SIEVERS
The defendant Sievers is charged under counts two and three of the indictment with special responsibility for, and participation in, High-Altitude, Freezing, Malaria, Lost Gas, Sea-Water, Epidemic Jaundice, and Typhus Experiments, and with extermination of Jews to complete a skeleton collection. Under count four of the indictment, he is charged with being a member of an organization declared criminal by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal, namely, the SS.
The prosecution has abandoned the charge of participation in the Epidemic Jaundice experiments, and hence, this charge will not be considered further.
Sievers is one of the three defendants who are not physicians. He joined the NSDAP in 1929 and renewed his membership in the Nazi Party in 1933. He joined the SS at the end of 1935 on the suggestion of Himmler. In this organization he attained the rank of a Standartenfuehrer (colonel).
From 1 July 1935 until the war ended, Sievers was a member of Himmler’s personal staff and Reich Business Manager of the Ahnenerbe Society. According to a statute of 1 January 1939, the purpose of the Ahnenerbe was to support scientific research concerning the culture and heritage of the Nordic race. The Board of Directors was composed of Himmler as president, Dr. Wuest as curator, and Sievers as the business manager. Sievers was responsible for the business organization administration and the budget of the Ahnenerbe. The place of business was Berlin. Sievers supported and participated in the medical experiments which are the subject of the indictment, primarily through the Institute of Military Scientific Research which was established by order of Himmler dated 7 July 1942 and was administratively attached to the Ahnenerbe.
On 1 January 1942 Himmler ordered the establishment of an entomological institute; in March 1942 the Institute Dr. Rascher in Dachau; and in the first month of the year 1942, the Institute Dr. Hirt, at Strasbourg. These subsequently became part of the Institute for Military Scientific Research.
Sievers was, for all practical purposes, the acting head of the Ahnenerbe. In this capacity he was subordinated to Himmler and regularly reported to him on the affairs of this Society. The top secret correspondence of Himmler concerning the Ahnenerbe was sent to Sievers. The charter of the Ahnenerbe defines Sievers’ duties as follows:
“The Reich Business Manager handles the business affairs of the community; he is in charge of the business organization and administration. He is responsible for the drawing up of the budget and for the administration of the treasury.”
Sievers was responsible for the entire administrative problems of the secretary’s office, bookkeeping and treasury. Besides that he also had to manage the Ahnenerbe publishing house. In June 1943 Professor Dr. Mentzel, who among other things was Chief of the Business Managing Advisory Council of the Reich Research Council, appointed Sievers as his deputy. By this act Sievers did not become a member of the Reich Research Council but held only an honorary position.
In a letter to the defendant Rudolf Brandt, dated 28 January 1943, Sievers defines his position as Reich Business Manager of the Ahnenerbe as follows:
“My duty merely consists in smoothing the way for the research men and seeing that the tasks ordered by the Reichsfuehrer SS are carried out in the quickest possible way. On one thing I certainly can form an opinion; that is, on who is doing the quickest job.”
Sievers received orders directly from Himmler on matters of research assignments for the Ahnenerbe and he reported directly to Himmler on such experiments. Sievers devoted his efforts to obtaining the funds, materials, and equipment needed by the research workers. The materials obtained by Sievers included concentration camp inmates to be used as experimental subjects. When the experiments were under way, Sievers made certain that they were being performed in a satisfactory manner. In this connection, Sievers necessarily exercised his own independent judgment and had to familiarize himself with the details of such assignments.
HIGH-ALTITUDE EXPERIMENTS
The details of these experiments are discussed in other portions of this judgment. Sievers’ activities in the high-altitude experiments are revealed clearly by the evidence. Rascher, in a letter to Himmler dated 5 April 1942, states as follows:
“SS Obersturmbannfuehrer Sievers took a whole day off to watch some of the interesting standard experiments and may have given you a brief report * * * I am very much indebted to Obersturmbannfuehrer Sievers as he has shown a very active interest in my work in every respect.”
