a. Introduction
The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Oberheuser, and Fischer were charged with special responsibility for and participation in criminal conduct involving experiments on bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration and experiments on bone transplantation (par. 6 (F) of the indictment). During the trial, the prosecution withdrew this charge in the case of Rudolf Brandt. On this charge the defendants Gebhardt, Oberheuser, and Fischer were convicted and the defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, and Rostock were acquitted.
The prosecution’s summation of the evidence on these experiments is contained in its final brief against the defendant Gebhardt. An extract from this brief is set forth below on pages 392 to 396. A corresponding summation of the evidence by the defense on these experiments has been selected from the final plea for the defendant Gebhardt. It appears below on pages 396 to 399. This argumentation is followed by selections from the evidence on pages 400 to 418.
b. Selection from the Argumentation of the Prosecution
EXTRACT FROM THE CLOSING BRIEF AGAINST DEFENDANT GEBHARDT
Bone, Muscle, and Nerve Regeneration, and Bone Transplantation Experiments
These experiments were carried out in the Ravensbrueck concentration camp during the same period of time and on the same group of Polish inmates as the sulfanilamide experiments. (Tr. p. 1458.)
The defendant Fischer made the following statement about these experiments in his affidavit:
“After the arrival of Doctor Stumpfegger from general headquarters in the fall of 1942, Professor Gebhardt declared before some of his co-workers that he had received orders to continue with the tests at Ravensbrueck on a larger scale. In this connection, questions of plastic surgery which would be of interest after the end of the war should be clarified. Doctor Stumpfegger was supposed to test the free transplantation of bones. Since Professor Gebhardt knew that I had worked in preparation for my habilitation at the university on regeneration of tissues, he ordered me to prepare a surgical plan for these operations, which, after it had been approved he directed me to carry out immediately. Moreover, Doctor Koller and Doctor Reissmayer were ordered to perform their own series of experiments. Professor Gebhardt was also considering a plan to form the basis of an operative technique of remobilization of joints. Besides the above, Doctors Schulze and Schulze-Hagen participated in this conference.
“Since I knew Ravensbrueck I was ordered to introduce the new doctors named above to the camp physician. I was specially directed to assist Doctor Stumpfegger, since, as physician on the staff of Himmler, he would probably be absent from time to time.
“I had selected the regeneration of muscles for the sole reason because the incision necessary for this purpose was the smallest. The operation was carried out as follows:
“Evipan and ether were used as an anaesthetic, and a 5 centimeter longitudinal incision was made at the outer side of the upper leg. Subsequent to the cutting through the fascia, a piece of muscle was removed which was the size of the cup of the little finger. The fascia and skin were enclosed in accordance with the normal technique of aseptic surgery. Afterwards a cast was applied. After 1 week the skin wound was split under the same narcotic conditions, and the part of the muscle around the area cut out was removed. Afterwards the fascia and the sewed-up part of the skin were immobilized in a cast.” (NO-228, Pros. Ex. 206; Tr. p. 774.)
The responsibility of the defendant Gebhardt for these experiments is also proved by the affidavit of Oberheuser. She stated:
“The experiments with bone transplantations were carried out, as far as I can remember, at the end of 1942 and beginning of 1943 by Dr. Stumpfegger of Hohenlychen. I helped Dr. Stumpfegger in the same way as I helped Dr. Fischer with the sulfanilamide experiments, and as I have described already in paragraph 4 of this affidavit. Before the operation I had to examine, as in the other case, the condition of health of the selected persons. The operations consisted of the removal and transplantation of a piece of the bone from the tibia. Fifteen to twenty persons were used for these experiments.
“The persons necessary for these experiments were requisitioned by Dr. Schiedlausky from the camp commander.
“Dr. Karl Gebhardt was in charge of the sulfanilamide experiments and bone transplantations. I do not know whether he himself performed operations of this type. But I know that all these experiments were performed under his direction and supervision and upon his instructions. He was assisted by the doctors already mentioned, Dr. Fischer and Dr. Stumpfegger, and also by Drs. Schiedlausky and Rosenthal. Also only healthy Polish prisoners were used for these experiments.
“I cannot remember that a single one of the experimental subjects used was pardoned after the completion of the experiments.” (NO-487, Pros. Ex. 208.)
The witness Maczka, a graduate of the Medical School of the University of Krakow and a practicing physician, testified that in the course of her duties as X-ray technician in the Ravensbrueck concentration camp she had occasion to observe approximately 13 cases in which experimental operations were performed on the bones of inmates. There were three kinds of bone operations—fractures, bone transplantations, and bone splints. Some of the Polish girls were operated on several times. In the case of Krystyna Dabska, Maczka took X-ray pictures of both legs and discovered that small pieces of the fibulae had been removed. In the case of one leg the periosteum had also been taken out. Zofia Baj was operated on in a similar manner. Janina Marczewska and Leonarda Bien were subjected to the bone fracture experiments. The tibia was broken in several places and in the case of one of the girls, clamps were applied while in the case of the other they were not. These operations impeded the locomotion of the girls operated on. Bone incision operations were performed on Barbara Pietczyk, a Polish girl 16 years old. She was operated on six times. During the first operation incisions were made in each tibia. During a later operation pieces of the tibia were cut out where incisions had been previously made. Maczka took an X-ray of the pieces of tibia that were removed. As a result of these bone operations, Maczka observed the development of two cases of osteomyelitis, Maria Grabowska and Maria Cabaj. (Tr. pp. 1445-7.)
A rather large group of muscle experiments were performed. Here again multiple operations were carried out on the same subject. Gledziewjowska was operated on most frequently. During the first operation certain muscles were removed and during subsequent operations additional pieces were cut out, always at the same place, so that the legs got thinner and weaker all the time. (Tr. p. 1447.)
Transplantation of whole limbs from one person to another was also carried out. Maczka testified that about 10 feeble-minded inmates were selected, taken to the hospital and prepared for operation. She knew personally that at least two of these persons were operated on. One case was a leg amputation. Following this operation, the experimental subject was killed and placed in a special room where the dead were kept. Maczka was able to observe the corpse and saw that there was only one leg. In the second case an abnormal woman was operated on by Dr. Fischer. When he left the operating room he carried with him a bundle wrapped up in linen about the size of an arm. He took this away with him. The prison nurse, Quernheim, informed Maczka that the whole arm with shoulder blade was removed from this woman. (Tr. p. 1448.)
The amputation of the arm and shoulder blade mentioned by Dr. Maczka obviously refers to the transplantation performed on the patient Ladisch at Hohenlychen. As to this, the defendant Fischer stated in his affidavit as follows:
“As a disciple of Lexer, Gebhardt had already planned long ago a free heteroplastic transplantation of bone. In spite of the fact that some of his co-workers did not agree, he was resolved to carry out such an operation on the patient, Ladisch, whose shoulder joint was removed because of a sarcoma.
