| 47,200 | ft. | Lets the mask fall, severe altitude sickness, spasmodic (klonische) convulsions. |
| 45,580 | ft. | Opisthotonus. |
| 44,950 | ft. | Suspended in opisthotonus. |
| 44,920 | ft. | Arms stretched stiffly forward; sits up like a dog, legs spread stiffly apart. |
| 43,310 | ft. | Agonal convulsive breathing. |
| 40,030 | ft. | Dyspnea, hangs limp. |
| 23,620 | ft. | Uncoordinated movements with the extremities. |
| 19,690 | ft. | Clonic convulsions, groaning. |
| 18,080 | ft. | Yells aloud. |
| 9,520 | ft. | Still yells, convulses arms and legs, head sinks forward. |
| 6,560 | ft. | Yells spasmodically, grimaces, bites his tongue, does not respond to speech, gives the impression of someone who is completely out of his mind. |
| 5 minutes | (after reaching ground level) Reacts for the first time to vocal stimulation. | |
| 11 minutes | Holds his head turned convulsively to the right; tries repeatedly to answer the first question concerning his birth date. | |
| 28 minutes | Sees nothing; runs against open window sash upon which the sun is shining, so that large lump is formed on his forehead; says “Excuse me, please.” No expression of pain. | |
| 37 minutes | Reacts to pain stimuli. | |
| 75 minutes | Still disoriented in time; retrogressive amnesia over three days. | |
| 24 hours | Normal condition again attained; has no recollection of the experiment itself. (T-455-56.) | |
(c) Results Achieved
On 11 May 1942, Rascher made his first report to Himmler on the high-altitude experiments—
“As practical result of the more than 200 experiments conducted at Dachau the following can be assumed. Flying in altitudes higher than 12 kilometers without pressure-cabin or pressure-suit is impossible even while breathing pure oxygen. If the airplane pressure machine is damaged at altitudes of 13 kilometers and higher the crew will not be able to bail out of the damaged plane themselves since at that height the bends appear rather suddenly. It must be requested that the crew should be removed automatically from the plane, for instance, by catapulting the seats by means of compressed air. Descending with opened parachute without oxygen would cause severe injuries due to the lack of oxygen besides causing severe freezing; consciousness would not be regained until the ground was reached. Therefore, the following is to be requested: (1) A parachute with barometrically controlled opening. (2) A portable oxygen apparatus for the jump. For the following experiments Jewish professional criminals who had committed ‘Rassenschande’ (race pollution) were used; the question of the formation of embolism was investigated in ten cases. Some of the VP’s died during a continued high-altitude experiment; for instance, after one-half hour at a height of 12 kilometers. * * * To find out whether the severe psychical and physical effects, as mentioned under No. 3, are due to the formation of embolism, the following was done: After relative recuperation from such a parachute descending test had taken place, however before regaining of consciousness, some VP’s were kept under water until they died. * * * One VP was made to breathe pure oxygen for two and one-half hours before the experiment started. After six minutes at a height of 20 kilometers he died and at dissection also showed ample air embolism as was the case in all other experiments.” (T-384-385.)
Dr. Romberg declared in an interrogation conducted on 29 October 1946, that he and other doctors had conducted experiments on themselves reaching altitudes of 17,000 meters (17 kilometers). Beyond that, he said, death was probable. This seems to contradict the report made by Rascher, above referred to, in which he speaks of the impossibility of flight at 12 kilometers (12,000 meters).
But the whole fallacy of the experiments and their sheer futility are revealed in a letter which Dr. Hippke, Chief of the Medical Section of the Luftwaffe, wrote to Himmler under date of 8 October 1942—
“It is true that no conclusions as to the practice of parachuting can be drawn for the time being, as a very important factor, viz., cold, has so far not yet been taken into consideration; it places an extraordinary excess burden on the entire body and its vital movements, so that the results in actual practice will very likely prove to be far more unfavorable than in the present experiments.” (T-404.)
If it was impossible perfectly to simulate flying conditions in the low-pressure chamber—and this, if they were scientists at all worthy of the name, they should have known and must have known—then the tests were only the wildest kind of experimenting. And if the experimenting was done with human lives, as it was, the recklessness and the wanton handling of these human lives, resulting from 60 to 70 times in death, can only be characterized by what it was,—murder.
(d) Freezing Experiments
On 20 May 1942, [Field] Marshal Milch wrote General Wolff recommending experiments “in regard to perils at high seas.” (T-393.) As German aviators from time to time were being forced to parachute into the North Seas, and consequently being subject to extreme cold for extended periods of time, the purpose of the freezing experiments was to ascertain the most effective way of rewarming such aviators and thereby saving their lives. (T-480.)