Sievers admitted that he reported to Himmler about his visit to Dachau. On the basis of the reports of Sievers and Rascher, Himmler authorized Rascher to continue the high-altitude experiments in Dachau, in the course of which the evidence shows that 180 to 200 inmates were experimented upon; that 70 to 80 of them died. Rascher became associated with the Ahnenerbe in March 1942, and during the entire time covered by the period of the high-altitude experiments, Rascher was attached to the Ahnenerbe and performed the high-altitude experiments with its assistance. On 20 July 1942, when the final report on high-altitude experiments was submitted to Himmler, Rascher’s name appeared on the letterhead of the Ahnenerbe Institute for Military Scientific Research as shown by the cover letter, and the inclosed report bore the statement that the experiments had been carried out in conjunction with the research and instruction association “Das Ahnenerbe”. Sievers had actual knowledge of the criminal aspects of the Rascher experiments. He was notified that Dachau inmates were to be used. He himself inspected the experiments. Sievers admitted that Rascher told him that several died as a result of the high-altitude experiments.
Under these facts Sievers is specially chargeable with the criminal aspects of these experiments.
FREEZING EXPERIMENTS
Before the high-altitude experiments had actually been completed, freezing experiments were ordered to be performed at Dachau. They were conducted from August 1942 to the early part of 1943 by Holzloehner, Finke and Rascher, all of whom were officers in the Medical Services of the Luftwaffe. Details of the freezing experiments have been given elsewhere in this judgment.
In May 1943 Rascher was transferred to the Waffen SS and then proceeded alone to conduct freezing experiments in Dachau until May 1945. Rascher advised the defendant Rudolf Brandt that Poles and Russians had been used as subjects.
The witness Neff testified that the defendant Sievers visited the experimental station quite frequently during the freezing experiments. He testified further that in September 1942 he received orders to take the hearts and lungs of 5 experimental subjects killed in the experiments to Professor Hirt in Strasbourg for further scientific study; that the travel warrant for the trip was made out by Sievers; and that the Ahnenerbe Society paid the expenses for the transfer of the bodies. One of the 5 experimental subjects killed was a Dutch citizen.
Neff’s testimony is corroborated in large part by the affidavits of the defendants Rudolf Brandt and Becker-Freyseng, by the testimony of the witnesses Lutz, Michalowsky and Vieweg, and by the documentary evidence in the record. In the Sievers’ diary, there are numerous instances of Sievers’ activities in the aid of Rascher. On 1 February 1943 Sievers noted efforts in obtaining apparatus, implements and chemicals for Rascher’s experiments. On 6 and 21 January 1944 Sievers noted the problem of location. Rascher reported to Sievers periodically concerning the status and details of the freezing experiments.
It is plain from the record that the relationship of Sievers and Rascher in the performance of freezing experiments required Sievers to make the preliminary arrangements for the performance of the experiments to familiarize himself with the progress of the experiments by personal inspection, to furnish necessary equipment and material, including human beings used during the freezing experiments, to receive and make progress reports concerning Rascher, and to handle the matter of evaluation and publication of such reports. Basically, such activities constituted a performance of his duties as defined by Sievers in his letter of 28 January 1943 to Rudolf Brandt, in which he stated that he smoothed the way for research workers and saw to it that Himmler’s orders were carried out.
Under these facts Sievers is chargeable with the criminal activities in these experiments.
MALARIA EXPERIMENTS
Details of these experiments are given elsewhere in this judgment. These experiments were performed at Dachau by Schilling and Ploetner. The evidence shows that Sievers had knowledge of the nature and purpose of these criminal enterprises and supported them in his official position.
LOST GAS EXPERIMENTS
These experiments were conducted in the Natzweiler concentration camp under the supervision of Professor Hirt of the University of Strasbourg. The Ahnenerbe Society and the defendant Sievers supported this research on behalf of the SS. The arrangement for the payment of the research subsidies of the Ahnenerbe was made by Sievers. The defendant Sievers participated in these experiments by actively collaborating with the defendants Karl Brandt and Rudolf Brandt and with Hirt and his principal assistant, Dr. Wimmer. The record shows that Sievers was in correspondence with Hirt at least as early as January 1942, and that he established contact between Himmler and Hirt.
