“As remedy I used quinine, atabrine, and neosalvarsan. I know for sure of six cases where I used pyramidon tablets to hold down the fever (Pros. Ex. 122).”
V. Evidence for the Defense.
15. Doctor Claus Karl Schilling
The accused Doctor Schilling elected to testify and made the following unsworn statement: He was 74 years old, married, had one son, and was a physician. He had specialized in tropical diseases, particularly malaria, since 1898 (R 1490, 1500). Dr. Schilling studied under Professor Koch of Berlin, and graduated from Munich as a physician in 1894 (R 1894). He did research work in Africa on malaria, sleeping sickness, and tsetse fly diseases (R 1497, 1498). Dr. Schilling worked for the Rockefeller Foundation in Berlin, receiving a grant in 1911 for the study of various diseases and for a trip to Rome (R 1499, 1500, Def. Ex. 19).[[36]] In December 1941 in Italy Dr. Schilling met Dr. Conti, the Reich physician leader, who invited him to see Himmler (R 1500, 1501, 1508). Schilling went to Himmler who gave him the order to continue his studies at Dachau (R 1502). Schilling had selected Dachau because it was near his birthplace (R 1568-1569). The question of using prisoners for experiments was not discussed (R 1502). In January 1942, Schilling went to Dachau (R 1502). Schilling only accepted this commission at Dachau because the League of Nations, of which he was a member, told him of the importance of curing the seventeen million known cases of malaria. He believed it was his duty to humanity (R 1540). He never became a member of the SS or the Nazi Party (R 1503). He was a “free, independent, research man.” (R 1568.)
Dr. Schilling infected thousands of prisoners with malaria “Benign Tertian” which is not fatal (R 1503). The purpose for this was to find a vaccination against malaria and today there is no vaccination against malaria except the one discovered by Schilling (R 1503). Dr. Schilling used mosquitoes and blood transfusions to infect the patients and received patients already infected (R 1503, 1504). The patients were divided into groups and were constantly watched, one group for the purpose of keeping up the strain and another for immunization purposes (R 1505-1506). The latter were injected repeatedly to step up their immunity (R 1506). Schilling re-infected about 400 to 500 patients and used quinine, atabrine, and neosalvarsan, and a dye No. 2516 which made the patients immune; to prove this he had to test by infecting them again (R 1507).
Dr. Schilling could not work with animals because they are not receptive to malaria and men are used throughout the world (R 1507). He assumed that Admiral Stipp and Mark Boyd, two malaria authorities, used humans in their experiments (R 1508). Infected malaria has been used to cure paralysis (R 1508).
Only about four or five of the patients refused to be immunized, but they consented after Schilling explained the importance of the work (R 1509). The selections of the patients were made as follows: Berlin allowed him thirty patients a month and he would requisition them through the camp physician from the commandant who contacted the labor leader (R 1510). The latter selected healthy prisoners and Schilling’s assistants chose the final names and sent them to Berlin, where the selection was approved (R 1509, 1510). These patients were carefully inspected and could not be refused by Schilling by order of Himmler (R 1511).
The doses of neosalvarsan were 1.54 grams and at no time failed (R 1512). He used pyramidon to lower the body temperature although the drug has a bad effect on the blood corpuscles (R 1513, 1514). He used this drug only in 15 cases and found that two grams were not harmful. This was important so the body could react without fever (R 1515). Nobody died from pyramidon (R 1515). Malaria has been used to cure syphilis and neosalvarsan can destroy parasites in a fever (R 1515).