments are described in chapter 14.

These were

conducted on Polish Jews and Russian prisoners of war to develop a suitable

method

for the sterilization of millions of people

and drugs

tion, surgery,

in a state-sponsored, planned,

by radia-

mass genocide

of large population groups. In chapter 15, ers of war,

skin

cover experiments on

I

German

criminals, prison-

and Polish Jews, who were infected by laceration of the

and the introduction of a typhus

culture

by contagious

lice,

or by

the intravenous or intramuscular injection of fresh blood containing the typhus virus. These experiments killed 90 percent of the victims.

In chapter 16, the experiments with poison are detailed. Poison bullets

were shot into Russian prisoners of war to investigate the

humans and

of poison on

was

to time

how

fast

effect

death occurred. Poison

also secretly administered in food, as the doctors stood behind

curtains to

watch the

Incendiary

were

inflicted

were

ignited,

reactions.

bomb experiments are described in chapter

17.

Victims

with phosphorous from the bombs. Then the wounds

and the skin burned

for

up

to sixty-eight seconds before

the flames were extinguished.

In chapter 18,

relate the particulars

I

that involved pus, blood coagulant,

and

At one time 112 Jewish inmates were lection.

They were

killed

of experiments on inmates

gas.

selected for a skeleton col-

and defleshed. This

is

described in chapter

19.

Chapter 20 covers the "euthanasia" (murder) program put into operation to cleanse

Germany

egories of the population tally

and

babies, diseased children

and

to

cat-

men-

adults, the

infirm.

In chapter 21,1 discuss the code of medical ethics that uct of this

many

from well but "undesirable" people

and physically deformed

sick, old,

of "useless eaters," covering

trial

and how

it

was

arrived

was a prod-

at.

Chapter 22 gives the judgments, sentences, and the

final state-

ments of the defendants, and the Nuremberg Code, which covers permissible medical experiments for the future.

JJoctors Irom

IT.

ell

In chapters 23 and 24

back

in the

sons,

my life as

United

States.

I

briefly describe

This includes

a military wife,

my

post-Nuremberg

my marriage,

life

two

the birth of

and eventually the continuation of

my

career as a court reporter in courts-martial cases, in the Denver district court,

and

finally as

Chief Reporter in the United States House of

Representatives. During this time

me up

four times, which fired doctors'

using captured

trial,

faced serious Holocaust deniers

I

to put together a lecture

German

film,

and

on the Nazi

me on

started

twelve-year mission to speak and educate that took

me

a

over the

all

United States and Canada, and to Singapore.

During these years

Nobel Laureate

met the most famous Holocaust

I

and

Elie Wiesel,

I

survivor,

describe this memorable, over-

whelming meeting. And during the 1970s

I

met a German Bundestag

court reporter, Heinz Lorenz, not knowing that he had been Hitler's court reporter in the Berlin bunker at the end.

In 1995 the Steven Spielberg

interviewed me, categorizing

you

invite

and look

to

sit

in

my

SHOAH Visual History Foundation

me

as a "witness to history."

row

front

ask you to listen to the guinea pig victims

I

as they describe the indescribable

conducted on them without

want you, the

ic evil

make

at their

who

is

past

is

them

mercy.

I

to

survived

—tortuous and deadly experiments good people with

into unethical,

What

indifferent to evil?

do we have the courage

The

such,

their consent.

in ordinarily

choices that turn

with victims

who

reader, to realize the infinite capacity for

and depravity

bystander

As

Nuremberg courtroom

into the eyes of these medical perpetrators, only to see evil

staring back.

I

seat in that

is

demon-

free will

who

immoral perpetrators

the culpability of the silent

We are capable of being rescuers;

be rescuers?

prologue— and why

are the lessons not being learned?

October i^^o

Air

VVestover

xiela, JM^assacnusetts

The knocks on

the door were at

dream scenes of

my

They came awakening "Miss!

sleep.

first

Then they

again, harder

and

dull

and recessed deep

stopped.

louder, as

me from my dream. Miss! Wake up!" Knock,

though from a

eyes in the darkness,

switched on the metal table lamp and looked at the clock.

narrow

stumbled to the door in

I

peered around

it.

Under

a.m.!

hall stood the

briefing

room

"Yes,

my

pajamas, opened

dark outline of a

tall figure.

to fly at 6:00 a.m.

Meet us

mumbled

in disbelief

I'm going! But

this

just got in

Only two days U.S. military.

in the

and closed the door. The

ness of sleep cobwebs started falling away, leaving stark

I

and

at 4:00."

sir," I

And

it,

the dim, bare light bulb in the ceiling of the

"Get dressed. Miss. Be prepared

days.

Two

I

a.m.?

Groggily,

is it;

steel fist,

knock, knock! "Miss!"

The sounds were urgent now. Rubbing my

Two

in the

I

was not supposed

to

happen

reality.

for four

hazi-

This

more

bed an hour ago.

before,

I

was the only

had experienced

my

first

contact with the

woman passenger among several

soldiers

JJoctors Irom rxell

when we

flew from Selfridge Air Force Base in Detroit to Westover

Air Field in Massachusetts.

Upon my

arrival at Westover,

Department orders

major

to the

my

had presented

I

in charge, indicating that

I

U.S.

War

was a

civil-

ian contract court reporter assigned to the Office of the Chief of

Counsel

War Crimes

for

Nuremberg, Germany. He looked

in

papers over and then stared at

me

my

with a frown, looking somewhat

concerned.

Do you know

"You're barely twenty-two, ma'am.

where you're

going?" The warning tone in his voice was unsettling. "Yes,"

the

war

I

"To Nuremberg, Germany,

said confidently.

"Do you know what een months

after the

covered bodies

No

the wind.

still

like in

it's

Nuremberg today?

end of the war!

in the debris

in the rubble everywhere.

throw a

bomb I

Nazi

under the bombed-out Walled

on the

on the Allied

"I guess

street

payroll

know any

of

by the

this,"

I

had embarked on

German and

I

and

this trip

said,

—

city,

with unre-

No

hot water for still

hiding

They come out

City.

civilian!

at

Or

occasionally

Allies."

replied, trying to picture the

"But

I

just

I

remembered why

have to go. I'm half

cannot believe what I'm seeing on the Movietone

newsreels in the theaters about the atrocities the

mitted

only eight-

appears to be American or

—military or

into facilities used

didn't

who

It's

terrorists are

alarming scene he had just painted. Nevertheless, I

work on

A sour stench carried by

heat anywhere, except in fireplaces.

night to shoot anyone British or

a bombed-out

It's

baths. Chlorine pills for drinking water.

to

to

trials."

especially the

Germans have com-

German doctors. I have to go to see for myself War Department needs court reporters.

I'm a court reporter, and the I

want

to take these doctors' testimony,

how they human beings." hear

defend these

terrible atrocities

Shaking his head, he then provided

around

my

I

me

their faces.

I

want

to

and experiments on

with a dog tag ID to hang

neck and a handful of papers to read and study. Next he

asked the sergeant to show

where

watch

would be

staying.

I

me

to

my

billet,

did not realize

my

the tiny private

room

orders indicated a high

— October iq^"?

on

priority

probably I

was wearing a warm over

my

geant, sensing that

"Here,

me

let

room, where

We

I

He

it

would be leaving the

I

would

base.

trench coat over

my

suitcase in hand.

The

my my one

him

arm, ser-

said with kindness in his voice,

my

suitcase into

guided

for a

my

temporary

tour.

There were coffee tables with magazines and ashtrays; end

tables held lamps,

and a radio

along with a coffee service.

ture

said

and

carried

to follow

He

so.

and had

was bewildered,

take that."

I left it

suit

shoulder,

me

estover Air Jiela

entered a lounge area with comfortable-looking vinyl sofas

chairs.

wall.

he told

until

be about six days before

still

my handbag

and

Germany

flights to

v>

sat

A

on a

table

on one

soft drink dispenser

side of the

room

stood against the

Although the new and wondrous invention of a radio with a

—called

television

—had

would be no widespread use of years away, so there

was no

pic-

been developed in the 1930s, there it

TV

until

about 1948. That was

two

still

lounge that the sergeant

set in the

showed me. Pictures of military aircraft of

me

curiosity led

to learn

from those walls than reasons

now

to

I

all sizes

more about

were on the

the Air Force

had ever known

before.

I

and

its

My

walls.

warplanes

had good personal

become more knowledgeable about the planes of I would soon be flying on one.

the

U.S. Air Force, since

—so suc-

There was the Boeing Flying Fortress precision bomber cessftil in

escorts.

committing Germany to rubble

The B-29

Superfortress

its

long-range fighter

—the most advanced airplane

oped by the U.S. during World War final defeat

—with

II,

devel-

which helped bring about the

of Japan in August 1945. This fighter plane was unique

because tons of bombs could be flown at longer distances than ever before,

which enabled the U.S.

to attack

had about eighty thousand military 1945, at the

from

aircraft at

farther away.

The

peak strength in

U.S.

May of

end of the war. The lounge had dozens of pictures show-

ing the different aircraft used in the wars with fighters, transports,

Germany and Japan

and bombers among them.

Then I saw a picture of the plane on which I would be flying to Germany the Douglas C-54 Skymaster long-range military trans-

—

port with four propeller-driven engines.

because of those four engines.

I

felt

more comfortable

My first flight was at Christmas time in

Jjoctors Irom riell

1943, after

when

graduated from Gregg Business College in Chicago,

I

my

flew to Detroit to start

I

That was on American Airlines It

was

job in a court reporting agency.

in a plane with

a stormy, frightening flight over

flashing

all

around

made

us. I

Chicago and continuing by

knew

I

first

this flight to

over the North Atlantic

making

As

it

that flight several times, flying

train to

my home

Germany would be

—and

I

Woodstock,

in

a long one

my

attention

down

memory

a

Woodstock, where terbug music that sergeant

I

lane that took

my

me

I

danced

relaxed,

would be going I

room

for the

my flight. We my meals with

to just before

would be eating

civilian

jit-

to.

the location of the briefing

and other

soldiers

I felt

back to the soda joint in

high school friends and

showed me

entered the mess hall where

American

me

Miller's "In the

Now

used to put nickels in the jukebox to play the

flight orientation that I

Leaving

—many hours

was diverted from

Glenn

Mood," which jumped from a nearby jukebox.

The

Illinois.

safely.

the pictures to the loud jitterbug music of

strolling

back to

had a great deal of trepidation about

walked around the lounge,

I

two propeller engines.

Lake Michigan with lightning

employees going overseas.

back in the lounge with a cautionary warning about not

entering secured areas where only military personnel were allowed, the sergeant excused himself.

my way back to my billet, unpacked the few clothes I had packed in my suitcase, inspected my army cot, and tried to feel settled I

found

in. Yet, I just

knew

I

would not be comfortable

in this

ed military, about to embark on an adventure that

make. I

could not

know

and

forever.

and how blessed

From

although

United

10

I

was

to

Germany would change my

to

I

all this

was

that point on, I

would be

to have I

to

on

all

victims,

been born

me how

in a free,

would no longer it

watch them

the while, record their

remind

would often be confronted with

States.

life

view film and photographs of atroc-

from the witness stand, and,

words. The effect of

try.

that going to

see the mutilations that were inflicted

testify in tears

is

seemed driven

•

significantly ities,

I

male-dominat-

valuable

life

democratic coun-

tolerate

any

bigotry,

after returning to the

October iq4o. Vve stover Air rield

When Trying to

was time

for chow,

feel at ease, I

picked up

it

food service.

cafeteria-style

I

me

that

was not

I

pened

were

in military

recruited

me

Once we had our food, they to relieve post-war

I

them

told

the

They were not invited

I

hap-

War Department had

work on

war

trials,

trials.

the

me to join them at their long table. forces who would return to the who had not seen any combat. me they were having their base

weary occupation

young

soldiers

dinner companions told

readily agreed, since

had

how

familiar with the

Halloween party the next evening and asked

I

in line

learned that they, too, were flying to Germany,

I

U.S. These were very

My

hall.

They noted

uniform and wanted to know

started.

In our conversation,

and the GIs

to be friendly

as a civilian court reporter to

which had already

mess

to the

chatty, asking lots of questions.

be going to Germany.

to

my way

my metal tray and got in line for the didn't see any other women anywhere!

The atmosphere turned out before and after

found

I

would not be

I

if I

would

flying out for five

to have a costume, of course.

like to go. I

more

days.

They had already put

together in their clever, innovative fashion

and were eager

theirs

to help

me

come up with one. They managed to acquire some large Gl pants and an oversized GI shirt, a long cook's apron, and a rag mop top for my wig. Although

I

was

tall

and

slender,

I

looked

like

cook when they were done with me. In costume,

The mess

hall

was decorated

a hefty military

I felt

more

relaxed.

Halloween. Orange and black

for

streamers were strung across the ceiling and large accordion-pleated

paper pumpkins hung from them. Black

cats, witches,

and ghosts

peered out from every wall. Big Band dance music of the 1940s

onated from the jukebox,

filling

from the Andrews

"Rum and

Sisters'

the

room with

every popular song,

Coca-Cola"

to

"Boogie Woogie

Company B" to "Symphony" and "Harbor Young women from Mount Holyoke College nearby in Bugle Boy from

Massachusetts, appeared

my

arrival.

first

women I had

This turned out to be the

And what

fun

it

got back to

my

billet

years. I

—the

was!

sleep before the knocks

What

and

in

first

res-

Lights."

Hadley,

seen anywhere since

big party of

my

twenty-two

fun!

bed by 1:00 a.m.

I

had one hour of

on the door came.

11

JDoctors Irom Idell

Ihe

U.iS.

War

JJepartment Jvecruitment

Only eighteen months in

Germany.

ing

worked with a

Then one

May

8,

1945, the

November

freelance reporting agency since

day, a flier

war had ended

my first court reporting job in Detroit,

had been on

I

on

before,

from the United States

and machine shorthand court reporters from

go to Germany to report the

of

trial

1943.

War Department came

into our office, recruiting approximately twenty-six high-speed al

hav-

manu-

over the country to

all

Hermann Wilhelm Goering and start in November

twenty-one other major Nazi leaders. Scheduled to 1945, this

trial

was

to be held before

an International Military

Tribunal composed of four judges and four alternate judges, two from

each victorious country: the United

Great Britain, and

States, France,

Union. Thereafter, twelve more

Soviet

the

Subsequent Proceedings), including the Nazi doctors' conducted.

wanted the doctors'

I

theaters I

all

on Movietone newsreels.

I

had so

I

was on the

on our Philco

across the country,

would be chosen when

trial,

the

were to be

trial.

Publicity about the impending trials

newspapers

(called

trials

front pages of

and

radios,

in the

applied immediately, wondering

little

if

experience and so few people

were needed. I

waited anxiously in Detroit to hear from the

When

I

heard, they told

was only twenty.

and

I

was

told that

I

me I was

My

too young.

I

had

would be accepted

at twenty-one,

provided

I

was excited the day

with a

lot

I

I

examination.

that

I

notified of

as fast as

I

could!

my acceptance.

It

came

Civil Service

passed with 98 percent accuracy. Because the reporters

major Nazi leaders'

Proceedings.

12

was

grow older

The next months

and inoculations, and taking the

wait about a year to receive

two.

tried to

could pass

of paperwork and instructions for getting the necessary

physical examination

for the

as

I

I

two hundred words

per minute in shorthand at 95 percent accuracy.

me

to be twenty-one

heart sank in disappointment. However,

the U.S. Civil Service examination with a score of

were" unbearable for

War Department.

trial

had already been

my orders, which were

They came near

selected, for the

the end of October 1946;

I

I

had

to

Subsequent

was twenty-

October

iq/^6

,

Air xield

Vv e .stover

Orientation ana Boarding tne l^lane Now, on November

and

for Paris, then Frankfurt, er of barely

warm water,

I

1

was about

finally,

repacked

to get

on a plane bound

Nuremberg. After a quick show-

my suitcase—just a day and a half

unpacking. The steamer trunk that had carried the belongings of

after

my

1946,

1,

Germany to the Germany one hun-

mother's father and grandparents from Nierberg,

now en

United States in 1846 was dred years

carrying

later,

my

route back to

belongings for an entirely different pur-

pose.

So

tired I

could barely stand up,

I

found

4:00 a.m., almost

captain,

and the major. None of us appeared

of

least

all

me.

began with instructions on life

to be very mentally alert,

was again the only woman. The

I

to the briefing

All the GIs were there, the sergeant, a

room by

late.

my way

how

to

flight orientation

don a parachute and a Mae West

jacket.

how sleepy I was, shocked me to alertness by asking me to demonstrate what we had just learned. I failed the test miserably. In a good-natured fashion, he buckled me into the cumbersome parachute, with the heavy pack hanging off my bottom. He showed us where the ripcord was and how to pull it should it become necessary to jump from the plane. TO JUMP FROM THE PLANE?! The

captain, sensing

That

hit the sleep center

tion.

Now

I

was

really

of

my brain and put me at wide-awake atten-

beginning to have second thoughts. The cap-

tain snap-buckled

me

practiced putting

on and taking

Fortunately, long, cold

into the

jacket.

life

off our parachutes

had had the good sense

I

For the next half hour

to put

on wool

and

billets

Mae

all

Wests.

slacks for this

trip.

After receiving our final boarding instructions,

our

and

we

we went back

to

and gathered our belongings. The GIs had military gear

large backpacks.

I

had

my

We

all

fleece-lined trench coat.

suitcase,

my

shoulder bag, and

my

climbed up the steps and boarded the

Douglas C-54 Skymaster transport.

The main cabin had

seats for twenty-six passengers. In the flight

compartment, the Air Force dual controls.

pilot

The navigator and

and copilot

sat side

by side and had

radio operator sat behind.

Two

relief

13

JJoctors Irom

crew members toilet,

JTiell

crew compartment, which had

sat in the

rest

a water tank, and stowage for parachutes and Hfe

bunks, a

rafts.

main compartment had overhead baggage racks and stowage

In the back were a coatroom, buffet and food storage unit,

life rafts.

lavatory,

and washroom.

The plane was loaded cloudy darkness.

at

6:00 a.m. in the chilling, wind-whipped,

My fellow travelers and I were all so tired,

and excited as the engines the plane

It

and

warmed

up,

we

lifting off into the

was too dark

tinier as

This

started.

started a long,

bumpy sky,

roll

down

We

the

to see anything but the lights below, getting tinier

we climbed

higher into the dark clouds. Barely able to

we remained

were heading north-northeast into the predawn skies on our

route over

Nova

land in Iceland

Newfoundland, and the

Scotia,

miles per hour at 10,000

at

7,500

of Greenland, to

Nova

Cruising speed was 185

feet.

feet.

my

Anxiety about the unknown clutched ever got over

tip

—well over 1,500 miles away. The plane's maximum

speed was 229 miles per hour

Scotia,

I

was

in a

deep

mind. But before

we

awaken

for

sleep.

I

did not

over eight hours, until our landing at Reykjavik, Iceland island of

runway

engines roaring.

hear each other over the droning roar of the engines, quiet.

five

We're on our way. After

is it!

dark November

only

we were both anxious

hours after ending our fun-filled evening, but

before

The

for four

snow

—a white

and ice barely three hundred miles wide.

Detained there

many hours while the plane was

repaired,

we wait-

ed in the small airport building. Shortly before reboarding for the next leg of our trip,

I

was introduced

to

my new

seatmate, the wife of the

Prime Minister of Iceland.

Now there would be two women on board.

Emergency over

the .Nortn Atlantic

Airborne once again, we headed southeast over the North Atlantic,

bound

for Paris.

beyond the point of told

what

get the

it

life

was, but jackets

Hours

return, an

we

into that

segment of the

emergency developed.

We

flight,

were not

did precisely as instructed without panicking:

on and prepare

to ditch

—

in the

North

Atlantic!

What did ditching mean? Into the ice-cold pitching waves of the

14

October iq^G, Westover Air rield

North Atlantic? The

would have

would be thrown

to scramble into

would have

rafts

rafts

to get us

into the water,

them? The plane would sink

away from the plane

to

and we

shortly.

Our

keep us from being

sucked under into the black canyons of the waves! Just

weeks

on October

before,

disaster in history

3,

1946, the worst commercial air

had occurred when a Berlin-bound American

Overseas Airlines plane crashed in Newfoundland. Thirty-nine men,

women, and

children lost their

War Department

U.S.

lives,

including the crew. These were

employees or families of employees already in

Germany.

We in

our

spent silent hours in prayer and overwhelming anxiety, sitting

life

jackets,

knowing nothing other than

that

we were

still air-

borne. I

forgot

what had driven

fear engulfed me. All

I

me

to

go to Germany as a deep chasm of

could think about was:

How

did

I

ever get

What am I doing here? My life is going to end before it even gets started! And all these soldiers! Some were as young as, or younger

here?

than,

I

In

was.

my

mind's eye

at Selfridge

I

could vividly see

my mother,

standing in tears

Air Force Base in Detroit only days before, hugging her

twenty-two-year-old daughter good-bye, enveloped in fear and hoping I

would be

safe.

Were we going to get there? What was the problem with the plane? Overwhelming anxiety struck silent panic in my heart. I could see

it

talk.

in the eyes of the GIs, nervously glancing around.

We were

paralyzed, terrified.

oale J^anoing in i Finally

we came

What

did ditching

We

didn't

mean?

aris

in over beautiful, green Ireland.

