For the sea-water experiments we return to Dachau. They were conducted
in 1944 at the behest of the German Air Force and the German Navy in
order to develop a method of rendering sea-water drinkable. Meetings to
discuss this problem were held in May 1944, attended by representatives
of the Luftwaffe, the Navy, and I. G. Farben. The defendants
Becker-Freyseng and Schaefer were among the participants. It was agreed
to conduct a series of experiments in which the subjects, fed only with
shipwreck emergency rations, would be divided into four groups. One
group would receive no water at all; the second would drink ordinary
sea-water; the third would drink sea-water processed by the so-called
“Berka” method, which concealed the taste but did not alter the saline
content; the fourth would drink sea-water treated so as to remove the
salt.
Since it was expected that the subjects would die, or at least suffer
severe impairment of health, it was decided at the meeting in May 1944
that only persons furnished by Himmler could be used. Thereafter in June
1944 the defendant Schroeder set the program in motion by writing to
Himmler, and I quote from his letter (_NO-185_):
“Earlier you made it possible for the Luftwaffe to settle urgent
medical matters through experiments on human beings. Today I
again stand before a decision which, after numerous experiments
on animals and also on voluntary human subjects, demands final
solution: The Luftwaffe has simultaneously developed two methods
for making sea-water drinkable. The one method, developed by a
medical officer, removes the salt from the sea-water and
transforms it into real drinking water; the second method,
suggested by an engineer, only removes the unpleasant taste from
the sea-water. The latter method, in contrast to the first,
requires no critical raw material. From the medical point of
view this method must be viewed critically, as the
administration of concentrated salt solutions can produce severe
symptoms of poisoning.
“As the experiments on human beings could thus far only be
carried out for a period of 4 days, and as practical demands
require a remedy for those who are in distress at sea up to 12
days, appropriate experiments are necessary.
“Required are 40 healthy test subjects, who must be available
for 4 whole weeks. As it is known from previous experiments that
necessary laboratories exist in the Dachau concentration camp,
this camp would be very suitable.
* * * * *
“Due to the enormous importance which a solution of this
question has for soldiers of the Luftwaffe and Navy who have
become shipwrecked, I would be greatly obliged to you, my dear
Reich Minister, if you would decide to comply with my request.”
Himmler passed this letter to Grawitz who consulted Gebhardt and other
SS officials. A typical and nauseating Nazi discussion of racial
questions ensued. One SS man suggested using quarantined prisoners and
Jews; another suggested gypsies. Grawitz doubted that experiments on
gypsies would yield results which were scientifically applicable to
Germans. Himmler finally directed that gypsies be used with three others
as a check.
The tests were actually begun in July 1944. The defendant Beiglboeck
supervised the experiments, in the course of which the gypsy subjects
underwent terrible suffering, became delirious or developed convulsions,
and some died.