“I and my medical colleagues urged professional and human objections up until the evening before the operation was performed, but Gebhardt ordered us to carry out the operations. Dr. Stumpfegger, in whose field of research this operation was, was supposed to perform the removal of the scapula at Ravensbrueck and had already made initial arrangements for it. However, because Professor Gebhardt required Doctor Stumpfegger to assist him in the actual transplantation of the shoulder to the patient Ladisch, I was ordered to go to Ravensbrueck and perform the operation of removal on that evening. I asked Doctors Gebhardt and Schulze to describe exactly the technique which they wished me to follow. The next morning I drove to Ravensbrueck after I had made a previous appointment by telephone. At Hohenlychen I had already made the normal initial preparation for an operation, namely, scrubbing, etc., merely put on my coat, and went to Ravensbrueck and removed the bone.
“The camp physician who was assisting me in the operation continued with it while I returned to Hohenlychen as quickly as possible with the bone which was to be transplanted. In this manner the period between removal and transplantation was shortened. At Hohenlychen the bone was handed over to Professor Gebhardt, and he, together with Doctor Schulze and Doctor Stumpfegger, transplanted it.” (NO-228, Pros. Ex. 206.)
Gebhardt admitted that he, together with Stumpfegger, personally performed the bone transplantation operation on Ladisch. He testified further that Fischer only removed the scapula, shoulder blade, from the Polish female inmate at Ravensbrueck. (Tr. p. 4235.) It is impossible to raise the arm above the horizontal if the scapula has been removed. (Tr. p. 4235.) Gebhardt further admitted that Stumpfegger reported to him on the bone experiments in Ravensbrueck concentration camp. (Tr. p. 4235.)
The affidavit of Gustawa Winkowska corroborates the testimony of Maczka concerning the transplantation of whole limbs and establishes that the experimental subjects were later killed. (NO-865, Pros. Ex. 231.)
The witness Karolewska was a subject in both the sulfanilamide and bone experiments. (Tr. pp. 833, 836-7.) She was operated on a total of six times. The first operation was conducted on 14 August 1942 by Fischer. (Tr. p. 819.) Gebhardt inspected her early in September. (Tr. p. 821.) She was sent back to her block on 8 September 1942, but was unable to walk and remained in bed for a week. On 16 September 1942 she was again taken to the hospital and operated on for the second time by Fischer. (Tr. pp. 821-2.) She left the hospital on 6 October 1942 and remained in bed for several weeks. Her leg did not heal until June 1943 (Tr. pp. 822-3). She filed a written protest with the camp commander, together with other experimental subjects in February 1943. In August 1943 she was operated on literally by force in the bunker at Ravensbrueck. Both her legs were cut open. These operations were carried out on five other Polish girls under indescribably filthy conditions. On 15 September 1943 a further operation was performed on her right leg by a doctor from Hohenlychen. Two weeks later her left leg was operated on and pieces of the shinbone were removed. She stayed in the hospital for 6 months—until the end of February 1944. (Tr. pp. 828-9.) Karolewska identified the defendants Gebhardt, Fischer, and Oberheuser as having participated in the experiments on her. (Tr. pp. 818, 830.)
The defendant Fischer participated in these experiments until at least 23 February 1943. On that date he carried out a second operation on Zofia Baj. (NO-871, Pros. Ex. 227.)
The most disgusting series of operations were those carried out in August 1943 in the bunker. The Polish girls selected had revolted and refused to report to the hospital. The barrack block in which they had barricaded themselves was then surrounded by male guards who carried these women off forcibly to the camp prison, known as the Bunker, where they were held down by these male guards and forcibly anaesthetized without any pre-operative care, and with their bodies still in a filthy condition from walking around the camp. The experimental subject Piasecka stated in her affidavit as follows:
“I resisted and hit Trommer in the face and called him a bandit. He called some SS male guards who threw me on the floor and held me down while ether was poured over my face. There was no mask. I fought and resisted until I lost consciousness. I was completely dressed and my legs were filthy dirty from walking in the camp. As far as I know my legs were not washed. I saw my sister during this time unconscious on a stretcher, vomiting mucous.” (NO-864, Pros. Ex. 229)
Piasecka stated that this operation was carried out by Dr. Villmann who was an assistant doctor at Hohenlychen. A few weeks later two other assistant doctors to Gebhardt came and operated on her right leg. (NO-864, Pros. Ex. 229.)
In his testimony Gebhardt attempted to disassociate himself from these experiments. He admitted however that he received information from Stumpfegger about the experiments. (Tr. pp. 4082, 4087-9.) Stumpfegger was a former assistant of Gebhardt’s and he stayed at Hohenlychen during the course of these experiments. Fischer assisted Stumpfegger and Gebhardt. (Tr. pp. 4230, 4090.) It is further established by Fischer’s own affidavit that the plan for the experiments was worked out with the knowledge and approval of Gebhardt.
c. Selection from the Argumentation of the Defense
EXTRACT FROM THE FINAL PLEA FOR DEFENDANT GEBHARDT[[43]]
The Experiments Concerning Bone, Muscle, and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Grafting
The defendant Gebhardt is also charged in the indictment with particular responsibility in the experiments, whose object according to the indictment was the examination of the conditions under which the regeneration of bones, muscles, and nerves resulted, and under what conditions the grafting of bones was possible.
With regard to the general reasons why there can be no question of guilt, I refer to the statements I have already made in connection with the sulfanilamide experiments. These experiments, too, were occasioned by conditions of war and were to open up new ways of treating seriously wounded persons.
The evidence, however, has shown that the defendant Gebhardt, with a single exception, had nothing to do with these experiments. These experiments, insofar as they were concerned with the regeneration and grafting of bones, were carried out by Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Stumpfegger. It is correct that Dr. Stumpfegger was assistant doctor in the clinic in Hohenlychen before the war, and to that extent subordinate to its chief doctor, Dr. Gebhardt. Dr. Stumpfegger, however, left in the early years of the war, and in the year 1942 became consulting physician to Reich Leader SS Himmler and later consulting physician to Hitler. The experiments carried out by him in Ravensbrueck were carried out on his own responsibility, and upon direct orders from the Reich Leader SS Himmler. Dr. Stumpfegger at that time was neither under the military nor the medical supervision of the defendant Karl Gebhardt. For the remainder, Dr. Stumpfegger limited himself to carrying out experiments in the removal and grafting of so-called bone splinters, the exact number of which can no longer be determined now, but which certainly did not exceed six to eight. These were aseptic operations, which constituted no danger to the life of the experimental subjects. The evidence has shown that the experimental subjects from whom the bone splinters were removed suffered no reduction in the function of their limbs. Besides, the examination of the transplantation process of bones achieved a research result that could not be attained from the animal experiments because of the variety of the stipulated regeneration areas caused by the location of the various species and for the other reasons given by Gebhardt.
The evidence has further shown that the experimental subjects were members of the resistance movement who had been condemned to death and who were in this way given an opportunity to obtain a pardon, and so to escape execution. In view of the fact that no direct responsibility for these experiments falls on the defendant Gebhardt, it is not necessary to go into the purpose of these experiments further at this time. It should, however, be emphasized once more that the experiments were to open up new possibilities in wartime surgery and restorative surgery on the wounded. In 1944, Dr. Ludwig Stumpfegger published the results of his experiments in the periodical for surgery the editor of which was Geheimrat Dr. Sauerbruch (vol. 259, issue 9-12) and this article was also made available to the public in book form. I have submitted to the Court (Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser 6, Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser Ex. 9) a review of this work in the periodical, “Clinic and Practice” of February 1946 and refer to this for the details.
