On 7 June 1944 Schroeder wrote to Himmler through Grawitz asking for concentration camp inmates to be used as subjects in the sea-water experiments, which letter reads in part as follows:
“Highly Respected Reich Minister:
“Earlier already you made it possible for the Luftwaffe to settle urgent medical matters through experiments on human beings. Today again, I stand before a decision which, after numerous experiments on animals as well as human experiments on voluntary experimental subjects, demands a final solution. The Luftwaffe has simultaneously developed two methods for making sea water potable. The one method, developed by a medical officer, removes the salt from the sea water and transforms it into real drinking water; the second method, suggested by an engineer, leaves the salt content unchanged, and only removes the unpleasant taste from the sea water. The latter method in contrast to the first, requires no critical raw material. From the medical point of view this method must be viewed critically, as the administration of concentrated salt solutions can produce severe symptoms of poisoning.
“As the experiments on human beings could thus far only be carried out for a period of four days, and as practical demands require a remedy for those who are in distress at sea up to 12 days, appropriate experiments are necessary.
“Required are 40 healthy test subjects, who must be available for 4 whole weeks. As it is known from previous experiments that necessary laboratories exist in the concentration camp Dachau, this camp would be very suitable * * *”
Various other parties took part in correspondence upon this application, one of the writers suggesting that Jews or persons held in quarantine be used as experimental subjects. Another correspondent nominated asocial gypsy half-breeds as candidates for the treatment. Herr Himmler decided that gypsies, plus three others for control purposes, should be utilized.
In fairness to the defendant it should be stated that he contests the translation of the second sentence in the first paragraph of the letter written by him to Himmler, which the prosecution interprets as meaning that experiments could no longer be conducted on voluntary subjects, and that the words “demands a final solution” meant that involuntary subjects in concentration camps should be employed. Regardless of whether or not the letter quoted by us is a correct translation of the German original, the evidence shows that within a month after the letter was sent to Himmler through Grawitz, sea-water experiments were commenced at Dachau by the defendant Beiglboeck.
The method by which the experimental subjects were chosen is not known to the defendant Schroeder. As he explained from the witness stand with reference to his letter and the subsequent procedure, “I sent it away only after I had consulted [about] the possibility of the experiment with Grawitz, and after I had informed him how the whole thing was thought [of] by us, so that he could pass on this information to Himmler in case it became necessary. Then this letter was sent off, and after possibly four weeks when Beiglboeck had arrived at Dachau—in the meantime, he was given an opportunity to carry out this work. Whatever lay in between that, how in the administrative way this was organized, we never learned * * * it was an inter-office affair * * *. We only saw the initial point and the end point of this route.”
Thus began another experiment conducted under the auspices of the defendant Schroeder, wherein the initiator of the experiment failed to exercise the personal duty of determining that only consenting human subjects would be used, but left that responsibility to others. Again is demonstrated the case of an officer in a position of superior command who authorizes the performance of experiments by his subordinates while failing to take efforts to prescribe the conditions which will insure the conduct of the experiments within legally permissible limits.
The evidence shows conclusively that gypsies of various nationalities were used as experimental subjects. Former inmates of Auschwitz concentration camp were tricked into coming to Dachau with the promise that they were to be used as members of a labor battalion. When they arrived at Dachau they were assigned to the sea-water experimental station without their consent. During the course of the experiment many of them suffered intense physical and mental anguish.