“That Generaloberstabsarzt Erich Hippke was the Sanitation Inspector of the Luftwaffe during the period from 1941 through 1944; that the Office of the Sanitation Inspector was directly responsible for the conduct of all research and medical experiments; that the Office of the Sanitation Inspector, of which Generaloberstabsarzt Erich Hippke was the head, was directly subordinate to the Inspector General, former Field Marshal Milch, and that former Field Marshal Milch was responsible for all action taken by Generaloberstabsarzt Hippke, or by the Office of the Sanitation Inspector or its subordinates.”
It has been established that criminal experiments, high-altitude and freezing, were carried on at Dachau by Luftwaffe physicians, working under the orders and supervision of competent Luftwaffe authorities.
We have shown that all Luftwaffe personnel connected with, or knowing about these experiments, from those closest to the place where the experiments were conducted—Dr. Rascher, and Walter Neff—to those high up in the positions of command—Goering and Schroeder—looked to Milch as the ultimate authority in the Medical Experiments Program. An investigation of the attitudes and convictions of the SS officials concerned in this program discloses the same picture.
Could all these men have been mistaken? Were they writing to and referring to the wrong man when they contacted the defendant? To put forward such a proposition is to deny the facts. There was no error, the facts are indisputable.
The defendant was and is officially responsible for the Medical Experiments Program of the Luftwaffe.
Lastly, we come to the question of the defendant’s knowledge of the experiments which were being carried out at Dachau for the Luftwaffe.
Throughout direct examination by his defense counsel, the defendant has consistently denied receiving reports authored by Rascher or in any other way being informed of the criminal nature of those experiments, until the time of this trial.
However, he was very much interested in altitude experiments as such. The following excerpt is from his testimony under questioning by Dr. Bergold:
“Q. Witness, how far were you interested in these high-altitude experiments in question as GL?