The defendant Karl Gebhardt would certainly not have hesitated to admit his responsibility for these experiments if he had actually been more closely connected with them, and if the experiments had taken place at his behest or under his medical supervision. There would have been little reason to deny this responsibility since the experiments concerned were completely without danger; they resulted in no reduction of the function of the limbs, and, moreover, no fatalities occurred. Furthermore, corresponding to the general practice in Germany, the work of Dr. Stumpfegger under the scientific responsibility of the defendant Gebhardt would have been made public if he had been directly concerned with the experiments, and if they had been carried out under his scientific supervision. Nor did the evidence prove that there were any experiments carried out in connection with muscle and nerve regeneration under the scientific supervision and by order of the defendant Gebhardt. It even seems doubtful that any such experiments were ever carried out in Ravensbrueck. The witnesses called before this court were unable to make any statements about this matter and it may be taken for granted that in any case the defendant Karl Gebhardt had nothing to do with these experiments. There was no point in carrying out such experiments as, long before the war, the surgical technique had already been developed on scientific principles and set down in a system. It covers plastic surgical bone regeneration but does not advocate free transplantation.
The only new field of scientific research taken up by Dr. Gebhardt during the war was that of experiments connected with nerve operations. These experiments were, however, carried out on animals by the special order and under the scientific supervision of the defendant Gebhardt himself. I am here referring to the affidavits given by the witnesses Koestler (Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser 22, Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser Ex. 21) and Brunner (Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser 21, Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser Ex. 20), and to the statements made by the defendant Gebhardt himself on the witness stand. I am further referring to the report of the Third Session East of the Consulting Specialists on 24-26 May 1943 (Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser 3, Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser Ex. 10) which I have presented in Court and which proves that during this session he himself and the aforementioned witness, Dr. Koestler, spoke about grafting operations in cases of nervous paralysis. This is the same report to which the witness Dr. Koestler referred in his affidavit of 27 February 1947.
Furthermore, I wish to draw the attention of this Court to the lecture given by the defendant Gebhardt in the same report on “Gymnastic Therapy and Mobilization of the Joints” which is also based upon clinical experience in Hohenlychen and also has nothing whatever to do with medical experiments on human beings. The evidence has further proved that the defendant Gebhardt was concerned with the transplantation of bones in one case only. This experiment was the free transplantation of a shoulder blade from one person to another. The defendant Gebhardt has given a detailed account of this on the witness stand and I am referring you to his statement on this point. Generally speaking, the following has to be added: The free transplantation of bones from one person to another is one of the great problems of restorative surgery which has yet to be solved. For decades, physicians have been trying to find a solution to this problem. As early as the end of the First World War, Geheimrat Lexer, the great teacher of the defendant Gebhardt, conducted experiments along these lines in 23 cases, aiming at the replacement of completely destroyed bones. The terrible injuries which occurred during the Second World War made this problem still more urgent and it is, therefore, understandable that in view of the progress Dr. Stumpfegger had made in his research, he was ordered by the Reich Leader SS to make use of this research result in the direct transplantation of bones. The defendant Gebhardt himself did not take any steps in this direction. He himself has stated his fundamental attitude as to this question and I refer to his own statements. Only in one case did he give his approval, viz: when Dr. Stumpfegger carried out the experiment of transplanting a shoulder blade. The order to do this was given by the Reich Leader SS. This experiment was justified in this particular case as it took place for the benefit of a patient in serious danger. The experimental person from whom the shoulder blade was taken was also a member of the resistance movement and she, too, thus escaped execution. Furthermore, the shoulder blade in question belonged to a hand restricted in its function.
d. Evidence
| Prosecution Documents | |||
| Doc. No. | Pros. Ex. No. | Description of Document | Page |
| NO-875 | 230 | Affidavit of Mrs. Zdenka Nedvedova-Nejedla, M. D., of Prague, concerning experimental operations conducted on fellow inmates at Ravensbrueck concentration camp. | [400] |
| NO-861 | 232 | Affidavit of Sofia Maczka, 16 April 1946, concerning experimental operations on inmates of the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. | [402] |
| NO-579 | 288 | Phosphorous burns artificially inflicted on inmates of the Buchenwald concentration camp. (See Selections from the Photographic Evidence of the Prosecution.) | [904] |
| Defense Documents | |||
| Doc. No. | Def. Ex. No. | Description of Document | Page |
| Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser 6 | Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser Ex. 9 | Extract from “Clinic and Practice”, weekly journal for the practicing physician, regarding bone transplantation. | [405] |
| Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser 21 | Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser Ex. 20 | Extracts from affidavit of Dr. Karl Friedrich Brunner, 14 March 1945, concerning scientific experiments conducted at the clinic of Hohenlychen. | [407] |
| Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser 22 | Gebhardt, Fischer, Oberheuser Ex. 21 | Extract from affidavit of Dr. Josef Koestler, 27 February 1947, concerning Dr. Gebhardt’s activities. | [408] |
| Testimony | |||
| Extracts from the testimony of prosecution witness Miss Karolewska | [409] | ||
| Extract from the testimony of the prosecution expert witness Dr. Leo Alexander. | [417] | ||
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-875
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 230
AFFIDAVIT OF MRS. ZDENKA NEDVEDOVA-NEJEDLA, M. D., OF PRAGUE, CONCERNING EXPERIMENTAL OPERATIONS CONDUCTED ON FELLOW INMATES AT RAVENSBRUECK CONCENTRATION CAMP
1. I, Zdenka Nedvedova-Nejedla, M. D. came to Ravensbrueck concentration camp in a transport from Auschwitz on 19 August 1943, and I worked in the sick bay as a doctor prisoner from September 1943 until 30 May 1945. In the beginning I worked in the Department for Contagious Diseases at Station No. 1 and the Ambulatory. Besides this, I was in charge of Sucking Block from the fall of 1944 until May 1945.
2. Of the victims of experimental operations, I nursed personally Helena Piasecka, who was suffering from chronic osteomyelitis after completed operation of both shin bones. I knew that these operations were performed under Professor Gebhardt’s supervision by Doctor Fischer, and a woman, Doctor Oberheuser, from the SS Hospital Hohenlychen, but I do not know which one of them had operated on Piasecka. The operation was performed in the “bunker,” camp prison, where there were not even the most primitive sanitary installations and even fewer aseptic installations. Her general condition was good, but the defect in both bones made her an invalid for life. Before the operation Piasecka was completely healthy.
3. All women on whom experimental operations had been performed were placed in one block and they were generally known as “rabbits,” so that I saw the effects of the operations on those women who had survived them. In each case of abbreviation of limbs, muscular atrophy of the highest degree set in, proving a grave injury of nerves during operations and deep indrawn scars where parts of muscles had festered away.
