During his direct examination on 13 December 1946 the witness Vieweg mentioned a series of various experiments which were performed at the Dachau concentration camp. Referring in particular to the high-altitude experiments there, which alone can be considered in the indictment against Dr. Ruff, he states firstly that high-altitude experiments with the low-pressure chamber were performed on 10 patients; “for these experiments frequently patients and also male nurses were used who during the experiments were seen in the corridor of the adjacent hospital ward.”
By this Vieweg apparently wanted to point out that these “patients” and “also the nurses” were not volunteers. These 10 “official experimental subjects” had been well fed and supplied with smokes, but in addition to these 10 so-called “exhibition patients”, a large number of people had been selected from the camp who were again and again sent to the high-altitude experiment institute. That happened to a block leader who probably had pneumonia a few hours later and ended in the sick bay mortuary. The same happened in the malaria department of the witness Vieweg. One day a patient who had some differences with Zill, the leader of the camp, concerning protective custody, was sent to the experimental institute, and he (Vieweg) found him in the mortuary the next day. He (Vieweg) knows by hearsay that, “a great number of patients who took part in these experiments died, and ended up in the sick bay mortuary.” (German Tr. p. 476.)
Between the lines of this rather obscure and vague statement one may read that, according to Vieweg’s statement, these further experimental subjects, and especially those who had died during the experiments, did not belong to the 10 “official experimental subjects” and had not been volunteers. However, in the direct examination by the prosecution the witness Vieweg did not express himself explicitly about this alleged compulsion of the so-called experimental subjects.
During the cross-examination by the defense counsel of Dr. Romberg, the witness Vieweg explained his expression, the “10 exhibition patients”. (German Tr. p. 485.) The 10 selected patients who were used for the high-altitude tests had been accommodated in a special room and had been well nourished; they had been exhibited, and they had been presented to Himmler during one of his visits. Himmler made them big promises; if they survived, they would be set free * * * these 10 patients had been drawn into the experiments * * * they had told him (Vieweg) that they were very exhausted by the whole affair, but as far as he could remember “they all survived” (German Tr. pp. 486, 489). On being questioned the witness Vieweg repeatedly stated (German Tr. pp. 486, 487, 489), that as far as he could remember Dr. Rascher had carried out the experiments himself. The only thing Vieweg could state about participation of “Luftwaffe officers” in these high-altitude experiments, was that some Luftwaffe officers “had also been there”. But he could not say anything about the actual participation of the Luftwaffe officers. From the description on page 501 (German Transcript) these two gentlemen of the Luftwaffe certainly were not identical with Buff and Romberg. He himself (Vieweg) had only talked with these 10 official experimental subjects, the so-called “exhibition patients”, but not with any of the other experimental subjects. He himself had never observed that these other prisoners were used for high-altitude tests, but he had been told about it frequently. Vieweg repeatedly stated that the 10 official experimental subjects had still been alive at the end of the experiments (German Tr. p. 489), that no deaths had occurred among them.
So much for the statement of the witness Vieweg. It is, of course, unreliable because it does not establish a clear distinction between the high-altitude experiments authorized by Ruff and carried out with the cooperation of Dr. Romberg, and other experiments in the low-pressure chamber which Rascher undertook by order of Himmler, without the authorization or previous knowledge of Dr. Ruff and without the cooperation of Dr. Romberg. This distinction, which is of decisive importance in judging this case, only appears in Vieweg’s statement insofar as the 10 official experimental subjects (the so-called “exhibition patients”) were exclusively used for the first experiments (Ruff-Romberg-Rascher), whereas other prisoners were used for the other experiments (by Rascher alone). Of course, the significance of this distinction was not clear to Vieweg at that time and could not be observed by him because Vieweg did not know anything at all about Dr. Ruff’s activity and since he did not know anything at all about the agreements which had been reached between Dr. Ruff and Dr. Rascher.
Apart from these obscurities one has to regard the statement of the witness Vieweg with the greatest reserve for another reason. Vieweg is the witness who, with unusual unscrupulousness, committed plain perjury in the sessions of 13 and 16 December 1946. He tried first (German Tr. p. 474) to give the impression that he had been sent to the concentration camp without any reason, that he had been committed for “political protective security”. This representation of the witness Vieweg is completely in accordance with his previous behavior, because formerly he had generally pretended to be politically persecuted—an innocent man who had been thrown into a concentration camp without ever having learned the reason. Under this false pretense he offered himself as witness for this trial, and because of this misrepresentation he was presented as a witness by the prosecution whom he had deceived. However, during cross-examination, Vieweg had to admit that in 1934 he was sentenced to 4 and to 6 years’ penal servitude for forgery of documents and fraud, that is to say for common crimes which, as a rule, have nothing to do with politics. On repeated questioning the witness Vieweg stated again and again (German Tr. pp. 483 ff.) that he could not remember having received any other previous conviction in addition to those 4 and 6 years’ penal servitude. He insisted on this statement, even though he had been repeatedly reminded that he was under oath. His stereotype phrase was, he could not remember; he even emphasized that he had deposed to this or that under oath (German Tr. p. 484), and he continued to insist on his statement, even though he was told that his previous convictions could be determined without difficulty since his files had been sent for.
Now, let us compare the testimony given under oath with the list of convictions of the witness Vieweg, which was submitted as Document Ruff 24.
Besides the 4 and 6 years of penal servitude which he admitted, the witness Vieweg received in reality not less than 6 prison terms prior to 1934, among them 5 years’ penal servitude and 5 years’ loss of civil rights for repeated grave thefts.
This extract from the penal register shows why the witness Vieweg had such a “bad memory”. He never was politically persecuted, as he pretended to be, but he is the type of incorrigible professional criminal who could not be changed or educated even by the most severe penalty. If anybody deserved to be sent to a concentration camp it was this Vieweg. But even the 5 years he spent in the concentration camp did not help. For now he is again in prison, in Bamberg, where charges were brought against him on 5 March 1947 at the District Court for forgery of documents and fraud, as well as for five cases of repeated theft, for attempted abortion, for active bribery, and for black market dealings.
This incorrigible professional criminal allowed himself to be presented here as a star witness for the prosecution against an honorable, blameless citizen, as which Dr. Ruff emerged in the course of this trial. Can the Court base its verdict on the statements of a person like Vieweg, who on top of everything shamelessly lied to the Tribunal and committed the worst possible perjury.