The only document of the prosecution which, according to the distributor mentions the name of Genzken at all, is the report by Mrugowsky of 5 May 1942, mentioned in the verdict (page 99 and following). The conclusions which the Tribunal feels compelled to have to draw from this report to the prejudice of Genzken do not apply if only for the reason that this report was never made available to Dr. Genzken. Mrugowsky said in this respect: “This report was not presented to Genzken himself but was even later on, until the end, in the files of Amt XVI.” (See reply of the defense to the closing brief of the prosecution, p. 5). Genzken cannot be made responsible for something he, as has been proved, never knew. If he never saw that report of Mrugowsky and if he never knew of its existence, it cannot serve as an incriminating evidence against him.
It is not correct, that before 1 September 1943 Mrugowsky gave regularly, on the average once a week, oral or written reports concerning the typhus experiments to Genzken. Mrugowsky only said that about once a week he reported to Genzken on the hygiene of the troops at the meeting of the Referenten[[59]] of the medical office. Mrugowsky did this in his capacity as leading hygienist of the medical office (Sanitaets-Amt). Mrugowsky never reported to Genzken about the typhus experiments, on the occasion of these weekly reports and meetings of Referenten (Heads of Referate, Departments in a Ministry), if only because of the fact that these experiments did not fall within the scope of the work of the medical office of the Waffen SS, and because, upon Grawitz order, they were to be kept strictly secret. Written reports were never made at all. The established fact that in the medical office there was not the slightest information about, nor was there ever any discussion of, typhus experiments or any other experiments upon human beings in concentration camps, in itself shows that on Mrugowsky’s part, no oral or written reports were submitted to the medical office of the Waffen SS. Four participants in such meetings of the Referenten of the medical office have borne witness to this fact (see p. 52 of the closing brief for the defense).
The sole report of the spring of 1943 has been described in detail by Mrugowsky. His explanations were incorporated into the verdict word for word. The Tribunal thus considers them to be true and accurate. Mrugowsky and Genzken both stated under oath that Genzken had not seen that infection dates and incidents of death had been marked in the charts which were submitted to him. Mrugowsky stated literally as follows: “I had no cause to call his attention to these things expressly because actually I made no report to him concerning Ding’s experimental series, but merely wanted to give him factual information concerning the protective effect of certain vaccines, which he as head of the medical office had to know.”
On pages 25-26, the verdict states: “In Anglo-Saxon law, every defendant in a criminal proceedings for a crime of which he is accused is considered innocent until the prosecution has brought sound credible proof of his guilt, excluding all reasonable doubt. This assumption applies to the defendant throughout all the stages of the trial, until such proof has been brought. ‘Reasonable doubt’ is, as the name implies, doubt that is in keeping with reason, a doubt that a reasonable person would entertain.”
These statements must be completely and entirely agreed to. But, when applied to this very case of defendant Genzken and especially to his alleged knowledge of the experiments, it can under no circumstances be said that the evidence brought by the prosecution is sufficient to provide the judge with a lasting conviction giving him the moral certainty the accusation is true. For Genzken did not see Mrugowsky’s report, and the single report made by Mrugowsky presents, according to the latter’s statement, no sound and conclusive proof of Genzken’s knowledge.
The verdict holds Genzken responsible (p. 103) “for having nevertheless neglected to reassure himself that his experimental work was being carried out within permissible legitimate limits.”
III
Genzken had no official supervisory power and no chance
to intervene by giving orders and also no reason
at all to reassure himself
As witness, Genzken himself stated that he had merely known that a new typhus vaccine was to be produced in an institute at Buchenwald. Genzken had no knowledge whatsoever in this specialized field of hygiene, as well as no bacteriological training at all, and had never conducted scientific research work. He had no reason at all to assume that, in connection with this research, prisoners would be used in a criminal manner. He was merely of the opinion that the prisoners were brought in for purposes of checking the efficacy of the vaccine, in the form of experimental series which were generally customary in medical research. It was only during the course of the trial that he for the first time learned of deliberate infections and that there had been many deaths during the experimental series. He could not know anything about these facts, especially because the assignment of the prisoners was, as a concentration camp matter, completely outside of his sphere of duties. When, on page 103 (German text), the verdict implies that Genzken had undertaken no steps to reassure himself about the condition of the experimental subjects or of the circumstances under which they had been taken to the experimental block, this implication of the verdict is also incorrect, because the prisoners were not assigned by the medical office of the Waffen SS, but by the office in charge of the administration of the concentration camp in collaboration with the Reich Criminal Police Office. Until the trial, he had not even known that non-Germans were called in as experimental subjects. This and the fact that all experiments were kept strictly secret made it impossible for Genzken to institute investigations or to undertake steps to reassure himself about the condition of the experimental subjects. If, finally, on page 98 of the verdict, reference is made to Ding’s diary in order to support the judgment, it must above all be stated that there are grave doubts as to the probative value of this document (see p. 27 and the following of the closing brief for the defense). The verdict asserts that Kogon kept the original diary. That is not in keeping with the facts; in any case it would have been impossible for the period from December 1941 to June 1943, because Kogon only became Ding’s secretary on the latter date (see p. 1259 of the English Transcript). On page 99 of the verdict, the Tribunal itself makes the following statement in connection with the entry for 9 January 1943 referred to in order to incriminate Genzken: “if Ding’s proven attempts at self-glorification are taken into account, one should not credulously accept this entry in its existing form.” Thus in this connection the statements on page 25 and 26 of the verdict regarding the Tribunal’s conviction apply in particular. If even the Tribunal, and quite rightly so, feels considerable doubts as to the correctness and significance of this entry, it is not permissible to use it in order to the prejudice of the defendant. Besides, Genzken expressly declared as also confirmed by Kogon (see p. 1228 of English Tr.) that he never expressed his approval with regard to the department for typhus research, but that this entry would have to be interpreted as his consent to the change of name of the vaccine production laboratory. This intended change of name was not effected until after 1 September 1943, thus at a time when Genzken was no longer responsible. (See p. 32 and following of the closing brief for the defense.)
The verdict states at the end of the opinion for Genzken’s sentence that he was responsible for the typhus experiments and that he assisted in them and furthered them.
In the face of all this, the result of the case in chief is once again to be summarized as follows: