b. Selection from the Argumentation of the Prosecution
EXTRACT FROM THE CLOSING BRIEF AGAINST
DEFENDANT GEBHARDT
A. SULFANILAMIDE EXPERIMENTS
Experiments to test the effectiveness of sulfanilamide on infections were conducted in the Ravensbrueck concentration camp from 20 July 1942 until August 1943. These experiments were performed by the defendants Gebhardt, Fischer, and Oberheuser. (NO-228, Pros. Ex. 206.)
Gebhardt personally requested Himmler’s permission to carry out the sulfanilamide experiments and their execution was his responsibility. (Tr. pp. 4024-5.) He himself carried out the initial operations. (Tr. p. 4032.)
The experimental subjects consisted of 15 male concentration camp inmates, who were used during the preliminary experiments in July 1942, and 60 Polish women who were experimented on in 5 groups of 12 subjects each.
The purpose of the experiments was stated in a preliminary report by Gebhardt dated 29 August 1942, in which he stated:
“By order of the Reich Leader SS, I started on 20 July 1942 at Ravensbrueck concentration camp for women on a series of clinical experiments with the aim of analyzing the sickness known as gas gangrene, which does not take a uniform course, and to test the efficacy of the known therapeutic medicaments.
“In addition, the simple infections of injuries which occur as symptoms in war surgery had also to be tested; and a new chemo-therapeutic treatment, apart from the known surgical measures, had to be tried out.” (NO-2734, Pros. Ex. 473.)