4. From lay reports of nursing personnel without any special training, I tried to construct the types of experimental operations.
a. Culture of virulent germs (streptococci, staphylococci, maybe even tetanus and gas phlegmon) were injected subcutaneously, intramuscularly, and even directly into bones. These were the attempts to produce osteomyelitis experimentally. The resulting sepsis was checked by daily examination of the blood and urine to test the effectiveness of new medicaments of the sulfanilamide group.
b. Parts of long bones, as much as 5 centimeters (fibulae and tibiae), were removed and in some cases replaced by metal or left without connection. These operations were probably to prove the inability of bone to grow without periosteum.
c. High amputations were performed; for example, even whole arms with shoulder blade or legs with osiliaca were amputated. These operations were performed mostly on insane women who were immediately killed after the operation by a quick injection of evipan. All specimens gained in operations were carefully wrapped up in sterile gauze and immediately transported to the SS hospital nearby (Hohenlychen presumably), where they were to be used in the attempt to heal the injured limbs of wounded German soldiers.
5. Operations were performed on 1 Yugoslav, 1 Czech, 2 Ukrainian, 2 German, and about 18 Polish women, of whom 6 were operated on by force in the bunker with the help of SS men. Two of them were shot after their operation wounds had healed. After operations, no one except SS nurses was admitted to the persons operated on, whole nights they lay without any assistance and it was not permitted to administer sedatives even against the most intensive postoperational pains. From the persons operated on, 11 died or were killed, and 71 remained invalids for life.
6. The report mentioned in paragraphs 3 to 5 was prepared on the basis of evidence given to me at Ravensbrueck in the autumn of 1943 by these fellow prisoners: Sofia Maczka, M. D., Poland; Isa Siczynska, medical student, Krakow, Poland; Jola Krzyzanowska, medical student, Krakow, Poland; Krisa Iwanska, medical student, Krakow, Poland; Emilie Skrbkova, medical student, Praha, Czechoslovakia; and Inka Katnarova, M. D., Hradec Kralove, Czechoslovakia.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-861
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 232
AFFIDAVIT OF SOFIA MACZKA[[44]], 16 APRIL 1946, CONCERNING EXPERIMENTAL OPERATIONS ON INMATES OF THE RAVENSBRUECK CONCENTRATION CAMP
Information concerning the experimental operations which took place in Ravensbrueck concentration camp.
The operations were carried out in the period between the summer of 1942 and the summer of 1943. The operations were conducted in the camp hospital, under the direction of Professor Dr. Gebhardt, SS Brigadefuehrer. Professor Gebhardt was the head of the Hohenlychen sanatorium at Hohenlychen (Mecklenburg). The operations were conducted with the help of Dr. Fischer, who was Professor Gebhardt’s assistant. There was also another assistant whose name I do not know. The following camp doctors participated in this matter: Dr. Herta Oberheuser, Dr. Rolf Rosenthal, Dr. Schiedlausky; all German nurses who were employed there at the time and two German prisoners (Schutzhaftgefangene), Gerda Quernheim and Fina Pautz, gave assistance. Polish political prisoners in protective custody, from the transports from Warsaw and Lublin, numbering 74, were chosen as victims. All those who were chosen were young, healthy, and well-built women. Many were college or university students. The youngest was 16 years of age, the oldest 48 years of age. The operations were to be carried out for scientific purposes, but they had nothing to do with science. They were carried out under horrible conditions. The doctors and the assisting personnel were not trained properly medically. Conditions were neither aseptic nor hygienic. After operations, the patients were left in shocking rooms without medical help, without nursing or supervision. The dressings were made according to the whim of the doctors with unsterilized instruments and compresses. Dr. Rosenthal, who did most of the dressings, excelled himself in sadism. In the summer of 1943 the last operations were carried out in the “bunker”. “Bunker” is the name of the horrible prison in the camp. The victims were taken there because they resisted, and there in the cell their dirty legs were operated on. This was the “scientific atmosphere” in which the “scientific” operations were carried out.
All operations were carried out on the leg and all under anesthetic. The operations were divided into two main groups:
1. Operations for infecting the patient.
2. Experimental aseptic operations.
The soft part of the calf of the leg was opened and the open wounds were infected with bacteria which were introduced into the wounds. The following were used: staphylococcus aureus, oedema malignum (clostridium oedematis maligni), gas gangrene bacillus (clostridium perfrim gens), and tetanus. Weronika Kraska was infected with tetanus. She died after a few days. Kazimiera Kurowska was infected with gas gangrene bacillus; she died after a few days. The following were infected with oedema malignum: Aniela Lefanowicz, Zofia Kiecol, Alfreda Prus, and Maria Kusmierczuk. The first three died after a few days; Maria Kusmierczuk survived the infection. She was lying ill for more than a year and became a cripple, but she is alive and is living evidence of the experiments. Mostly pyrogen stimulants were employed. The wounds were stitched after the infection and serious illness began. Many of the patients were ill for months and almost all of them became cripples.
Why did Professor Gebhardt, with his education, carry out these experiments? To test the new drugs of the German pharmaceutical industry; mostly cibazol and albucid were used. Even tetanus was treated in that way.
The results of the treatment were not checked, or if they were, it was done in such an inadequate and superficial manner, that it was of no value.
The aseptic, experimental operations consisted of bone experiments, muscle experiments, and nerve experiments.
The bone experiments were checked by X-ray photographs. As ward attendant I had to do all the X-ray photographs. In this way I was given the opportunity of gaining an insight in this matter. The following were carried out: (a) bone breaking; (b) bone transplantation; and (c) bone grafting.
a. On the operating table, the bones of the lower part of both legs were broken into several pieces with a hammer, later they were joined with clips (for instance Janiga Marczewska) or without clips (for instance Leonarda Bien) and were put into a plaster case. This was removed after several days and the legs remained without plaster casts until they healed.
b. The transplantations were carried out in the usual way, except that whole pieces of the fibula were cut out, sometimes with periosteum, sometimes without periosteum. The most typical operation of this kind was carried out on Krystyna Dabska.
c. Bone grafting. These operations were with the school of Professor Gebhardt. During the preparatory operation two bone splints were put on the tibia of both legs; during the second operation such bone splints were cut out together with the attached bones and were taken to Hohenlychen. As a supplement to the bone splint operations such operations were also carried out on two prisoners in protective custody who suffered from deformation of bones of the osteomyelitis type. These two were not Poles, one of them was a German who was a Jehovah’s Witness, Maria Konwitschka, and the other was a Ukrainian, Maria Hretschana. It was interesting for Professor Gebhardt to see how the diseased bones would react to such an operation.
The muscle experiments consisted of many operations, always on the same spot, the upper or lower part of the leg. At each further operation larger and larger pieces of muscles were cut out. Once a small piece of bone was planted into a muscle (this happened to Babinska). During nerve operations parts of nerves were removed (for instance Barbara Pytlewska).
What problem did Professor Gebhardt and his school wish to solve by these experiments? The problem of the regeneration of bones, muscles, and nerves.
Was the thing carried out? No. It was not checked at all, or only insufficiently. I do not know what was done at Hohenlychen with those pieces of bone, muscle, and nerves which were cut out and taken there.