We

were

all

so

we crashed we at that point! Removing our clumsy life jackets at last, we began to breathe more easily. Finally, after twenty-two total hours in the air, we overjoyed at the sight of land that

almost didn't care

if

landed safely in Paris and then were told the problem had been a fuel shortage!

15

— JJoctors Irom riell

We

My

were

GI

all

weary and limp from the

and

friends

I

Embassy personnel met

long, anxiety-ridden

trip.

parted to go to our different destinations.

and drove her away

the Prime Minister's wife

in a limousine. Military personnel

met

me

at the

Champs Ely sees and

to a small hotel near the

plane and drove

the

me

Arc d'Triomphe.

After a couple of days of walking around Paris, awaiting further orders,

I

me

fied

found myself mesmerized by the I

was

to leave for Frankfurt

city.

Then

the military noti-

on a U.S. Army Air Force C-47

Skytrain, a small twin-engine, propeller-driven plane.

Jjoaroing tne JJouglas ^^^J okytrain lor Jrranklurt The three-man crew

consisted of a pilot, copilot, and radio oper-

ator.

There was a baggage compartment, the main cabin, and a

tory.

They

My

Gooney

called this plane the

Bird.

seatmate here was an American

employee on

leave, returning

work involved

lava-

from Paris

War Department

civilian

to his job in Frankfurt. His

the registration of graves of U.S. soldiers

who had been

He had yards

of beautiful French dress fabric for his

Fraulein girlfriend in Frankfurt.

He also had a wife back in the U.S. It many facets of overseas life in mil-

buried in Europe.

was my introduction to one

of the

itary-occupied Germany. After

double

this

I

life

was

quite

something

I

this

window down

that every building, large

and

had never before

Then suddenly

arrived in

I

learned that

segment of the

trip,

I

enjoyed

It

seemed

so

to the

French countryside.

small,

had a

beautiful red

tile

roof

seen.

the landscape below changed drastically.

now

flying over Germany, looking

and

gray,

my

Nuremberg,

common.

was not anxious during

looking out the

I

down on

We were

a bomb-destroyed, black

war-ravaged landscape, dark and foreboding.

I

could not

we came over Frankfurt, a prewar city of six hundred thousand, now transformed by deserted areas for miles in all directions. Only building skeletons still stood. Empty take

eyes off of the devastation as

windows

16

stared back at me.

October iq^o, Westover Air Jield

Landing overnight.

in Frankfurt,

me my

first

time.

The next morning

had changed and

orders

ing disappointment to me.

Nuremberg. I

I

was

I

German

feath-

reported to a major

to

and evidentiary hearings

report commission

in

I

I

and put up

military

encountered the well known, foot-thick

I

erbed for the told

was met by the

I

who

remain in Frankfurt to This was a shock-

there.

did not want to report in Frankfurt, but

was stunned.

quickly gathered

my wits and with

subdued anger

"No,

stated,

I

War Department for Nuremberg and I am going to Nuremberg, or you can send me right back to the United

have a signed contract with the

States."

I

surprised myself, taking such a strong stand. This

ever, the first

time

I

realized the

War Department

with a

Department employee sent

had such

leverage.

power inherent

in being a U.S. citizen

Had I been a stateside War Germany to work, I would not have

contract. to

The major did not argue

of myself, standing

was how-

my ground with

further.

quite

I felt

proud

such determination.

Xne

Final Anxietj-Riaaen rlig^nt Shortly thereafter, with my orders intact, I left for Nuremberg

another C-47, this time with bucket seats lining the walls of the tiny fuselage.

As

was very somber and did not seem

looking clouds out of the windows.

not see anything below.

pit

pilot at the controls

me

talkative.

Over the shoulders of those facing

The Air Force

me

The

air

across the narrow aisle

None I

Nuremberg

was very

"I'll

me

just

turbulent,

We were bouncing all was

in the cock-

through the

to circle

The

cockpit

getting

low on

to wait for landing instructions.

He was

and

over the sky.

someone

talking to

door was open, so we could hear everything. fuel too.

of us did.

could see dark, angry-

—the copilot or radio operator—about having

clouds over

on

side

remember, four of us were snugly seated on

I

each wall. The military chaplain facing

we could

on each

Then, accompanied by unbridled profanity, he exclaimed,

go

straight

down through

the clouds,

and

they'll

have to

let

land!"

We

all

heard

it,

and again there was dead

across from me, with his eyes closed,

had

silence.

his lips

The chaplain

moving

in prayer.

I

17

,

Jjoctors Irom rdell

was praying

too. It

Atlantic threat for

was

me

As we bumped

soon

just too

our anxiety-ridden North

after

to face another crisis.

in circles

around the cloudy

sky, the pilot finally

He

radioed the control tower, demanding an emergency landing. shouted, "I can't wait any longer; I'm running out of

I'm com-

fuel!

ing in!"

We

the pressure of the rapid descent through the low clouds

felt

A

and then the rough landing.

mind

as

we

rolled to a stop.

was November

where

Nuremberg

to report next.

got to places

on

—

thirty-five

me up

train

ride

Granted,

I

and

time,

tell

18

me where

War Department.

from Bremerhaven

was young,

had arrived safe.

air

miles from

alone,

go

to I

for meals.

I

began

was transported

to

quickly,

and others of higher or lower rank

in

more days

north

at sea, followed

Germany

and female, but

it

to

by a

Nuremberg.

probably had more to

for highly qualified court reporters to start the twelve

of the Subsequent Proceedings. The

The Medical

I

hours in the air— I never had to ask

by ship for twelve or

do with a need trials

last

in overnight quarters or a hotel, see that

flying all the way, while judges

were

At

A military officer was always there to check my

sense urgency from the

traveling

said a word.

of over forty-five hundred

trip

orders, direct me, put I

Nobody

my

6, 1946.

For the whole Detroit to

of anxious thoughts crowded

bombed-out Nuremberg and was on the ground,

in cold, snowy, It

lot

Case.

first trial

was Case No.

1

Tne Nuremberg War Crimes 1 rials

World War

ended

II

Adolf

defeat of

Europe on

in

Hitler's

Berlin bunker.

On April

Most of

1945, with the total

States, France,

30, 1945, Hitler

the major

committed suicide were

8,

"Thousand-Year" Third Reich by the Big

Four victorious powers: the United the Soviet Union.

May

in the

Great Britain, and

committed suicide

in his

Nazi leaders who had not already

hands of U.S. and

British troops.

Rather than shooting them on the spot as they were captured, or ing

them immediately

pushed

which

in

summary

for a fair trial before

try-

proceedings, the United States

an International Military Tribunal in

accused would be given every opportunity to present their

all

cases.

The

tribunal

would be committed

had grown out of

to strict rules of evidence that

centuries of legal systems, the development of inter-

national criminal justice systems, and law and order

The

delegates from the Big Four powers

that

went on

August

8,

for

many months.

had

among

nations.

seriously heated debates

Finally, at the

London Conference on

1945, they forged a charter agreement that established the

International Military Tribunal.

Germany had been divided into four sectors by the victorious countries. The Russians had wanted the International Military Tribunal

trial

of the major Nazi leaders held in their sector of Berlin.

However, Associate Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, U.S.

JDoctors Ironi il

c

1

War Crimes on

Chief of Counsel for

the major Nazi leaders'

persuaded the other three countries to accept Nuremberg as the the

trial,

site

of

trials.

The reasons

for

choosing Nuremburg were many. Zeppelin Field,

located at the edge of Nuremberg, had been the

Party

with Adolf

rallies

marching troops and

This massive stadium held 250,000

Hitler.

citizens. It

of huge Nazi

site

was from

the grandstand in Zeppelin

"The German form of

Field that Hitler had proclaimed:

life is defi-

determined for the next one thousand years!"

nitely

Another consideration was that Adolf Hitler passed the infamous

Nuremberg Laws here

in 1935, depriving

German Jews

of citizenship

and jobs, and prohibiting marriage between Jews and Aryans. Ninety percent of ple

and 130,000

by the

British

this city,

buildings,

which before the war had 450,000 peo-

had been destroyed by repeated bombings

Royal Air Force and the U.S. Air Force. Artillery barForty-fifth Infantry Divisions

had

finished the devastation, leaving approximately 160,000 survivors

and

American Third and

rages by the

17,000 buildings

still

standing.

Nuremberg had over 30,000 bodies

trapped beneath the rubble.

Nuremberg had been cial center

city,

a

commer-

Famous craftsmen and artists, includwere from Nuremberg. The city was the setting

of the Middle Ages.

ing Albrecht Durer, for the

a beautiful, ancient historic

opera Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg by Richard Wagner,

Hitler's favorite

composer.

rlistory

xirst International

s

C^riminal 1 rials The Nuremberg War Crimes and April 1949 were the tory.

Four countries

the Soviet

Union

first

Trials held

between November 1945

international criminal trials in

—the United

States,

humanity and calculated genocide. These

20

to power, until 1945,

his-

Great Britain, France, and

perpetrated over a period of twelve years from 1933,

came

of

—put the leaders of one country, Germany, on

for crimes against

Hitler

all

when World War

II

acts

trial

were

when Adolf

ended.

k-j4 m^^.^'^w^'^id.

Mlmmum

*-*

tl

.

>: .J

1

Holy Ghost Hospital

Frauen Church

niteiv^-

;

.

-^ss

^^

1 €1

Kaiser Castle

*--j .

*-

"'*'

'

Isle

of Schutt with synagogue

NUREMBERG BEFORE THE WAR

D octors The

Irom rd ell

International Military Tribunal for the

of the major Nazi

trial

was composed of one voting judge and one

leaders

alternate judge

from each of the Big Four victorious powers. The United

and France had high ranking

Britain,

Union

civilian judges,

Great

States,

while the Soviet

selected high ranking Russian military officers as judges.

At the end of the major Nazi

leaders' trial, the twelve

Proceedings were held before several military tribunals,

Subsequent

at

times pro-

ceeding simultaneously, before American civilian judges. These were prosecuted by the United States only. All of these

human evil,

rights

and

were concerned with three major points: basic

trials

and the dignity of

life,

the difference between

good and

indifference to evil.

In a crime there the other way,

is

always a perpetrator and a victim.

do not get involved,

will always help the perpetrator

stay neutral, or

and never the

If

remain

victim. In

you look

silent,

you

Germany

the

Nazis were the perpetrators and the Jews and other targeted groups

were the victims. The ordinary German population the other

way when

their Jewish neighbors

and taken away. They did not

looked

get involved, did not ask why, did not

bystanders helped the Nazi perpetrators by their

protest.

These

silence,

because of fears for their

silent

in general

were being rounded up

own

safety, their

or just plain indifference. Far too few pastors

own

anti-Semitism,

and community leaders

spoke up.

Ine

JVLajor

The horror

Nazi

story of

ears of the world in

the the

trial

J-^eaders

Irial

Nazism began unfolding

Nuremberg on November

of twenty-two major Nazi leaders was

United States of America,

before the eyes and

20, 1945. titled

The case

for

In the Matter of

the French Republic,

the

United

Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics against

The

sixty-six

which involved a •

22

seize

power

Hermann Wilhelm

Goering, et

al.

page indictment detailed the four counts charged,

common

conspiracy

to:

Ihe x^uremburQ[ War V^rimes Irials

•

establish a totalitarian regime

•

plan, prepare, initiate,

•

violate the laws of

•

commit crimes

and wage wars of aggression

war crimes against humanity, and

against peace,

crimes of persecution and extermination •

establish

membership

in a criminal organization declared so

the International Military Tribunal,

There was no trials.

commonly known

historical precedent in international

Therefore, judicial precedent

rious powers at the

was

as the SS.

law for these

established by the four victo-

London Conference with

biguous rules of law governing the

by

trials,

the adoption of

unam-

set forth in the charter

agreed to at this conference. Nineteen nations adhered to this agree-

ment, which became basic international law that has been followed since that time. Justice Robert H. Jackson, Chief U.S. Prosecutor, detailed the points of the

October

Xne

London Conference agreement

1946, report to President

7,

in his

Truman.^

Pretrial Cratnering ol livioence

In the early stages of the war, the United States, Great Britain,

Union had vowed

France, and the Soviet trial.

Beginning in 1941

to bring the leading

Nazis to

—four years before the end of the war—

it

was

learned that the Nazis were executing innocent hostages in retaliation for attacks

on German

On October 25, cutions and

forces

who were

occupying overrun countries.

1941, President Roosevelt

warned

denounced such

that those responsible

would

illegal exe-

face severe conse-

quences.

On

October

announced

7,

that a

established to

1942, the United States and the United

United Nations

list

the

Kingdom

War Crimes Commission would be

names of those

responsible

and

to collect

and

evaluate evidence.

A reasonable person might have thought that the Germans would keep the fewest possible records detailing their most heinous

atroci-

23

1

Uo

c

ties.

t

o

rs

I

r

o

hi

ni

e

1

But did they? No. The famous

ulous

detail.

German

efficiency required metic-

Twelve years of war records were found stashed away,

including orders by Hitler and others highest in hierarchy, regarding every facet of

aggression against

up

all

all

power

command

seizure

in the

Nazi

and waging wars of

of the countries they invaded, orders to round

the Jews in those countries

and transport them

to concentration

camps, and orders to perform horrific medical experiments.

Of

course, as the Nazis conducted their aggressive expansion

force of arms,

it

by

never entered their heads that their Thousand-Year

Reich might be defeated and their poisonous detailed records would in the greatest

humanity a super

measure serve to convict them of

at the

bar of

justice.

their crimes against

And, as they were determined

Aryan race of pure blood, they did not view

armihilation of "inferior, polluting" races

to build

as criminal their

and "subcultures" such

as

Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs.

many

Undoubtedly, Allied bombs had destroyed

records.

However, thousands of records were recovered by the advancing Allied Forces

Germans

in

Then, when the

party or government offices.

down

realized that their Third Reich just might go

in devas-

tating defeat, they stashed all records they could in selected hiding

an abandoned

places.

The

castle.

In another castle, nearly complete records of the

Allies

found records behind a

Foreign Office, weighing almost

five

false wall in

hundred

tons,

German

were discovered.

Poland had been invaded by Germany in September 1939; upon his arrest

by Allied

forces, the

dered his voluminous

Nazi Governor General of Poland surren-

diaries.

Particularly valuable

were captured personal

Leader and Chief of the German

files

police, Heinrich

documents were extremely important

of the Reich SS

Himmler. These

in establishing responsibility for

crimes against humanity committed by the doctor defendants in the

medical case that

I

worked

on.

Adolf Hitler had charged Himmler

with the implementation of the Final Solution the Jews.

At the end of the war

flee in disguise,

in

1945,

Himmler attempted

but was captured by British forces.

ordered to search him, he

bit

down on

mouth and was dead within a few

24

May

—the extermination of When

to

a doctor was

a cyanide capsule hidden in his

minutes.

Xne Most of

JNurembur(( VVar Crimes Irials

the atrocities were carefully recorded

by written docu-

mentation, film, or photography. Because tens of thousands of pieces of documentary evidence had been captured by the Allies from vari-

ous hiding places, most

facts presented at the trials

could not be

denied or defended.

Hundreds of witnesses solid

testified in pretrial hearings,

but with such

documentary evidence, the Big Four powers called only

thirty-

The defendants called sixty-six witnesses and answered 143 interrogatories. The major Nazi leaders' trial consumed 116 trial days, and concluded on August 31, 1946.

three witnesses.

Of twenty-two

defendants, nineteen were held accountable for

their crimes individually, not collectively.

death by hanging, including Martin

hanged before

at the

Twelve were sentenced

Bormann

in absentia.

Nuremberg Prison on October

Hermann Goering was

to

be hanged, he

16, 1946. bit

to

Ten were

Four hours

down on

a cyanide

capsule that he had been able to conceal in his mouth, joining Hitler

and Himmler actions

and

in

suffering the consequences.

Novemoer I

choosing suicide over taking responsibility for his

arrived in

o,

194^

Nuremberg on November

The atmosphere was

hangings.

6,

three

weeks

with what had happened on

electric

that historic October date, especially the suicide of the

defendant,

Hermannn Goering.

It

was

after the

number one

particularly shocking because

Colonel Burton C. Andrus, a rigorous military disciplinarian, was the

Nuremberg prison commandant. He was noted American

soldiers to stand

staring through the small

for his strict orders to

guard twenty-four hours a day

window of each

cell.

in shifts,

Every movement and

every part of the cell could be observed except a corner of the bath-

room.

When

I

arrived, the British, French,

and going home or returning conduct other war crime trial,

many

and Soviets were packing up

to their respective

trials.

zones in

Germany

to

After finishing the major Nazi leaders'

of the lawyers, prosecutors, interpreters, judges, court

25

JJoctors Irom rTell

reporters,

document examiners,

and

analysts,

clerks did not stay for

the twelve Subsequent Proceedings.

The

International Military Tribunal

and purpose

for being: to prove, expose,

for atrocities

committed by Germans.

had finished

and justify severe punishment

Justice Robert

had been appointed by President Truman for prosecuting

made

war criminals

the following

their mission

to be the

H. Jackson,

Chief of Counsel

international military

in this first

who

memorable statement during the

trial,

trial:

We must never forget that the record on which we judge these defendants row.

our

To pass

own

the record on which history will judge us tomor-

is

these defendants a poisoned chalice

is

to put

to

lips as well.

In the end, the defendants eagerly drank from their

poisoned by their It

it

own atrocities. The

had been shown

that this

quished, but of justice over

was not a evil.

entire trial

own

chalice,

world had been watching.

of the victors over the van-

The Light of Goodness shone over

the Darkness of Evil. I

have written

this

book based upon the

transcript of the medical case,

on which history

26

will

judge

which

I

official

helped record.

us, as Justice

court reporters' It is

Jackson stated.

this

record

.3. The

^Subsequent x roceeding^s

The twelve separate

the Subsequent Proceedings started

trials in

October 25, 1946, and continued until judgment in the rendered in April 1949. These

American

States only, with

trials

last

case

on

was

were prosecuted by the United

civilian judges sitting

on

military

tri-

bunals. Each tribunal consisted of three or more lawyers, admitted to practice for at least five years in the highest state courts or the

Supreme Court of the United

The defendants

in these

States.

Subsequent Proceedings included leading

professional physicians, diplomats

and

politicians, the State Secretary

of the Foreign Office of Germany, Cabinet Ministers, military leaders,

SS

leaders, industrialists, the

Acting Minister of

Justice,

and

jurists.

The twelve •

Case No. medical

I,

cases were:

The Medical Case, charged twenty doctors and

assistants.

three

This book will describe this case in condensed

detail.

•

Case No.

II,

The Milch

Case, charged Erhard Milch, Field

Marshal and State Secretary •

Case No.

Ill,

The

for Air.

Justices Case, charged the State Secretary

Schlegelberger and others in the Reich Ministry of Justice.

Franz

1

Uo •

c

t

o

rs

I

r

o in

Case No.

iT c

1

The Pohl Case, charged Oswald

IV,

Economic and Administrative •

Case No. the

•

The FHck Case, charged

V,

German

Friedrich FHck, Leader of others.

Case No. VI, The Farben Case, charged Karl Krauch, prominent G. Farben Industry, and others.

I.

Case No. VII, The Hostage Case, charged Wilhelm Commander-in-Chief

•

others.

and Coal Combine, and

Industrial Steel

Director of the •

and

Office,

Pohl, Chief of the

in the Southeast,

and

List,

others.

Case No. VIII, The Race and Resettlement Case, charged Ulrich Greifeld, Chief of the

Race and Resettlement Main

Office,

and

others.

•

Case No. IX, The Einsatzgruppen Case, charged Otto Ohlendorf, Chief of Einsatzgruppen "D," and others.

•

Case

No.

The

XI,

Ministries

charged

Case,

Ernst

von

Weizsaecker, State Secretary in the Foreign Office, and others. •

Command

Case No. XII, The High Leeb,

Army Group

jV\_y xirst

Case, charged

Commander-in-Chief, and

After going through the ritual of presenting

I

was given a

of chlorine

and forms

With

my

briefing.

pills for

to

fill

I

landed in Nuremberg on November

I

was given a top

and handbag, to

my

Riding along rubble-lined

and shattered

bricks,

I

I

Under

to live,

sheets, booklets,

my

first

of three.

climbed into a military vehicle and

first

Nuremberg home.

streets

with piles of

dirt,

broken stone,

bombed holes in buildings, now just skele-

stared in silence at the gaping,

the few still-standing apartment tons.

6,

security pass, a supply

more information

was assigned a place

was driven by a corporal

my orders to the prop-

I

drinking water,

out.

suitcase

when Then

others.

Home

Wuremoerg

er military authorities

Wilhelm von

and

the gray sky, everything

office

seemed

like a surreal

charcoal

drawing against the snow-covered ground. There was no color any-

28

Pi




1

^ G ^^^^^^^^^K'

'4'.

I

JJ o c t o r

,s

I

r

o

rx

ni

ell

Army

where. Very few vehicles were on the streets except for U.S.

and buses. Small charred

cars, jeeps,

snow, tenaciously survived.

A

and shrubs, tipped with

trees

few drab-looking Germans, both

men

and women, were clearing rubble from

side streets using handcarts

and wheelbarrows. Occasionally,

a

way around

bicycle, zigzagging his

We

arrived

Beulowstrasse, where payroll fast,

my

three-bedroom house on

British

woman who spoke with a woman who greeted

clipped accent, and a pretty young French

me

me

in her slip.

