a. Introduction
The prosecution introduced evidence calculated to show that inhumane acts and atrocities, as generally alleged in paragraph 6 of the indictment, were committed in the course of polygal experiments. These experiments were not specifically described in the subparagraphs of paragraph 6 of the indictment which particularized 12 specific types of experimentation. On this charge the defendants Handloser, Blome, and Poppendick were acquitted and only the defendant Sievers was convicted.
The prosecution’s summation of the evidence on the polygal experiments is contained in its closing brief against the defendant Blome. An extract from this brief is set forth below on pages 670 to 672. A corresponding summation of the evidence by the defense on these experiments has been selected from the closing brief for the defendant Blome. It appears below on pages 672 to 675. This argumentation is followed by selections from the evidence on pages 675 to 683.
b. Selection from the Argumentation of the Prosecution
EXTRACT FROM THE CLOSING BRIEF AGAINST
DEFENDANT BLOME
In order to test the effectiveness of a blood coagulant “polygal,” Rascher carried out experiments in which inmates of the Dachau concentration camp were shot. Rascher’s uncle, in his affidavit, describes the murderous experiments which were carried out by his nephew. In August 1943, he visited Rascher in Dachau and, while Rascher was away from his office, he saw a report which he describes as follows:
“It refers to a report about the shooting (execution) of four people for the purpose of experimenting with the hemostatic preparation ‘Polygal 10.’ As far as I remember they were a Russian Commissar and a cretin, I do not remember who the other two were. The Russian was shot in the right shoulder from above by an SS man who stood on a chair. The bullet emerged near the spleen. It was described how the Russian twitched convulsively, then sat down on a chair and died after about 20 minutes. In the dissection protocol the rupture of the pulmonary vessels and the aorta was described. It was further described that the ruptures were tamponed by hard blood clots. That could have been the only explanation for the comparatively long span of life after the shot.” (NO-1424, Pros. Ex. 462.)
This evidence is corroborated by the testimony of the witness Stoehr (Tr. p. 587) and the affidavit of Pohl (NO-065, Pros. Ex. 221). Even the defendant Gebhardt admitted, during his testimony, that he knew that Rascher had carried out blood coagulation experiments on concentration camp inmates who had been shot for the purpose. (Tr. pp. 4240-1.)
The evidence proves that Blome collaborated with Rascher in the polygal research. This collaboration began at least as early as the middle of 1943 in connection with cancer research. (NO-473, Pros. Ex. 237; see also NO-538, Pros. Ex. 122, entries for 18 February, 7 April, 14 April, and 26 June 1943.) The defendant Sievers stated in his affidavit that: “Blome also had full knowledge of the blood coagulation experiments at Dachau. He received reports from Rascher and should have a complete knowledge of these matters.” (NO-473, Pros. Ex. 237.) Blome admitted that Rascher had been commissioned by Himmler to work with him in the field of blood coagulation. (Tr. p. 4642.) One of the collaborators of Rascher in the polygal research was an inmate of the Dachau concentration camp by the name of Robert Feix. By letter of 15 September 1943, Rascher requested Sievers to approach Blome, so that the latter might arrange for the release of Feix and for his reinstatement in his former category as half-Aryan. Rascher stated in his letter that “Blome has given me great hopes in this respect.” (NO-611, Pros. Ex. 239.) This proves that Blome was already collaborating with Rascher on polygal research in the summer of 1943. Obviously, Blome would not have put himself out to assist in this work without knowing precisely what had been done to test polygal.
In the latter part of 1943, Rascher and Dr. Haferkamp wrote a paper on polygal. This paper draws a clear distinction between experiments on human beings to test the effect of polygal and clinical tests. It states that: “Before we tried the clinical use of the drug and had it probed, it was tested on human beings by thorough experiments as to its influence on the period of clotting and bleeding.” Curves were included to show the reaction of polygal on clotting and bleeding. Later on, the paper discusses clinical observations during operations. (NO-438, Pros. Ex. 240.) The experiments mentioned in this paper obviously are the ones during which inmates were shot. They were not so described in the paper because it was written for publication. Blome testified that the only experiments he knew about were ones where one cubic centimeter of blood was withdrawn to see how fast it would coagulate in a test tube. (Tr. p. 4643.) Such tests cannot be described as experiments. It is impossible to conceive of Rascher’s testing a blood coagulant to be used on soldiers wounded on the battlefield in such a manner. And this was better known to Blome at the time than it is now to the Tribunal. He knew that Rascher had conducted the freezing experiments with resultant loss of life. He had been informed about the Buchenwald typhus experiments. (Tr. p. 4640.) Moreover, this devious explanation of Blome does not cover experiments to test the effect of polygal on bleeding; to test blood in a test tube covers only coagulation reaction, not bleeding reaction. So he had to add to the implausible by saying that Rascher once told him that he or another doctor had rubbed the upper thigh of a person under anesthetic until it became bloody and then tested the efficacy of polygal. But Blome said, “I didn’t take this statement of his seriously.” (Tr. p. 4635.) The thing which cannot be taken seriously is Blome’s display of ignorance about experiments in which the documents prove he had a direct personal interest.