What was the fate of the patients after they left the hospital? Almost all of the patients became cripples, and suffered very much as a result of these operations. Even more severe was the moral torture inflicted on them since they lived under the conviction that they would all be shot in order that they should not be evidence of these murderous operations. The camp authorities—Commandant Suhren, Adjutant Braeuning and Chief Supervisor Binz—ensured through their orders that the victims should not forget that they were condemned to death. In the meantime, six of the patients were shot after surviving the operations.
As a supplement to these operations I am submitting a description of “special operations” which were carried out at the same time.
A few abnormal prisoners (mentally ill) were chosen and brought to the operating table, and amputations of the whole leg (at the hip joint) were carried out, or on others, amputation of the whole arm (with the shoulder blade) were carried out. Afterwards the victims (if they still lived) were killed by means of evipan injections and the leg or arm was taken to Hohenlychen and served the purposes known to Professor Gebhardt. Ten such operations, approximately, were carried out.
During the whole of the time these operations were carried out, I was employed as a worker in the ward and investigated this matter risking my own life, with the idea that it was my duty, if I were saved, to tell the truth to the world. I conclude my statement with two questions: What kind of recompense can the world offer to those who were operated on in such a manner? What kind of justice has the world for those who carried out such operations?
| [Signed] | Dr. Maczka, Zofia |
| Dr. med. Zofia Maczka | |
| X-ray specialist from Krakow. Former political prisoner in protective custody No. 7403 at Ravensbrueck, now in Stockholm, Serafimerlasarettet, Roentgen. |
Stockholm, 16 April 1946
TRANSLATION OF GEBHARDT, FISCHER, OBERHEUSER
DOCUMENT 6
GEBHARDT, FISCHER, OBERHEUSER DEFENSE
EXHIBIT 9
EXTRACT FROM “CLINIC AND PRACTICE”, WEEKLY JOURNAL FOR THE PRACTICING PHYSICIAN, REGARDING BONE TRANSPLANTATION
Editors: Dr. Herbert Volkmann and Dr. V. E. Mertens, Munich 2, Alfonsstrasse 1
| No. 1 | Munich, February 1946 | Volume 1 |
[page 12]
Discussions and extracts
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Surgery
Ludwig Stumpfegger—Hohenlychen: The free autoplastic bone transplantation in the restorative surgery of limbs—experiences and results.
During the past 10 years, 471 free autoplastic bone transplantations were carried out in Hohenlychen. Recent research results clearly showed that apart from the osteoplastic activity, a metaplastic formation of new bone occurs in the tissue. The newly formed bone trabeculae between transplant and old bone begin to connect with those formed in the osteoid tissue in the seventh week, and in this way constitute the bone connection between the graft and the original bone which have completely grown together in the ninth week. After the twelfth week no old bone can be detected in the entire region of the original graft, but only new bone trabecula. The question of the ever present hematoma can be answered in this way: a blood extravasation, lying in the gap between the transplant and the old bone, and not being subject to pressure, represents an adequate stimulation to the mesenchymal germinal tissue formation, while the large hemorrhage represents a negative stimulation and permits only a scarry connection of the transplant and the defective stump. The periosteum is no more important than the other layers, it is transplanted with the bone, because in connection with the bone it has osteogenetic properties, but above all it effects a speedy supply from the surroundings. A careful technique must be employed to spare the tissue layers, and bleeding must be stanched. Foreign bodies in the shape of wire slings to hold the transplant usually heal well into the body. Firm fixation in a plaster cast safeguards the result. When the graft has taken, a careful start with remedial exercises may be made in the third or fourth month. The clinical use of free bone transplantations is discussed with the help of numerous examples and many X-ray illustrations. The first task of the bone transplant to bridge over a gap in the bone is to provide sufficient support for the defective stump and, therefore, it has to be fairly strong. Bone splinters in the lower arm have roentgenologically completely taken after 1-1½ years, those in the tibia after 1½-2 years. The free bone transplant, some distance from the joints, has proved to be particularly valuable with the usual dislocations of the shoulder and the hip joints. The overlapping bone ridge prevents the bone from coming out of the articular cavity. In the course of years, the piece lying in the soft parts is considerably reduced, so that only a small bone ridge remains. The graft effects a regeneration of the damaged edge of the articular cavity and in this way prevents further dislocation. Bone transplants in bone gaps after removal of growths are subject to special conditions of taking. Hyperemic phenomena in the zone of the tumor edge in the form of a mild inflammation, possibly also fermentation processes, accelerate the taking of the transplant compared with the process in healthy tissue. Increased local resorption processes, occasionally with spontaneous fractures, infrequently prevail, but they again are apt to heal well. In wounds which heal with difficulty owing to suppurative inflammations, there is a great danger of the transplant being pushed out. When the whole transplant region is inflamed, total sequestration cannot be stopped. If suppuration remains localized, partial sequestration of the transplantation must be awaited. (German Surgical Journal, 1944, Vol. 299, H. 9-12. H. Floercken-Frankfurt am Main.)
TRANSLATION OF GEBHARDT, FISCHER, OBERHEUSER
DOCUMENT 21
GEBHARDT, FISCHER, OBERHEUSER DEFENSE
EXHIBIT 20
EXTRACTS FROM AFFIDAVIT OF DR. KARL FRIEDRICH BRUNNER, 14 MARCH 1943, CONCERNING SCIENTIFIC EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED AT THE CLINIC OF HOHENLYCHEN
I can state the following regarding the scientific experiments at the clinic [of Hohenlychen]: It was in accordance with the principles of the clinic and, therefore, of the chief and his deputy to collect scientific results arrived at through clinical observations. All reports at congresses and lectures as well as publications were based on these results. The scientific work and research were normally determined by the observations made on the patients. In addition to this, and in order to clarify the question of surgical treatment of nerve injuries, experiments on dogs were carried out in close collaboration with Gebhardt—first by Dr. Koestler in 1939-40, later by myself from 1943 to the end of the war. I was ordered by Dr. Gebhardt to carry out the experiments on animals at the training and experimental station for dogs [Hundelehr- und Versuchsanstalt], which establishment was situated outside the concentration camp Ravensbrueck, and I was strictly cautioned not to enter into any kind of contact with the concentration camp itself. The animal experiments were strictly continued until the end of the war. The results were never published because of war conditions.
Regarding Dr. Stumpfegger, I can state that he was an assistant of the clinic in peacetime, before I arrived. At the outbreak of war in 1939 he joined the Waffen SS, and was then, as far as I know, from 1942 onwards an escorting physician of Himmler. I did not see Dr. Stumpfegger on my return to Hohenlychen in autumn 1943, nor had he any official connection with the clinic up to the end of the war, either in a medical or in a military sense. He did not have to report his return or departure to the chief physician or to his deputy. His family, however, still lived at Hohenlychen. I still met him occasionally outside the medical sphere. I emphasize that during my presence at the clinic from 1 September 1943 up to the end of the war, as far as I know—and finally I was directing the clinic—no assistant was drafted from Hohenlychen to Ravensbrueck.