In a letter of 11 September 1942 to Gluecks, Sievers wrote that the necessary conditions existed in Natzweiler “for carrying out our military scientific research work”. He requested that Gluecks issue the necessary authorization for Hirt, Wimmer, and Kieselbach to enter Natzweiler, and that provision be made for their board and accommodations. The letter also stated:
“The experiments which are to be performed on prisoners are to be carried out in four rooms of an already existing medical barrack. Only slight changes in the construction of the building are required, in particular the installation of the hood which can be produced with very little material. In accordance with attached plan of the construction management at Natzweiler, I request that necessary orders be issued to same to carry out the reconstruction. All the expenses arising out of our activity at Natzweiler will be covered by this office.”
In a memorandum of 3 November 1942 to the defendant Rudolf Brandt, Sievers complained about certain difficulties which had arisen in Natzweiler because of the lack of cooperation from the camp officials. He seemed particularly outraged by the fact that the camp officials were asking that the experimental prisoners be paid for. A portion of the memorandum follows:
“When I think of our military research work conducted at the concentration camp Dachau, I must praise and call special attention to the generous and understanding way in which our work was furthered there and to the cooperation we were given. Payment of prisoners was never discussed. It seems as if at Natzweiler they are trying to make as much money as possible out of this matter. We are not conducting these experiments, as a matter of fact, for the sake of some fixed scientific idea, but to be of practical help to the armed forces and beyond that, to the German people in a possible emergency.”
Brandt was requested to give his help in a comradely fashion in setting up the necessary conditions at Natzweiler. The defendant Rudolf Brandt replied to this memorandum on 3 December 1942 and told Sievers that he had had occasion to speak to Pohl concerning these difficulties, and that they would be remedied.
The testimony of the witness Holl was that approximately 220 inmates of Russian, Polish, Czech, and German nationality were experimented upon by Hirt and his collaborators, and that approximately 50 died. None of the experimental subjects volunteered. During the entire period of these experiments, Hirt was associated with the Ahnenerbe Society.
In early 1944 Hirt and Wimmer summarized their findings from the Lost experiments in a report entitled “Proposed Treatment of Poisoning Caused by Lost.” The report was described as from the Institute for Military Scientific Research, Department H of the Ahnenerbe, located at the Strasbourg Anatomical Institute. Light, medium, and heavy injuries due to Lost gas are mentioned. Sievers received several copies of this report. On 31 March 1944, after Karl Brandt had received a Fuehrer Decree giving him broad powers in the field of chemical-warfare, Sievers informed Brandt about Hirt’s work and gave him a copy of the report. This is proved by Sievers’ letter to Rudolf Brandt on 11 April 1944. Karl Brandt admitted that the wording of the report made it clear that experiments had been conducted on human beings.
Sievers testified that on 25 January 1943, he went to Natzweiler concentration camp and consulted with the camp authorities concerning the arrangements to be made for Hirt’s Lost experiments. These arrangements included the obtaining of laboratories and experimental subjects. Sievers testified that the Lost experiments were harmful. On the visit of 25 January 1943, Sievers saw ten persons who had been subjected to Lost experiments and watched Hirt change the bandages on one of the persons. Sievers testified that in March 1943 he asked Hirt whether any of the experimental subjects had suffered harm from the experiments and was told by Hirt that two of the experimental subjects had died due to other causes.
It is evident that Sievers was criminally connected with these experiments.
SEA-WATER EXPERIMENTS
These experiments were conducted at Dachau from July through September 1944. Details of these experiments are explained elsewhere in the judgment.
The function of the Ahnenerbe in the performance of sea-water experiments conducted at Dachau from July through September 1944 was chiefly in connection with the furnishing of space and equipment for the experiments. Sievers made these necessary arrangements on behalf of the Ahnenerbe. As a result of Schroeder’s request to Himmler through Grawitz for permission to perform the sea-water experiments on inmates in Dachau, Himmler directed on 8 July 1944 that the experiments be made on gypsies and three other persons with other racial qualities as control subjects. Sievers was advised by Himmler’s office of the above authorization for experiments at the Rascher station at Dachau.