Blome approved the publication of the paper mentioned above in the Munich Medical Weekly [Muenchener Medizinische Wochenschrift]. (Tr. p. 4639; NO-616, Pros. Ex. 244.) Both Grawitz and Pohl raised objections to the publication of the article because they had not been consulted and because Dachau 3 K and human experimental subjects were mentioned. (NO-614, Pros. Ex. 245; NO-615, Pros. Ex. 246.) Both these men knew of the murderous experiments carried out by Rascher to test polygal. Gebhardt knew. Yet Blome asks the Tribunal to assume that he was too naive to have known; that he didn’t even believe Rascher when he was told that he had deliberately rubbed the hide off of an inmate’s leg to test polygal.
On 23 February 1944 Rascher received a research assignment on polygal from the Reich Research Council. (NO-656, Pros. Ex. 247.) Blome admitted that he issued this assignment. (Tr. p. 4634.) Siever’s diary reveals that on 1 February 1944, polygal production by Rascher was listed as a war economy industry by the Reich Research Council. On 22 February Sievers had a conference with Rascher in which supply questions for the production of this drug, experiments of Blome, and the polygal report for the defendant Gebhardt were discussed. On 24 February Sievers had a telephone conversation with Blome in which Blome informed him that Himmler had issued an order concerning Blome’s work in Dachau in collaboration with Rascher, (3546-PS, Pros. Ex. 123.) Blome admitted that Himmler requested him to cooperate with Rascher on polygal research. (Tr. p. 4510.) When Ploetner took over Rascher’s work on 31 March (Tr. p. 973), Blome continued his interest in polygal as shown by a telephone conversation with Sievers on this matter on 24 July. (Tr. p. 976.)
c. Selection from the Argumentation of the Defense
EXTRACT FROM THE CLOSING BRIEF FOR DEFENDANT
BLOME
The question of polygal was from the beginning one of the weakest counts of the indictment against Dr. Blome. It is a remedy to make the blood clot and to prevent people from bleeding to death as a result of wounds inflicted in battle or by operation, or from injury due to excessive loss of blood. This equally innocuous and beneficial remedy was apparently made the object of a charge only because Dr. Rascher once maintained that he had killed four concentration camp inmates with pistol shots in order to try out polygal on them. (NO-1424, Pros. Ex. 462; NO-065, Pros. Ex. 221.) But I believe that every intelligent person must have approached this contention of Rascher’s with the strongest distrust, because one cannot try out a styptic on a dead person, and Dr. Blome, like other physicians, has repeatedly assured me that they did not understand what Dr. Rascher had in mind with such actions, which of course had nothing to do with “experiments”. But even on the assumption that these stories of Dr. Rascher were true—that he had actually killed some concentration camp prisoners in order to “experiment” on them with “polygal”—by what right can Dr. Blome be held responsible for this, a man who knew nothing at all about these crimes of Dr. Rascher? Dr. Blome has been waiting in vain for evidence to be submitted by the prosecution to prove that he (Dr. Blome) had had anything to do with those actions of Dr. Rascher, that he had at least approved or at any rate had some knowledge of them. The document presented by the prosecution proves that Dr. Blome can certainly not be held responsible for the alleged shooting of four concentration camp inmates by Dr. Rascher. (NO-1424 Pros. Ex. 462.) This murder committed by Dr. Rascher, if it was committed at all, happened before August 1943, according to Document NO-1424. It was during this month that the witness Friedrich Karl Rascher found in the writing table of his nephew, Dr. Rascher, the report on the shooting of the four concentration camp inmates. Dr. Blome, however, heard about polygal for the first time only during his second visit to Himmler in August or September 1943; before that time the matter was unknown to him. This statement by Dr. Blome concerning the date is in agreement with the testimony of Sievers of 10 April 1947, according to which the joint visit of Dr. Blome, Sievers, and Rascher to Himmler took place in the autumn of 1943. From this it is evident that the murder of the four concentration camp inmates by Dr. Rascher, if it has really any connection with polygal, happened without doubt at a time when Dr. Blome still had no knowledge of this styptic. Dr. Blome has rightly pointed out that it would have been a completely incomprehensible insanity to kill people only for the purpose of testing a styptic at a time when every day offered an abundance of material for the observation and study of the effect of polygal in the thousands of wounded soldiers and of patients operated on at the front as well as among the civilian population.