Her

shown by her

attitude,

she saw nothing improper about her apparel

Two

introduction to another culture.

—my

eyes,

second

foreign languages confronted

my

me: British English and French English! This was this

over a

housemates. Both were on the Allied

—a young prim and proper

both the corporal and told

met

I

German hunched

potholes.

small two-story,

a

at

saw

I

first

contact on

journey with women, other than the Icelandic Prime Minister's

wife in Reykjavik.

The corporal

women

at 7:00

dences.

We

told

me

that

a.m. by a U.S.

would go

first

water.

did. I learned the

We

had

every glass of water

water wasn't

—when

I

ritual.

a

to

my

house-

week anyway!

In

got the "scent" of this philosophy not only in

courthouse as well.

drank in

I

According

more than once

this

I

dropped a chlorine

house without

fail

pill in

—otherwise, the

safe.

That night, climbed into

I

French and British thought we Americans were

a short period of time, in the

of information

bits

to bathe in ice-cold water

addled with our daily shower

house but

mansion with an

at Westover. In this bitter cold there

mates, there was no need to bathe

this

the other

at all the resi-

hall.

from the major

was no heat or hot slightly

bus that stopped

housemates confirmed several shocking

had heard

we

would be picked up with

to breakfast at a large

first

American-maintained mess

My

I

Army

totally

my bed,

exhausted after a wrenching, weeklong

trip, I

grateful for the thick featherbed comforter in the

bone-chilling cold.

Early the next morning

we climbed aboard the Army bus as prom-

My

breakfast consisted of cold-storage eggs,

ised the night before.

pancakes and syrup,

30

cereal, reconstituted milk,

canned

fruit,

and pow-

Ine oubsequent

.r

roceedinQfs

dered coffee. Other military and civilian personnel joined us in the

mess to

hall.

as

it,

it

Somehow, was

this breakfast tasted delicious. I

virtually the

same every day

would

get used

for over the next year

and

a half, with only slight variations.

After breakfast Justice,

we were

driven to the iron gates of the Palace of

where most of us would work.

Vivien Spitz eating at the mess hall,

The

November 1946

x^alace ol J ustice

The

heavily damaged, but

Justice stood

still

standing,

complex of the Palace of

on the western edge of Nuremberg.

It

was a huge, gray

stone structure consisting of four buildings that stretched three blocks,

housing courtrooms, street,

offices,

and the

prison. Furtherstrasse, the

main

ran in front to the nearby city of Furth-im-Bayern, where other

American and Allied personnel were housed. The Pegnitz River ran through Nuremberg behind the Palace of In recent times the this

German

Justice.

Regional Court of Appeals had used

now in Ten Command-

courthouse as a judicial arm of the Bavarian Government,

the U.S. sector. Ironically, a sculpted tablet of the

ments hung over the door.

When the Allied bombing came, suffered extensive

this

famous German courthouse

damage. Shattered windows, demolished rooms,

31

L) o c t o r s

I

r

o

111

ri

e

The Palace of Justice

and

floor sections required extensive structural repair before the trials

could take place. In September 1945, under the close supervision of Lieutenant

Evan Dildine of

the 204th

Combat Engineers

Battalion, former

SS

troops (then prisoners of war) were busy restoring, repairing, and enlarging the seating capacity of the sent to

Nuremberg from other Army

Germany by General George Dildine told too

main courtroom. They had been

much

Patton for

debris

on a weak

front section

which

on the

killed

which

To

their

The

for the

20.

The

to repair the building in

on the

through large iron gates fastened to stone

32

on November

Nazi superiors would be sentenced

iron fences surrounding the building.

four

others.

were made in time

trial

war were required

enter the front of the building

fell

had been badly damaged by

repairs

opening of the major Nazi leaders' prisoners of

the prisoners piled

one and injured three

third floor

Zone of

purpose. Lieutenant

spot, causing a cave-in. Several

American bombings. All necessary

German

this

me that while working on the balcony,

floors to the basement,

The

installations in the U.S.

to prison or death.

Army

pillars that

bus,

we rode

connected the

bullet-nicked archway

and

Oubsequent j roceedingfs

1 ne

entrances were guarded by thirteen-ton U.S.

with one

GI posted on top of

the turret

walked up the

security pass to the

me

my

They were

whom

was a new person with

I

they were unfamiliar, and they eyed

my

entrance and showed

soldiers guarding the door.

very formal, military, and unsmiling.

to the

street.

five steps to the front

American

personnel carriers

and another seated next

long bore of the cannon facing toward the I

Army

suspiciously.

They

carefully

They checked everyone's credentials, including Chief Prosecutor General Telford Taylor's and any other officer, no matter how high the rank. Walking down long, cold corridors, I found

checked

pass.

my way to the office of Women's Army Corps Captain Sara Kruskall for my indoctrination. There was nothing warm or welcoming about Captain Kruskall, the fourth woman I met on this trip.

31.y

Raw^ Orientation

Captain Kruskall

made

it

me

very clear to

that the

American

court reporting section, although not in the military, was under military supervision.

Even though

employee with a high

rating,

I

I

was

was a War Department contract still

not

know what

any

subject to court-martial for

behavior prohibited by the Code of Military Justice. At the time

I

did

behavior was covered by this code.

Because there were no banking allowed in occupied Germany. U.S. pation currency

called scrip.

facilities,

U.S. currency

money was exchanged

was not

for occu-

Black-marketing was discouraged.

I

later

learned what black-marketing meant. Black-marketing, forbidden by the

Germans and purchase by

U

S.

Military,

was the

sale

by

Allied personnel of valuable items (which

were no longer valued by the Germans) such as Meissen and Rosenthal figurines and dinnerware, diamonds, jewelry, and

silver, in

an underground ready market. The medium of exchange was usually cigarettes

always a nections

and

coffee,

which could be used

to

buy food. There was

German employed on the Allied payroll who had the and could make arrangements. One just needed to

"Where can

I

get

Hummel

figures?" or other specified items.

It

conask,

was

always secretive.

33

J-Joctor.s

My

Irom rdell

only acquired treasure was a Meissen figurine from Dresden

of the Harlequin and the Ballerina, standing eleven inches

our American

Army

colonels told

me

he bought a

for four cartons of cigarettes, valued at

tall.

One

of

new Volkswagen

$100 a carton.

However, when we went to country towns such as Garmisch-

we could shop openly in their little stores. With cigarettes I bought some watercolor etchings, still hanging on my walls today. I watched a German man who had lost his

Partenkirchen and Regensberg,

arms

in the

bombing of Nuremberg

as he laid back in a chaise lounge-

type of chair and, with his pencil placed between his toes, drew scenes

of Nuremberg. They are beautiful pieces of artwork. ple to believe

the

way he

We tial

when

I tell

them I watched him draw

It is

hard for peo-

these lovely scenes

did.

would be paid once a month,

increase.

I

was paid about

five

to include

an overseas

thousand dollars a

year.

differen-

would be

I

provided with quarters, transportation to and from work, and a

German maid

my

to clean

my

Army and

meals supplied by the

exchange. There were no

Army

for

facilities

for

Germany upon

I

was

any purchases

to

pay

for

at the post-

other than those provided by the

American and Allied personnel.

within or out of

We

However,

living quarters.

I

was

to

pay

for

any

trips

obtaining orders.

were not allowed to eat in the few open German restaurants

because the Germans could not produce enough food for themselves. Their milk was not pasteurized and their produce was fertilized with

human looked

excrement, collected and carried in "honey wagons" that like large,

hollowed-out

logs.

These were pulled by huge oxen

that slowly, rhythmically clopped

down

streets to their dispersal locations.

I

vest

when I

fertilizer har-

I first

saw strawberries the

size of small apples.

was issued

ration cards for the

Army

and commissary where letries,

and

I

from providing any offices.

to

were allowed

we were

to

buy three

toi-

bottles of

for us in court or in

to have only beer

me

to

prohibited by the military code

GIs who worked

They were allowed

of this rule would send

post-exchange store (PX)

could purchase some limited food items,

cigarettes. Civilians

hard liquor per month, but

34

the middle of cobblestone

learned about this

and wine.

Captain Kruskall's

An

office

our

infraction

on a much

Ihe Oubsequent xroceedin^s

where

later occasion,

I

was threatened with a court-martial

How

again gave a bottle of hard liquor to one of our office GIs. she learn about

The

soldier

gave

I

When the

it

had shared

to

Officers Club.

The

really learned

When we cities in

All

soldiers drinking

at the

got in a

it

had

my name.

Then, although

I

knew

what "prohibited behavior" meant.

leave time (short or long),

we could make

the U.S., British, or French Occupation Zones

Paris, Brussels, Prague, or rail

with other GIs

offending GIs were asked where they got the liquor,

they replied in truthful fashion with I

it

broken furniture and an intervention by Military

fight, resulting in

the rule,

did

it?

Noncommissioned Police.

ever

if I

—

cities

trips to

such as

—

Amsterdam or to cities in Switzerland. Zone was under the control of the There was a mess charge for food. We had

transportation in the U.S.

U.S. Military

and was

to obtain orders

and

free.

visas for these trips,

depending on

their destina-

tions.

get

The Russian Occupation Zone was closed to us, and in order to visas to enter the city of Berlin, we had to have an invitation from

someone

My

whom we knew within the city.

would continue every week

orientation

and

Allied,

on

would learn the

ing

on the

trial,

I

military or civilian,

would learn simple

greetings

and

that

I

military personnel advised

Germany. American, their experience.

That was not easy to obtain.

military lingo. Like I

was

in

me based

most work-

could not speak German, but

certain important questions or state-

ments. Restrictive curfews

were imposed on

us.

We

could walk about the

rubble-strewn city but were warned not to walk alone.

be on the terrorists

street after 7:00

were

still

We were not to

Armed German

p.m. for security reasons.

hiding in basement rubble and catacombs under

the medieval Walled City,

which had been heavily bombed and

shat-

damaged U.S. Army facilities in Stuttgart. We were always to be on guard. I would eventually experience a frightful bombing of the Grand Hotel when I lived

tered.

there

Bombs thrown by

die-hard terrorists had

—twenty-eight months

Army jeeps were

after the

end of the war!

equipped with angle irons welded to every front

bumper. These rose above the head of the driver

to cut wires that

35

1

JJ o c t o

r

I

.s

r

m

o

JH. e

1

might be strung across roads

The

driving jeeps.

Unfortunately, a

new

We

friend of mine, Alfred Kornfeld, a U.S. hit

Nuremberg and was

killed.

fully staged

German

opera house.

opera performances by Germans.

Movies arranged by U.S. Special Services were

also

shown

opera house. The cost was thirty cents for civilians and for military.

We

Officers

socializing. It

had

Club

ted

their Press Club.

in the

was reserved

civilian personnel

We

at the

fifteen cents

could also go to the garish Stein Castle, where the

international press

Room

driv-

could go to the Noncommissioned Officers Club, to the Red

The opera house held

tions.

wartime

one such roadblock when

Cross ice rink and swimming pool, and to the

The

soldiers

roadblocks across the roads at night.

correspondent for Life Magazine, ing from Berlin to

American

at night to decapitate

terrorists built

Grand Hotel was our main

for U.S.

working on the

and Allied military

trials

center for officers or

or visiting from other jurisdic-

gathered in the cocktail lounge, dining room, and Marble

ballroom to drink,

Nuremberg

talk,

and

eat in the plushest of our permit-

locations.

There was no heat anywhere other than from fireplaces or an tric heater. Electric

heaters were hard to

come

by, unless

elec-

one knew a

post-exchange supplier. Everyone wanted to be friends with Jack

Barash from Miami, a civilian working with the tric heater. It

was comical

to

watch people

PX who

had an

elec-

in the lounge trying to get

Emma, and teen-age daughter evenmine, welcoming me to join them and

chairs closest to him. He, his wife tually

became good

friends of

their electric heater!

JVxeeting JVi_y Co-workers From Captain ry,

ICruskall's office

I

walked down another long, drea-

cold hallway to the court reporters' office

many

received a

warm welcome from

and met a dozen or so other

three from

my

36

large

room with

Detroit office

Nuremberg: Wayne

reporters.

Among them

who had been old enough

Perrin,

tables. I

Chief Reporter Charles Foster of

California

to

—a

cheaply constructed desks and chairs and a few large

were

to precede

me

Gertrude Feldt, and Fern Primeau.

It

—a Ine Oubsequent xroceedin^s

to think that of the approximately twenty-six highly

was amazing

qualified court reporters nationwide sent to

from

my

Nuremberg, four were

Detroit office!

M. Toms, for whom I circuit court. He was a judge

Also from Michigan came Judge Robert

had occasionally worked

in the Detroit

with an excellent reputation. Another Michigander,

whom

I

had not

—

known before, attorney George Murphy a tall, jovial Irishman came from Ann Arbor. He had been on the legal staff of the University of Michigan and was now appointed as a judge on the

Command

High

Case, Case No. XII of the Subsequent Proceedings

War Crimes

of the

small contingent from Michigan

not allow capital punishment

state that did

who would now

judges

Our

Trials.

—included

these

—

two

have to consider sentencing defendants to

death.

Jjauenter ol tne Chicago Virerman

Buna The

J-,eaaer

biggest surprise of

all

was Leonore Huber! She and

been classmates and good friends

at

I

had

Gregg Business College

Chicago only four years before. Her perfect English belied the

in

fact that

of her twenty-six years, eighteen had been spent growing up in

Germany, her country of I

in

greeted her with

May

1943

I

birth.

some

had spent

Of

course she would be back home.

trepidation, recalling the strange

at the

weekend

Chicago apartment she shared with her

parents. I

had

lived seventy miles northwest in

farming community of at 7:00

train

every morning, eating train

back

home

was with some the

thousand.

six

weekend

every evening

delight that

in the city

I

would not be

when

Illinois,

a small

got on the Northwestern 400

I

smoke

for breakfast

and taking the

—one and one-half hours each way.

It

accepted Leonore 's invitation to spend

with her and her parents.

Leonore explained that her I

Woodstock,

folks could not speak English well so

able to converse with them, but she

necessary, since she spoke fluent

showed me many snapshots of

German. The

herself

and her

would first

interpret

evening she

friends in

Germany.

37

JJoctors irom

The bottom in

German

want I

Jhlell

half of the pictures

cut off because they were

and she explained

military uniform,

to

me

she did not

observed her parents only casually the next day and did not try

German

to

them other than

on any conversation with

The war was exploding was aware

I

The

to greet

each other and to Leonore.

effort to carry

in

1943

And they did not make an me through Leonore. over Europe and the Pacific

all

Germany was our enemy.

that

was on and the news was

radio

them. They spoke only in

blaring something about the

Warsaw Jewish Ghetto in Poland by the 1943. Then the true horrible meaning of

liquidation of the

May

was

all

to see the uniform.

to converse with

and

had been

16,

occurred to me.

I

saw an immediate change

and Frau Huber. They heard the news

in the

the

It

war

demeanor of Herr

and

in English,

Nazis.

their eyes

lit

up

with joy and delight. The tone of their excited and happy expressions in

German news

great

indicated to

me

that whatever this

news meant,

it

was

For me, anything the Nazis did was not good

to them.

news. Strange, strange, indeed! I

could

forgot

it.

arrived in

I

tell

Leonore was embarrassed, and

and

finished college in 1943

Nuremberg

in

November

Only when

I

told this

same

was

disturbed.

lost contact

1946.

would be coworkers, but we were never

I

later,

did

I

learn from

"who could not speak

And there she was! Now we new

friend there

British

—a couple of

that Leonore's father,

1939, this subversive organization in

—

Herr Huber,

English well," was the leader of the Chicago

branch of the German-American Bund

thousand Nazis

I

to be close friends again.

story to a

him

never

with her until

Broadcasting Corporation news reporter Allen Dreyfus

months

I

New

York

in 1943.

had staged a

City's

On

rally

February 22, of twenty-two

Madison Square Garden!

1 ne Court iveporting x rocess Chief Reporter Charles Foster of California had the authority to

make team start soon. ly.

38

reporting assignments for the twelve

At

times,

two or more

Six reporters usually

trials

made up one

trials that

were

to

would proceed simultaneous-

team, each spending fifteen min-

Ine Oubsequent x

roceedinQfs

utes writing in court, then working a rotation schedule that provided

a daily copy transcript by the end of the day.

my interest in the medical case to Chief Foster and advised him that I had specialized in medical terminology in my college reporting courses. I was delighted that he selected me to be one I

had indicated

of the six

members of

The procedure

this daily

copy reporting team.

had been worked out on the

that

reporting the major Nazi leaders'

sequent

trials.

By

many

would be followed

system for

for the sub-

most of the bugs had been worked

this time,

Because of the

trial

IBM

out.

differing languages spoken by the people

involved, everyone in the courtroom

—the judges,

attorneys, defen-

dants, court reporters, press reporters, interpreters, monitors, translators, staff,

—had

and audience

understand what was being

The defendants and

to

wear earphones

that enabled

them to

said.

their counsel

had

their

dials

turned to

English-speaking witness

we turned the dial on the desk to except when an American judge or an or attorney spoke, we were reporting the

words of the

These areas could be

German. In English.

the reporters' case,

The

interpreters

result was,

interpreters.

and

who went

translators

clarified later

by the

over the transcripts late in the

day before they were printed overnight and delivered each morning to the judges, attorneys, other trial personnel,

and the international

press.

On the two

desks in front of the witnesses, judges, and attorneys were

lights that

could be flashed on by the interpreters

SLOW DOWN, and red

for stop. In order to translate

—yellow

for

from German

to

English, the interpreters had to wait for the entire sentence to be spo-

ken to get the

vital

verb at the end.

Then

the interpreter

was forced

to

"telescope" the entire sentence as fast as possible.

When the

temper of the German counsel or wimess rose in heat-

ed argument, the rate of speech went up, putting the interpreter under great stress, often resulting in an incorrect interpretation or a struggle to

fmd

the correct words.

It

was then

that the interpreter

would

flash

the yellow or red distress light until he or she could catch up.

At times the

interpreter

was so hard pressed

that, for

example, vac-

uum cleaner became dust sucker. Artificial insemination became artfiil

39

a

-L)

octors Iroin

fertilization.

ell

ru.

we

Soon, the reporters and interpreters bonded, as

depended so much on each

other.

The

reporters could never speak or

interrupt the proceedings to have

any of the hundreds of complex

German words

concentration camps, or organiza-

or

names of

When

cities,

we wrote sounds. For this reason, an English-speaking German monitor German national who had been cleared of having been a member of

tions repeated.

they were spoken,

—

the

Nazi Party

—

Theresienstadt,

longhand words such as

sat next to us, writing in

soldatenkonzentrationslager,

and Reichsluftfahrtministerium,

to

mention a

Haupt-sturmfuehrer, few.

After his or her fifteen-minute turn in court, each reporter would leave the

courtroom when the next reporter entered and started

recording.

When

leaving,

we walked

within touching distance of the

defendants, then proceeded to the office where

we

typed what

we had

recorded on manual typewriters at our assigned desks.

Every word spoken

in the

courtroom was electronically recorded.

These recordings could be used at the

tions

to

compare

end of the day by a translator

made by

who

to the reporter's transcript

corrected any misinterpreta-

the courtroom interpreters.

Each page of

transcript, identified

by the

number, was then sent to the stenciling department stencils.

From

there, the transcript

was

name and turn

reporter's

sent to the

for retyping

on

mimeographing

department for printing and delivery

to court participants, usually

by the next morning. The making of

this daily

copy

is

a

common

procedure in U.S. courts and in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

The American court printed in

German

reporters' transcripts

as well. This

was

were translated and

a daily laborious process that

produced over 330,000 pages of transcript covering the twelve Subsequent Proceedings, including over 11,530 pages of the medical case.

40

4 Case No. 1, The JVLedical Case

On October

United States indicted twenty

25, 1946, the

German

doctors and three medical assistants on four counts in The United States of America versus

Karl Brandt,

et al.

Thus commenced the

and most horrifying of the twelve subsequent

Count

I

Count

II

Count

III

charged the

charged

Common Design

War

first

trials.

or Conspiracy.

Crimes.

charged crimes against humanity constituting murders,

and inhumane

brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities,

Count IV charged membership

in

acts.

a criminal organization

declared so by the International Military Tribunal,

commonly known

as the SS.

Iriounal JVLeniDers The members of •

Walter

Military Tribunal

B. Beals, Presiding

Judge

-

I

were:

Chief Justice of the Supreme

Court, State of Washington •

Harold L. Sebring

-

Associate Justice of the Supreme Court,

Florida •

Johnson

T.

Oklahoma

Crawford

-

formerly Judge of a District Court,

J_)octors Irom rdell

Judges Harold L. Sebring; Walter B. Beak, presiding; Johnson Tal Crawford;

and

Victor C. Swearingen, alternate, in the courtroom at the Palace of Justice

during the Nazi doctors'

•

Victor C. Swearingen, Alternate

-

trial

formerly Special Assistant to

the Attorney General of the United States.

The indictment was served three defendants

day

on November

in 5,

German on each 1946.

I

arrived in

of the twenty-

Nuremberg one

later.

liie

Arraignments

The arraignments took

place on

November

21, 1946.^ Presiding

Judge Walter Beals banged the gavel with such determination that

resounded throughout the large courtroom.

We

will

now

now pending

42

He

began:

proceed to arraign the defendants on the cause before this tribunal.

As

the

names of

the defen-

it

No.