On 27 June 1944, Rascher was replaced by Ploetner as head of the Ahnenerbe Institute for Military Scientific Research at Dachau. Sievers, on 20 July, went to Dachau and conferred with Ploetner of the Ahnenerbe Institute and the defendant Beiglboeck, who was to perform the experiments, concerning the execution of the sea-water experiments and the availability of working space for them. Sievers agreed to supply working space in Ploetner’s department and at the Ahnenerbe Entomological Institute.
On 26 July 1944, Sievers made a written report to Grawitz concerning details of his conference at Dachau. Sievers wrote that 40 experimental persons could be accommodated at “our” research station, that the Ahnenerbe would supply a laboratory, and that Dr. Ploetner would give his assistance, help, and advice to the Luftwaffe physicians performing the experiments. Sievers also stated the number and assignment of the personnel to be employed, estimating that the work would cover a period of three weeks and designated 23 July 1944 as the date of commencement, provided that experimental persons were available and the camp commander had received the necessary order from Himmler. In conclusion, Sievers expressed his hope that the arrangements which he had made would permit a successful conduct of the experiments and requested that acknowledgment be made to Himmler as a participant in the experiments.
In his testimony Sievers admitted that he had written the above letter and had conferred with Beiglboeck at Dachau. As the letter indicates, Sievers knew that concentration camp inmates were to be used.
Sievers had knowledge of and criminally participated in sea-water experiments.
TYPHUS EXPERIMENTS
Detailed description of these experiments is contained elsewhere in this judgment. Sievers participated in the criminal typhus experiments conducted by Haagen on concentration camp inmates at Natzweiler by making the necessary arrangements in connection with securing experimental subjects, handling administrative problems incident to the experiments, and by furnishing the Ahnenerbe station with its equipment in Natzweiler for their performance.
On 16 August 1943, when Haagen was preparing to transfer his typhus experiments from Schirmeck to Natzweiler, he requested Sievers to make available a hundred concentration camp inmates for his research. This is seen from a letter of 30 September 1943 from Sievers to Haagen in which he states that he will be glad to assist, and that he is accordingly contacting the proper source to have the “desired personnel” placed at Haagen’s disposal. As a result of Sievers’ efforts, a hundred inmates were shipped from Auschwitz to Natzweiler for Haagen’s experiments. These were found to be unfit for experimentation because of their pitiful physical condition. A second group of one hundred was then made available. Some of these were used by Haagen as experimental subjects.
That the experiments were carried out in the Ahnenerbe experimental station in Natzweiler is proved by excerpts from monthly reports of the camp doctor in Natzweiler. A number of deaths occurred among non-German experimental subjects as a direct result of the treatment to which they were subjected.
POLYGAL EXPERIMENTS
Evidence has been introduced during the course of the trial to show that experiments to test the efficacy of a blood coagulant “polygal” were conducted on Dachau inmates by Rascher. The Sievers’ diary shows that the defendant had knowledge of activities concerning the production of polygal, and that he lent his support to the conduct of the experiments.
JEWISH SKELETON COLLECTION
Sievers is charged under the indictment with participation in the killing of 112 Jews who were selected to complete a skeleton collection for the Reich University of Strasbourg.
Responding to a request by the defendant Rudolf Brandt, Sievers submitted to him on 9 February 1942 a report by Dr. Hirt of the University of Strasbourg on the desirability of securing a Jewish skeleton collection. In this report, Hirt advocated outright murder of “Jewish Bolshevik Commissars” for the procurement of such a collection. On 27 February 1942, Rudolf Brandt informed Sievers that Himmler would support Hirt’s work and would place everything necessary at his disposal. Brandt asked Sievers to inform Hirt accordingly and to report again on the subject. On 2 November 1942 Sievers requested Brandt to make the necessary arrangements with the Reich Main Security Office for providing 150 Jewish inmates from Auschwitz to carry out this plan. On 6 November, Brandt informed Adolf Eichmann, the Chief of Office IV B/4 (Jewish Affairs) of the Reich Main Security Office to put everything at Hirt’s disposal which was necessary for the completion of the skeleton collection.
