Q. Then you used this vaccine for the first time in May 1943 in Schirmeck. How many persons did you vaccinate?
A. Twenty-eight persons were vaccinated altogether.
Q. Did you have any influence on the selection of these persons; that is, did you select these persons, or who selected them?
A. I did not have any direct influence on the selection of these persons, only to the extent that I told the camp administrator and the camp doctor that we could only vaccinate people who were in a more or less good state of health, since if this were not the case it would not correspond to our German vaccination laws. To that extent I did have some influence.
The selection was made according to the point of view that persons were selected who were in special danger of typhus, persons who were in the so-called “east block” of the camp. New transports were always coming from the East, lice infected, for the most part, so that one could count on a considerable typhus danger. In this part of the camp the danger was greater than in those parts of the camp, housing Germans and Alsatians who did not come from the East.
Q. You said, Witness, the persons were selected from the group of prisoners in special danger of contracting typhus. You just mentioned the east block. Can you tell us what nationality these persons were?
A. As far as I can remember they were of various nationalities. There were quite a number of them who spoke German and one could converse with them easily.
Q. Now, Witness, I should like to ask you to describe how these vaccinations were carried out. Perhaps a preliminary question first. Why did you vaccinate only 28 persons? Why did you not vaccinate all the inmates of the camp there?
A. At first I could only produce the vaccine in very small quantities. My laboratory facilities were very limited. If I had wanted to vaccinate a whole camp I would have had to have a production workshop. That is why we only vaccinated a small number of people.
Q. Now, Professor, please describe how the vaccinations were performed.