1,

tlie

AleJical Case

dants are called, each defendant will stand and will remain

standing until told to be seated. Mr. Secretary General of the

Tribunal will

As looked suits,

their at

Many wore jaws.

names were and

called, the defendants rose individually. I

pants, or military uniforms stripped of

jackboots.

They appeared

straight tight lips;

To my

to be resentful

mean, hard looks on

all

insignia.

and arrogant.

their faces;

and

set

mind, the most evil-looking were Dr. Karl Brandt, with

his piercing eyes,

pointed mustache.

room was

of the defendants.

each one. They were shabby-looking, either in unpressed

jackets

Some had

call the roll

silent as

and Wolfram I

with his black beard and

Sievers,

dubbed him "Blue Beard." Everyone

each defendant

in the court-

rose.

"If the Honorable Tribunal pleases,

of the defendants are in

all

the dock."

"The defendants the prosecution will

will

be seated," said the judge. "The counsel for

now

proceed with the arraignment of the defen-

dants."

Brigadier General Telford Taylor read out loud the four charges

mentioned above and went on

to say:

Between September 1939 and April 1945

all

of the defendants

herein unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed crimes, as defined by Article 10, in that they

II

of Control Council

were principals

in,

abetted, took a consenting part in,

accessories

to,

war

Law No. ordered,

and were connected with

plans and enterprises involving medical experiments without the subjects' consent,

armed

upon

civilians

forces of nations then at

and who were

in the

and members of the

war with the German Reich

custody of the

German Reich

in exercise

of belligerent control, in the course of which experiments the

defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities,

ed, but

and other inhuman

were not limited

to,

acts.

Such experiments includ-

the following:

43

JD o c t o r

•

,s

I

r

rd

c) III

e

1

High- Altitude Experiments. Carried out in a low-pressure

chamber

in

which the atmospheric conditions and

pres-

sures prevailing at high altitude (up to sixty-eight thou-

sand

feet)

result

could be duplicated,

victims died as a

of these experiments and others suffered grave

injury, torture,

•

many

and

ill

treatment.

Freezing Experiments. Victims were placed in a tank of ice

water for up to three hours, or kept naked outdoors for

hours

at

below freezing temperatures, during which

numerous victims

died.

By this time I was having a great deal of trouble remaining dispassionate emotionally and trying to keep my composure. The general continued:

•

Malaria Experiments. Over one thousand involuntary subjects

were infected by mosquitoes or by injections of

extracts of the

mucous glands of mosquitoes, who then

many of whom died,

contracted malaria, fered severe pain

•

and permanent

gas,

some of

and

injury.

on victims and then

whom

on experimental

subjects

cus, gas gangrene,

and ground

glass

and

Muscle,

deliber-

infected with poisonous

Wounds

deliberately inflicted

were infected with streptococ-

tetanus,

and then wood shavings

were forced into the wounds, resulting

deaths, serious injury

Bone,

Wounds were

died and others suffered intense pain

Sulfanilamide Experiments.

•

disability.

Lost (Mustard) Gas Experiments. ately inflicted

while others suf-

in

and intense agony.

and Nerve Regeneration and Bone

Transplantation Experiments. Sections of bones, muscles.

44

Case

I> o

and nerves were removed from the intense agony,

mutilation,

1, tne Aledical Case

victims, resulting in

permanent

and

disability,

death.

•

Sea Water Experiments. Subjects were deprived of

all

food and given only chemically processed sea water, causing great pain, suffering, serious bodily injury and

mad-

ness.

Epidemic Jaundice Experiments. Subjects were ly infected

fering,

•

suf-

and death.

sterilized

•

with epidemic jaundice resulting in pain,

Sterilization Experiments.

tal

deliberate-

by

x-ray, surgery,

Thousands of victims were and drugs, causing great men-

and physical anguish.

Spotted Fever (Typhus) Experiments. Hundreds of deliberately infected persons

experimented upon died

—over 90

percent.

•

Experiments with Poison. Poisons were secretly administered to experimental subjects in their food,

all

of

whom

died or were deliberately killed to permit autopsies. Poison bullets

were shot into other victims,

who

suffered torture

and death. •

Incendiary

Bomb

subjects with

Experiments. Burns were inflicted on

phosphorous taken from the bombs, causing

severe pain, suffering,

and serious bodily

injury.

Civihans and members of the armed forces of nations then at

war with Germany were murdered ent control.

One hundred

and defleshed

for

in the exercise of belliger-

twelve Jews were selected, killed,

completing a skeleton collection for the

45

IJ octors Irom ri e

1

Reich University of Strasbourg

in

France under Nazi occupa-

tion.

Tens of thousands of Polish nationals alleged to be

infect-

ed with incurable tuberculosis were ruthlessly exterminated while others were isolated in death camps with inadequate

medical

facilities.

Through the

German

exercise of the "euthanasia"

Reich, hundreds of thousands of

program of the

human

beings,

including nationals of German-occupied countries, were murdered. This involved the systematic

the aged, insane, incurably

ill,

and

secret execution of

deformed children, and other

persons by gas, lethal injections and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums. These people were

termed "useless eaters" and a burden to the German war machine. Relatives of these victims were informed that they died from natural causes, such as heart tors involved in the "euthanasia"

failure.

German

program were

doc-

also sent to

Eastern occupied countries to assist in the mass extermination

of Jews.

"I shall

now

call

upon

the defendants to plead guilty or not guilty

to the charges against them," said Judge Beals.

name

his

is

called, will stand

and speak

"Each defendant, as

into the microphone.

At

this

time there will be no arguments, speeches, or discussion of any kind.

Each defendant offenses with .

He began

will

simply plead either guilty or not guilty to the

which he

is

charged by the indictment."

with Karl Brandt.

"Karl Brandt, are you represented by counsel in this proceeding?" "Yes."

"How do you

plead to the charges and specifications and each

thereof set forth in the indictment against you, guilty or not guilty?"

"Not

guilty."

"Be seated." Siegfried Handloser, are you represented by counsel in this

cause?"

"No,

I

have no counsel yet."

"Do you

46

desire that the Tribunal appoint counsel for you?"

No.

"I

hope

that today or

tomorrow

I

Case

1, tke M-edical

may

receive an affirmative

answer from a defense counsel." "Are you

at this

time ready to plead to the indictment, guilty or

not guilty?" "Yes."

"How

do you plead

to the charges

and

specifications

and each

thereof set forth in the indictment against you, guilty or not guilty?"

"Not

guilty."

"Be seated."

At

this

point the remaining defendants were individually

arraigned. Counsel represented

all.

All pleaded not guilty to the

indictment.

As

a court reporter, although with only three years of experience

in criminal courts in Detroit before going to

surprised at the not-guilty pleas.

one had pleaded

I

Nuremberg,

I

was not

would have been surprised

if

any-

guilty.

Ine JJelenoants In

many

cases the defendants were distinguished

tists,

chief doctors

tals,

and

and surgeons

universities

the

grisly

medical

German

clinics, institutes,

scien-

hospi-

throughout Germany. They were doctors and

assistants at the concentration

in

at

medical

camps who performed or

experiments

at

participated

Auschwitz,

Dachau,

Buchenwald, Ravensbrueck, Sachsenhausen, Natzweiler, BergenBelsen, Treblinka,

Following

1.

is

and

others.

a brief description of each defendant:

Karl Brandt, Major General in the SS; Adolf Hitler's personal physician and chief architect of the program that turned doctors into torturers

and murderers despite

their Hippocratic

Oath

to

heal and cure.

Medical Services.

2.

Siegfried Handloser, Lieutenant General,

3.

Paul Rostock, Chief Surgeon of the Berlin Surgical Clinic.

4.

Oskar Schroeder, Chief of the Medical Services of the Luftwaffe (Air Force).

47

D octors 5.

Irom rie

Karl Genzken, Chief of the Medical Department of the Waffen SS.

6.

Karl Gebhardt, Major General in the Waffen SS and President of the

German Red

Cross.

Cancer Research.

7.

Kurt Blome, Plenipotentiary

8.

Rudolf Brandt, Personal Administrative Officer

for

to Reichsfuehrer

SS Heinrich Himmler. 9.

Joachim Mrugowsky, Chief Hygienist of the Reich Physician

10.

Helmut Poppendick, Chief of

SS.

the Personal Staff of the Reich

Physician SS.

Reich Manager of the Ahnenerbe Society.

1 1

Wolfram

12.

Gerhard Rose, Brigadier General of the Medical Service of the

Sievers,

Air Force. 13.

Siegfried Ruff, Director,

Department

for Aviation

Medicine

at

the Experimental Institute. 14.

Hans Wolfgang Romberg,

Staff

Doctor

at

German Experimental

Institute for Aviation. 15.

Viktor Brack, Chief Administrative Officer in the Fuehrer's Chancellery.

16.

Herman

Becker-Freyseng, Chief of the Department for Aviation

Medicine. 17.

Georg August Weltz, Chief of the

Institute

for

Aviation

Medicine. Schaefer, Staff Doctor, Institute for Aviation Medicine.

18.

Konrad

19.

Waldemar Hoven, Chief Doctor, Buchenwald concentration camp.

20.

Wilhelm Beiglboeck, Consulting Physician

21.

Adolf Pokorny, Physician

Specialist

in

to the Air Force.

Skin and Venereal

Diseases. 22.

Herta Oberheuser, Physician, Ravensbrueck concentration camp.

23.

Fritz Fischer, Assistant Physician to defendant Gebhardt.

Twenty of three were not:

48

the defendants sitting in the dock were doctors,

Rudolf Brandt, Wolfram

Sievers,

and

and Viktor Brack.

Office Chief of Counsel for

War Crimes, US Army

JJ t) c t c) r

1

,s

r

()

m

il c 1

The defendants

fell

into three

main groups. Eight were members of

German

the medical service of the

Air Force. Seven were members of

the medical service of the SS. Eight, including the three

who were not

doctors, held top positions in the medical hierarchy.

All of the doctors violated the

commandments of the Hippocratic

Oath, which they had solemnly sworn to uphold and abide by, including the fundamental principle never to do

One

who

doctor

primum non

harm

nocere.

be mentioned frequently, Luftwaffe (Air

will

Force) physician Dr. Sigmund Rascher, was not a defendant sitting in this dock.

He and

his wife

for perpetrating a fraud theft

had been executed near the end of the war

on

his

Nazi

superiors.

of babies by Rascher's wife in an

whereby she claimed she had given

The fraud involved

the

adoption procedure

illegal

birth to them.

Heinrich Himmler will also appear frequently in the tribunal's

documents and testimony. He was the Reichsfiihrer-SS (Reich SS Leader) and Chief of the

Adolf

Hitler,

German

police.

Under

orders from Fuehrer

he implemented the extermination of Jews and other

categories of people considered "undesirables" in the Final Solution.

At the end of the war guise,

in

May

1945,

Himmler attempted

was captured, and then committed

to flee in dis-

suicide.

In a decree of July 1942, Hitler established a medical and health official

under his direct control and appointed Karl Brandt to that

position. Brandt

had been

his personal physician since

thirty-eight at the time of this appointment.

1934 and was

He became

the supreme

medical authority in the Reich in August 1944 and was the only one of the defendants

who was

directly

answerable to

Hitler.

Brandt, at age forty-two, sat in the prisoners' dock at

Nuremberg

on November 2 1 1946. ,

Of the approximately 350

doctors

who are estimated to have com-

mitted medical crimes, only these 20 doctors and 3 assistants were

brought to the bar of justice and

sat in the defendants'

dock

in the

medical case in Nuremberg.

Other doctors were hanging

in

tried, convicted,

other American

and sentenced

military trials at

Dachau.

to death

Many

by

doctors

got away, including the most evil and infamous. Dr. Josef Mengele the "Angel of

50

Death"

—who

experimented on and

killed children

Case xSo. 1, tne JVledical C-ase

He

(often twins) at Auschwitz.

successfully hid in Bavaria until his

escape to South America.

The trial was a public trial conducted als.

Each defendant

guilty

were taken

German

selected

at the

court, as

were

all tri-

counsel. After the pleas of not

November

arraignments on

adjourned until December

open

in

21, the tribunal

1946.

9,

A Respite from Initial onock me and

This respite gave opportunity to all

and

settle

new

other reporters

get to

know our

Nuremberg an

to

colleagues

who came from

over the United States. It

me

gave

a chance to prepare for living and working in a

bombed-out, eerie

city of ghosts.

socializing with the

tion order

German

had ended.

military, civilian,

There was

little

contact and no

population, although the nonfraterniza-

We were living in a closed society of American

and Allied coworkers, working

in the

Nuremberg-

Furth Enclave.

During those two weeks of adjournment,

what was the

Although there was a kitchen

home

there

than to

fix

—

I

in

many

house

to

years.

—my

first

for

any purpose other

British

and French house-

it

a cup of hot tea.

Occasionally mates, but

became acclimated

in the Beulowstrasse

remember using

don't ever

I

Nuremberg

coldest, snowiest winter in

I

chatted briefly with

we had nothing

cal people in the

in

documents

sations about their lives in

Nuremberg.

I

common

section.

my in

We

cleri-

did have interesting conver-

London and

had never been

our work. They were

Paris before they

to their countries

came

to

and they had never

been to mine. Fortunately for me, Piilani

I

quickly

became

friendly with court reporters

Ahuna of Honolulu, Hawaii, and Dorothy

Cleveland, Ohio, both of

whom had worked

Fitzgerald of

on the major Nazi

lead-

commonly referred to as Goering's trial. They stayed on in Nuremberg to work on the subsequent trials. Another friend I made ers' trial,

through them was Siegfried

worked on Goering's

trial

(Sigi)

and spoke

Ramler of London, who had several languages fluently.

51

-L)

t)

c

t

o

r

I

,s

r

o

iT c

ni

was very

It

become

1

to

difficult

find linguists sufficiently qualified to

from German to English and English to German,

interpreters

He

but Sigi qualified and became an interpreter in the medical case.

we

held the court reporters in high regard for the work

how

learned quickly

did and

I

interdependent the reporters and interpreters

became.

The weekend

and Dorothy

Sigi,

breakfast

invited

and lunch and

tions of the

city. I

shattered city

One

after the court

—

^just

to join

to take short

my

had

me

adjourned on November 21, Lani,

them

Grand Hotel

for

walks around the nearby sec-

camera and took

my

first

pictures of the

rubble and still-standing sections of buildings.

wall had a bathtub hanging from the second floor.

We

would meet

later in the

Grand Hotel

—and have dinner

everyone seemed to gather

and

at the

had

Sigi

Dorothy

sufficient seniority to

lived

in

Hebelstrasse with

a large,

Anne

reporting the

—where

room. Lani

be housed in the Grand Hotel.

home at No. 8 of Washington, DC. Anne had been

elegant,

Daniels

Chief Reporter on Goering's

cocktail lounge in the dining

three-story

having arrived there directly from

trial,

Potsdam Conference

—attended

by President Harry

Truman, Prime Minister Clement Atlee of England, and President Josef Stalin of the Soviet

—

Union

earlier that year.

Crrana -Hotel The only standing building in the center of Nuremberg, Hotel towered over the rubble in the immediate

the

vicinity. It

Grand

was

for-

merly one of the great hotels of Europe and had been the headquarters for Hitler

and

huge Nazi Party

room were

his top leaders during their visits to rallies.

The dining rooms,

lavishly decorated

lobbies,

Nuremberg and grand

for

ball-

and furnished with heavy German

ftir-

niture.

During the bombing of Nuremberg, the hotel had been almost split into

one had

two

to

buildings.

To

get

from the front

office to the rear

rooms,

walk the two planks placed across the crevasse on the third

floor.

Warrant Officer and court reporter Jack Rund of Washington,

DC,

was one of the

52

first

to arrive at

Nuremberg

after the

war

to

L-ase

The Grand Hotel, taken during the

bombing that destroyed the

^o.

1, the

JW eoical

(^ase

war, but prior to the 90-minute Allied

beautiful Walled City to the

left.

Hermann Goering and trial started on November

record testimony in pretrial interrogations of the other major

Nazi

me

1945. Jack told

20,

leaders, before their

that

Bob Hope, during one of

his U.S.O.

appearances in Nuremberg for the troops, placed a chair halfway

on

across the planks, sat

because of

The and

its

U.S.

it,

and declared

it

"the best

room in Germany

southern, eastern, western, and northern exposures!"

Army

spent over one million dollars in 1945 to rebuild

repair the hotel to a livable condition.

Open to

civilian

employees

and military personnel of the Occupying Powers, the hotel became the center of

American

Across the

street

bombed Walled

social

life.

from the hotel stood the crumbled remains of the

City.

Only a

still-standing turret

remained. Below, the dry moats were

filled

and

parts of the wall

with debris. The black and

gray skeleton of the main train station also stood across the street its

shattered

windows

staring hauntingly over at the hotel.

Just inside the front doors of the hotel, behind a half-circle

desk

at the

lobby entrance, sat the

U

S.

bench

military policeman

who

checked security passes of everyone entering. Other nearby guards

were his support

staff.

53

_L)

oc to

r

I

,s

r

c)

m

ii o

1

In the large dining

my new court reporter friends,

reserved for ple. I felt

Our

room was one round

honored

waiter

was a German named Henry, a

who had been cleared

Henry and one young son had survived his wife

this job.

We

interpreters,

be

to

and press peo-

to be included in this interesting group.

a pleasant, sincere smile,

which

seemed

table that

and

five

became

for

affable

Each week

man

with

employment. Only

the brutal Allied

other children died.

his friends.

tall,

He was

bombing

post-exchange

at the

in

grateful to have

we

bought sundries and small supplies such as soap, toothpaste, and toothbrushes for

milk

I

him and

his son.

remember giving him

I

ordered with dinner as time went on.

and saved

it

We

for his son.

He

always tipped the

took

the glass of

to the kitchen

it

German

waiters.

The

going rate was two cigarettes, which they used for bartering purposes. I

had no idea where they

Was it in the basement rubble of one many other German survivors hud-

lived.

of those building skeletons, with

dled there, sharing whatever they had?

On weekend was

nights

we

often

part of the elegant ballroom

Army,

had dinner

named

band

also listen to the orchestra or

did not ask.

I

the

we were

dancers. There

was always an orchestra

brass of the U.S. hearing, arranged

Marble Room. Often they

in the

brought in shows from the Danish

Marble Room; we could

The top

there.

realizing the daily horror stories

wonderful weekend entertainment

in the dining area that

circuit

for

—trapeze

artists

and

dancing, which played not

only wonderful Viennese waltzes and peppy polkas, but also top

American

hit

tunes of that era.

were often comical the closest

we

made

it

singers,

in their renditions of

trips

with their accents,

American

got to an environment similar to

which, along with short tries,

German

life

tunes. This

back

was

in the States,

throughout Bavaria and to nearby coun-

bearable to go back into the courtroom to face the next

barrage of horror.

Without these weekend socializing experiences, which helped block out mentally what I

would have had much

was

in

Nuremberg

I

had heard

in the

courtroom the prior week,

trouble not showing emotion.

the better

I

felt,

as

I

could discuss

The longer

my

54

for over a year

I

shock and

dismay with other court reporters and members of the press been there

me

who had

working on the international major Nazi

No.

leaders' quit.

trial.

The

After

angrier

I

became

shock and tough

it

was the youngest reporter older than

I

Medical C;

tlie

,

had a one-year contract and could not

all, I

ing in the courtroom, the initial

1

at

what

I

was hearing,

more motivated out.

was not alone

I

there

seeing,

became

I

—some were

as

just

and record-

overcome the

to

in these feelings, but

much

I

as twenty years

was.

Xnanksgiving _Day

ig-^o

Our small group of reporters, interpreters, and journalists met in hot buttered rum was a the Grand Hotel cocktail lounge for drinks and then had an American Thanksgiving dinner, with favorite

—

—

turkey and cranberries and prayers of gratitude, in the dining room.

It

might have been cold outside and the ground frozen under heavy snow, but the camaraderie in the lounge and dining winter the

ing. All

On

Friday

who worked few days

was

snow

fell like

November our

in

at the

office

was a

climbed into a U.S.

famous Bavarian

small, quaint

if it

left

for a

resort Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

It

a time of intrigue and discovery. Here

had never

suffered through a war.

frescoes decorated the gables of rustic houses.

orations belonged to a house

The

on Zugspitzstrasse where

patches of frescoes dated back to 1690. rest

Army bus and

mountain town with a uniquely picturesque alpine

valley landscape, as

modern

frozen tears from drab skies.

group of court reporters and soldiers

29, a

my first trip and it became

room was warm-

It

was

Old and

finest dec-

figures

and

refreshing to have this

away from the destruction of Nuremberg.

We went to the top of Germany's tallest mountain, and looked down on picturesque Lake Eibsee, nestled the mountains.

the shore.

It

was deep blue

in the

the Zugspitze, at the

base of

middle and emerald green near

The German shopkeepers were happy

to sell us souvenirs:

wood carvings and beautiftil scenic etchings. They knew we were part of the American occupation forces. polite,

but

stiff.

Our

dealings with

them were

However, a few were so eager to appear friendly they

bordered on fawning.