I know that the specialist in pulmonary diseases, Dr. Heissmeyer, was working as an assistant and later as chief physician in the so-called sanatorium Hohenlychen even before Professor Gebhardt took over Hohenlychen. This sanatorium was strictly detached from the surgical wards of the hospital at Hohenlychen and was not under the professional supervision of the chief physician nor of his deputy; i. e., Dr. Heissmeyer looked after his patients without any supervision by the surgeon, he made no reports to the chief or his deputy, he did not participate in the daily discussions of the physicians, he had his own staff of assistants and carried out his treatments and operations independently; he also planned his duty journeys independently and made these without reporting to the chief or his deputy on departure or return.
TRANSLATION OF GEBHARDT, FISCHER, OBERHEUSER
DOCUMENT 22
GEBHARDT, FISCHER, OBERHEUSER DEFENSE
EXHIBIT 21
EXTRACT FROM AFFIDAVIT OF DR. JOSE KOESTLER, 27 FEBRUARY 1947, CONCERNING DR. GEBHARDT’S ACTIVITIES
When Professor Dr. Karl Gebhardt and I, at the Third Conference of Consulting Specialists of the German Wehrmacht in May 1943, lectured on surgical aid for peripheral nerve damage, we were, on the one hand, interpreting the results of animal experiments carried out on dogs from 1938 to 1940 in the Langenbeck-Virchow Hospital, Berlin, and in the institutes of Professor Holz (Institute for Experimental Hormone and Cancer Research) and Professor Ostertag (Pathological Institute), and, on the other hand, announcing surgical methods as they had been frequently used during the previous years.
Under the title of “Preparatory and Restorative Surgery in cases of Peripheral Nerve Damage,” I recorded these experiences in the “German Journal for Surgery,” volume 259, Nos. 1-4, 1943, and in my habilitation paper (1943, University of Berlin).
I emphasize expressly that this series of experiments was carried out exclusively on animals.
From 1 July 1938 to 26 August 1939 I was in the Red Cross hospital at Hohenlychen (Department for Sport and Industrial Injuries). During the following war years, after I was drafted into the Wehrmacht, I worked there repeatedly for short periods. I am convinced that the medical care there was on an especially high level and that Professor Gebhardt as chief physician did everything possible to improve the treatment and its results.
EXTRACTS FROM THE TESTIMONY OF PROSECUTION WITNESS MISS KAROLEWSKA[[45]]
DIRECT EXAMINATION
Mr. McHaney: What is your name, please?
Witness Karolewska: Karolewska.
Q. And that is spelled K-a-r-o-l-e-w-s-k-a?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you born on 15 March 1909 at Yeroman?
A. I was born on 15 March 1909 in Yeroman.
Q. You are a citizen of Poland?
A. Yes, I am a Polish citizen.
Q. And have you come here as a voluntary witness?
A. Yes, I came here as a voluntary witness.
Q. What is your home address?
A. Warsaw, Inzynierska Street, No. 9, Flat No. 25.
Q. Are you married?
A. No.
Q. Are your parents living?
A. No, my parents are dead.
Q. Will you tell the Tribunal what education you have received?
A. I finished elementary school, and completed the training school for teachers in 1928.
Q. And what did you do between 1928 and the beginning of the war in 1939?
A. I worked as a teacher in a children’s school in Grudenz.
Q. And when did you leave that post?
A. I finished my work in June 1939 and went on holiday.
Q. And did you go back to this position after your holiday?
A. No, I did not go back because the war broke out and I stayed in Lublin.
Q. And what did you do while you were in Lublin?
A. I lived with my sister and did not work at all.
Q. Were you a member of the Polish Resistance Movement?
A. Yes, I was.
Q. And what did you do in the Polish Resistance Movement?
A. I was a messenger.
Q. And were you ever arrested for your activity in the Resistance Movement?
A. I was arrested on the 13th of February 1941 by the Gestapo.
Q. Was your sister arrested with you?
A. Two sisters and two brothers-in-law were arrested with me on the same day.
Q. What happened to you after you were arrested?
A. I was taken to the Gestapo.
Q. And what did the Gestapo do with you?
A. The first day the Gestapo took down my personal data and sent me to the prison in Lublin.
Q. And then what happened? Just go on and tell the complete story about what the Gestapo did with you and where you went.
A. I stayed 2 weeks in the prison in Lublin and then I was taken again to the Gestapo. There I was interrogated and they wanted to force me to confess what kind of work I used to do in the Resistance Movement. The Gestapo wanted me to give them the names of persons with whom I worked. I did not want to tell them the names and, therefore, I was beaten. I was beaten by one Gestapo man, with brief intervals, for a very long time. Then I was taken to a cell. Two days later, at night, I was taken again to the Gestapo for interrogation. There I was beaten again. I stayed in the Gestapo office one week and then I was taken back into the prison in Lublin. I stayed in the prison till 21 September 1941. Then I was transported with other prisoners to the concentration camp Ravensbrueck, where I arrived on the 23d of September 1941.
Q. Now, Witness, before you continue, will you tell the Tribunal whether you were ever tried by any court for the crime of being a member of the Resistance Movement?
A. I was only interrogated by the Gestapo and I think that the sentence must have been passed in my absence because no sentence was ever read out to me.
Q. All right. Will you tell the Tribunal what happened to you at Ravensbrueck?
A. At Ravensbrueck our dresses were taken away from us and we received the regular prison dress. Then I was sent to the block and I stayed in quarantine for 3 weeks. After 3 weeks we were taken to work. The work was hard physical work. In the spring I was given other work and I was transferred to the workshop, which was called in German “Betrieb.” The work I did there was also very hard, and one week I had to work in the daytime and the next week at night. In the spring the living conditions in the camp grew worse and worse, and hunger began to reign in the camp. The food portions were smaller. We were undernourished, very exhausted, and we had no strength to work. In the spring of the same year, shoes and stockings were taken away from us and we had to walk barefoot. The gravel in the camp hurt our feet. The most tiring was the so-called “roll calls”, which we had to stand several hours, sometimes even 4 hours. If a prisoner tried to put a piece of paper underneath her feet, she was beaten and ill-treated in an inhuman way. We had to stand at attention at the roll call place and we were not allowed to move our lips, because then we were supposed to be praying and we were not allowed to pray.
Q. Now, Witness, were you operated on while you were in the Ravensbrueck concentration camp?
A. Yes, I was.
Q. When did that happen?
A. On 22 July 1942, 75 prisoners from our transport that come from Lublin were summoned to the chief of the camp. We stood outside the camp office, and present were Kogel, Mandel, and one person whom I later recognized as Dr. Fischer. We were afterwards sent back to the block and we were told to wait for further instructions. On the 25th of July, all the women from the transport of Lublin were summoned by Mandel, who told us that we were not allowed to work outside the camp. Also, five women from the transport that came from Warsaw were summoned with us at the same time. We were not allowed to work outside the camp. The next day 75 women were summoned again and we had to stand in front of the hospital in the camp. Present were Schiedlausky, Oberheuser, Rosenthal, Kogel, and the man whom I afterwards recognized as Dr. Fischer.
Q. Now, Witness, do you see Oberheuser in the defendants’ dock here?
Interpreter: The witness asks for permission to go near to the dock to be able to see them.
Mr. McHaney: Please do.
(Witness walks to dock and points to Dr. Oberheuser.)