In this connection it is, incidentally, quite interesting to learn from the interrogation of the witness Neff that he never saw or observed any such “experiments” by Dr. Rascher. Neither did Dr. Rascher tell Neff anything about them, although Neff held a particularly confidential position with Rascher and otherwise learned much about Rascher and his “experiments”. Even in the camp nothing was said at the time about these alleged “experiments” of Dr. Rascher with polygal, although it could certainly not have been and also did not have to be kept secret in the camp if Rascher had actually shot four concentration camp inmates in order to carry out “experiments” on them with polygal.
These facts justify serious doubts as to whether those “experiments” ever took place at all and especially whether they have anything to do with the hemostatic polygal.
In reality, polygal is an absolutely harmless drug, whether it is injected or taken in tablet form, and the use of such a drug in this form can in no case be considered a criminal experiment against humanity as specified by the indictment before this Tribunal. Even when administered by injection with the subsequent drawing of a few drops of blood from the experimental subject, it is completely harmless. It does not cause any more “pain” than any other injection, and the whole test of this drug consists solely of taking one cc. of blood from the vein of the so-called experimental subject. Thus we are not dealing with any experiment of the kind that could be considered criminal because it causes severe pains or because it is dangerous or for any other reasons.
Besides, the concept of “criminal experiments on human beings” has already been explained at the trial of Field Marshal Milch[[77]] by the verdict of 16 April 1947; this verdict expressly limits the range of such experiments to experiments “which could cause torture or death to the experimental subjects.” Thus one cannot, in the present proceedings, object to those experiments which cannot ordinarily be assumed to cause death to the experimental subject or be accompanied by severe pain. Neither took place when polygal was administered. For either it serves as a hemostatic which can only be of advantage to the patient or, in the reverse case, it simply has no effect. Polygal can never have any harmful consequences, least of all cause any damage to health; nor could this be claimed by the prosecution, for polygal is generally used in surgery nowadays.
And finally, all the persons who submitted to polygal tests were volunteers. Dr. Blome, however, could not prove this here by interrogating the inventor of the drug, Feix, because the prosecution prevented defense counsel from examining Feix by transferring the latter to Dachau, whence he later escaped. The transcript of the interrogation of Feix by the prosecution was not submitted here, even though Feix had told me personally that he could not understand how any blame in connection with polygal could be put on Dr. Blome. But another witness, namely Walter Neff, testified here on the witness stand that the experimental subjects on whom the experiments had been carried out had volunteered, just as he himself had done. Since Neff was produced as witness by the prosecution,[[78]] the latter will hardly want to declare the testimony, sworn to by Neff, to be untrue.
The verdict of 16 April 1947 against Field Marshal Milch quoted above, states explicitly that medical experiments are punishable only when carried out without the consent of the subjects. Furthermore, punishability presumes that the experiments were a “torture” for the experimental subject or jeopardized his life. Both conditions obviously do not apply to polygal. Thus one comes to the conclusion that it would have been better not to mention within the limits of this trial subjects where even the closest observer has to look very carefully to see whether he could not possibly find anything to object to.
This applies especially to the report of the Institute for Military Scientific Research (Department Rascher), on coagulation of blood. (NO-438, Pros. Ex. 240.) In this report, the author, Dr. Rascher, emphasizes the importance of “Polygal 10” for combat troops and in operations and describes five operations where polygal was used with good results. There can be no doubt that those were five bona fide operations which were performed on patients in an entirely legitimate way and which tested polygal’s effectiveness in stopping bleedings in an absolutely proper manner, as it is usually done, with similar drugs. It is inconceivable how a conclusion of illegal “experiments” could have been drawn from that report.
