TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT KARL BRANDT 101
KARL BRANDT DEFENSE EXHIBIT 41
AFFIDAVIT OF DR. OTTO AMBROS,[[39]] 21 APRIL 1947, CONCERNING THE URGENCY OF EXPERIMENTS IN THE FIELD OF CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS AND THEIR COUNTERMEASURES
I, Dr. Otto Ambros, at present in Nuernberg, Justice Prison, having been duly informed that I shall render myself punishable if I submit a false affidavit, declare under oath that my statement is true and was made for presentation in evidence to Military Tribunal No. I in the Palace of Justice, Nuernberg, Germany.
During the war I was a director of I. G. Farben and had to work on chemical warfare agents and protective agents, and can therefore state the following:
I got into touch with Professor Dr. Karl Brandt during 1944. On that occasion Professor Brandt told me he had to take an interest in chemical warfare agents and countermeasures. At the same time he showed me a letter from Adolf Hitler referring to this subject. Furthermore, he stated that he did not understand very much about chemical warfare, as he was not an analytical chemist. His primary concern in this field was the question of the supply of materials for gas masks, i. e., activated charcoal and the synthetic materials and textiles which are necessary for these.
Professor Brandt visited two poison gas plants at Dyherrnfurth and Gendorf, to become generally acquainted with the nature of poison gas itself.
There was the greatest uneasiness at that time regarding protection against chemical warfare, as it was thought that the Allies would use poison gas. It was said that they had brought poison gas over with them when they landed at Tunis.
It was also said that the Russians had new gas masks which fact pointed to the possibility of the use of a new kind of poison gas.
On the German side, there was definitely a serious shortage of chemical warfare protective equipment, as not even the most urgently needed gas masks were available, nor was it even possible to produce the required number.