55

JJoctors Irom rlcll

-L/ecember q, iq^G was extremely

It

in the reporters' office,

reporter's notebook,

of Justice.

chilly in the Palace

picked up

my

I

put

my

Parker pen and specially lined

and walked the long

icy hall to the

huge double

doors of the courtroom on the second floor of the eastern wing. entered for the ing a

time the imposing

first

it

security pass to the

door.

the

room where

I

my

life. I

then

took

on a bench outside the doors and presented

American

military policeman,

Nazi doctors and medical defense counsel on

assistants in the defendants'

my

left.

my my

who opened one

took a deep breath and with great trepidation walked

German

I

would be spend-

I

good portion of the next nineteen months of

coat off and laid

on

coat

On my right were

the

in,

past

dock and

American

The

reporters' station

was a long desk against

the high bench of the four

American judges.

I

prosecutors and

down.

turned around and sat

was 10:00 a.m.

looked around the completely

I

had

It

staff.

mahogany

beautiful

filled

and enormous courtroom.

panels and marble

To my

pillars.

left sat

It

the

audience in the mezzanine. The international press gallery sat on the

main

floor.

The

interpreters'

box was glass-enclosed and

The witness stand was

to

Marshal Colonel Charles W. Mays was seated next

to

raised, to the right of the prisoners' dock.

my it.

right. U.S.

U.S. military policemen in white helmet

liners,

khaki uniforms, stood guard behind the dock,

and

at the

main courtroom door

room door was under which I

a large

German

at the prosecutors to

itary, suits if civilians. I

Many would

stuff

looked

at

wearing

my

belts over

each side of the dock,

to the left of the dock.

represented a different region of

looked

slightly

Each

court-

appellate court medallion,

Germany.

left.

They wore uniforms

at the defense

if

counsel in black robes.

crumpled newspapers under

their robes to provide

insulation against the freezing temperatures in the courtroom.

could hear the rustling every time they moved. in layers

—blouse,

wool sweater, jacket and

mil-

(I

skirt

We

was always dressed

—

to withstand the

cold.) I

looked

assistants

56

at the defendants; the twenty-three doctors

wore German army uniforms stripped of

and medical

insignia, or civil-

Office Chief of Counsel for

War Crimes, US Army

J_)

o c to rs

1

r

o

m

rd e

1

My eyes scanned all of them,

ian suits.

one defendant

in the first seat

Hitler's personal physician ical

on the

and the

coming

left

I

looked

at

on

the

number

in the dock, Dr. Karl Brandt,

architect of the experimental

programs that had brought the defendants

As

to rest

to this

trial.

Karl Brandt, his eyes locked onto mine

—

med-

^boring

me with such deep, evil intensity that I shuddered with a chill that my spine and froze me to my seat. I broke his gaze by lowering my eyes to the desk and prepared to start writing. into

went down

\

Defendant Karl Brandt,

Major General

in the

SS and

Adolf Hitler's personal physician

General Taylor's Opening Statement Brigadier General Telford Taylor, Chief of Counsel for

War

Crimes, handsome with his military bearing, stood at the lectern and

began the opening statement of the prosecution:

The defendants tures,

58

and other

in this case are

atrocities

charged with murders,

committed

in the

name

tor-

of medical

No.

science.

The

1,

M-edical Case

tlie

numbered

victims of these crimes are

in the hun-

dreds of thousands.

These nameless doomed were ordered like cattle, fifty

in

wholesale

lots,

of two hundred Jews in good physical condition,

Gypsies, five hundred tubercular Poles, or one thousand

Russians.

The mere punishment of redress the terrible injuries

the defendants

which the Nazis

unfortunate peoples. For them

it

is

far

.

.

.

visited

no one can ever doubt

on these

more important

these incredible events be established by clear proof, so that

can never

that they

that

and public

were

fact

and

not fable; and that this court ... as the voice of humanity,

stamp these

acts,

and the ideas which engendered them,

as

barbarous and criminal.

General Taylor pointed out that the walls, towers, and churches of

Nuremberg had been reduced

rubble by Allied bombs, but

to

Germany had been destroyed decades earlier by the seeds sown in German medicine that permitted euthanasia and experimentation on people

—a moral disintegration

Then he tution of

in the practice of medicine.

outlined historical evidence of

German medicine under

the Nazis.

physicians started in Berlin in April 1933. rate

list

from

others,

what he

The

called the prosti-

attack

on Jewish

They were put on a

sepa-

headed, "Enemies of the State or Jews."

Insurance companies were no longer allowed to pay fees to Jewish physicians,

and

Certification

scientific

and

and professional

licensing were

societies excluded

them.

withdrawn and Jewish doctors were

forced to wear a blue shield emblazoned with the Star of David.

Pharmacies put signs

in their

windows: "Jews Not Wanted."

Finally,

Jews were forbidden to practice medicine. All principles

of medicine became subordinate to the Nazi

National Socialist population policy and racial concepts. In 1935, the

Nazi Director of Public Health Arthur Guett, announced

in a

in the

book

Ministry of the Interior, Dr.

entitled

The Structure of Public

Health in the Third Reich:

59

Irom rxcll

JJoctor.s

The

ill-conceived "love of thy neighbor" has to disappear,

especially in relation to inferior or asocial creatures.

supreme duty of a national

state to grant life

It is

the

and livelihood

only to the healthy and hereditarily sound portion of the people in order to secure the

maintenance of a hereditarily sound

and

all eternity.

racially

pure folk for

has meaning only in the the light of his state.

light

meaning

life

of an individual

of that ultimate aim, that

to his family

and

is,

in

to his national

"^

Crimes

of JM^ass r^xtermination

The degradation of medical Aryan

The

racial theories.

science

The weak and

handicapped were termed

"life

and research began with the and physically

the mentally

unworthy of

life."

Governor of northwest Poland, which was absorbed

The German

into the

German

Reich early in 1942, was exterminating Jews by the tens of thousands.

He

secured permission from Heinrich Himmler, Reich Leader SS,

through Adolf

Hitler, to

exterminate over 230,000 Poles suffering

from tuberculosis. Himmler cautioned him

to carry out these extermi-

nations inconspicuously. Defendants Rudolf Brandt and

Blome were

involved in what was termed "special treatment," carried out by ruth-

extermination or sending the victims to isolated camps where

less

thousands

died.'*

Illegal liutnanasia

On

September

1,

1939, Hitler charged defendant Karl Brandt in

writing with the responsibility of carrying out a widespread euthanasia

program

able.

An

to provide a

"mercy death"

to those

estimated five thousand mentally

he considered incurdeficient,

deformed, and diseased children were killed as a result of

physically this direc-

tive.

Defendants Karl Brandt, Hoven, Brack, and Blome sent three

hundred

to four

hundred Jews, mostly non-German,

the killing station at Bernburg. lists

60

of

doomed

The Ministry of

to their death in

the Interior then sent

patients to insane asylums for transport to particular

Case

o

1^1

.

1, tne .M.edical V^aj

Defendant Kurt Blome, Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research

killing stations. Relatives received falsified

death certificates claiming

death fi"om natural causes.

By the summer of 1940 Germany. Church

this secret

authorities

became common knowledge

and various

in

legal officials protested in

vain to the Minister of Justice and the Minister of the Interior that

people were being murdered. Family members fied death certificates often did not believe

who

received the

falsi-

them and sometimes

chal-

lenged them. In tion

December 1940 Himmler

Brack that the

institu-

Grafeneck should be discontinued because "the population

knows what's going on"

The

The

told defendant

at the constantly

smoking crematory.

idea of a "mercy death" began to take on a

life

of

its

own.

aged, the insane, and incurable people in nursing homes, asy-

lums, and hospitals were

some of those who were

killed needlessly.

The Czechoslovak War Crimes Commission estimated

that at least

275,000 of these types of people, and those unfriendly to the Nazi regime, were killed.^

61

-L)

oc to

r

I

,s

r

o

m

Jn. e

1

i rotection ol Animals During General Taylor's summary of the charges against the doc-

and

tors

assistants involving freezing, drowning, burning,

ing, in sheer irony

he cited the law passed by the Nazis on November

24, 1933, to protect animals. This law

.

.

.

was designed

prevent cruelty and indifference of

and

and poison-

man

explicitly to:

towards animals

awaken and develop sympathy and understanding

to

for

animals as one of the highest moral values of a people. The soul of the utility

German people

should abhor the principle of mere

without consideration of the moral aspects.

The law

sites

further that

all

which are associated with pain or

operations or treatments injury, especially experi-

ments involving the use of cold, heat, or ited.

.

.

infection, are prohib-

.

Medico-legal

tests,

vaccinations, withdrawal of blood for

diagnostic purposes, and

trial

of vaccines prepared according

to well-established scientific principles are permitted, but the

animals have to be killed immediately and painlessly after

such experiments.^

Physicians were not permitted to use dogs to increase their surgical skill, but using

human

beings for such purposes was allowed.

The Tribunal then adjourned

JJecemoer

to

December

10, 1946.

lo, lo-^o

This day of the proceedings began as Mr. James U.S. prosecution staff

made an

when and how documentary

McHaney

of the

introductory statement explaining

evidence, records,

and archives were

captured and preserved by special units of the U.S. Army.

When

the U.S.

Army

entered Germany, special military search

teams captured and preserved enemy documents, records, and archives and assembled

were sent these

62

them

in

document

to these centers to sort, screen,

documents

to

be sent to Nuremberg.

centers.

and

Then

field

teams

translate thousands of

Case No. 1,

Mr.

McHaney

described

tlie

AieJical C;

how the German Medical Services were German documents pertaining to the

organized by Usting captured

twenty-three defendants, their positions and responsibihties. these were

empowerment

Among

decrees signed by Hitler, Subordination and

Powers Duties, Special Powers, Tables of Organization, and docu-

ments marked "Secret," signed by Karl Brandt.^ These were white paper documents that had been handled the

trial started.

They were stacked

many

in piles

times before and after

on the prosecutors'

desk.

63

.5. Hien-Altitude iixperiments

ien prisoners were selected and

Avere taken to the station as

permanent experimental subjects; and notning would nappen

to

— Walter

tliey

were told tnat

tnem.

^ell, concentration camp inmate

The high-altitude experiments were designed to test the limits of human endurance and existence at extremely high altitudes with and without oxygen. They were conducted at Dachau concentration camp from approximately March 1942 to about August 1942 for the German Air Force. The purpose was to duplicate atmospheric conditions that a German pilot might encounter in combat when falling great distances through space without a parachute

and without a

source of oxygen. These experiments were carried out by locking the victim in an airtight, low-pressure chamber provided by the

German

Air Force, then simulating high-altitude atmospheric conditions and pressures

The

up

to sixty-eight

thousand

feet.

criminal proposal to conduct the high-altitude experiments

made on May

was

first

Dr.

Sigmund Rascher

15, 1941,

to the

by Luftwaffe (Air Force) physician

Reich Leader SS, Heinrich Himmler.

Himmler authorized the experiments willingly. German and naval combat and rescue experiments focused most

aeronautical intensely

on

these simulated high-altitude tests (above thirty-six thousand feet),

Uo

c

tests

body

t

o

rs

I

r

o

m

ri

on exposure

e

1

to cold temperatures,

handle processed sea water

to

(to

and the

ability

be described

of the

human

later).

Defendant Romberg stated that four experiments were conducted: slow descent without oxygen, slow descent with oxygen, out oxygen, and falling with oxygen.^ The

first

falling with-

two were

descent with the parachute open; the latter two, a free

to simulate

fall

before the

chute opened.

The human experimental as

VPs

{Versuchsperson,

subjects in the reports

were referred to

meaning experimental person). The approxi-

mately two hundred subjects were selected at random. Russians,

German Of these two hundred,

Russian prisoners of war, Poles, Jews of various nations, and political prisoners

no more than jects

were some of those

forty

selected.

had been condemned

to death.

(The

fact that sub-

of experiments had received death sentences was an argument

forwarded by the defendants as justification for

killing them.) Seventy-

eight were killed by these experiments. Dr. Rascher promised

inmates that of

this,

if

some

they volunteered, they would be released, and because

a few volunteered. That promise was never kept.

A report written

in

May

were conducted on Jewish professional

demned

how some of these criminals who had been

1942 describes

for Rassenschande, literally

meaning

racial

tests

con-

shame. Racial

shame, as defined by the Germans, was marriage or intercourse

between Aryans and non-Aryans ('Aryans" described pure blooded Germans.) Defendant Weltz had jurisdiction over Dr. Rascher's is

interesting to note that

activities. It

Weltz had approached two prominent

experts in the field of aviation medicine. Dr. Lutz and Dr. Wendt, to

take part in this experiment. Both refused that the differences in the reactions of

were not

human

sufficient to

stating

and animals

beings.

Because Weltz could not find

specialists

this field, the

who would

from Munich.

collaborate

experiments did not begin

February 22, 1942. They were conducted

tion camp, a short distance

66

subjects

warrant carrying out hazardous experiments on

with Dr. Rascher, a novice in until

on moral grounds,

human

at

Dachau concentra-

-H.it[n

Altitude .Lxper imen tj

Defendant Georg August Weltz, Chief of the Institute for Aviation Medicine

Defendants Weltz, Ruff, Romberg, Rudolf Brandt, and Sievers

were involved

in the simulated parachute descent experiments.

The

mobile low-pressure chamber into which the experimental subjects

were forced was shipped from defendant Ruff's

Defendant Siegfried Ruff

institute in Berlin to

Director,

Department for Aviation Medicine at the Experimental Institute

67

Uoctors Irom riell

Dachau. The victims were individually locked

in the airtight, ball-

shaped compartment. Then the pressure was altered altitude atmospheric conditions

additional oxygen supplied to All defendants

knew

up

to simulate high-

to 68,900 feet. Subjects

them or they might

not.^

that the proposed experiments

tary inmates were likely to result in death.

might have

on involun-

The defendants claimed

the

experiments were to be performed on habitual and condemned criminals, referred to as "volunteers."

pardon these victims only

had stopped breathing and

Himmler ordered

their chests

to death shall

life" after

they

had been cut open. The "par-

don" however, had conditions. As Himmler

condemned

Dr. Rascher to

they could be "recalled to

if

stated "... the person

be pardoned to concentration camp for

life."3

In one report submitted by Dr. Rascher to Himmler, dated April 4, 1942,

regarding his experiments he stated:

Only continuous experiments

at altitudes higher

than 10.5

kilometers (about 34,600 feet) resulted in death. These exper-

iments showed that breathing stopped after about thirty minwhile in two cases the electrocardiographically charted

utes,

action of the heart continued for another twenty minutes.

The

third experiment of this type took such

nary course that ness, since I

I

called

had worked on these experiments

was a continuous experiment without oxygen kilometers,^ conducted

an extraordi-

an SS physician of the camp as wit-

on a

by myself.

all

at a height

thirty-seven-year-old

Jew

in

It

of 12

good

general condition. Breathing continued up to thirty minutes. After four minutes the

VP began

and

to perspire

to wiggle his

head; after five minutes cramps occurred; between six and ten

minutes breathing increased in speed and the

VP became

unconscious; from eleven to thirty minutes breathing slowed

down

to three breaths per minute, finally stopping altogether.

Severest

cyanosis

[bluish

between and foam appeared

hour

68

after breathing

discoloration]

at the

mouth.

.

.

.

developed

in

About one-half

had stopped, dissection was

started.

rii^n Altituae I^xper men ts i

Autopsy Report The following

is

excerpted from Dr. Rascher's autopsy report on

Jew

the "thirty-seven-year-old

in

good general condition":

When the cavity of the chest was opened the pericardium sac surrounding the heart]

ade

—compression

was

of the heart by pericardial

opening of the pericardium eighty

gushed

forth.

The moment

right auricle [atrium]

the

[the

tampon-

filled tightly [heart

Upon

fluid].

of clear yellowish liquid

cc.

tamponade had stopped, the

began to beat

heavily, at first at the rate

of sixty actions per minute, then progressively slower. Twenty

minutes cle

after the

pericardium had been opened, the right auri-

was opened by puncturing

it.

For about

minutes a

fifteen

thick stream of blood spurted forth. Thereafter clogging of the

puncture

wound

in the auricle

by coagulation

formation]

[clot

of the blood and renewed acceleration of the action of the right auricle occurred.

One hour [soft

after breathing

had stopped, the

spinal

organic material] was completely severed and

marrow

the brain

removed. Thereupon the action of the auricle stopped for forty seconds. It then

renewed

its

action,

A

plete standstill eight minutes later.

oedema was found

to a

com-

heavy subarachnoid

in the brain [swelling within the

brane that forms the blood/brain arteries

coming

mem-

barrier]. In the veins

of the brain a considerable quantity of

air

was

and

discov-

ered.

Photos of the brain were received in evidence. Prosecution Exhibit 61, dated

May

from a Secret Report from Dr. Rascher

...

As

a practical result of the

ments conducted .

.

.

at

11, 1942,

to

quoted an excerpt

Himmler:

more than two hundred

experi-

Dachau, the following can be assumed:

Jewish professional criminals

pollution were used.

who had committed

The question of

the

race

formation of

69

Uo

c

t

o rs

I

r

o

ri ell

111

embolism [sudden blocking] was investigated

Some

of the

iment.

.

.

VPs died during

a continued high-altitude exper-

After the skull had been opened under water an

.

ample amount of

embolism was found

air

in the brain vessels

and, in part, free air in the brain ventricles .

.

.

[cavities].

After relative recuperation from such a parachute

descending

had taken

test

consciousness, died.

in ten cases.

When

place, however, before regaining

some VPs were kept under water

the skull

and the

cavities of the breast

until they

and of the

abdomen had been opened under water, an enormous amount of

air

embolism was found

coronary

vessels,

and the

in the vessels of the brain, the

vessels of the liver

and the

intestines,

etc.^

The research

subject

was

intentionally killed to obtain these find-

ings.

Dr.

Rascher's experimental subjects in his above report to

Himmler, dated

May

involved "Jewish professional crimi-

11, 1942,

who had committed Rassenschande because sensual sexual intercourse with German women.

nals"

An

they had had con-

interim report submitted by Dr. Rascher stated: "The extreme

fatal

experiments will be carried out on specially selected VPs other-

wise

it

would not be

possible to exercise the rigid control so extraor-

dinarily important for practical purposes."^

The defendants' argument

that while the experiments

killed the experimental subjects, they did not involve torture

may

have

and pain,

was. not supported by photographic exhibits received in evidence.

Some

captured

German

film

showing spasmodic convulsions and

tured and pained expressions totally rebut this

Prosecution Exhibit 66,

NO-402^

states: "After

an ascent made as

rapidly as possible, using oxygen apparatus with free flow, the

was removed immediately upon

tor-

argument.^

attaining 49,200 feet altitude

mask

and the

descent was begun."

At 49,200

feet,

the experimental subject

fered severe altitude sickness lar contraction

70

let

the

and clonic convulsions

and relaxation

in rapid succession]

mask

fall;

[alternate

he

suf-

muscu-

Hi^n Altituoe Experiments

At 46,900 Hke a dog;

feet his

his legs

arms were stretched

were spread

stiffly

forward; he sat up

stiffly

At 23,620

apart.

uncoordinated movements with his extremities. At 19,690 clonic convulsions

At 9,520

feet

and was groaning. At 18,040

he was yelling and

head sank forward. At 6,560

and

bit his tongue.

the impression of

Then

after

At zero

feet

feet

he had

he yelled loudly.

arms and

convulsing his

he had

feet

legs; his

he yelled spasmodically, grimaced,

feet

he did not respond to speech and gave

feet

someone completely out of

reaching ground

level,

it

mind.

took twenty-four hours for the

None

victim to regain normal cohesion.

his

of the victims had any recol-

lection of the experimefits.

Another argument used by the defendants was "necessity of the State." It

sands in

was a common defense

for incarcerating

concentration camps and

them

subjecting

hundreds of thouto slave labor,

and

murdering millions of Jews. The prosecution argued that "necessity of the State"

was unfounded;

that this

were "neither necessary nor a

Xestimony Following

is

is

no

defense.

The experiments

scientific success."^

of Avalter

Nell

an extract from the testimony on December

17, 1947,

camp

prisoner

of Tribunal witness Walter Neff, a concentration inmate. Prosecutor James

Prosecutor

M. McHaney was

McHaney: When did

interrogating Neff.^^

the high-altitude experiments

begin in Dachau?

Witness Neff: The

high-altitude experiments

first

were on

February 22, 1942. The so-called low-pressure chambers had

been brought

in earlier

the chambers

came

Prosecutor: Will you

is

tell

and dismounted. The exact time when

not

known

the Tribunal

to me.

.

.

who worked on these exper-

iments?

71

'i^ Wik>^X:

imif

Inmate of Dachau concentration camp stages

of simulated high

altitude.

in low-pressure chamber, in different

Document NO-610.

Prosecution exhibit 41.

Higrh Altitude Kxper iments

The experiments were conducted by

Witness:

Dr. Rascher

and Dr.

Romberg. Ten prisoners were selected and were taken station as

permanent experimental

subjects;

to the

and they were

told that nothing would happen to them. In the beginning, the first

three weeks, the experiments

went

off without incident.

One day, however, Rascher told me the next day he was going to make a serious experiment and that he would need sixteen Russians who had been condemned to death, and he received these Russians.

