Mr. McHaney: Witness, I had just asked you whether or not you know anything about experiments conducted at Buchenwald with the phosphorous content of incendiary bombs.
Witness Kogon: * * * As far as I can recall, I was told by Dr. Ding in the spring of 1944 that he had been given orders by Professor Dr. Mrugowsky in collaboration with the firm of Madaus & Co. at Dresden-Radebeul to carry out experiments on human beings with regard to the effect of a drug against the contents of phosphorous-caoutchouc incendiary bombs. I had the impression that the idea for this experiment had come from Dr. Ding and had been given to Dr. Mrugowsky by him, and then he had obtained permission to carry out this experiment. On the part of the firm Madaus, negotiations were led by a certain Dr. Koch. He had a drug which he called R 17 and which was used by the German population after attacks in which incendiary bombs were dropped.
By way of Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr. Koch and the higher police leader of the Dresden sector, the contents of phosphorus incendiary bombs were sent to Buchenwald, and four experimental subjects from Block 46, who had survived other experiments, had this phosphorus liquid applied to their forearms. The whole mass was then ignited and was then treated in various manners. In the case of one experimental subject, water was used in order to wipe off the liquid, and in other cases a damp rag was applied, and in the last case R 17 was applied. Several experiments were carried out on these four subjects.
In one instance the drug R 17 was applied immediately after the mass had been ignited; in another instance, after approximately five minutes, and in yet another case, after thirty minutes. After the mass had burned the arm, serious burns developed which were observed for two weeks afterwards. The experiment was conducted by the Special Section 5 at Leipzig, and photographs were taken of the wounds. Previously experiments on animals had been carried out in Block 40 on rabbits. These experiments were conducted in the same manner, and the various results were also photographed, and the photographs were compared with each other. Then they were put into an album with exact descriptions and the results were sent to Berlin—two copies. One was sent to Professor Mrugowsky, and the other was sent to Oberfuehrer Poppendick, but I am not quite sure about that. I believe that Oberfuehrer Poppendick must surely have received a report on this matter because Dr. Ding intended to write an article about this in a German medical journal.
Q. Now, you have mentioned an album report. Did you see this report?
A. I personally made the report after having it dictated to me by Dr. Ding.
Q. I will ask you if the document which I will now have handed to you, and which is Document NO-579, is the report on these incendiary bomb experiments which you have described.
Mr. McHaney: I will ask that the original of this document be passed up to the Tribunal.
I didn’t hear any answer to the question.
A. Yes. It is a carbon copy of the report with the original photographs.