THE AHNENERBE SOCIETY

The Ahnenerbe Society, of which Sievers was Reich Business Manager, was in existence as an independent entity as early as 1933. On 1 July 1935 the Ahnenerbe became duly registered as an organization to conduct or further “research on the locality, mind, deeds and heritage of the Northern race of Indo-Germans and to pass on the results of this research to the people in an interesting manner.” On 1 January 1942 the Society became part of the personal staff of the Reichsfuehrer SS and thereby a section of the SS. Its management was composed of Heinrich Himmler as President, Professor Dr. Wuest, Rector of the University of Munich, as Curator, and the defendant Sievers as Reich Business Manager. Subsequently, during the same year, the Institute of Military Scientific Research was established as a part of the Ahnenerbe. Its purposes are defined in a letter written by Himmler to Sievers, which directed the following with reference to the Ahnenerbe:

“1. To establish an Institute for Military Scientific Research.

2. To support in every possible way the research carried out by SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Professor Dr. Hirt and to promote all corresponding research and undertakings.

3. To make available the required apparatus, equipment, accessories and assistants, or to procure them.

4. To make use of the facilities available in Dachau.

5. To contact the Chief of the SS Economic and Administrative Main Office with regards to the costs which can be borne by the Waffen SS.”

In its judgment, the International Military Tribunal made the following findings of fact with reference to the Ahnenerbe:

“Also attached to the SS main offices was a research foundation known as the Experiments Ahnenerbe. The scientists attached to this organization are stated to have been mainly honorary members of the SS. During the war an institute for military scientific research became attached to the Ahnenerbe which conducted extensive experiments involving the use of living human beings. An employee of this institute was a certain Dr. Rascher, who conducted these experiments with the full knowledge of the Ahnenerbe, which were subsidized and under the patronage of the Reichsfuehrer SS who was a trustee of the foundation.”[[58]]

We shall now discuss the evidence as it pertains to the cases of the individual defendants.