Then

told Rascher that

I

I

would not

help,

and

me away to the tubercular ward. On that day I know for certain that Rascher's SS man Endres or other SS men conducted these experiments. Dr. Romberg was not there that day. The SS man Endres took the Russian I

actually got Rascher to send

war

prisoners of

were taken

On was be

I

out.

already there

I

am

watched

saw the

file. It

when

first

and he

to see

one getting into the

I

to me.

to the place

first

two more, two Jews, would the station again,

taken for the experiments.

car. I

knew

I

I left

could only see his pro-

that

tried to find out if

it

man worked

was

where he worked, and

Endres had just taken the

The

returned to the station, Endres

who would be

seemed familiar

went

I

said that

quoting what he said.

hospital as a tailor. I

Rascher and in the evening the parties

the next day

killed. I

but

to

person that

I

man

in the

really that I

was

man.

told that

away.

informed was Dr. Romberg

whom

Romberg that this was not a person who had been condemned to death, that this was a clear case of murder on the responsibility of Endres. Romberg went with me to see Rascher to clear the matter up, but it was disI

met

in the corridor.

I

told

covered that Endres had put this

man

in the experimental car

because he had refused to make a civilian

Rascher sent the

man

suit for

back; Endres went with

him and

remarked: "Well, then you will get an injection today." say that Rascher interfered once

him.

I

more and put the man in

must safe-

ty into the bunker.

73

JJoctors Ironi xiell

In the meantime, Endres

Czech

had brought a second man

whom I knew very well.

Again

it

was Romberg

up, a

togeth-

me who talked to Rascher to stop this experiment or to inquire why a man like Endres was simply taking people who had never been condemned to death. Rascher went to the camp commandant, Piorkowski, who personally came to the er with

and Endres was transferred

station

Prosecutor:

to Lublin immediately.

About how many concentration camp inmates were

subjected to these high-altitude experiments?

Witness: There were one hundred eighty to two hundred inmates

who were Prosecutor:

I

subjected to the high-altitude experiments.

am

asking you, witness,

experiments ended, that

is,

when

the high-altitude

— maybe

the beginning of

—the low-pressure chambers were taken away.

ollect the exact date,

Prosecutor:

And you

.

they were completed.

Witness: During the course of June July

when

.

I

don't rec-

however.

state that

between February 22, 1942, and

the end of June, or the beginning of July 1942, approximately

one hundred eighty

to

two hundred concentration camp

inmates were experimented on?

Witness: Yes.

Prosecutor:

Witness:

I

mately that

What

nationalities

were the experimental subjects?

cannot say that with certainty but all

were

think that approxi-

nations were represented there; that in the

is,

all

nations

camp, mostly Russians, Poles, Germans, and

Jews belonging to any nation.

I

do not remember any other

nationalities being represented there.

74

I

rdiofn

Prosecutor:

Were any of

Altitude

rlvxper imen

ts

these experimental subjects prisoners of

war?

Witness: Yes.

Prosecutor:

Witness:

What

Do you recall?

were they?

They were Russians.

Prosecutor:

Now,

tal subjects

Witness:

nationalities

will

you

tell

the Tribunal

how

these experimen-

were selected?

The experimental

subjects

who had

severe experiments, experiments that

to

be subjected to

would end

in death,

were requested by Rascher from the camp administration and then furnished by the SS; however, this procedure differed

with the so-called series of experiments and a number of other experiments. For those experiments the people were brought into the experimental station straight

from the camp, that

is,

from the blocks.

Prosecutor: the

Now,

camp

did they, to your knowledge,

make any

effort in

to secure volunteers for these experiments?

Witness: There were certain volunteers for these experiments.

That was because Rascher promised certain persons that they

would be released from the camp experiments.

if

they underwent these

He sometimes promised them

that they

would

be detailed to more favorable work.

Prosecutor:

Now, about how many of such volunteers would you

say there were for the high-altitude experiments?

Witness:

I

do not know the exact number.

It

was not very

approximately ten inmates volunteered for that purpose.

high; .

.

75

J_)

oc to

rs

I

r

Prosecutor:

you

o

m

rx c

1

Now, other than

state presented

these approximately ten persons

themselves as volunteers, were

all

who

the rest

of the experimental subjects simply picked out and brought in

and experimented on?

Witness: Yes.

Were any of

Prosecutor:

these prisoners experimented

released from the concentration

camp because

upon

they under-

went the experiments?

Witness: There

is

only one

man who was

released after the high-

altitude experiments.

Prosecutor:

Witness:

And who was

An

Prosecutor:

that?

inmate with the name of Sobota.

And

did Sobota assist Rascher in his experimental

work other than simply undergoing something

in the nature

the experiment?

Was

he

of an assistant to Rascher?

Witness: No. Sobota was one of those persons

who had

to under-

go most of the experiments and he was also used on one experiment, which was conducted in the presence of the

Reich Leader SS [Himmler].

.

.

Prosecutor: Other than the prisoner Sobota, were there any other

concentration

camp inmates

released as a result of undergo-

ing the high-altitude experiments?

Witness:

76

I

know

of no case except Sobota.

H Prosecutor:

Do you know

i Q[

Experiments

h Altitude

of any cases where a prisoner con-

demned to death had his sentence commuted to Ufe imprisonment because he underwent the high-altitude experiments? Witness: No.

Prosecutor: Witness, were any political prisoners used in these high-altitude experiments?

who were

Witness: Yes, there were political prisoners

used in

these experiments. All foreigners were considered political prisoners.

Prosecutor: Witness,

tell

the Tribunal

ference between a political centration

how one

could

tell

and a criminal prisoner

the

dif-

in a con-

camp?

Witness: All inmates had certain squares with

letters;

the political

inmates had red squares; the

German

plain red square; the Poles

had a red square with a "P"

marked on

political

the Russians with an "R";

it;

be identified by the with a yellow

star

nationalities could

of their country. The red square

first letter

was the

all

inmates had a

The green

Jew.

square,

on the other

hand, was the sign of the so-called professional criminal.

Prosecutor:

Now, was

Witness:

was

It

pointed

for

to the earth. If

the

.

square really a square or a triangle?

really a triangle

down

member of

this

.

with the head of the triangle

it

pointed upward,

Wehrmacht [Army] who was

it

indicated a

sent to the

camp

punishment.

Prosecutor: Witness, were any Jews experimented

on

in these

high-altitude experiments?

77

J_)octors Irom riell

Witness: Yes.

Now,

Prosecutor:

tell

the Tribunal approximately

how many

pris-

oners were killed during the course of the high-altitude exper-

iments?

Witness: During the high-altitude experiments seventy to eighty

persons were

killed.

Did they experiment on prisoners other than those

Prosecutor:

condemned

to death?

Witness: Yes.

Prosecutor:

Do you

have any idea

how many may

have been

killed?

Witness: There could have been approximately forty persons.

Prosecutor: That

condemned Witness: Yes.

.

is,

forty persons

were

killed

who had

to death out of a total of seventy, did

not been

you say?

.

Can you remember approximately how many deaths Romberg witnessed during these high-altitude experiments, if

Prosecutor:

any?

Witness:

can remember

I

five cases

where Romberg was present

during cases of death; whether he was present on other occasions,

78

I

do not know.

It is

possible, but

I

am

not sure of

it.

rii^h Altitude iLxper iments

Testimony Following

of

Defendant Rudolf Brandt

a brief extract from the testimony of Defendant

is

Rudolf Brandt with

direct

examination by his

German

lawyer, Dr.

Kauffmann, from March 24-26, 1947.^^ Dr. Kauffmann began:

Defense counsel Kauffmann:

Now

should

I

like to

speak to you

about Document Book No. 2 concerning the high-altitude experiments of Dr. Rascher.

You

morning

said this

that

you

knew Rascher? Witness Brandt: Yes.

Defense counsel: Did you see him frequently?

Witness: Very few times in the course of four to five years.

.

.

Defense counsel: But you do not want to deny that you knew that

Rascher was carrying out experiments on

human

beings in

Dachau? Witness: Yes that

I

knew.

Defense counsel: Did you ever

Witness: No.

camp.

.

I

was never

in

visit

Dachau

Dachau

or in any other concentration

.

Defense counsel: Now, please turn to page ter

to

yourself?

from Rascher

Himmler

to

Himmler

in

for the first time that

human

should be carried out in Dachau. In

would

these experiments he

fifty-three.

.

is

a

let-

being experiments

this letter

he says that in

certainly have to count

consequences for some of the subjects. receiving this letter?

This

which he makes suggestions

Do

on

fatal

you remember

.

79

iJoctors Irom rxell

Witness:

I

do not remember the

Defense counsel:

Now

letter.

.

.

please look at page fifty-seven of the

German document

book. This

1582-PS,

is

Prosecution

Exhibit 45, a letter from you to Rascher in which you

of course, prisoners will gladly be

that,

high-altitude experimentation.

own

initiative or is

it

Was

all

on your

the others that

letter written

him

available for

this letter written

a case similar to

have brought up here, namely, a

made

tell

you

on orders from

Himmler?

Witness: This

letter

does not originate with me.

back to clear orders from Himmler.

.

It

can be traced

.

Defendant Rudolf Brandt, Personal Administrative Officer to Reichsfiiehrer

SS Heinrich Himmler

Defense counsel: Now, please look

at

1971-D-PS, Prosecution

Exhibit 52, apparently a teletype message from Rascher to you. Here Rascher asks whether Poles and Russians are also to be

80

pardoned

if

they have survived several severe experi-

x~Li^h

Altitude hyxper men ts i

merits. In 1971-E-PS, Prosecution Exhibit 53,

to be

found

ument was given

they are Poles or Russians. This doc-

if

particular stress

by the prosecution, and

Do

and atrocious nature was emphasized.

came about

Witness:

that

you signed

carmot remember

I

this teletype

cannot remember

defendant after

when

communication.

this

testified that

At

memory

who under

the time of the

world of the

to teU the

message; he just

he knew nothing about

in contrast to the

is

Neff, a prison inmate station.

.

this

This was a frequent response by a

."

confronted with a document with his signature on

having just

This

.

.

how

message?

Rudolf Brandt did not deny that he signed said, "I

its

you remem-

ber this document or can you give us any explanation of it

is

In this letter you say that experimental subjects

...

are not to be pardoned

cruel

your answer

trial,

it

it.

of the prior witness, Walter

orders

worked

in the experimental

he had been liberated and was eager

atrocities

about which he appeared to have

vivid memories.

lestimony ol JJelenoant JJr. JR^omoere Finally,

the

following are extracts from the testimony of

Defendant Romberg under Dr. Vorwerk, from

May

direct

1-6,

in

between your presence

from high

altitudes

German lawyer,

1947.^^

Defense counsel Vorwerk: Now, tinction

examination by his

your opinion, what at the

is

the dis-

experiments on rescue

and your occasional presence during

Rascher's experiments?

Witness Romberg: In the experiments on rescue from high tudes

I

myself.

was not merely ...

present.

I

alti-

performed the experiments

Doctors trom

IHLell

When was

Defense counsel:

the second death at

which you were

present?

my

Witness: That was a few days after

return to Dachau.

Defense counsel: Did the death of the experimental subject occur in a

manner

similar to the

Witness: In general, yes. far as I recall,

it

don't

case?

know

exactly

was an experiment

and death occurred

Defense counsel:

I

first

quicker,

more

And when was

what happened. As

at a rather

high altitude,

suddenly.

the third death at

which you

were present?

Witness: That was right after that, on the next day, or the second day.

Reference was then

made by

the defendant's attorney to a letter

1971-B-PS, Prosecution Exhibit 51, and he asked Dr. Romberg,

what does

this letter indicate?"

Witness: Well,

it

showed

that

Himmler had

actually ordered these

experiments and that he, therefore, had complete erage, that the subjects ter:

were

to

be pardoned.

condemned concentration camp for life.".

"Of course

doned

"And

to

the person

It

official cov-

says in the

to death shall be par.

Defense counsel: At that time, was there any possibihty

Germany

to resist,

and

in

let-

what did you

in

see such possibility?

Witness: There were only three types of resistance possible. First

of

all,

emigration for a person

resistance penalty,

82

who was

able; second,

open

which meant a concentration camp or the death

and

to

my

knowledge, never met with any success;

-hLisfk

third, passive resistance

by apparent

delaying orders, criticism

among

Altitude .Lxperiments

yielding, misplacing

one's friends, in short,

and

what

writers today call "internal emigration."

How

scientific

were the high-altitude experiments? Prosecution

Exhibit 66 regarding "Experiments on Rescue from High Altitude," the report signed

by Dr. Rascher and defendant Dr. Romberg,

stated:

Since the urgency of the solution of the problem was evident, it

was

necessary, especially under the given conditions of the

experiment to forego for the time being the thorough clearing

up of purely

scientific questions.

^^

This statement demonstrates that the defendants

knew

these

experiments were not scientific and did not follow established medical protocols regarding voluntary subjects. In summary, 180 to 200 vic-

tims were subjected to this experiment, resulting in grave injury and

70 to 80 deaths.

Although defendants Schroeder, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Sievers, Ruff,

Romberg, Becker-Freyseng, and Weltz were charged

with special responsibility for and participation in criminal conduct involving high-altitude experiments, only Rudolf Brandt and Sievers

Wolfram

were convicted.

83

.6. Xreezine -bvxperinients

my

it Jiurts

centration

appearance

racial leelines to expose to racially interior con-

camp elements ol

a girl as a prostitute -wrno nas trie

pure JSIoraic ana

a

wno

assignment ol proper work oe put on tne

could pernaps by rierit

road.

— _L)r. oigmund

Jvascner

Freezing experiments were conducted from August 1942 approximately

German Air

May

1943

at

Dachau, primarily

Force. These investigated

how

to

for the benefit of the

to treat people

who had

been severely chilled or frozen. Ice water and dry land experiments simulated freezing conditions experienced by planes had crashed into the sea, or

German Army

the battlefield in subfreezing temperatures

pose was to

test different

ways

to

German

whose

fliers

troops fighting

on

and deep snow. The pur-

rewarm surviving German

fliers

and

troopers.

The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Schroeder, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick,

Sievers, Becker-Freyseng,

and Weltz were charged with criminal conduct

for

conducting these

freezing experiments.

The Department

for Aviation Medicine,

when defendant

Becker-

Freyseng was deputy, issued the research assignment.^ Defendant

Weltz and

his subordinate Dr.

Sigmund Rascher were ordered

to per-

JJ o c t o r

I

.s

r

o

ni

JHL o

1

Defendant Helmut Foppendick, Chief of the Personal Staff of the Reich Physician

SS

form the experiments. The experimental team was expanded

to

include Professor Dr. Holzloehner and Dr. Finke of Kiel University

and

all officers in

Two

types of freezing experiments were conducted: cold water

and dry

freezing ers,

the Medical Service of the Air Force.

freezing.

non-German

Approximately 280 to 300

political prison-

and prisoners of war were used

nationals,

400 conducted experiments

in freezing water.

360 to

Eighty to 90 subjects

died.

Rascher conducted additional experiments, using 50

jects.

Of

The

for

to

60 sub-

these, 15 to 18 individuals died.

best

way to

describe these experiments

is

to

go

to the testimo-

ny of the Tribunal witness Walter Neff, a concentration camp inmate assistant.

On December

Prosecutor James

Prosecutor

McHaney: When

August or

1946,

Neff was questioned by

McHaney:

Witness Neff: The

86

17-18,

at the

first

did the freezing experiments start?

freezing experiments

end of July

.

.

started

during

il,xperi menAs

freezing

you describe the experimental

Prosecutor: All right. Suppose basin.

The experimental basin was

Witness:

meters long and two meters wide. timeters above the floor

and

it

built of

It

was

was

wood.

was two

It

raised about fifty cen-

in

Block No.

experimental chamber and basin there were

5.

many

In the

lighting

instruments and other apparatus that were used in order to carry out measurements.

Prosecutor:

many

Now,

will

you

.

.

tell

the Tribunal approximately

how

persons were used over the whole period? That

is,

including both groups that you have mentioned.

Witness:

Two hundred and

subjects

were used

really three

eighty to three hundred experimental

for these freezing experiments.

hundred

sixty to four

There were

hundred experiments that

were conducted, since many experimental subjects were used for

more than one such experiment

—sometimes

even for

three.

Prosecutor:

Now, out of

the total of

two hundred eighty or three

hundred prisoners used, approximately how many died?

Witness: Approximately eighty to ninety subjects died as a result

of these freezing experiments.

Now, how many experimental subjects do you remember that they used in the Holzloehner-Finke-Rascher

Prosecutor:

experiments?

Witness: During that period of time approximately subjects

Prosecutor:

were used

fifty to sixty

for experimental purposes.

Did any of these experimental

subjects die?

87

±J o c t o r

I

,s

li ell

o ni

r

Witness: Yes. During that period of time there were about

maybe even

When was

Prosecutor:

Witness:

It

at the

that experimental series concluded?

was concluded

end of October

Prosecutor:

in the .

month of

October.

I

think

was

it

.

And then Rascher continued experiments on his own?

Witness: Yes.

Prosecutor:

fifteen,

eighteen cases of death.

.

How

long did Rascher continue to experiment with

freezing by cold water?

May

Witness: Until

Prosecutor:

Do

I

1943.

..

understand, then, that the experimental subjects

used in the freezing experiments were

Witness: There were a

number of inmates

number of

foreigners, but there

political prisoners?

political prisoners

and

also a

were also prisoners of war and

who had been condemned

to death.

Prosecutor: These persons were not volunteers, were they?

Witness: No.

Prosecutor: Suppose you describe to the Tribunal exactly these freezing experiments were carried out, that

they made,

how

is,

what

they measured the temperature and

how tests

how

the

temperature of the water was lowered in the basin, and so forth?

reezin^ rvxperiments

Witness: These basins were until the

filled

with water, and ice was added

water measured three degrees [C], and the experi-

mental subjects were either dressed in a flying placed into the ice water naked.

.

imental subjects were conscious, called freezing narcosis set in.

.

suit or

were

.Now, whenever the exper-

it

took some time until so-

The temperature was measured

and through the stomach through the Galvanometer

rectally

apparatus.

The lowering of terrible for the

the temperature to thirty-two degrees

was

experimental subject. At thirty-two degrees the

experimental subject lost consciousness. These persons were frozen

now

down

to twenty-five degrees

you

in order to enable

should

like to tell

to understand this problem,

active,

water.

I

you something about the Holzloehner and

Finke period. During the period

were

body temperature, and

when Holzloehner and Finke

no experimental subject was

Deaths occurred

all

the

more

actually killed in the

readily because during

revival the temperature dropped even further and so heart

fail-

ure resulted. This was also caused by wrongly applied therapy, so that in contrast to the low-pressure experiments, deaths

were not deliberately caused. In the air-pressure chamber, on the other hand, each death cannot be described as an accident

but as willful murder.

However,

it

was

different

when Rascher

over these experiments. At that time a large

personally took

number of

the

persons involved were kept in the water until they were dead....

Prosecutor:

Do you recall the occasion when two

were experimented upon

Russian officers

in the freezing experiments?

Witness: Yes.

Prosecutor: Will you relate that incident to the Tribunal?

89

Uo

c

t

o

rs

I

r

o

Witness: Yes.

Two

out.

We

ix

111

It

e

1

was the worst experiment, which was ever

carried

Russian officers were carried out from the bunker.

were forbidden to speak to them. They arrived

at

approx-

imately 4:00 in the afternoon. Rascher had them undressed

and they had passed, and freezing

go into the basin naked. Hour

to

had

set in, these

them an

injection

were of no

hour one Russian said

third

officer to

conscious

Rascher asking him to give

to

Approximately during the

avail.

to the other,

"Comrade,

tell

Then they shook hands and

this Fascist dog."

"Goodbye, Comrade."

If

you can imagine

to witness such a death,

then you can judge in

still

that

shoot us." The other replied, "Don't expect any

mercy from had

two Russians were

two hours. All our appeals

after

hour

after

while usually after a short time, sixty minutes,

that

said

we inmates

and could do nothing about

how terrible

it is

to be

condemned

it,

work

to

such an experimental station. After these words were translated for Rascher in a some-

what

different

his office.

form by a young

The young Pole

thetic with chloroform, but

and threatened

to

Pole,

Rascher went back into

once to give them an anes-

tried at

Rascher returned immediately

shoot us with his pistol

if

we dared

approach these victims again. The experiment lasted five

at least

hours until death occurred. Both corpses were sent to

Munich

for

autopsy in the Schwabing Hospital.

Prosecutor: Witness,

how

long did

normally take to

it

kill

a per-

son in these freezing experiments?

Witness:

The

length of the experiment varied, according to the

individual case. also

made

Whether the

a difference. If he

tion to that he

subject

was

was clothed or unclothed

slight in build

and

was naked, death often occurred

eighty minutes. But there were a

number of

if in

addi-

after

only

cases where the

experimental subject lived up to three hours, and remained in the water until finally death occurred."

90

Fr eezino; JC/xperiinent^

Reich Leader SS Heinrich Himmler wrote to Dr.

Rascher on October 24, 1942, about doctors or assistants refused

on moral grounds

to participate in

He

without the victims' consent.^

and high

guilty of treason

iments on

treason,

humans and would

instead

still

let

who

openly

experimentation

"I regard these

said,

who,

human

Sigmund

people as

today, reject these exper-

sturdy

German

soldiers die

as a result of these cooling methods."

Concentration gious

camp Dachau was where

community of

was

prisoners

whom

the majority of the

reli-

They numbered over

interned.

more than 1,000 died

in the

camp.

Although the majority of those interned were Polish Catholic

priests,

and Moslem

clergy-

2,070 clergymen, of

the

community included

men. Over 300 Polish

Protestant, Orthodox,

priests died in

medical experiments or by

tor-

ture.

