a. Introduction
The position of the German medical profession under the Hitler regime was the subject of argument by both prosecution and defense. The prosecution discussed the matter in the early part of its opening statement (vol. I, p. 29 ff.). Selections from the argumentation of the defense on this point have been taken from the final plea for the defendant Blome and from the closing brief for the defendant Rostock. These appear on pages 86 to 90.
b. Selections from the Argumentation of the Defense
EXTRACT FROM THE FINAL PLEA FOR
DEFENDANT BLOME[[26]]
Furthermore, I have another matter at heart, especially in my capacity as defense counsel for this defendant: Blome was Deputy Reich Physicians’ Leader; he will, therefore, to a certain degree, easily be regarded as the representative of the German medical profession during the Hitler regime. Now, there is great danger that the entire German medical profession will be identified with its former leader, Dr. Conti, and with the crimes he was charged with during this trial; the German medical profession fears that those crimes which, in fact, were committed by individual doctors, who may have been rightly charged, are to be taken as typical of the entire medical profession. Indeed, during the last months we could hear in the press and on the radio that the entire medical profession was here in the prisoners’ dock; unfortunately, by thus generalizing, the matter was presented as though the entire medical profession was corrupt and that the majority of German physicians had committed such crimes or at least approved them, as stated here in the indictment at the trial. This conception is wrong and unjust. The German medical profession numbered about 80,000 members and if we add the Wehrmacht physicians and the official physicians, one arrives at about 100,000 physicians. Now let us compare with this total number the small number of physicians and researchers here in the dock. There are altogether 20 men. Of what importance is such an insignificant number for the judging of the entire profession? If out of 5,000 German physicians one single person committed a crime, it is impossible to draw a conclusion from these few exceptions regarding the behavior and morals of the whole class. And even if we suppose that perhaps another few hundred physicians and researchers not here in the dock had taken part in the “experiments on human beings” and in the “euthanasia action”, the number of guilty persons in comparison with the total number of the entire profession is still too small to entitle one to consider the entire profession as criminal, and morally inferior because some individuals committed a wrong.
There is yet another point of view. It stands to reason that not all experiments on human beings can be excused and justified, not even during a time of total warfare and under a dictatorship, and no decent person would ever think of excusing the way and manner in which the Hitler State carried out the “Euthanasia Program.” However, it is an incontestable fact that large-scale experiments on human beings cannot altogether be avoided and are, in fact, carried out throughout the whole world, and that there are different viewpoints concerning the problem of euthanasia, even to a limited extent in the circles of conscientious physicians when this is carried out on a proper legal basis, and when, in addition, full precautions are taken to prevent abuses. It must not be overlooked that the deterioration of the medical profession claimed in connection with this trial is connected exclusively with the problem of experiments on human beings and with euthanasia, but that no accusations are made against the professional practice of the German physicians in any other respects; there are especially no accusations referring to the relationship between the sick patient and the physician whom he had chosen as a helper and confidant to restore his health. This confidence in the attending physician felt by the patient has remained completely untouched by this trial.
We Germans have our own opinion about our physicians, we know their conscientiousness and willingness to render help; especially during the war we have been able to observe and appreciate their readiness to sacrifice themselves; we know that the good qualities that made the German physicians and researchers a model in former decades were not lost during Hitler’s time, and it would be a pity if the abuses, which have been revealed and proved by this trial, should serve to undermine the confidence of the German people in their physicians and expose them to the contempt of all civilized nations.
Individual researchers, who out of ambition or a passion for research did not value a human being’s life more than that of a rabbit, should not be considered representative of the German physicians’ profession, nor should those physicians of the concentration camps, who for lack of a conscience or for some other wicked reason gave fatal injections to prisoners or tortured them to death, be regarded as representative of the German medical profession. No. Representative of a model German physician during Hitler’s time, too, is the non-political, practicing physician, who, even if he did perhaps formally belong to the Party, strongly opposed from the bottom of his heart all kinds of violence and intolerance, who is closely bound to his nation and its needs, the practicing physician who cared for his patients in the most devoted manner day after day and night after night during the time of total war and fearful bombardments, which is especially hard for a physician; or who as military physician served at the front far from home, from his practice, from his family, fairly sharing all the hardships, dangers, and privations with his soldiers. And the surgeon who, as director of his clinic, operated and cured and helped from morning till night wherever he could help without having time to breathe, let alone to take part in political activity, he also is representative of the model German physician during Hitler’s time too.
I do not know what verdict you will arrive at respecting one or the other of these defendants; but, as defense counsel of the former Deputy Reich Physicians’ Leader, I beg you to make it clear by your verdict that in judging the defendant, if you must condemn him, you do not condemn and defame the entire German medical profession, but that the abuses which were committed were individual acts such as, perhaps, happened in all professions during Hitler’s time without necessitating a condemnation of the entire profession. These were individual acts arising perhaps partly from personal criminal tendencies of individual fanatics, partly from being connected with the excesses of a total war in a dictatorship of unscrupulous violence.
If beside the 23 defendants there is a 24th sitting in the dock, invisible to our eye, he is not of the German medical profession but the SS spirit of Himmler and of a dozen other murderers of millions of people. This spirit might have led a fanatic to forget his professional ethics and to commit crimes. But the entire medical profession remained sound and conscious of its duty.
May your verdict not completely rob the German people of their confidence in their physicians but restore it to them, and I have no doubt that after the present crisis has been overcome and in more normal circumstances, the German medical profession will prove to its people that as a body it never forgot nor will ever forget the professional ethical commandments of the Hippocratic oath.
EXTRACT FROM THE CLOSING BRIEF FOR
DEFENDANT ROSTOCK
Introduction
Mr. President, your Honors:
The great English historian and sociologist, Thomas Carlyle, once said, “Your life, and were you the humblest of human beings, is not a wild dream but a lofty fact.” I do not want to speak to you in this courtroom without first recalling this saying and thereby seeing before my eyes the picture of the great number of our fellow human beings whose lives have really become a wild dream. The fact on which this trial is based, that defenseless human beings were used by doctors of my country for experiments and in part died after suffering tortures, cannot be denied. I, myself, would doubt the clarity of my judgment as a German jurist if I did not realize that general human rights, such as the fundamental standards anchored in all civilized nations, have been violated thereby. Medical science should bring help and healing to suffering humanity. I am proud to state that it was German doctors who, in the last century, saved millions of human beings from the most serious and fatal diseases by their research. Let me remind you only of names such as Robert Koch, Emil von Behring, Paul Ehrlich, Theodor Billroth, and August Bier, or medicines such as Germanin, atabrine, Salvarsan, diphtheria serum, tetanus serum, and many others. If it were possible to achieve such decisive results in any other way, this would only confirm the actual truth, that no one, no matter how highly placed and no matter how important his aims, has the right to lower other human beings to the level of guinea pigs by force. How could a man venture to dispose in that way of the life and health of his fellow men, be they ever so humble? It seems to me that this involves a fundamental contradiction to the duty of the doctor, a violation of the dignity of the individual, and a presumption which cannot remain without horrible results. There may be doubtful cases, there may be borderline cases, but the solution of these questions can be based on only one principle, which is that all creatures in human form have an equal right to life and health. Humanity would be in a sad state if again and again there were not volunteers from the ranks of physicians and laymen who made themselves available for experiments, conscious of their contribution toward saving and healing other human beings. But how can a man dare simply to designate others to suffer and die, when they, too, like to live and be free from want and fear, just like he himself? * * *