Defendant Blome: I beg your pardon if I got rather excited. I should like to conclude my statement by saying that I hope that this case will be soon cleared up, and that then the press will be chivalrous enough to state that I not only did not commit this crime, but that I actually prevented it.
Dr. Sauter: Mr. President, I should like to discuss with the witness the letter of 18 November 1942 in which the defendant prevented the murder of the Poles. It will take some time. I believe this would be a good time to take a recess.
Dr. Sauter: Witness, during the morning session you explained to us among other things the new method of X-ray photography, the so-called screen photography; you stated that using this new method one could take 200 to 300 photographs per minute. Were you not wrong, didn’t you mean perhaps per hour and not per minute?
Defendant Blome: Yes, per hour.
Q. I just wanted to correct that so that it does not appear erroneously in the record. We shall continue, Witness, with the letter which we have repeatedly discussed, the letter of 18 November 1942, regarding the extermination of Poles. (NO-250, Pros. Ex. 203.) It is a letter in which you define your attitude towards the proposal made by Greiser, namely to liquidate the tubercular Poles. Do you know the contents of this letter?
A. Yes.
Q. In this letter you made certain proposals. May I ask you to tell us what suggestions you actually made in that letter? Do you need the letter for that purpose?
A. Thank you, I have it. The most suitable suggestion I considered to be my suggestion to create an area in which one could put the tubercular Poles, and I recalled the leper colonies well known throughout the world. I must emphasize that there is a considerable difference between tuberculosis and leprosy.
As I made the last draft of my letter, the leading medical officer of Warthegau was suddenly announced. It was Dr. Gundermann, the highest state medical officer of Warthegau. He reported that he had just come from Dr. Conti, and that he had heard rumors from Warthegau that tubercular Poles were to be liquidated. Dr. Conti had maintained a very evasive attitude toward him, so he had left Dr. Conti without having achieved any results and thereupon he had decided to come to me. I told him that he had come at the most suitable moment, and I explained to him the position as it had developed in the meantime. I told him of my conversation with Hohlfelder and with Greiser, and of the letter which had been decided upon. He was very pleased about it and was also pleased that I shared his attitude of rejection. I showed him my draft letter and he made a few suggestions. The number of geographical details in the letter actually originated from Gundermann. In particular, he emphasized the importance of a special settlement for tubercular Poles and recognized this as the most suitable solution. I had already heard of such suggestions, especially those arising from the tuberculosis meeting in 1937. During that meeting two well-known German tuberculosis experts, Dr. Dorn and Dr. Hein, had lectured on tuberculosis settlements. Very useful experience had been obtained from such tuberculosis settlements, not only in Germany but also in England. When making my suggestion to Himmler I explained in detail how such a suggestion could be realized. In my letter I explained the tactics that were to be used, taking into consideration the mentality of people like Greiser and Himmler, and made it appear as though I wanted to agree with their liquidation program. Afterwards I cited all the political misgivings I had, naming individual examples. Then I said that in one experiment the people who were seriously ill and those who were contagious would be segregated, and that Polish physicians and Polish nursing personnel would be attached to these seriously ill patients in order to avoid the appearance of a death camp. Every physician knows, and it is also known in lay circles, that if one isolates seriously ill people, such an isolation soon comes to be considered as an isolation for death. That is why I said that the necessary Polish physicians and nursing personnel must be attached to these camps. My best suggestion I considered to be the creation of a colony for all tubercular Poles.