At the Fourth Meeting of Consulting Physicians held at Hohenlychen, 16 to 18 May 1944, Karl Brandt—in addressing the meeting—said that Handloser, a soldier and a physician, was “responsible for the use and the performance of our medical officers”.
Schreiber, until 30 May 1943 a close subordinate of Handloser in his capacity of Army Medical Inspector, was a member of the Reich Research Council, paying particular regard to the control of epidemics as his special field. Schreiber frequently reported to Handloser, with whom he had worked for some years.
FREEZING EXPERIMENTS
Professor Dr. Holzloehner, who with Drs. Finke and Rascher performed freezing experiments on concentration camp inmates at Dachau, made reports on at least two occasions to groups of army physicians concerning cold and freezing problems. The first such report was made at a meeting held on 26 to 27 October 1942, which was called to consider problems concerning cold. Schreiber, who held a responsible position under Handloser from 1 April 1942 to 31 May 1943, was present at this meeting, as was Craemer, head of the Mountain Medical School of the army at St. Johann, which was also under Handloser’s jurisdiction. During the meeting and after Holzloehner had made his report, Rascher also made statements before the meeting concerning these experiments, from which it was obvious that statements contained in the reports were based upon observations made by experimenting on human beings. From the two reports it was clear that concentration camp inmates had been experimented upon and that some deaths had resulted.
Holzloehner was invited to lecture again upon this subject at the Second Meeting of the Consulting Physicians of the Wehrmacht, held 30 November to 3 December 1942, at the Military Medical Academy at Berlin. Handloser heard this talk by Holzloehner and testified that the matter of cold and freezing was one of the most important problems to the army.
We think it manifestly clear from the evidence dealing with freezing that Handloser had actual knowledge that such experiments had been conducted upon inmates at Dachau concentration camp, during the course of which suffering and deaths had resulted to the experimental subjects.
SULFANILAMIDE EXPERIMENTS
Handloser is charged with participation in the sulfanilamide experiments conducted by the defendant Gebhardt. These experiments were conducted at Ravensbrueck concentration camp during a period extending from 20 July 1942 to August 1943 upon concentration camp inmates without their consent. While these experiments were still in progress Gebhardt was invited to present a report on his research findings at the Third Meeting of the Consulting Physicians held on 18 and 19 May 1943, at the Military Medical Academy in Berlin. Handloser was present at that meeting; in fact, he had addressed the meeting prior to Gebhardt’s giving his report.
As stated elsewhere, Gebhardt made a frank and candid report of what he had been doing at Ravensbrueck; honestly telling the group that his experimental subjects were not volunteers but were concentration camp inmates condemned to death, who had been given the hope of reduction of sentence should they survive the experiments. By means of charts to illustrate his lecture, he made it clear that deaths had occurred among the human subjects. When on the witness stand, the defendant Gebhardt testified that prior to the meeting of consulting physicians he had discussed with either Schreiber or the defendant Rostock the subject matter of the lecture to be given, and that at that time Schreiber had stated that he had received data concerning the experiments through official channels.
At that time Schreiber was a direct subordinate of the defendant Handloser, and we think it may be fairly assumed that Schreiber’s knowledge was the knowledge of Handloser. However, be that as it may, the evidence is clear that Handloser heard the lecture by Gebhardt, as well as a subsequent lecture on the same subject matter given by the defendant Fischer. There can be no question, therefore, but that when Handloser came away from the meeting he was fully informed of the fact that medical experiments were being conducted in Ravensbrueck concentration camp with inmates who were nonvolunteers. Moreover, he knew that deaths had occurred among the experimental subjects.