One of these five legitimate operations, by the way, is described in a report by the camp physician Dr. Kahr, dated 12 October 1943 [10 December 1943] (NO-656, Pros. Ex. 247); it does not offer any basis for assuming an “experiment”. In this connection it is worthwhile to note that Dr. Blome himself, in his affidavit of 25 October 1946 (NO-471, Pros. Ex. 238), under section 8 describes the use of polygal in cases of “battle wounds and operations”, but deals with “experiments on human beings” only in the next section, 9. Therefore, Dr. Blome knew from the beginning that polygal had nothing to do with “experiments on human beings”.
d. Evidence
| Prosecution Documents | |||
| Pros. Ex. | |||
| Doc. No. | No. | Description of Document | Page |
| NO-1424 | 462 | Affidavit of Fritz Friedrich Karl Rascher, M. D., 31 December 1946, concerning the life and activities of Dr. Sigmund Rascher. | [676] |
| NO-438 | 240 | Report from the Institute for Military Scientific Research, (Department Dr. Rascher) on “Polygal 10.” | [676] |
| NO-656 | 247 | Memorandum by SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Wolff, 8 May 1944; letters from Dr. Kahr to Rascher, 10 and 16 December 1943. | [680] |
| Testimony | |||
| Page | |||
| Extracts from the testimony of defendant Sievers | [682] | ||
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-1424
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 462
AFFIDAVIT OF FRITZ FRIEDRICH KARL RASCHER, M. D., 31 DECEMBER 1946, CONCERNING THE LIFE AND ACTIVITIES OF DR. SIGMUND RASCHER
AFFIDAVIT
I, Fritz Friedrich Karl Rascher, being duly sworn, depose and state:
1. I was born on 13 August 1888 at Kellmuenz/Schwaben-Neuburg. I am a German citizen. My present civilian address is: Hamburg, Parkallee 78. I attended the following schools: 4 years public school at Augsburg, 4 years St. Anna Gymnasium at Augsburg, 2 years Real-Gymnasium at Augsburg, and 4 years of senior high school at Ravensburg. I graduated from junior college at Ravensburg in 1909. I studied medicine for 5 years at Munich. I passed my state board examination in 1914 at Munich. From 1914 to 1917 I worked as general practitioner. In the autumn of 1917 I was drafted into the armed forces, remained however at first in Hamburg in the home guard reserve and worked at the same time as general practitioner until May 1918. From May 1918 until November 1918 I was a medical officer. Since the end of 1918 until now I have been a general practitioner in Hamburg.
2. I am the uncle of Dr. Sigmund Rascher and have always maintained a pleasant family relationship with my nephew. I also was well acquainted with the wife of Dr. Sigmund Rascher, Nini Rascher nee Diehl. I also maintained contact with Dr. Sigmund Rascher and his wife during the war until the arrest at the end of 1943 or beginning of 1944. For the reasons stated above, I am in the position to make the following statement:
3. While attending the wedding of my nephew in Munich he told me that he had been asked to take over a laboratory in the concentration camp Dachau by order of the Luftwaffe and in connection with the Ahnenerbe. This offer was made to him through the medium of his wife and Himmler. He told me that this would be a big chance to work free and undisturbed. At the same time he saw in it a chance of continuing his experiments on blood crystallization. In these experiments he was supported by a relative of his wife by the name of Fraeulein Lulu, who later committed suicide. At that time I advised my nephew against accepting such a job.
4. In August 1942 I heard from my nephew in Munich that he had taken over the laboratory at Dachau and that he would work there extensively. Knowing the great diligence and the ambition of my nephew I was not surprised that he accepted this job.
At that time I drove with my nephew by car up to the entrance of the concentration camp, but did not enter. The only thing I heard from my nephew at that time was that he had carried out high-altitude tests on himself.
