“3. The Chief of the Medical Services of the Wehrmacht will inform the Fuehrer’s Commissioner General about basic events in the field of the Medical Services of the Wehrmacht.”
By a pre-trial affidavit made by the defendant Handloser and put in evidence by the prosecution, Handloser makes the statement that Karl Brandt was his “immediate superior in medical affairs.”
SULFANILAMIDE EXPERIMENTS
Certain sulfanilamide experiments were conducted at Ravensbrueck for a period of about a year prior to August 1943. These experiments were carried on by the defendants Gebhardt, Fischer, and Oberheuser—Gebhardt being in charge of the project. At the Third Meeting of the Consulting Physicians of the Wehrmacht held at the Military Medical Academy in Berlin from 24 to 26 May 1943, Gebhardt and Fischer made a complete report concerning these experiments. Karl Brandt was present and heard the reports. Gebhardt testified that he made a full statement concerning what he had done, stating that experiments had been carried out on human beings. The evidence is convincing that statements were also made that the persons experimented upon were concentration camp inmates. It was stated that 75 persons had been experimented upon, that the subjects had been deliberately infected, and that different drugs had been used in treating the infections to determine their respective efficacy. It was also stated that three of the subjects died. It nowhere appears that Karl Brandt made any objection to such experiments or that he made any investigation whatever concerning the experiments reported upon, or to gain any information as to whether other human subjects would be subjected to experiments in the future. Had he made the slightest investigation he could have ascertained that such experiments were being conducted on non-German nationals, without their consent, and in flagrant disregard of their personal rights; and that such experiments were planned for the future.
In the medical field Karl Brandt held a position of the highest rank directly under Hitler. He was in a position to intervene with authority on all medical matters; indeed, it appears that such was his positive duty. It does not appear that at any time he took any steps to check medical experiments upon human subjects. During the war he visited several concentration camps. Occupying the position he did, and being a physician of ability and experience, the duty rested upon him to make some adequate investigation concerning the medical experiments which he knew had been, were being, and doubtless would continue to be, conducted in the concentration camps.
EPIDEMIC JAUNDICE EXPERIMENTS
Karl Brandt is charged with criminal responsibility for experiments conducted for the purpose of discovering an effective vaccine to bring about immunity from epidemic jaundice. Grawitz, by letter dated 1 June 1943, wrote Himmler stating that Karl Brandt had requested his assistance in the matter of research on the causes of epidemic jaundice. Grawitz stated that Karl Brandt had interested himself in this research and desired that prisoners be placed at his disposal. The letter further stated that up to that date experiments had been made only on animals, but that it had become necessary to pursue the matter further by inoculating human beings with virus cultures. The letter stated that deaths must be anticipated, and that eight prisoners who had been condemned to death were needed for the experiments at the hospital of the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen. Under date of 16 June 1943 Himmler acknowledged the letter from Grawitz and directed that eight criminals in Auschwitz, Jews of the Polish Resistance Movement condemned to death, should be used for experiments which should be conducted by Dr. Dohmen at Sachsenhausen. Karl Brandt’s knowledge of experiments on non-German nationals is clearly shown by the foregoing.
LOST (MUSTARD) GAS EXPERIMENTS
It is clear from the record that experiments with Lost gas were conducted on concentration camp inmates throughout the period covered by the indictment. The evidence is that over 200 concentration camp inmates, Russians, Poles, Czechs, and Germans, were used as experimental subjects. At least 50 of these subjects, most of whom were nonvolunteers, died as a direct or indirect result of the treatment received.
Karl Brandt knew of the fact that such experiments were being conducted. The evidence is to the effect that he knew of Lost gas experiments conducted by Bickenbach at Strasbourg during the fall of 1943, in which Russian prisoners were apparently used as subjects, some of whom died.