From Sievers’ letter to Eichmann of 21 June 1943, it is apparent that SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Beger, a collaborator of the Ahnenerbe Society, carried out the preliminary work for the assembling of the skeleton collection in the Auschwitz concentration camp on 79 Jews, 30 Jewesses, 2 Poles, and 4 Asiatics. The corpses of the victims were sent in three shipments to the Anatomical Institute of Hirt in the Strasbourg University.
When the Allied Armies were threatening to overrun Strasbourg early in September 1944, Sievers dispatched to Rudolf Brandt the following teletype message:
“Subject: Collection of Jewish Skeletons.
“In conformity with the proposal of 9 February 1942 and with the consent of 23 February 1942 * * * SS Sturmbannfuehrer Professor Hirt planned the hitherto missing collection of skeletons. Due to the extent of the scientific work connected herewith, the preparation of the skeletons is not yet concluded. Hirt asks with respect to the time needed for 80 specimens, and in case the endangering of Strasbourg has to be reckoned with, how to proceed with the collection situated in the dissecting room of the anatomical institute. He is able to carry out the maceration and thus render them irrecognizable. Then, however, part of the entire work would have been partly done in vain, and it would be a great scientific loss for this unique collection, because hominit casts could not be made afterwards. The skeleton collection as such is not conspicuous. Viscera could be declared as remnants of corpses, apparently left in the anatomical institute by the French and ordered to be cremated. Decision on the following proposals is requested:
“1. Collection can be preserved.
“2. Collection is to be partly dissolved.
“3. Entire collection is to be dissolved.
“Sievers”
The pictures of the corpses and the dissecting rooms of the Institute, taken by the French authorities after the liberation of Strasbourg, point up the grim story of these deliberate murders to which Sievers was a party.
Sievers knew from the first moment he received Hirt’s report of 9 February 1942 that mass murder was planned for the procurement of the skeleton collection. Nevertheless he actively collaborated in the project, sent an employee of the Ahnenerbe to make the preparatory selections in the concentration camp at Auschwitz, and provided for the transfer of the victims from Auschwitz to Natzweiler. He made arrangements that the collection be destroyed.
Sievers’ guilt under this specification is shown without question.
Sievers offers two purported defenses to the charges against him (1) that he acted pursuant to superior orders; (2) that he was a member of a resistance movement.
The first defense is wholly without merit. There is nothing to show that in the commission of these ghastly crimes, Sievers acted entirely pursuant to orders. True, the basic policies or projects which he carried through were decided upon by his superiors, but in the execution of the details Sievers had an unlimited power of discretion. The defendant says that in his position he could not have refused an assignment. The fact remains that the record shows the case of several men who did, and who have lived to tell about it.
Sievers’ second matter of defense is equally untenable. In support of the defense, Sievers offered evidence by which he hoped to prove that as early as 1933 he became a member of a secret resistance movement which plotted to overthrow the Nazi Government and to assassinate Hitler and Himmler; that as a leading member of the group, Sievers obtained the appointment as Reich Business Manager of the Ahnenerbe so that he could be close to Himmler and observe his movements; that in this position he became enmeshed in the revolting crimes, the subject matter of this indictment; that he remained as business manager upon advice of his resistance leader to gain vital information which would hasten the day of the overthrow of the Nazi Government and the liberation of the helpless peoples coming under its domination.
Assuming all these things to be true, we cannot see how they may be used as a defense for Sievers. The fact remains that murders were committed with cooperation of the Ahnenerbe upon countless thousands of wretched concentration camp inmates who had not the slightest means of resistance. Sievers directed the program by which these murders were committed.
It certainly is not the law that a resistance worker can commit no crime, and least of all, against the very people he is supposed to be protecting.
MEMBERSHIP IN A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION
Under count four of the indictment, Wolfram Sievers is charged with being a member of an organization declared criminal by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal, namely, the SS. The evidence shows that Wolfram Sievers became a member of the SS in 1935 and remained a member of that organization to the end of the war. As a member of the SS he was criminally implicated in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, as charged under counts two and three of the indictment.
CONCLUSION
Military Tribunal I finds and adjudges the defendant Wolfram Sievers guilty under counts two, three and four of the indictment.