Inasmuch as some of this information comes from Prosecution Exhibit 287, referred to as the “Ding Diary”, a discussion of the document is now appropriate.
Dr. Ding (who later changed his name to Schuler) was a very ambitious man who was apparently willing to engage in any professional activity which he thought might further his medical career. He gladly seized upon the opportunity to conduct experiments on concentration camp inmates in connection with the vaccine study.
Every German officer holding a position comparable to that held by Dr. Ding was required to keep a journal or diary showing his official activities. It appears that Ding kept two diaries. Ding’s personal diary containing official and personal entries and work reports has disappeared; his official log or journal concerning his work at Buchenwald is the document in evidence. This diary was kept by one Eugen Kogon, an inmate at Buchenwald. He made the actual entries and Ding verified and signed them.
Kogon, an Austrian subject, testified for the prosecution. We learn from his testimony that he was a former newspaper editor and held other highly responsible positions. He was sent by the German authorities to Buchenwald in 1939 as a political prisoner. In April 1943 he was assigned to Ding as a clerk or assistant. For many months prior to that time, however, he had been on extremely friendly terms with Ding and as a consequence was completely familiar with Ding’s operations. Indeed, so close was the attachment that during the first half of the year 1942 Ding had dictated the first portion of the diary which is in evidence, and Kogon had transcribed it. After officially becoming Ding’s assistant in 1943 all correspondence of every nature with which Ding was concerned passed through the hands of Kogon.
The diary came into Kogon’s possession at the breaking up of the camp, and remained in his possession, as he testified, until he delivered it to the Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes at Nuernberg.
It is manifest that the entries in the diary were often not made on the day they bear date; but this does not mean that it has no probative value. Almost every entry in the diary is personally signed by Ding. Time and again the entries in the diary have been corroborated by other credible evidence. The defendants themselves who were familiar with operations at Buchenwald have confirmed the entries in important essential particulars. We consider the diary as constituting evidence of considerable probative value, and shall give to the entries such consideration as under all circumstances they are entitled to receive.
The first entry in the Ding diary, under date of 29 December 1941, reads as follows:
“Conference between Army Sanitation Inspection [Inspector], General Chief Surgeon Professor Dr. Handloser; State Secretary for the Department of Health of the Reich, SS Gruppenfuehrer Dr. Conti; President Professor Reiter of the Health Department of the Reich; President Professor Gildemeister of the Robert Koch Institute (Reich Institution to Combat Contagious Diseases) and SS Standartenfuehrer and Lecturer (Dozent) Dr. Mrugowsky of the Institute of Hygiene, Waffen SS, Berlin.
“It has been established that the need exists, to test the efficiency of, and resistance of the human body to, the typhus serum extracted from egg yolks. Since tests on animals are not of sufficient value, tests on human beings must be carried out.”
This entry preceded by only a few days the actual commencement of the experiments on concentration camp inmates to determine the efficiency of the egg-yolk vaccine.