An extremely persuasive and interesting brief on behalf of the defendant Rudolf Brandt, filed by his attorney, has received careful attention by this Tribunal. Therein it is urged that Rudolf Brandt’s position under Heinrich Himmler was one of such subordination, his personal character so essentially mild, and he was so dominated by his chief, that the full significance of the crimes in which he became engulfed came to him with a shock only when he went to trial. This plea is offered in mitigation of appalling offenses in which the defendant Brandt is said to have played only an unassuming role.

If it be thought for even a moment that the part played by Rudolf Brandt was relatively unimportant when compared with the enormity of the charges proved by the evidence, let it be said that every Himmler must have his Brandt else the plans of a master criminal would never be put into execution.

The Tribunal, therefore, cannot accept the thesis.

CONCLUSION

Military Tribunal I finds and adjudges that the defendant Rudolf Brandt is guilty under counts two, three and four of the indictment.

MRUGOWSKY

The defendant is charged under counts two and three of the indictment with special responsibility for, and participation in, Freezing, Malaria, Sulfanilamide, Typhus, Poison, Epidemic Jaundice, and Incendiary Bomb Experiments. Charges were made concerning certain other medical experiments, but they have been abandoned by the prosecution.

Mrugowsky joined the NSDAP in 1930 and the SS in 1931. He ultimately rose to the rank of senior colonel in the Waffen SS.

In 1938 Mrugowsky became a member of the staff of the SS medical office, as hygienist. At the beginning of 1939 he founded the Hygiene Bacteriological Testing Station of the SS in Berlin, whose purpose was to combat epidemics in the SS garrison troops of the Waffen SS. In 1940 the station was enlarged and renamed the “Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS.” Mrugowsky became its chief and at the same time Chief of the Office for Hygiene in the Medical Service of the Waffen SS under Genzken.

In his dual capacity Mrugowsky was answerable to Genzken in all questions concerning epidemic control and hygiene in the Waffen SS, but as Chief of the Hygiene Institute, was military superior and commander of the Institute and its affiliated institutions with power to issue orders.