One

of the lucky survivors, Father Leo Miechalowski,

Nuremberg and Prosecutor

testified for the prosecution.^

McHaney: Now,

what happened

to

you

Witness Miechalowski:

Father, will

after

When

your

I

you

and from there

still

is

what he

to

said:

the Tribunal

tell

arrest?

was

arrested

prison for two months, and from there cloister,

This

came

I

was

we were

first

kept in

sent into a

other priests were assembled until

about ninety priests had been assembled altogether, and from there were sent to Struthof near

camp which was

Danzig

into the concentration

located there. And, from there

ninth of February

Oranienburg, which

we were is

on the

until

in

or

transferred to Sachsenhausen-

located, near Berlin.

On

the thirteenth

we were transferred again to Dachau. Dachau until the arrival of the Americans

of December 1940,

was confined

fifth

we were liberated

I

—that was on the twenty-ninth of April

1945.

Prosecutor:

Now,

Father, were

you a

political prisoner in

Dachau?

91

-Doctors irom rxell

Witness: Yes.

I

wore a red

insignia

arrested for political reasons

Prosecutor:

Now,

which

had

Father, did there

to

all

wear

come

those

who had been

this insignia.

a time

experimented on in the concentration camp

when you were Dachau?

at

we

Witness: Yes. Malaria experiments and also on one occasion

were engaged

Prosecutor:

Did you say

Witness: No,

Prosecutor:

in high-altitude experiments.

I

said aviation experiments.

And what do you mean by

Witness: Well,

I

have said

uniforms and then

and

high-altitude experiments, Father?

it

because

we were

aviation experiments?

we were

put into containers

full

of water

ice.

The witness was then questioned about to

dressed in aviator's

which he had been subjected (described

the malaria experiments

in chapter 7), after

which

the questioning continued as follows.

Prosecutor: Well, will you

the tribunal about this other exper-

tell

iment?

Witness: During those malaria attacks on one occasion called cian,

by Dr. Prachtol and

and Dr. Prachtol

will call you."

I

was examined by a Polish

told me, "If

However,

I

did not

done with me. Several days October, 1942, a prisoner

later,

tion to block 5 in

92

I

physi-

have any use for you,

know what was going that

came and

report to the hospital immediately.

examined once more, and

I

I

was

I

was on told

me

thought

I

to

be

the seventh of that

I

was

was going

to

was taken through the malaria

Dachau,

I

to

be

sta-

to the fourth floor of block 5.

Fri

There

—the

so-called aviation

was

station

nobody could

fence so that

room, the aviation experimental

and there was a

located there,

what was

see

on the

on

ratus

There were two

water.

there.

Next

to

them

tables,

names.

and

ice,

I

which

was

floated

was a heap of clothing

there

led

and there were two appa-

was

consisted of uniforms, and Dr. Prachtol cers in Air Force uniforms.

wooden

fence, a

inside,

and there was a basin with water and

there,

experiments

iL§_

However,

I

there,

two

do not know

that offi-

their

'^

Now

was

I

told to undress.

undressed and

I

I

was exam-

ined.

The physician then remarked

order.

Now wires had been taped to my back, also in the lower

rectum. Afterwards

then afterwards lying there.

had

I

had

I

Then

I

to

had

to

wear

that everything

my

shirt,

my

was

in

drawers, but

wear one of the uniforms, which were also to

wear a long pair of boots with

And afterwards a tube was put around my neck and was filled with air. And afterwards the wires, which had been connected with me they and one

cat's fur

aviator's combination.

—

were connected to the apparatus, and then

I

was thrown

into

the water. All of a sudden ble. I

pull

became very

I

immediately turned to those two

me

much

out of the water because

longer.

will only last a very short time."

and

I

was conscious

exactly because

imate time

During

I

I

However, they told

I

for

I

and

cold,

I

began to trem-

men and asked them to

would be unable

me

to stand

it

laughingly, "Well, this

sat in this water,

one hour and a

do not know

half. I

did not have a watch, but that

and I had

is

the approx-

spent there.

this

time the temperature was lowered very slowly

in the beginning

and afterwards more

rapidly.

When

I

was

my temperature was lowered very slowWhen I was water my temperature was 37.6. Then the

thrown into the water ly in the

thrown

beginning and afterwards more rapidly. into the

temperature became lower. Then

low as

30, but then

and every

fifteen

I

already

I

only had 33 and then as

became somewhat unconscious,

minutes some blood was taken from

my ear. 93

Jjoctors Irom

J~l o

After having sat in the water for about half an hour, offered a cigarette. Later

Schnapps, and then later

still I

hot.

It

water.

I

on

I

was asked how

rather lukewarm.

Now my

became very

I

about to

out because

me

feeling.

Somewhat

short.

was freezing very much

I

my

die,

I

my

in this

and the

rigid as iron,

hands, and later on

breathing

once again began to tremble, and

wards cold sweat appeared on

Then

was

were becoming as

feet

to

gave

I

with

httle glass

was given one cup of Grog. This Grog was not very

was

same thing applied

just

was given a

was

I

and then

I

my

was

could not stand

this

forehead.

still

I

felt

as

after-

was

if I

asking them to pull

much

me

longer.

came and he had a little bottle, and he some liquid out of this bottle, and I

Dr. Prachtol

a few drops of

know anything about this liquid. It had a somewhat sweetish taste. Then I lost my consciousness. I do not know how much longer I remained in the water because I was did not

unconscious.

When

again regained consciousness,

I

it

was

I

was

approximately between 8:00 and 8:30 in the evening.

on a

lying

and above

stretcher covered with blankets,

me there

was some kind of an appliance with lamps, which were warming me.

In the

room

Then

Dr. Prachtol asked

ers.

replied, "First of

am

there

was only Dr. Prachtol and two

all, I feel

me how

Then

I

very exhausted, and furthermore

I

also very hungry." Dr. Prachtol

that

bed.

I

was

One

under

his

During

prison-

to be given better food

I

was

feeling.

had immediately ordered

and

that

I

was

also to

lie

in

me on the stretcher and he took me arm and he led me through the corridor to his room. prisoner raised

this

time he spoke to me, and he told me, "Well, you

do not know what you have even suffered." the prisoner gave

me

in the

room

half a bottle of milk, one piece of bread

and some potatoes, but

on he took me

And

that

came from

his

own

to the malaria station,^ block 3,

rations. Later

and there

was

I

—

put to bed, and the very same evening a Polish prisoner

name was Dr. Adam, but I do not other name. He came on official orders. He told

was a physician;

remember

94

his

it

his first

Treezino;

me, "Everything that has happened to you

il>x

I

er

1

men

t

s

a miHtary secret.

is

You are not to discuss it with anybody. If you fail to do so, you know what the consequences will be for you. You are intelligent enough to know that." Of course, I fully realized that I had

keep quiet about

to

On

one occasion

my

one of

comrades.

and he came

way

to see

because

living,

I

I

that.

had discussed these experiments with

One

of the nurses found out about this

me and

was

asked

me

if I

Prosecutor:

tired

of

talking about such matters. But, in the

these experiments were conducted,

anything further to

was already

I

do not need

to

add

it.

How long was

it

before you recovered from the effects

of those freezing experiments?

Witness:

It

took a long time.

I

also have

had a rather weak heart, and I have

and

also get

I

Prosecutor:

Witness:

cramps

in

my

had

also

several (pause)

I

have

had severe headaches,

very often.

feet

Do you still suffer from the effects of this experiment?

I still

have a weak heart. For example,

walk very quickly now, and

I

I

am

unable to

also have to sweat very

Exactly, those are the results, but in

many

cases

much.

have had

I

those afflictions ever since.

Prosecutor:

Were you

in

good physical condition before you were

subjected to malaria and freezing experiments?

Witness: Since the time of this starvation

kilograms in Dachau.

about one hundred the beginning,

week.

And

I

then

When

kilo; I lost

I

came

weighed

camp

about one-half of

was weighed, and

my

I

to the

weight went

I

was

down

in

fifty-seven I

weighed

my weight.

bed

for

In

about a

to forty-seven kilo.

95

JJ o c t o r

o

r

I

,s

can not

I

but

lately,

c

1

How much

Prosecutor:

Witness:

xi

111

I

do you weigh now, Father?

you exactly but

tell

think at this time

I

I

have not weighed myself

weigh

fifty-five

kilogram.

Do you know how you were rewarmed in these

Prosecutor:

fi-eez-

ing experiments?^

Witness:

was warmed with these lamps, but

I

people were rewarmed by

I

heard

later that

women.

Do you know approximately how many inmates were

Prosecutor:

subjected to the fi-eezing experiments?

Witness:

I

can not

tell

you anything about

so secret; and because

was

I

was

this,

because

was kept

it

in there quite individually,

and

I

quite single during this experiment.

Do

Prosecutor:

you know whether anyone died

as a result of this

experiment?

Witness:

I

can not give you any information about that

have not seen anybody. But

number of people died

Women

Useo

it

was

said in

camp

either.

I

that quite a

there during this experiment.

Jror

XveAvarming

Women who were used for rewarming in the freezing experiments were referred dated

to as concentration

November

5,

camp prostitutes.

In a

memorandum

1942,^ Dr. Rascher wrote:

For the resuscitation experiments by animal warmth freezing,

women

as ordered

assigned to

Ravensbrueck.

96

by the Reich Leader

SS,

I

after

had four

me from the women's concentration camp

-freezing xlvxperiments

One Nordic

women shows

of the assigned

racial characteristics:

blond

hair,

unobjectionably

blue eyes, correspon-

ding head and body structure, twenty-one and 3/4 years of age. I

I

asked the

girl

why

she had volunteered for the brothel.

received the answer: "To get out of the concentration camp,

for

we were promised

that all those

the brothel for half a year

concentration camp." To

shame

who would

volunteer for

would then be released from the

my

objection that

to volunteer as a prostitute,

I

was

told:

was a great

it

"Rather half a

year in the brothel than half a year in the concentration

camp." Then followed an account of a number of most peculiar

conditions at

Camp

Ravensbrueck. Most of the reported

conditions were confirmed by the three other prostitutes and

by the female warden

who had accompanied them from

Ravensbrueck. It

hurts

my

concentration

racial feelings to

camp elements

a

girl

expose to racially inferior as a prostitute

appearance of a pure Nordic and

who

who has the

could perhaps by

assignment of proper work be put on the right road. Therefore,

I

refused to use this

girl for

my

experimental

purposes and gave the adequate reports to the

mander and

The following 17,

1943.

The

camp com-

the adjutant of the Reich Leader SS.^

is

a letter from Rascher to

letter

summarizes the

Himmler dated February

effectiveness of the

human

rewarming process.

97

iJoctors irom

Jrlcll

Munich, 17 February 1943

To

the Reich Leader

SS and Chief of the German Police

Heinrich Himmler

SW

Berlin

Prinz Albrecht

11,

8

Str.

Dear Reich Leader, Enclosed

I

present to you in condensed form a

of the results of the experiments

who

made

in

summary

warming up people

have been cooled off by using animal heat.

now I am attempting to prove through experiments on human beings that it is possible to warm up people cooled off by dry cold just as fast as people who were cooled off by Right

The Reich Physician SS, SS Gruppenfuehrer Dr. Grawitz, doubted very much that that would be possible and said that I would have to prove it first remaining

in

cold water.

by one hundred experiments.

Up

to

now

about thirty people stripped in the open

I

have cooled off

air

during nine to

fourteen hours at twenty-seven degrees to twenty-nine degrees. After a time, corresponding to a transport of

hour,

I

put these subjects in a hot bath.

gle patient

Up

to

now

one

every sin-

was completely warmed up within one hour

most; though

some of them had

their

hands and

at

feet frozen

some cases a slight fatigue with slightly rising temperature was observed on the day following the experiments. white. In

I

have not observed any

warming up. .by

I

fatal results

have not so

far

in

this

extremely

fast

been able to do any warming up

"Sauna" as ordered by you,

weather

from

my

dear Reich Leader, as the

December and January was too warm for any air, and right now the camp is closed

experiments in the open

on account of typhoid and in subjects for

I

am not allowed therefore to bring

"Sauna" experiments.

With most obedient

greetings

and sincere

gratitude,

and

Heil Hitler!

Yours very devotedly (enclosure)

98

Rascher

rreezingf

The enclosed document,

lL,x

ler

iments

labeled "Secret," read as follows:

human

beings

rewarming of intensely

chilled

Experiments for rewarming of intensely chilled

by animal warmth A. Purpose of the Experiments:

To

ascertain whether the

human beings by animal warmth, i.e., the warmth of animals or human beings, is as good or better than rewarming by physmedical means.

ical or

B.

Method of the Experiments: The experimental subjects were cooled

clad or unclad

—

in

in the usual

between four degrees C. and nine degrees C. The perature of every experimental subject electrically.

way

cold water of temperatures varying rectal

tem-

was recorded thermo-

The reduction of temperature occurred within

the

usual span of time varying in accordance with the general

condition of the body of the experimental subject and the

temperature of the water. The experimental subjects were

removed from the water when reached thirty degrees C. At jects

had

all lost

tal subjects

this

their

rectal

time the experimental sub-

consciousness. In eight cases, the experimen-

were then placed between two naked

spacious bed.

temperature

The women were supposed

as possible to the chilled person.

covered with blankets. cradles or by medicines

A

Then

all

women

in a

to nestle as closely

three persons were

speeding up of rewarming by light

was not attempted.

C. Results: 1

.

When the temperature of the experimental subjects was

recorded

it

was

striking that

to three degrees C. occurred,

an after-drop of temperature up

which

is

a greater after-drop than

seen with any other method of rewarming.

It

was observed,

however, that consciousness returned at an earlier point, that is,

at a

lower body temperature than with other methods of

rewarming. Once the subjects regained consciousness they did

99

J_)

oc to

r

i

-s

r

o

not lose

rl

in

it

e

1

again, but very quickly grasped the situation

snuggled up to the naked female bodies. The perature then occurred at about the

mental subjects kets.

and

rise

of body tem-

same speed

as in experi-

who had been rewarmed by

packing in blan-

Exceptions were four experimental subjects who, at body

temperatures between thirty degrees C. and thirty-two degrees

C, performed

the act of sexual intercourse. In these experi-

mental subjects the temperature rose very rapidly intercourse,

after sexual

which could be compared with the speedy

rise in

temperature in a hot bath.

Another

2.

set

of experiments concerned the rewarming

of intensely chilled persons by one woman. In

rewarming was plished by two

women. The cause of

removed, and the

woman

intimately.

plete consciousness tal

only,

nestles

this

seems

was only

me

that in

to the chilled individual

Also in these cases, the return of com-

was

slight.

to

accom-

personal inhibitions are

up

strikingly rapid.

Only one experimen-

subject did not return to consciousness

effect

these cases

significantly quicker than could be

warming by one woman

much more

all

and the warming

This person died with symptoms sug-

gesting cerebral hemorrhage, as

was confirmed by subsequent

autopsy.

D.

Summary: Rewarming experiments of

subjects demonstrated that

was very

slow.

intensely chilled experimental

rewarming with animal warmth

Only such experimental

subjects

cal condition permitted sexual intercourse

selves remarkably quickly

whose

physi-

rewarmed them-

and showed an equally

strikingly

rapid return to complete physical well-being. Since excessively

long exposure of the body to low temperatures implies dan-

ger of internal damage, that

method must be chosen

rewarming which guarantees the quickest

relief

for

from danger-

ously low temperatures. This method, according to our experience,

is

a massive and rapid supply of

a hot bath.

100

warmth by means of

Jreezin^ il,xperiinenti

Rewarming of or animal cases in

intensely chilled

warmth can

which other

therefore be

human

beings by

recommended only

possibilities for

in

re-warming are not

able, or in cases of specially tender individuals

may

human

who

such

avail-

possibly

not be able to stand a massive and rapid supply of

warmth. As,

for example,

small children,

who

am

I

are best

thinking of intensely chilled

rewarmed by the body of

their

mothers, with the aid of hot water bottles.

Dachau, 12 February 1943. (Signature) Dr.

S.

Rascher

SS Hauptsturmfuehrer

Testimony on the freezing experiments went on through April

14,

1947.

In separate experiments conducted privately by Dr. Rascher, to sixty subjects

were used,

fifteen to eighteen

of

fifty

whom died.

The defendants Handloser, Schroeder, Rudolf Brandt, and

Sievers

were convicted of criminal conduct involving freezing experiments.

Defendant Siegfried Handloser, Lieutenant General, Medical Services

101

7 .M^alaria r^xperiments

All of out.

a

sudden

my

lieart felt like

1 oecame insane,

it

was going

i completely lost

my

to

be torn

language— my

ability to speak.

— Jatner Over

1,084 inmates of

were subjects tions

in the

many nationalities,

J_,eo

JV^iecnalow^ski

including Catholic priests,

experiments about malaria (testing immuniza-

and various treatments). These experiments were held

at

Dachau concentration camp from approximately February 1942 to April 1945, ending just before Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945. Inmates considered to be healthy were deliberately infected with malaria by infected mosquitoes, or were injected with malaria-infect-

ed blood. To maintain a constant source of malaria-infected blood, three to five inmates per

so their

month were

drawn blood could be used

artificially infected

with malaria

to infect other inmates.

Malaria, epidemic jaundice, and typhus were the principal diseases that broke out in

German-occupied

countries.

Although defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Gebhardt, Blome, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, and Sievers were charged with special responsibility for and participation in criminal

conduct involving these experiments, only Sievers was convicted in this trial. Sievers

denied taking any part in malaria experiments.

U

c)

c

t

o

rs

I

r

o ni

ITL

ell

Defendant Paul Rostock, Chief Surgeon of the Berlin Surgical Clinic

The details of the malaria experiments came out in a separate trial commencing on November 13, 1945, in the courthouse on the grounds of Dachau concentration camp after the war ended on May 8,

1945, but prior to the beginning of the major Nazi leaders'

Nuremberg on November At Dachau a 2,

20, 1945.

U.S. General Military Court, appointed

1945, tried forty doctors

versus

Martin Gottfried

and

staff in the case

Weiss, Friedrich

November

of The United States

Wilhelm Ruppert,

including Dr. Claus Karl Schilling. These defendants in the

and usages of war

in that they acted in

design, did encourage, aid, abet

and

Allied nationals and prisoners of

Dachau

pursuance of a

its

to cruelties

and mistreatments

subcamps."^

Each accused was sentenced to death by hanging, except were given sentences of five years to the sentences

life

of hard labor.

On

four

who

review of

by the U.S. Military Government Court, the findings

and sentences were upheld on January four

common

participate in the subjection of

war

Dachau concentration camp and

104

et al.,

were charged and "convicted of offenses of the violations of laws

trial

at

trial in

whose charges were reduced.

24, 1946, with the exception of

J^xperiments

JVl-aiaria

and evidence

Affidavits

dence for the medical case

Dachau

trial

Dachau

in the at

were received

trial

in evi-

Nuremberg. Evidence came out

in the

an arranged meeting

that Dr. Claus Karl Schilling, after

with Heinrich Himmler, asked for and was given permission to carry out malaria experiments at Dachau. Schilling was not a defendant in

medical case, since he had already been convicted and sentenced

this

to death

by hanging

Schilling

in the

Dachau

trial.

was the most reprehensible doctor was

iments, as he

perfectly willing to utilize

ods on involuntary camp victims

at a

time

Dachau

in the

exper-

Nazi experimental meth-

when

other

German

doc-

tors and scientists either refused to take part or fled the country.

Schilling believed ia

it

no matter what

camp

was

his

duty to humanity to find a cure for malar-

life-threatening

methods were used on involuntary

inmates.

A pretrial

of Dr. Schilling, in his

affidavit

own

handwriting, was

executed on October 30, 1945, before 2nd Lt. Werner Conn. This

was admitted

davit

into

evidence as Prosecution Exhibit

hundred

Schilling stated that he personally inoculated nine

Many

thousand prisoners.

He named

ment.

to

affi-

122.

one

Catholic priests were used in this experi-

Fathers Wicki and Stachowski,

Peter Bower, Gustav Spitzick,

Amon

who

died, Rupieper,

Burckhardt, Fritz, Keller, and

Kasinemar Gasimer Rikofsky.

Many

inmates

Schilling observed liver,

In the

Dachau

he was

into a small

was put

weeks

the

in

later

for six

affidavit,

an inmate Catholic

priest.

Father Koch,

testi-

x-rayed and then sent to the malaria station. Put for half

an

one week. Every afternoon another box of mosqui-

between his ear

Koch

from

and a piece of stomach.

trial,

first

for

was taken from

months

to

room, he had to hold a box of mosquitoes

hour every day

Father

infected with malaria died

and typhus. According

an autopsy on one victim and requested the brain,

kidney, spleen,

fied that

toes

who had been

dysentery,

tuberculosis,

left

his legs while

he was in bed.

A blood smear

each morning.

the hospital after about seventeen days. Eight

he had a malaria attack, which recurred every three

months.

He

suffered high fever, chills,

and

joint pains.

Russian and Polish prisoners were infected by injections of the mos-

105

JD o c t o r s

I

r

o.

Nuremberg Military Government script

of the

2

Ibid., p. 27.

3

Ibid., p. 58.

4

Ibid., p. 62.

Germany 1918-

V^rimes 1 rials

Major Nazi

leaders' trial tran-

Printing Office, pp. xxiv, xv.

1, tne JVleaical L^ase

Tribunals,

Printing Office, trial.

in

Berlin, Edition Hentrich, 1991.

ine jSluremburg War

script. Preface,

1

Human

p.