5. In August 1943 I was with my nephew twice in the Dachau concentration camp. The first time I went only to his private quarters and did not see the laboratory. The second time he showed me his laboratory and introduced me to his colleagues. I still remember the following names: Dr. Punzengruber and Dr. Feix. I inspected the chemical exploitation of blood coagulation. At that time he also told me of freezing experiments. He said that he had carried these out on himself at first and then he introduced to me one of his colleagues who had volunteered three times for these experiments. If I remember rightly, Himmler is supposed to have been present at one of these experiments and to have pardoned the man who was condemned to death. During the absence of my nephew, I accidentally found the following document in his desk:
It refers to a report about the shooting (execution) of four people for the purpose of experimenting with the hemostatic preparation “Polygal 10”. As far as I remember they were a Russian Commissar and a cretin, I do not remember who the other two were. The Russian was shot in the right shoulder from above by an SS man who stood on a chair. The bullet emerged near the spleen. It was described how the Russian twitched convulsively, then sat down on a chair and died after about 20 minutes. In the dissection protocol the rupture of the pulmonary vessels and the aorta was described. It was further described that the ruptures were tamponed by hard blood clots. That could have been the only explanation for the comparatively long span of life after the shot. After reading this first protocol I was so shocked that I did not read the others. At the time I took a sample of the hemostatic preparation from the desk which I submit herewith to the files.
6. On the way to Munich after this visit to Dachau, which was my last, I called my nephew to account. He raved when he learned that I knew of this matter. After appealing to his conscience, from the scientific as well as from the humane point of view, he broke down and cried: “I dare not think, I dare not think.” In Munich my nephew and I continued this conversation during the whole night. Dr. Sigmund Rascher admitted at the time that he was on the wrong path but that he didn’t see any possibility of resigning from it.
7. At the end of 1943 or beginning of 1944 I received a letter from my nephew, in which he informed me that he and his wife had been arrested because of illegal adoption (and registration) of a child. This letter was accompanied by a note by Kriminalrat Schmidt from Munich in which he informed me that I should contact him if I knew anything about this matter. I wrote at the time to Munich that I considered this to be impossible because I myself had once seen Frau Rascher in a pregnant state. I am a doctor and examined her myself. That was before the birth of the second child; she was then in the 6th or 7th month of pregnancy. I wish to add that the first son looked very much like his father and also had similar habits.
8. Since this occurrence in 1943 or 1944 I have not heard from either Dr. Sigmund Rascher or his wife. Only in 1946 I learned from various people that my nephew had been shot in Dachau before the arrival of the Americans and that his wife had been hanged at Ravensbrueck or Berlin on orders of Himmler. I also submit to the files three pictures taken during the youth of Dr. Sigmund Rascher. All my nephew’s documents which I had in my possession I burned in 1944 because I was afraid of the Gestapo.
I have read the above affidavit in the German language consisting of 2 pages and declare that it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. I was given the opportunity of making alterations and corrections in the above affidavit. This affidavit was made by me voluntarily, without any promise or reward and I was subjected to no compulsion or duress of any kind.
[Signature] Rascher
Hamburg, 31 December 1946.
PARTIAL TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-438
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 240
REPORT FROM THE INSTITUTE FOR MILITARY SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH, (DEPARTMENT DR. RASCHER) ON “POLYGAL 10”
[Handwritten]
Mue. med. Wo. Schri.
delivered 20 Dec. 1943.
From the Institute for Military Scientific Research (Department Dr.
Rascher) “Polygal 10”, a hemostat to be administered orally
by
Dr. med. S. Rascher, Munich, and Dr. med. H. Haferkamp,
Waltershausen (Thuringia).
A good hemostat has to have the following qualifications:
1. It must be harmless.
2. It must be administered easily (orally).
3. It must not have an unpleasant taste.
4. It must have a deep and long-lasting effect on bleeding and clotting time.
5. After the effect wears off it must be possible to administer another dose without any danger.
Hemostats now on sale commercially meet these demands only partially. No unobjectionable hemostat is known so far which is in tablet form, durable, unimpaired by cold temperatures and therefore easily transportable. But it would be worthwhile to produce such a preparation whose application would have the following important advantages:
1. It could be given prophylactically to the combat troops before an attack and to air crews before action. Too great a loss of blood could be avoided that way when tending to wounds is delayed; similarly it would prevent the wounded from becoming incapacitated by delaying the loss of blood.
2. Before operations in which greater areal bleeding is to be expected, it could be used to keep the operational region clear of interfering bleeding.
3. Persons having a long blood clotting time could benefit inestimably from such a remedy in cases of teeth extractions, etc.
4. In severe cases of lung or stomach hemorrhage which cannot be treated surgically at once, such a remedy could be life saving.