Mr. McHaney: And Fischer?
(Witness points to Dr. Fischer.)
Mr. McHaney: I will ask that the record show that the witness properly identified the defendants, Oberheuser and Fischer.
Presiding Judge Beals: The record will show that the witness correctly identified the defendants Oberheuser and Fischer.
Mr. McHaney: Witness, you have told the Tribunal that in July 1942, some 75 Polish girls, who were in the transport from Lublin, were called before the camp doctors in Ravensbrueck.
Witness Karolewska: Yes.
Q. Now, were any of these girls selected for an operation?
A. On this day we did not know why we were called before the camp doctors and on the same day 10 out of 25 girls were taken to the hospital, but we did not know why. Four of them came back and six stayed in the hospital. On the same day six of them came back to the block after having received some injection, but we did not know what kind of injection. On the 1st of August, those six girls were called to the hospital again; those girls who received injections were kept in the hospital, but we could not get in touch with them to hear from them why they were put in the hospital. A few days later, one of my comrades succeeded in getting close to the hospital and learned from one of the prisoners that all were in bed and that their legs were in casts. On the 14th of August, the same year, I was called to the hospital and my name was written on a piece of paper. I did not know why. Besides me, eight other girls were called to the hospital. We were called at a time when executions usually took place and I thought I was going to be executed because some girls had been shot down before. In the hospital we were put to bed and the ward in which we stayed was locked. We were not told what we were to do in the hospital and when one of my comrades put the question she got no answer but an ironical smile. Then a German nurse arrived and gave me an injection in my leg. After this injection I vomited and I was weak. Then I was put on a hospital cot and they brought me to the operating room. There, Dr. Schiedlausky and Rosenthal gave me the second intravenous injection in my arm. A while before, I noticed Dr. Fischer, who left the operating theater and had operating gloves on. Then I lost consciousness and when I revived I noticed that I was in a proper hospital ward. I recovered consciousness for a while and I felt severe pain in my leg. Then I lost consciousness again. I regained consciousness in the morning, and then I noticed that my leg was in a cast from the ankle up to the knee and I felt very great pain in this leg and had a high temperature. I noticed also that my leg was swollen from the toes up to the groin. The pain was increasing and the temperature, too, and the next day I noticed that some liquid was flowing from my leg. The third day I was put on a hospital trolley and taken to the dressing room. Then I saw Dr. Fischer again. He had on an operating gown and rubber gloves on his hands. A blanket was put over my eyes and I did not know what was done with my leg but I felt great pain and I had the impression that something must have been cut out of my leg. Those present were Schiedlausky, Rosenthal, and Oberheuser. After the dressing was changed I was again put in the regular hospital ward. Three days later I was again taken to the dressing room, and the dressing was changed by Doctor Fischer with the assistance of the same doctors, and I was also blindfolded. I was then sent back to the regular hospital ward. The next dressings were made by the camp doctors. Two weeks later we were all taken to the operating theater again, and put on the operating tables. The bandage was removed, and that was the first time I saw my leg. The incision went so deep that I could see the bone. We were told then that there was a doctor from Hohenlychen, Doctor Gebhardt, who would come and examine us. We were waiting for his arrival for 3 hours, lying on our tables. When he came, a sheet was put over our eyes, but they removed the sheet and I saw him for a short moment. Then we were taken back to our regular wards. On 8 September I went back to the block. I couldn’t walk. The pus was draining from my leg; the leg was swollen up and I could not walk. In the block, I stayed in bed for one week; then I was called to the hospital again. I could not walk and I was carried by my comrades. In the hospital I met some of my comrades who were there after the operation. This time I was sure I was going to be executed because I saw an ambulance standing outside the office, which was used by the Germans to transport people intended for execution. Then we were taken to the dressing room where Doctor Oberheuser and Doctor Schiedlausky examined our legs. We were put to bed again, and on the same day, in the afternoon, I was taken to the operating theater and the second operation was performed on my leg. I was put to sleep in the same way as before, having received an injection. This time I again saw Doctor Fischer. I woke up in the regular hospital ward, and I felt a much greater pain and had a higher temperature.
The symptoms were the same. The leg was swollen and the pus flowed from my leg. After this operation, the dressings were changed by Dr. Fischer every 3 days. More than 10 days afterwards, we were again taken to the operating theater and put on the table; and we were told that Dr. Gebhardt was going to come to examine our legs. We waited for a long time. Then he arrived and examined our legs while we were blindfolded. This time other people arrived with Dr. Gebhardt, but I don’t know their names, and I don’t remember their faces. Then we were carried on hospital cots back to our rooms. After this operation I felt still worse, and I could not move. While I was in the hospital, Dr. Oberheuser treated me cruelly.
When I was in my room I remarked to fellow prisoners that we were operated on in very bad conditions and left here in this room and that we were not even given a chance to recover. This remark must have been heard by a German nurse who was sitting in the corridor, because the door of our room leading to the corridor was opened. The German nurse entered the room and told us to get up and dress. We answered that we could not follow her order because we had great pains in our legs and we could not walk. Then the German nurse came into our room with Dr. Oberheuser. Dr. Oberheuser told us to dress and come to the dressing room. We put on our dresses; and, being unable to walk, we had to hop on one leg into the operating theater. After one hop we had to rest. Dr. Oberheuser did not allow anybody to help us. When we arrived at the operating theater, quite exhausted, Dr. Oberheuser appeared and told us to go back, because the change of dressing would not take place that day. I could not walk, but somebody, a prisoner whose name I don’t remember, helped me back to the room.
Q. Witness, you have told the Tribunal that you were operated on the second time on the 16th of September 1942? Is that right?
A. Yes.
Q. When did you leave the hospital after this second operation?
A. After the second operation I left the hospital on 6 October.
Q. Was your leg healed at that time?
A. My leg was swollen up, caused me great pain, and the pus drained from my leg.
Q. Were you able to work?
A. I was unable to work, and I had to stay in bed because I could not walk.
Q. Do you remember when you got up out of bed and were able to walk?
A. I stayed in bed several weeks, and then I got up and tried to walk.
Q. How long was it until your leg was healed?
A. The pus was flowing from my leg till June 1943; and at that time my wound was healed.
Q. Were you operated on again?
A. Yes, I was operated on again in the bunker.
Q. In the bunker? That is not in the hospital?
A. Not in the hospital but in the bunker.
Q. Will you explain to the Tribunal how that happened?
A. May I ask permission to tell something which happened in March 1943, March or February 1943?
Q. All right.
A. At the end of February 1943, Dr. Oberheuser called us and said, “Those girls are new guinea pigs”; and we were very well known under this name in the camp. Then we understood that we were persons intended for experiments, and we decided to protest against the performance of those operations on healthy people.
We drew up a protest in writing and we went to the camp commandant. Not only those girls who had been operated on before but other girls who were called to the hospital came to the office. The girls who had been operated on used crutches and they went without any help.
I would like to tell you the contents of the petition made by us. “We, the undersigned, Polish political prisoners, ask the commandant whether he knows that since the year 1942 experimental operations have taken place in the camp hospital, under the name guinea pigs, explaining the meaning of those operations. We ask whether we were operated on as a result of sentences passed on us because, as far as we know, international law forbids the performance of operations even on political prisoners.”
