That is the covering letter. This covering letter, Witness, in connection with the report which is attached was considered by the prosecution as being a serious suggestion for sterilization and the prosecution in that connection has stated that this needed no comment. What is your attitude toward it?
A. Neither the former nor the latter is correct. I admit that if one reads this letter or report without knowing the connections that impression can be created. I therefore have to attempt to analyze this report in order to explain to the Tribunal what we tried to achieve with this letter. I have to emphasize once more that the entire thing was a maneuver of deceit.
Q. With reference to the report which you attached to this letter (NO-203, Pros. Ex. 161) I should like to quote from it a very brief passage:
“Report on experiments concerning X-ray castration.
“The experiments in this field are concluded. The following result can be considered as established and adequately based on scientific research.
“If any persons are to be sterilized permanently, this result can only be attained by applying X-rays in a dosage high enough to produce castration with all its consequences, since high X-ray dosages destroy the internal secretion of the ovary or of the testicles, respectively. Lower dosages would only temporarily paralyze the procreative capacity. The consequences in question are, for example, the disappearance of menstruation, climacteric phenomena, changes in capillary growth, modification of metabolism, etc. In any case, attention must be drawn to these disadvantages.
“The actual dosage can be given in various ways, and irradiation can take place quite imperceptibly. The necessary local dosage for men is 500-600 r, for women 300-350 r. In general, an irradiation period of 2 minutes for men, 3 minutes for women, with the highest voltage, a thin filter, and at a short distance ought to be sufficient. There is, however, a disadvantage that has to be put up with. It is impossible unnoticeably to cover the rest of the body with lead, the other tissues of the body will be injured, and radiologic malaise, the so-called ‘Roentgenkater,’ will ensue.”
Witness, would you define your attitude toward this letter which I partly read?
A. I was speaking in connection with the talk I had with Himmler in the year of 1941. This becomes apparent from the paragraph “I herewith submit the result of an X-ray examination.” It looks now as though in effect experiments had been carried out by scientists, which was not the case. Himmler had to be reassured and that is why we had to emphasize that the experiments had been concluded and the result could be based on scientific work. Of course, we couldn’t state the result as being absolutely positive. We had to leave it to Himmler himself to judge it. In the first instance it was our intention to get Himmler off the idea. That is why we chose the formulation which can be seen in that letter—“If any persons are to be sterilized permanently.” It meant in effect that this was theoretically possible. At the same time, however, we pointed out that this success cannot be concealed and that phenomena will arise. That obviously was shown by the contents of the certificate itself, and it is emphasized that permanent sterilization makes a high dosage of X-rays necessary. These high dosages would then bring about the effects of castration with all of the accompanying symptoms which would be noticed immediately. If, however, lower dosages were used, you would only have stopped procreative capacity for a short time. We actually said that at the end of the report, namely, that the result of sterilization could be ascertained after a comparatively short time but that it was impossible to achieve the results of bringing about sterilization without being noticed, and in this way we thought we could get Himmler to give up that idea.
Q. Now, this was the first part of the letter. Now, let us discuss the second part. I am again referring to the method which you suggested to Himmler. You thought at that time “One practical way of proceeding would be, for instance, to let the persons to be treated approach a counter, where they could be asked to answer some questions or to fill in forms, which take them 2 or 3 minutes. The official sitting behind the counter could operate the installation in such a way as to turn a switch which would activate the two valves simultaneously (since the irradiation is to operate from both sides). With a two-valve installation about 150-200 persons could then be sterilized per day and, therefore, with 20 such installations as many as 3,000-4,000 persons per day. In my estimation a larger daily number could not in any case be sent away for this purpose.”