Was the thing carried out? No. It was not checked at all, or only insufficiently. I do not know what was done at Hohenlychen with those pieces of bone, muscle, and nerves which were cut out and taken there.

What was the fate of the patients after they left the hospital? Almost all of the patients became cripples, and suffered very much as a result of these operations. Even more severe was the moral torture inflicted on them since they lived under the conviction that they would all be shot in order that they should not be evidence of these murderous operations. The camp authorities—Commandant Suhren, Adjutant Braeuning and Chief Supervisor Binz—ensured through their orders that the victims should not forget that they were condemned to death. In the meantime, six of the patients were shot after surviving the operations.


As a supplement to these operations I am submitting a description of “special operations” which were carried out at the same time.

A few abnormal prisoners (mentally ill) were chosen and brought to the operating table, and amputations of the whole leg (at the hip joint) were carried out, or on others, amputation of the whole arm (with the shoulder blade) were carried out. Afterwards the victims (if they still lived) were killed by means of evipan injections and the leg or arm was taken to Hohenlychen and served the purposes known to Professor Gebhardt. Ten such operations, approximately, were carried out.

During the whole of the time these operations were carried out, I was employed as a worker in the ward and investigated this matter risking my own life, with the idea that it was my duty, if I were saved, to tell the truth to the world. I conclude my statement with two questions: What kind of recompense can the world offer to those who were operated on in such a manner? What kind of justice has the world for those who carried out such operations?

[Signed]Dr. Maczka, Zofia
Dr. med. Zofia Maczka
X-ray specialist from Krakow. Former political prisoner in protective custody No. 7403 at Ravensbrueck, now in Stockholm, Serafimerlasarettet, Roentgen.

Stockholm, 16 April 1946

TRANSLATION OF GEBHARDT, FISCHER, OBERHEUSER

DOCUMENT 6