We believe we have such a remedy in “Polygal 10,” a preparation composed and tested in our institute, which does fulfill the above requirements. “Polygal 10” is a drug composed on a “pectin” base; its new method, differentiating it from other hemostats on a pectin base is to be found in the activation of pectin before composing it into the hemostat.
Before we tried the clinical use of the drug and had it probed, it was tested on human beings by thorough experiments as to its influence on the period of clotting and bleeding. The period of clotting was occasionally established in short intervals by 10 parallel definitions of free flowing venous blood according to the method of Buercker. The period of bleeding was measured by a stop watch after a wound at the ear had been inflicted by a “Frankeschen Schnepper.”
On the enclosed graphic chart (not reproduced) the curves of two experimental subjects are displayed (experimental subjects Nos. 200 and 207). The depth of decline and the duration of effect correspond to the average. It is to be mentioned with reference to the curves that various persons were always used for the experiments in order to avoid a possible accumulation of effect by the drug.
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT NO-656
PROSECUTION EXHIBIT 247
MEMORANDUM BY SS OBERSTURMBANNFUEHRER WOLFF, 8 MAY 1944; LETTERS FROM DR. KAHR TO RASCHER, 10 AND 16 DECEMBER 1943
| [Handwritten] | The Preparation of Polygal |
Waischenfeld/Oberfranken 8 May 1944
No. 135 Telephone No. 2
Journal No. Wo/He.
The Reich Leader SS
Personal Staff
Office Ahnenerbe
SUMMARY
SS Hauptsturmfuehrer S. Rascher MD. was assigned the following research tasks by the Reich Research Council:
2. On 23 February 1944 Journal No. Rf 3717/44g Code word: “Polygal.” Research task for the development of production methods for the preparation of the hemostat polygal. Priority SS/44 Wehrmacht order number: SS 4118-0391/44 Rf 2829.
Point 11 as an addition to the task.
Procurement of supplies, etc., has a priority rating SS 4950 (Group I).
[Signature] Wolff
SS Obersturmfuehrer
Copy
Concentration Camp Dachau
The Camp Physician
Dachau, 10 December 1943
Subject: Administering “polygal” after amputation of the thigh of
a 40-year-old male patient.
To: Stabsarzt Dr. Rascher
Dachau
On 10 December 1943 the effectiveness of “polygal” in the case of the amputation of the thigh was tested. The drug was administered per os 45 minutes before the operation and was placed in the patient’s mouth to be dissolved. A blood transfusion of 500 cc. had been made the previous day in preparation for the operation. Blood pressure on the day of the operation was 180/80.
As regards the effectiveness of “polygal” one can say that it was absolutely evident how little the tissues bled. After the first rush of blood from the vessels which had been cut, when completely emptied of blood no more bleeding occurred after this first flow of accumulated blood, so that it was not necessary to apply any ligatures to the surface of the muscles and the fatty tissues, or the subcutaneous tissues, as had always been the case with other amputations. The effectiveness of “polygal” must in this case be described as complete.
By order:
[Signed] Dr. Kahr
SS Obersturmfuehrer
The First Camp Physician, Concentration Camp Dachau
Copy
Concentration Camp Dachau
The Camp Physician
Dachau 16 December 1943
To: SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Rascher
Dachau
“Polygal 10” was used for 2 herniotomies. The patients were men of 35 and 42 years of age, respectively. In both cases the tablets were administered to the patients 40 minutes before the operation. Blood pressure before the operation was 135/80 in the case of the 35-year-old patient and 145/80 in the case of the 42-year-old patient. Both patients tolerated “polygal 10” without complaint, nor were there any unpleasant accompanying symptoms in the stomach.
It is to be said of the operation itself that the loss of blood was conspicuously slight in both cases. As in the case of all preceding operations where “polygal 10” had been administered, it was only necessary in this case, to cut off the bleeding from the vessels. In the first case, that of the 35-year-old patient, stronger bleeding from the subcutaneous tissues occurred after the skin had been cut, which, however, was stopped by mere wiping, so that in this case the application of clips to the subcutaneous tissues was unnecessary. Only after cutting the cremaster was it necessary to apply some ligatures, because then some smaller vessels were pierced. During the further course of the operation, i. e., the separation of the hernial sac from the funiculus spermaticus (it was an indirect inguinal hernia), several spots bled in the beginning, but bleeding came to a standstill at once and the use of ligatures was superfluous.
