It is also interesting that Rascher still mentions the partial assistance of Dr. Romberg in his first report (of 5 April 1942) (1971-A-PS, Pros. Ex. 49) but does not say anything more in the final second report (of 11 May 1942), (NO-220, Pros. Ex. 61) where he described the affair as though he alone had carried, out the experiments. Compare page 81, line 21: “Experiments carried out by myself”; or page 79, lines 15-16: “My heart experiments * * * that a very big sphere of work opened up for me,” etc. By that Rascher has clearly expressed that he did not have any assistance from Dr. Romberg in the experiments he thought particularly valuable, when he explains as particularly valuable his heart experiments and his observations concerning air embolism. Those were all experiments in which Ruff and Romberg had not the least interest, in which they never participated, and for which they would never have risked the health and the life of an experimental subject.
Even specialists like Dr. Ruff and Dr. Romberg could never understand the scientific or other aim which Rascher had in mind in the case of those arbitrary experiments with fatal endings. Even the layman can easily recognize the basic difference between the two categories of experiments. The legal experiments which had been authorized by Dr. Ruff were always restricted to a very short period of a few moments; but the fatal experiments of Dr. Rascher were, as he emphasized himself, continuous experiments without oxygen, therefore experiments lasting over 30 minutes. It is easily understandable that experiments of such a length without the administration of oxygen may be fatal. To prove this it would not have been necessary to sacrifice even one single human life in these experiments. Serious research workers like Dr. Ruff and Dr. Romberg had therefore never carried out and never authorized such experiments. That was also well known to Rascher, and this explains the fact as stated by Neff (German Tr. pp. 668, 670, 671) that Rascher kept Dr. Romberg intentionally away from his arbitrary experiments; furthermore that he even carried out his experiments at night to keep them secret from Dr. Romberg, and that he also did not ask Romberg to sign his intermediary report of 5 April 1942, nor his summarizing secret report of 11 May 1942, which Romberg would surely have refused to do.
It would therefore be quite wrong to attribute to Dr. Ruff and Dr. Romberg the intention of wanting to suppress something in their final report of 28 July 1942. (NO-402, Pros. Ex. 66.) For it is a proven fact that not only Himmler was informed by Rascher of the cases of death which had occurred, but that Dr. Ruff had also reported the cases of death for which Dr. Rascher was guilty, to his supreme superior, the Inspector of the Medical Service [of the air force], Dr. Hippke. For this same reason he had caused the low-pressure chamber to be removed from Dachau and had asked the witness, Dr. Hippke, to consent to this. These proven facts show that Dr. Ruff did not conceal anything and had nothing to conceal. The fact that the cases of death were not mentioned in the final report of 28 July 1942 has therefore nothing to do with any concealment but is only due to the fact that those experiments which had fatal results had nothing whatsoever to do with the experiments of Dr. Ruff and Dr. Romberg and their problem.
For the same reasons it is not surprising at all that Dr. Ruff did not inform Dr. Weltz of the fatal accidents during the special experiments of Rascher. Weltz was neither Ruff’s superior nor his subordinate, and at the time when Dr. Ruff learned of the deaths which had occurred during Rascher’s experiments, Dr. Rascher had already been transferred from the Weltz Institute.
The defense, therefore, arrives at the following conclusion:
Dr. Ruff only did what his superiors ordered him to do. If they have failed, they should be taken to account.
Dr. Ruff had no doubts concerning the orders of his superiors for his assignment was urgently necessary in the interest of his country, engaged in the most difficult war, and of its aviation. If Dr. Ruff at the time had been able to read all the international literature about medical experiments on human beings he would have learned that experiments much more exacting and much more dangerous than those with which he was familiar—which he knew and planned—were being conducted everywhere, also on prisoners; and perhaps they are still being conducted without the competent authorities or medical societies declaring them impermissible and intervening against them. Over many years, Dr. Ruff proved himself to be a particularly conscientious and considerate man of research who devoted his entire activity primarily to save endangered human lives. Neither can he be blamed for having collaborated for a short time with Dr. Rascher. He (Rascher) had been assigned to him as associate by his highest superiors; he had to rely upon that. If they ordered him to work together with a man who, later on, turned out to be a criminal, no liability can be charged to Dr. Ruff. When Dr. Ruff saw through his colleague who was forced upon him and realized his criminal activities, he immediately cut off all relations to him on his own initiative, avoided any further collaboration with him, and thus probably prevented much further disaster.
Field Marshal Milch was acquitted as far as the Dachau altitude tests are concerned.[[21]] Medical Inspector Dr. Hippke was not indicted at all. Under these circumstances justice demands that Dr. Ruff be acquitted.