We did not get any answer; and we were not allowed to talk to the commandant. On 15 August 1943, a policewoman came and read off the names of 10 new prisoners. She told us to follow her to the hospital. We refused to go to the hospital, because we thought that we were intended for a new operation. The policewoman told us that we were probably going to be sent to the factory for work outside the camp. We wanted to make sure whether the labor office was open because it was Sunday. The policewoman told us that we had to go to the hospital to be examined by a doctor before we went to the factory. We refused to go then because we were sure that we would be kept in the hospital and operated on again. All prisoners in the camp were told to stay in the blocks. All of the women who lived in the same block where I was were told to leave the block and stand in line in front of Block 10 at a certain time. Then the Overseer Binz appeared and called out 10 names, and my name was among them.
We went out of the line and stood before Block 9 in line. Then Binz said: “Why do you stand in line as if you were to be executed?” We told her that operations were worse for us than executions and that we would prefer to be executed rather than to be operated on again. Binz told us that she might give us work; there was no question of our being operated on, but we were going to be sent for work outside the camp. We told her that she must know that prisoners belonging to our group were not allowed to leave the camp and go outside. Then she told us to follow her into her office, that she would show us a paper proving that we were going to be sent for work to the factory outside the camp. We followed her and we stood before her office. She was in her office for a while and then went out and went to the canteen where the camp commandant was. She had a conference with him probably asking him what to do with us. We stood in front of the office for half an hour. In the meantime one fellow prisoner who used to work in the canteen walked past. She told us that Binz had asked for help from SS men to take us to the hospital by force. We stood for a while and then Binz came out of the canteen accompanied by the camp commandant. We stood for a while near the camp gate. We were afraid that SS men would come to take us, so we ran away and mixed with other people standing in front of the block. Then Binz and the camp police appeared. They drove us out from the lines by force. She told us that she was putting us into the bunker as punishment for not following her orders. Five prisoners were put into each cell although one cell was only intended for one person. The cells were quite dark, without lights. We stayed in the bunker the whole night long and the next day. We slept on the floor because there was only one couch in the cell. The next day we were given a breakfast consisting of black coffee and a piece of dark bread. Then we were locked in again. People were walking up and down the corridor of the bunker the whole time. The same day in the afternoon we learned our fate. The woman guard of the bunker unlocked our cell and took me out. I thought that I was to be interrogated or beaten. She took me down the corridor. She opened one door and behind the door stood SS man Dr. Trommel. He told me to follow him upstairs. Following Dr. Trommel I noticed there were other cells, with beds and bedding. He put me in one of the cells. Then he asked me whether I would agree to a small operation. I told him that I did not agree to it because I had already undergone two operations. He told me that this was going to be a very small operation and that it would not harm me. I told him that I was a political prisoner and that operations could not be performed on political prisoners without their consent. He told me to lie down on the bed; I refused to do so. He repeated it twice. Then he went out of the cell and I followed him. He went quickly downstairs and locked the door. Standing in front of the cell I noticed a cell on the opposite side of the staircase, and I also noticed some men in operating gowns. There was also one German nurse ready to give an injection. Near the staircase stood a stretcher. That made it clear to me that I was going to be operated on again in the bunker. I decided to defend myself to the last. In a moment Trommel came back with two SS men. One of these SS men told me to enter the cell. I refused to do it, so he forced me into the cell and threw me on the bed.
Dr. Trommel took me by the left wrist and pulled my arm back. With his other hand he tried to gag me, putting a piece of rag into my mouth, because I shouted. The second SS man took my right hand and stretched it. Two other SS men held me by my feet. Immobilized, I felt somebody giving me an injection. I defended myself for a long time, but then I grew weaker. The injection had its effect; I felt sleepy. I heard Trommel saying, “That is all.”
I regained consciousness again, but I don’t know when. Then I noticed that a German nurse was taking off my dress, I then lost consciousness again; I regained it in the morning. Then I noticed that both my legs were in iron splints and were bandaged from the toes up to the groin. I felt a severe pain in my feet, and had a temperature.
On the afternoon of the same day, a German nurse came and gave me an injection, in spite of my protests; she gave me this injection in my thigh and told me that she had to do it.
Four days after this operation a doctor from Hohenlychen arrived, again I was given an injection to put me to sleep, and as I protested he told me that he would change the dressing; I felt a higher temperature and a greater pain in my legs.
Q. How many times did you see Gebhardt?
A. Twice.
Q. I will ask you to step down and walk over to the defendants’ dock and see whether or not you find the man Gebhardt sitting in the dock.
(The witness complied and pointed to the defendant Gebhardt.)
Thank you. Sit down.
I will ask that the record show that the witness properly identified the defendant Gebhardt.
Presiding Judge Beals: The record will show that the witness identified the defendant Gebhardt in the dock.
Mr. McHaney: I have no further questions at this time.
Presiding Judge Beals: Will Dr. Alexander again be put on the stand in connection with the examination of this witness?
Mr. McHaney: Yes, but if there is any cross-examination we can probably finish that before lunch.
Presiding Judge Beals: Do any of the defense counsel desire to cross-examine this witness?
Dr. Seidl (counsel for the defendants Gebhardt, Oberheuser, and Fischer): I do not intend to cross-examine this witness, but this does not mean that my clients admit the correctness of all statements made by this witness.
Presiding Judge Beals: Does any other of the defense counsel desire to examine the witness?
(No response.)
EXTRACT FROM THE TESTIMONY OF THE PROSECUTION EXPERT WITNESS DR. LEO ALEXANDER[[46]]
DIRECT EXAMINATION
Mr. McHaney: Doctor, can you express any opinion as to the purpose of the type of operation to which she [Karolewska] was subjected, that is the bone removal?
Dr. Alexander: I think it must have been one of the experiments which aimed at the question of regeneration of bone or possible transplantation of bone. Chances are that this tibial graft was either implanted in another person or that grafts had been exchanged. Of course today, 3 years after the experiment, no trace of transplantation is left in this individual. Or if the object was, as alleged in some statements I have seen, that tibial grafts were exchanged between the two legs, one must conclude that the experiment was negative because there is no evidence that a graft took. All we see now are the consequences of removal of a graft, and the graft had included the entire compact part of the bone, otherwise the repair would have been better. If some part of the compact had remained, the periosteum would have probably regenerated and today, 3 years after the operation, no X-ray would have shown the defect. So I feel that rather deep grafts were taken which went down into the spongiosa. Whether anything was replaced that later was destroyed, I do not know, except the patient stated that there was a purulent discharge, indicating that the wound had become infected, and her statement of a subsequent operation, in fact, if I am not mistaken, two subsequent operations, indicates the probability that the grafts did not take and that they were removed after infection had become obvious.
[43] Final plea is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 15 July 1947, pp. 10874-10910.
[44] Dr. Maczka appeared as witness before the Tribunal, 10 January 1947, Tr. pp. 1430-1462.
[45] Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 20 Dec. 1946, pp. 815-832.
[46] This testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 20 Dec. 1946, pp. 832-838.