Dr. S. Rascher
SS Hauptsturmfuehrer
Munich, 17 February 1943
To the Reich Leader SS and Chief of the German Police Heinrich Himmler
Berlin SW 11, Prinz Albrecht Str. 8
Dear Reich Leader,
Enclosed I present to you in condensed form a summary of the results of the experiments made in warming up people who have been cooled off by using animal heat.
Right now I am attempting to prove through experiments on human beings that it is possible to warm up people cooled off by dry cold just as fast as people who were cooled off by remaining in cold water. The Reich Physician SS, SS Gruppenfuehrer Dr. Grawitz, doubted very much that that would be possible and said that I would have to prove it first by 100 experiments. Up to now I have cooled off about 30 people stripped in the open air during 9-14 hours at 27°-29°. After a time corresponding to a transport of 1 hour, I put these subjects in a hot bath. Up to now every single patient was completely warmed up within 1 hour at most, though some of them had their hands and feet frozen white. In some cases a slight fatigue with slightly rising temperature was observed on the day following the experiments. I have not observed any fatal results from this extremely fast warming up. I have not so far been able to do any warming up by “Sauna” as ordered by you, my dear Reich Leader, as the weather in December and January was too warm for any experiments in the open air, and right now the camp is closed on account of typhoid and I am not allowed therefore to bring in subjects, for “Sauna” experiments.
With most obedient greetings and sincere gratitude, and