The Medical Case, 18.

This

is

Vol.

1,

US

the condensed tran-

Jj o c t o r s

5

I

r

o

111

rl ell

Major Nazi

leaders' trial transcript, Vol.

1, p.

247; International

Military Tribunal judgment, cited in The Medical Case transcript, Vol. l,p. 66.

6

The Medical Case,

7

These documents were the

Vol.

1

,

German Medical Services,

Exhibit

6;

NO-227,

5;

Vol.

1

,

pp. 81

Exhibit

Prosecution

91,

7;

Document

11;

Document

NO-303,

Exhibit

Document NO-422, Prosecution

NO-645, Prosecution Exhibit

Exhibit 38; and

Exhibit

Document

3.

Align Altitude hyxperiments

1

The Medical Case,

2

Ibid., p. 104.

Vol.

1

,

p.

1

04,

N0^76, Prosecution Exhibit 40.

Photo document NO-610, Prosecution Exhibit 41,

shows inmates

in simulated altitude experiments

the low-pressure chamber. 3

Ibid., p. 100,

4

Ibid., p. 146.

5

Ibid., p. 162.

6

Ibid., p. 105.

7

Ibid., p. 105,

8

Ibid., p. 161,

9

Ibid., p. 113.

10

Ibid., p. 177.

11

Ibid.,p.l83.

298

Document NO-

Document NO-081, Prosecution

Document NO-894, Prosecution

5,

—

Document NO-082, Prosecution

Prosecution Exhibit 32;

Cnapter

under Organization of

set forth in detail

080, Prosecution Exhibit

33;

71

p.

Prosecution Exhibit 51.

NO-610, Prosecution Exhibit NO-402, Prosecution Exhibit

41. 66.

conducted in

No tes 12

Ibid., p. 186.

13

Ibid., p. 157.

v^napter o, Treezine rl/xperiinents 1

The Medical Case,

2

Ibid., p. 245,

3

Original

4

Ibid., p. 879.

5

Ibid., p. 881.

6

Ibid., p. 882.

7

The Medical Case,

8

Ibid., p.

p. 199,

Prosecution Exhibit 88.

Prosecution Exhibit 92.

mimeographed Medical Case

Vol.

1

,

p.

transcript, p. 874.

245, Prosecution Exhibit 94.

245, Prosecution Exhibit 94.

C-napter 7, -M.alaria Jn^xperiments 1

The Medical Case,

2

Ibid., p. 295.

3

Orig.

4

Ibid., p. 876.

5

Ibid., p. 876.

6

Ibid., p. 878.

7

The Medical Case, Vol.

Ckapter 1

Vol.

mimeographed

8,

1

,

p.

297-98.

transcript, p. 875.

1

,

p.

294.

Bone, M-Uscle, and Nerve Experiments

The Medical Case, Vol.

1

,

p.

392.

299

JD octor.s Irom xT ell

2

Ibid., p. 393.

3

Orig.

4

Ibid., p.

5

NO-865 Prosecution

6

The Medical Case,

7

Ibid., p.

mimeographed

transcript, p. 1447.

4235.

,

409; Orig.

Exhibit 23 1

Vol.

1

,

p.

399.

mimeographed

transcript,

20 December 1946,

pp. 815-832.

8

Testimony

in

mimeographed

transcript,

20 December 1946, pp.

832-838.

9

Prosecution Exhibit 230,

10

The Medical Case,

Vol.

1

Document NO-875. ,

p.

400.

v^napter q, jV\.ustara Cjas Jllyxperiments 1

The Medical

2

Prosecution Exhibit 446.

3

Orig.

4

Ibid., pp.

5

Orig.

6

Prosecution Exhibit 263.

Cnapter 1

Orig.

Case, Vol.

mimeographed

,

p.

44.

transcript pp. 1052-53.

1034-5.

mimeographed

lo,

1

transcript, p. 2383.

Oullanilamiae Ilvxperinients

mimeographed

transcript, pp.

2

Prosecution Exhibit 473, NO-2734.

3

Prosecution Exhibit 206, NO-228.

300

4010-14.

No] 4

Ibid.

5

Orig.

6

Ibid., pp. 795, 824, 863.

7

Ibid., p. 1462.

8

Orig.

9

Prosecution Exhibit 228.

10

Orig.

11

Ibid., p. 822.

12

The Medical Case,

13

Prosecution Exhibit 234.

14

Orig.

15

Ibid., pp.

16

The Medical Case, Vol.

17

Ibid., p. 831.

Cnapter

mimeographed

mimeographed

mimeographed

transcript, p. 857.

transcript, p. 790.

Vol.

mimeographed

ii,

transcript, pp. 1438, 1449, 797, 845, 863.

1

p.

,

372.

transcript, pp.

838-847.

3334, 3338. 1, p.

397.

Sea VVater E^xperiments

1

Reich

Law

2

Orig.

mimeographed

3

The Medical Case,

4

Ibid., p. 420.

5

Orig.

mimeographed

6

Reich

Law

7

The Medical Case,

Gazette

Gazette

1, p.

268; Vol.

1, p.

442.

transcript, p. 10201.

Vol.

1

,

p.

4 1 9.

transcript, p. 9387.

1, p.

Vol.

1334; Vol.

1

,

1, p.

442.

pp. 457-458.

301

J_)

octo

8

rs

1

r

o

in

rd

e

1

Ibid., p. 458.

v^napter

i3,

r^piaemic Jaundice (xTepatitis)

1

Prosecution Exhibit 187.

2

Ibid.

3

Prosecution Exhibit 186.

4

The Medical Case, Vol.

2, p. 29.

v^napter i^, Oterilization 1

Prosecution Exhibit 163, NO-205.

2

Prosecution Exhibit 141, NO-440.

3

The Medical Case,

4

Prosecution Exhibit 148.

5

Prosecution Exhibit 141.

6

Prosecution Exhibit 170.

7

Prosecution Exhibit 171.

8

Prosecution Exhibit 173.

9

Prosecution Exhibit 141.

10

Prosecution Exhibit 160.

1

Orig.

12

Prosecution Exhibit 161.

13

Prosecution Exhibit 163.

14

Prosecution Exhibit 164.

15

Prosecution Exhibit 166.

302

Vol.

mimeographed

1, p.

696.

transcript, p. 7484.

No tes mimeographed

transcript, p. 541.

16

Orig.

17

Ibid., p. 543, 557.

18

Prosecution Exhibit 161.

19

The Medical Case,

20

Orig.

Cnapter

Vol.

mimeographed

i5,

iypnus

1

p.

,

722.

transcript, pp. 1A\?)-1111.

ll,xperiinents

1

Ding Diary, NO-265.

2

Prosecution Exhibit 286, NO-582.

3

Prosecution Exhibit 387.

4

Orig.

5

The Medical Case, Vol.

mimeographed

transcript, pp.

1

p. 5

,

1

8;

1151-1883, Jan. 6-9, 1947.

Orig.

mimeographed

transcript,

pp. 1194-96.

6

The Medical Case,

Cnapter

1, p.

518.

ib, i^oison Ilrxperiments

1

The Medical Case,

2

Ibid., p. 634.

Ckapter

Vol.

17,

Vol.

Incendiary

1

The Medical Case, Vol.

2

Ibid., p. 644.

3

Ibid., p. 645.

4

Ibid., p. 653.

1

,

p.

632.

Bomb 1

,

p.

Experiments

640.

303

Jjoctors Irom rlell

V^napter 18, x nleemon, irolygal, and 1

2

The Medical Case, Vol. Allopathy

is

p.

1

x nenol

Xl^xperiments

657, Prosecution Exhibit 249.

a system of therapeutics in

which diseases are

treat-

ed by producing a condition incompatible with or antagonistic to the condition to be cured or alleviated. -Dorland's Medical

Dictionary, Twenty-fifth Edition. 3

The Medical Case,

4

Ibid., p. 681.

5

Ibid., p. 682.

6

Ibid., p. 688.

7

Ibid., p. 686.

8

Ibid., pp.

Cnapter 1

lo,

Vol.

1, p.

687-688.

Jewisn okeleton Collection

Emphasis supplied.

2

The Medical Case,

3

Ibid., p. 751.

4

Ibid., pp.

5

The Medical 184;

Vol.

739-759; Vol.

p.

739.

2, p.

262.

1

Case, Vol.

,

1

p.

741,

NO-807, Prosecution Exhibit

Lxliapter 20, ll^utnanasia

1

Prosecution Exhibit 330.

2

Prosecution Exhibit 366.

3

Prosecution Exhibit 357.

304

678.

NO-483, Prosecution Exhibit 185.

1

.

No tes 4

Prosecution Exhibit 371.

5

Prosecution Exhibits. 370, 372, 399.

6

The Medical Case, Vol.

7

Ibid., p. 813.

8

Prosecution Exhibit 505.

9

Orig.

10

Ibid. p. 1923.

1

The Medical Case, Vol.

12

Ibid.

13

A

mimeographed

,

p.

801

transcript, p. 1894.

1

,

p.

806.

law legalizing murder, euphemistically called "euthanasia,"

was never passed 14

1

The Medical

in

Germany.

Case, Vol.

1,

pp. 865-870.

C^napter 21, JWeaical JLtnics 1

The Medical Case,

2

Ibid.,

pp.

graphed

82-86.

Complete testimony

transcript, 12, 13, 14, 16

3

The Medical Case,

4

Major Nazi

Cnapter

Vol. 2, pp. 42-43.

22,

is

recorded in mimeo-

June 1947, pp. 9020-9324.

Vol. 2, pp. 181-183.

leaders' trial transcript, p. 33.

Juaements ana iSentences

1

The Medical Case,

2

Ibid., pp.

3

Ibid., p. 301.

in tne JV^eaical

Case

Vol. 2, pp. 130-170.

298-300.

305

Do 4

c

t

o

rs

"The Nov.

5

I

r

o

m

O

e

1

Priests of

Dachau," WiUiam

O'Malley,

J.

S. J.,

America,

14, 1987.

The Catholic Church and the Holocaust, 1930-1965, Michael Phayer, Indiana University Press, 2000.

6

Bartlett's

Dachau 7

Familiar Quotations, Martin Niemoeller, 1892-1984,

1944.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

V^napter 23, Vjoine 1

rxome

ChJfton Daniel, ed.. Chronicle of the 20^" Century, Chronicle Publications, Inc.,

New York,

1987, p. 637.

641-662.

2

Ibid, pp.

3

The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Knopf,

NY.,

Trials,

Telford Taylor, Alfred A.

1992, p. 539.

4

The Congressional Record, September

5

The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Wilham

&

Schuster, 1960, Chapter 31,

23, 1980, p.

L. Shirer,

"The Last Days."

V^napter 2^, Conlrontea by Jrlolocaust JJenial 1

The Denver Post, Dec.

2

Ibid.

3

Ibid.

3,

1990.

Alterw^ora 1

306

The

Life of Reason,

George Santayana, 1905.

H9426 Simon

No tes Major Nazi Leaders' also

trial transcript,

opening statement,

The Anatomy of the Nuremberg

Knopf, 1992,

Trials,

p. 33;

Telford Taylor,

p. 167.

307

,

BiUilog^rapny

Works

txeneral Jvelerence

International Military Tribunal: In the Matter of the United States

of America, the French Republic, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics versus

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sus Karl Brandt, et al.

and

2,

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1946 to June 1948.

Daniel, Clifton, Editor, Chronicle of the 20^'^ Century, Chronicle Publications, Inc.,

New York,

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ed., vol. 3, p. 971.

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,

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31

Acknowledgments

I

PUT OFF writing

tors'

case of the

this

book for

fifty

years after reporting the Nazi doc-

Nuremberg War Crimes

ness to the survivors' stories,

I

was badly

As

Trials.

a front seat wit-

affected all of

my life.

I

want-

ed to put the horror behind me.

The shock of my

made me

realize I

this insidious

first

had

confrontation with Holocaust denial in 1987

to start speaking out about the truth to

claim that the Holocaust was a "Holohoax."

combat

now

have

I

reached over forty thousand people in this and other countries.

I

did

not have a book in mind at that time. However, at every event, including dozens of

asked

if I

TV

and radio

am

was

seriously confronted in 1997

and

at presentations, I started writing.

especially grateful to all of the following

guided, pushed, and facilitated Dr.

I

shows and press interviews,

had a book. After being

1999 by Holocaust deniers I

talk

William

Silvers,

me

Clinical

along

Professor at the University of

Institute of the University

Studies in the late 1980s. tal

grand rounds

in

To the

Colorado on

encouraged,

this painful path.

Colorado Medical Sciences Center, worked with

Awareness

who

me on the Holocaust

of Denver Center for Judaic

present, he has

me

the Nazi doctors'

be learned. Dr. Fredrick R. Abrams, a renowned

lecturing at hospitrial

and lessons

ethicist,

to

graciously

provided the foreword. Dr. Michel Reynders, a rescuer, wrote his story for

my

dedication page.

JJoctors Irom riell

Theresa and Paul Messinger arranged me.

We

worked together

for twelve years

many

speaking forums for

on the Anne Frank Art and

Writing Competition while Theresa was State Chairman. Brigadier General the

first

of

many

States Air Force

J.

R. Albi,

USAF

(Ret.),

lectures to the officers

arranged in 1993 for

and cadets

at the

United

Academy.

Professor Frances Pilch, Ph.D. has continued

academy and has provided other forums

my

lectures at the

for the past several years.

Marlene Warshawski Yahalom, Ph.D., Education Director of the

American Society of Yad Vashem, arranged in New York. New York attorney Henry Korn

for speaking engage-

ments

venues for two successive years. Randall's request, for

my

scheduled

He

me

to speak in several

also arranged, at the late

appearance on the Broadway stage

Tony after

Randall's 2001 production of Judgment at Nuremberg.

Dean John Cech of the Rocky Mountain College in Billings, Montana arranged for a joint lecture to the college and Montana State University. President Arthur H.

College presented

me

DeRosier

Jr.

of Rocky Mountain

with their 2001 Distinguished Service Award.

Judge Leslie G. Johnson, Director of the Mississippi Judicial College in Jackson, arranged several presentations to Mississippi court reporters. Professor Janice K.

Bounds of

the University of

Mississippi continued booking me.

The National Court Reporters Association has given me

the hon-

ored position of keynote speaker to court reporters numbering in the

thousands years.

at

New

Academy of

York, Boston, and Phoenix conventions over 16 Professional Reporters Fellow

Chatsworth, California sponsored

me

Gary Cramer of

NCRA's Humanitarian Award

in 2000, the first in that organization's

Court Reporters Association has had

me

to

106 years. The Colorado present to

them

several

times.

National Court Reporters Association past president William C. Oliver,

Ph.D. arranged for

me

to speak at

North wood University

in

Dallas for two successive years, to other Dallas forums, and in Little

Rock, Arkansas.

314

Acknowlea^ments

Academy of Professional Reporters Fellow H. Allen Benowitz of Miami arranged for presentations over several years, resulting in the Greater Miami Jewish Federation's honoring me with a Humanitarian Award in 1996. 1 am indebted to all of the reporters in state

and Canadian associations who had me speak

to them.

Cantor Birdie Becker of B'nai B'rith of Colorado arranged

an

to speak in

Region B'nai

program and schools and

interfaith

B'rith convention.

gogues in Colorado, across ored

me

I

thank

this nation,

to the

for

me

Western

of the Rabbis in syna-

all

and

in Singapore

for speaking to their congregations.

I

very

much

who

hon-

appreciate

Denver Congregation Beth Joseph and the America-Israel Friendship

League

My

Humanitarian Awards.

their

for

me

Protestant and Catholic pastors for having

thanks go also to

speak in their church-

am grateful to the Most Reverend Charles Chaput, Archbishop of Denver, for having me speak as a Catholic in a Catholic-Jewish dia-

es. I

J.

logue seminar. Professor Michael Phayer, Ph.D., prolific author and Fulbright Fellow, arranged for University. This

memorated

me

to speak at

Milwaukee's Jesuit Marquette

was remarkable because a Catholic

university

Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) in

on November

9,

com-

Germany

1938, which began the state-sponsored, planned and

organized destruction of Europe's Jews. Professor

Dan

Clayton, Ph.D. of Regis University in Denver

arranged for lectures to continuing World I

am

War

staff,

II

students,

and the general public

indebted to one Metro Denver educator especially,

Lubell of the Cherry Creek School District, ty

in their

seminars over the past four years.

and caring interviewed

me

in

who

with great

Gary

sensitivi-

1995 for the Steven Spielberg

SHOAH Visual History Foundation and who had me lecture to teachers

and students

in his district several times.

my two visits to the Museum in 1996 and 1998, In

Archivist Sharon Mueller,

vided

me

and

United States Holocaust Memorial Archivist in

Henry Mayer and Photo

2004 Maren Read, generously pro-

with very helpful information and obtained material and

photographs

I

needed

for this

book. The Denver Public Library

Government Documents Archivist was very

helpful

in

making

315

IJ () c

t ()

r

1

,s

Volumes

I

r

c)

ni

and

iT.

II

ell

of The Nuremberg Medical Case available to me. In

Dan Pegadorn and

1998,

McCutcheon provided me with

Paul K.

Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1945/1946 from the archives of the

National Air and Space

Museum

in

Washington, D. C. so that

I

gain detailed information about the Douglas C-54 Skymaster U.

could

Air

S.

Force troop transport and the Douglas C-47 Skytrain Transport, planes on which I

flew to Nuremberg, Germany.

am very appreciative of the patience Connie Shaw and her

lisher

who

I

expertly

text to

friend

made

staff

corrections

and guidance given by pub-

of Sentient Publications in Boulder,

and suggestions and smoothed out

my

make it flow much better than I could have done. I thank my Lynn Donaldson, Ph.D. for initially reading my manuscript

and making useful suggestions and changes. I

am

so grateful to

tinually urged

my two me

and pushed

engagements. John extolled arranged for

me

it

Spitz, who conmy book between speaking anyone who would listen, and Peter

sons,

John and Peter

to finish

to

to speak at the Singapore

Synagogue by

calling

and

Rabbi, "My mother is a national speaker on the Nuremberg Do you want to hear her? She is coming to visit." am thankful to photographer Edwin F. Gorak with the Forty-

telling the Trials. I

fifth

Division, Battery B, of the U.

many World War Dachau on

II

S.

Army who

provided

316

I

with

photographs he took during the liberation of

April 29, 1945, by General Felix L. Sparks.

Responsibility for any errors or shortcomings in this alone.

me

wrote the truth about what

I

work

is

mine

saw and heard, learned and

felt.

Atout

Vivien Spitz

a fellow of the

is

the National

tke

Autk or

Academy

of Professional Reporters of

Court Reporters Association, and was an

reporter of debates

and chief reporter

in the

official

United States House of

Representatives from 1972 to 1982. During this time she reported Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and

Reagan on

their state of the

union addresses to the nation. She reported as well of state

who

foreign heads

addressed Congress, including King Juan Carlos of

Spain, President

Rabin of

all

Israel.

Anwar

Sadat of Egypt, and Prime Minister Itzhak

She reported President Carter's establishment

in

1978

of the President's Commission on the Holocaust, appointing Elie

Wiesel as chairman.

War Department, Mrs. Spitz reported the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials in Germany from 1 946 to 1948, including the Nazi doctors' case. Since 1987 she has made preBy

contract with the United States

sentations

on

this case to

over forty thousand people in the United

Canada, and Singapore, using graphic shdes of captured

States,

German

film that

show experiments

the doctors conducted

on con-

camp victims without their consent. Her message is about basic human rights and the dignity of life, the difference between good centration

and

evil,

and

indifference to evil.

In recognition of her presentations to refute the claims that the

Holocaust never happened, she has received several national

Human

Relations Awards, and in 2000 she received the thirty-thousand-mem-

ber National Court Reporters Association's

first

Humanitarian

Award. She

a

is

Awareness

member

Institute's

of the University of Denver Holocaust

Speakers Bureau, and in 2002 was honored as a

"Righteous Gentile" by the in the

in

Marquis'

Institute. In

1978 and 1993 she was

Who of Women at Cambridge, Who's Who of American Women.

World Who's

listed

England; in 1981

Vivien Spitz lives in a suburb of Denver, Colorado.

LLC

Sentient Publications,

publishes books on cultural creativity,

experimental education, transformative

new

science, ecology,

viewpoint.

of

life

and other

Our authors

topics,

spirituality,

approached from an integral

are intensely interested in exploring the nature

from fresh perspectives, addressing

fostering the

full

expression of the

life's

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great questions, potential.

Publications' books arise from the spirit of inquiry

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Our Culture Tools

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To

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direct sugges-

list,

please con-

VIVIEN SPITZ, the youngest court reporter at the

Nuremberg

Trials,

has

given more than 500 speeches on the lessons of the Holocaust to schools,

churches, synagogues, and professional

groups internationally. She has been

honored numerous times for her work, including

commendations from

Clinton, Al Gore,

Bill

US Senator

Christopher Dodd, and the state of Israel.

She was the

first

woman

to

report on the U.S. Senate floor and has

taken

down

dents

in

the words of four presi-

Congress. She

lives

near

Denver, Colorado. Jacket design by Black

Dog Design

Author photograph by Lifetouch Church Directories

&

Portraits Inc.

^"WPUBLimflS »

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entpublications.com

PRAISE FOR VIVIEN SPITZ "