Mr. McHaney: Do you know anything about experiments with poisons in the Buchenwald concentration camp?
Witness Kogon: I know of two such cases. The one case was about the turn of the year 1943-44 or in the late fall of 1943, and the second case was probably in the summer of 1944. In each case Russian prisoners of war were used for these experiments. In the first case various preparations of the so-called alkaloid series were put into noodle soup and administered to 40 of these prisoners of war who were in Block 46. They, of course, had no idea what was going on. Two of these prisoners became so sick that they vomited, one was unconscious, the fourth showed no symptoms at all. Thereupon, all four were strangled in the crematorium. They were dissected and the contents of their stomachs and other effects were determined. The experiment was ordered by the SS court, by the SS investigating judge, Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Morgen. It was carried out in the presence of Dr. Ding, Dr. Morgen, Dr. Wehner, SS Hauptsturmfuehrer and SS judges, and one of the three camp leaders, I do not know whether it was SS Sturmbannfuehrer Schubert or SS leader Florstedt. The second experiments—
Q. Witness, before continuing with the second experiment, I wonder if you could tell the Tribunal the reason why this poison experiment which you have just mentioned was carried out?
A. In the summer of 1943 the SS court in Berlin was trying the former commander of Buchenwald and later commander of the Lublin concentration camp in Poland, SS Standartenfuehrer Koch. The trial was reaching its climax. The investigation had led to very serious charges against Koch. Here I must mention that SS Obergruppenfuehrer Prince Waldeck, then head of the SS main district [Oberabschnitt] Fulda-Werra, was personally opposing Koch, and it was merely this personal antagonism of the two men which had brought about the trial. A man by the name of Koehler, a Hauptscharfuehrer in Buchenwald, was arrested by Dr. Morgen and kept in custody in the Buchenwald concentration camp. This Hauptscharfuehrer seemed to have testified against Koch. Two or three days later this Hauptscharfuehrer Koehler was found dead in his cell. A few hours before he had been quite healthy. He seemed to have taken strong poison. Dr. Morgen contended that Dr. Hoven, together with the guard, Hauptscharfuehrer Sommer, had killed Koehler. Koehler was dissected in the dissecting room in the presence of a scientist from Jena and two of my comrades. The head of the pathology section was also present. Drugs of the alkaloid series were found in the stomach of the dead man. The amount and the specific type was not known. In order to determine the fatal dosage of poisons of this type, the SS court ordered an experiment on four Russian prisoners of war. This is the experiment which I have just described in Block 46. On 20 September 1943, Dr. Hoven was arrested on Dr. Morgen’s orders and remained in the custody of the SS court until the end of March 1945. I know the date exactly because on that Saturday afternoon Dr. Hoven came to Block 50 on his motorcycle, asked me about Dr. Ding-Schuler, who was not there, and went away again quite depressed. Half an hour later I learned from the hospital, the prisoners’ hospital, that Dr. Hoven expected to be arrested himself.
Q. In other words, Hoven was suspected by Morgen of having done away with the witness against Koch, is that right?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, will you explain to the Tribunal about his second poison experiment?
A. In the summer of 1944—I am not quite sure of the exact date—Dr. Ding, who was already called Schuler, came from Berlin at the time and told me that he had a very unpleasant task to perform. He said it was extremely secret and a few hours later, without my having asked, he told me details about it in his room.
I must point out that at this time there was really nothing at all private or official, that Dr. Schuler would not have told me in order to get my advice. He realized quite clearly that the cause of National Socialism was lost. He was only looking for safety.