The deep interest of the German Air Force in capitalizing on the
availability of inmates of concentration camps for experimental purposes
is even more apparent in the case of the freezing experiments. These,
too, were conducted at Dachau. They began immediately after the
high-altitude experiments were completed and they continued until the
spring of 1943. Here again, the defendant Weltz was directly in charge
of the experiments, with Rascher as his assistant, as is shown in a
letter written in May 1942 by Field Marshal Erhard Milch, the Inspector
General of the German Air Force, to SS Obergruppenfuehrer Wolff, one of
Heinrich Himmler’s principal subordinates, and this letter specifically
requested that the freezing experiments be carried out at Dachau under
Weltz’s supervision. (_343-A-PS._)
The purpose of these experiments was to determine the most effective way
of rewarming German aviators who were forced to parachute into the North
Sea. The evidence will show that in the course of these experiments, the
victims were forced to remain outdoors without clothing in freezing
weather from 9 to 14 hours. In other cases, they were forced to remain
in a tank of iced water for 3 hours at a time. The water experiments are
described in a report by Rascher written in August 1942. (_1618-PS._) I
quote:
“Electrical measurements gave low temperature readings of 26.4°
in the stomach and 26.5° in the rectum. Fatalities occurred only
when the brain stem and the back of the head were also chilled.
Autopsies of such fatal cases always revealed large amounts of
free blood, up to ½ liter, in the cranial cavity. The heart
invariably showed extreme dilation of the right chamber. As soon
as the temperature in those experiments reached 28°, the
experimental subjects died invariably, despite all attempts at
resuscitation.”
Other documents set forth that from time to time the temperature of the
water would be lowered by 10° Centigrade and a quart of blood would be
taken from an artery in the subject’s throat for analysis. The organs of
the victims who died were extracted and sent to the Pathological
Institute at Munich.
Rewarming of the subjects was attempted by various means, most commonly
and successfully in a very hot bath. In September, Himmler personally
ordered that rewarming by the warmth of human bodies also be attempted,
and the inhuman villains who conducted these experiments promptly
produced four gypsy women from the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. When
the women had arrived, rewarming was attempted by placing the chilled
victim between two naked women.
A voluminous report on the freezing experiments conducted in tanks of
ice water, written in October 1942, contains the following (_NO-428_):
“If the experimental subject were placed in the water under
narcosis, one observed a certain arousing effect. The subject
began to groan and made some defensive movements. In a few
cases, a state of excitation developed. This was especially
severe in the cooling of the head and neck. But never was a
complete cessation of the narcosis observed. The defensive
movements ceased after about 5 minutes. There followed a
progressive rigor, which developed especially strongly in the
arm musculature; the arms were strongly flexed and pressed to
the body. The rigor increased with the continuation of the
cooling, now and then interrupted by tonic-clonic twitching.
With still more marked sinking of the body temperature, it
suddenly ceased. These cases ended fatally, without any
successful results from resuscitation efforts.
* * * * *
“Experiments without narcosis showed no essential differences in
the course of cooling. Upon entry into the water, a severe cold
shuddering appeared. The cooling of the neck and back of the
head was felt as especially painful, but already after 5 to 10
minutes, a significant weakening of the pain sensation was
observable. Rigor developed after this time in the same manner
as under narcosis, likewise the tonic-clonic twitchings. At this
point, speech became difficult because the rigor also affected
the speech musculature.
“Simultaneously with the rigor, a severe difficulty in breathing
set in with or without narcosis. It was reported that, so to
speak, an iron ring was placed about the chest. Objectively,
already at the beginning of this breathing difficulty, a marked
dilatation of the nostrils occurred. The expiration was
prolonged and visibly difficult. This difficulty passed over
into a rattling and snoring breathing. * * *” [Emphasis not
shown.]
During the winter of 1942 and 1943, experiments with “dry” cold were
conducted. And Rascher reported on these in another letter to Himmler
(_1616-PS_):
“Up to now, I have cooled off about 30 people stripped in the
open air during nine to fourteen hours at 27° to 29°. After a
time, corresponding to a trip of 1 hour, I put these subjects in
a hot bath. Up to now, every single patient was completely
warmed up within 1 hour at most, although some of them had their
hands and feet frozen white.”
The responsibility among the defendants for the freezing experiments is
substantially the same as for the high-altitude tests. The results were,
if anything, ever more widely known in German medical circles. In
October 1942, a medical conference took place here in Nuernberg at the
Deutscher Hof Hotel, at which one of the authors of the report from
which I have just quoted spoke on the subject “Prevention and Treatment
of Freezing”, and the defendant Weltz spoke on the subject “Warming up
after Freezing to the Danger Point.” Numerous documents which we will
introduce show the widespread responsibility among the defendants, and
in the highest quarters of the German Air Force, for these sickening
crimes.