Toward the end of 1942 a conference was held in the Military Medical Academy, Berlin, to discuss the effects of gas oedema serum on wounded persons. During the conference, several cases were reported in which wounded soldiers who had received gas oedema serum injections in large quantities suddenly died without apparent reason. Mrugowsky, who participated in the conference, expressed the possibility that perhaps the deaths had been due to the phenol content of the serum. As a step toward solving the problem Mrugowsky ordered Dr. Ding-Schuler, his subordinate, to take part in a euthanasia killing with phenol and to report on the results in detail.
In pursuance of the order given, Dr. Ding and the defendant Hoven killed some of the concentration camp inmates at Buchenwald with phenol injections and Ding reported his findings to his superior officer, Mrugowsky, as required by the order.
FREEZING, INCENDIARY BOMB, AND EPIDEMIC JAUNDICE
EXPERIMENTS
As to these items the Tribunal is of the view that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the charges.
It has been proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant Mrugowsky was a principal in, accessory to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and was knowingly connected with plans and enterprises involving medical experiments on non-German nationals, without their consent, in the course of which experiments, murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts were committed. To the extent that these crimes were not war crimes they were crimes against humanity.
COUNT FOUR
Under count four of the indictment, the defendant is charged with being a member of an organization declared criminal by the International Military Tribunal, namely, the SS.
The evidence proves that Mrugowsky joined the NSDAP in 1930 and voluntarily became a member of the Waffen SS in 1931. He remained in these organizations throughout the war. As a member of the Waffen SS, he was criminally implicated in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity as discussed in this judgment.
CONCLUSION