The same observations were made in the second case, the case of the 42-year-old patient. Hemostasis by application of ligatures was necessary in only a few spots, and this was always in those places where vessels had been injured during the operation. The favorable effect of “polygal 10” in surgical operations consists not only in its causing slight bleeding and preventing great loss of blood, but also in that it makes possible considerably faster operations, because the applications of clips and later ligatures always takes up a certain time, which can be saved by the use of “polygal 10.”
[Signed] Dr. Kahr
SS Obersturmfuehrer
EXTRACTS FROM THE TESTIMONY OF DEFENDANT SIEVERS[[79]]
DIRECT EXAMINATION
Dr. Weisgerber: The prosecution has submitted a single Document, NO-1424, Prosecution Exhibit 462. This is an affidavit of Dr. Fritz Friedrich Karl Rascher, who is an uncle of Dr. Rascher. It becomes evident from this document that Rascher was carrying out fatal experiments on human beings in connection with the development of polygal. Did you know about that at any time?
Defendant Sievers: No, I heard nothing about it. After Rascher’s arrest, however, in 1944, the Police President of Munich, von Eberstein, gave me a rather excited description of this criminal Rascher. He said that Rascher had even shot at a human being in order to test his coagulating drug. A confirmation of this statement could not be obtained at that time. I didn’t believe it at first because so many rumors were flying around about him and his wife after his arrest—one of them was that he removed his collaborator Muschler by murdering her. Rascher, incidentally, succeeded in clearing himself of this suspicion of murder. After everything has become known through this trial—everything that Rascher has on his conscience—I am rather inclined to believe it. Uncle Rascher’s statements also reveal how secret Rascher kept his misdeeds. Only by interfering with his nephew’s desk did Uncle Rascher gain knowledge of whatever he is testifying here. At the same time, he confirms in his statement that his nephew was furious when he found out about his interference.
Q. Concluding these questions, I put to you Pohl’s affidavit which is Document NO-065, Prosecution Exhibit 221. I quote (this is on top of page 3): “Sievers told me the following: Ahnenerbe, of which Sievers was manager, was developing a drug in Dachau, by order of Himmler, which had as its result the quick coagulation of blood. He said that it was very important for fighting units because it prevented their bleeding to death. The experiments in Dachau, during which one inmate was shot at, have proved these results.” Did you tell Pohl anything to that effect?
A. I told Pohl exactly what I had found out from Eberstein. As I already said, the development stage of polygal was already concluded when he received Himmler’s order to take care of the production. If Rascher shot at an inmate in connection with polygal research then this, at any rate, occurred at a time when he had nothing to do with that matter. I only heard of this alleged shooting after Rascher’s arrest, as I have already testified.
Q. Mr. President, in this connection I offer Document Sievers 10 as Sievers Exhibit 8. I beg your pardon, Sievers Exhibit 9. This is an affidavit of Oswald Pohl. The essential points to be found on page one of this document are, and I quote:
“1. My affidavit of 23 July 1946 concerning medical experiments was submitted to me with reference to my statements in paragraph 4, Sievers (Ahnenerbe).
“2. Sievers’ diary of 1944 (3546-PS) was submitted to me with reference to the entry of 15 June 1944, 9 o’clock (page 167):
“SS Obergruppenfuehrer Pohl.
“1. Production of polygal and settlement Felix.”
Paragraphs two to six are not interesting here and I shall skip them. I quote again:
“After having read this entry in the diary, I can remember Sievers’ visit very well and I can state according to the best of my knowledge and conscience:
“When all the relevant points concerning the possibility of producing (installation for manufacture) the blood-stanching remedy ‘polygal’, as well as the other items had been discussed, Sievers told me a few things about the Rascher case before I called in SS Standartenfuehrer Maurer to discuss the employment of scientist prisoners in mathematical calculating problems. He informed me that Rascher and his wife had been arrested for jointly committing child substitution and abduction. Through Rascher’s arrest, several unbelievable things had apparently come to light which were now being investigated. It was also maintained that Rascher was supposed to have fired at a prisoner in order to test the ‘polygal’. Sievers therefore expresses an assumption which he himself had only heard, and not a fact based on his own knowledge.”
And then follows the certification.
[77] United States vs. Erhard Milch. See Vol. II.
[78] Neff was called as witness by the Tribunal.
[79] Complete testimony is recorded in mimeographed transcript, 9, 10, 11, 14 Apr 1947, pp. 5656-5869.