I come now to charges stated in paragraphs 7 and 11 of the indictment.
These are perhaps the most utterly repulsive charges in the entire
indictment. They concern the defendants Rudolf Brandt and Sievers.
Sievers and his associates in the Ahnenerbe Society were completely
obsessed by all the vicious and malignant Nazi racial theories. They
conceived the notion of applying these nauseous theories in the field of
anthropology. What ensued was murderous folly.
In February 1942, Sievers submitted to Himmler, through Rudolf Brandt, a
report from which the following is an extract (_NO-085_):
“We have a nearly complete collection of skulls of all races and
peoples at our disposal. Only very few specimens of skulls of
the Jewish race, however, are available with the result that it
is impossible to arrive at precise conclusions from examining
them. The war in the East now presents us with the opportunity
to overcome this deficiency. By procuring the skulls of the
Jewish-Bolshevik Commissars, who represent the prototype of the
repulsive, but characteristic subhuman, we have the chance now
to obtain a palpable, scientific document.
“The best, practical method for obtaining and collecting this
skull material could be handled by directing the Wehrmacht to
turn over alive all captured Jewish-Bolshevik Commissars to the
Field Police. They in turn are to be given special directives to
inform a certain office at regular intervals of the number and
place of detention of these captured Jews and to give them
special close attention and care until a special delegate
arrives. This special delegate, who will be in charge of
securing the ‘material’ has the job of taking a series of
previously established photographs, anthropological
measurements, and in addition has to determine, as far as
possible, the background, date of birth, and other personal data
of the prisoner. Following the subsequently induced death of the
Jew, whose head should not be damaged, the delegate will
separate the head from the body and will forward it to its
proper point of destination in a hermetically sealed tin can,
especially produced for this purpose and filled with a
conserving fluid.
“Having arrived at the laboratory, the comparison tests and
anatomical research on the skull, as well as determination of
the race membership of pathological features of the skull form,
the form and size of the brain, etc., can proceed. The basis of
these studies will be the photos, measurements, and other data
supplied on the head, and finally the tests of the skull
itself.”
After extensive correspondence between Himmler and the defendants
Sievers and Rudolf Brandt, it was decided to procure the skulls from
inmates of the Auschwitz concentration camp instead of at the front. The
hideous program was actually carried out, as is shown by a letter from
Sievers written in June 1943, which states in part (_NO-087_):
“I wish to inform you that our associate, Dr. Beger, who was in
charge of the above special project, has interrupted his
experiments in the concentration camp Auschwitz because of the
existing danger of epidemics. Altogether 115 persons were worked
on, 79 were Jews, 30 were Jewesses, 2 were Poles, and 4 were
Asiatics. At the present time these prisoners are segregated by
sex and are under quarantine in the two hospital buildings of
Auschwitz.”
After the death of these wretched Jews had been “induced” their corpses
were sent to Strasbourg. A year elapsed, and the Allied armies were
racing across France and were nearing Strasbourg where this monstrous
exhibit of the culture of the master race reposed. Alarmed, Sievers sent
a telegram to Rudolf Brandt in September 1944, from which I quote:
“According to the proposal of 9 February 1942, and your approval
of 23 February 1942, Professor Dr. Hirt has assembled a skeleton
collection which has never been in existence before. Because of
the vast amount of scientific research that is connected with
this project, the job of reducing the corpses to skeletons has
not yet been completed. Since it might require some time to
process 80 corpses, Hirt requested a decision pertaining to the
treatment of the collection stored in the morgue of the Anatomy,
in case Strasbourg should be endangered. The collection can be
defleshed and rendered unrecognizable. This, however, would mean
that the whole work had been done for nothing—at least in
part—and that this singular collection would be lost to
science, since it would be impossible to make plaster casts
afterwards. The skeleton collection, as such is inconspicuous.
The flesh parts could be declared as having been left by the
French at the time we took over the Anatomy and would be turned
over for cremating. Please advise me which of the following
three proposals is to be carried out:
(1) The collection as a whole is to be preserved.
(2) The collection is to be dissolved in part.
(3) The collection is to be completely dissolved.”
The final chapter of this barbaric enterprise is found in a note in
Himmler’s files addressed to Rudolf Brandt stating that:
“During his visit at the Operational Headquarters on 21 November
1944, Sievers told me that the collection in Strasbourg had been
completely dissolved in conformance with the directive given him
at the time. He is of the opinion that this arrangement is for
the best in view of the whole situation.”
These men, however, reckoned without the hand of fate. The bodies of
these unfortunate people were not completely disposed of, and this
Tribunal will hear the testimony of witnesses and see pictorial exhibits
depicting the charnel house which was the Anatomy Institute of the Reich
University of Strasbourg.
I have now completed the sketch of some of the foul crimes which these
defendants committed in the name of research. The horrible record of
their degradation needs no underlining. But German medical science was
in past years honored throughout the world, and many of the most
illustrious names in medical research are German. How did these things
come to pass? I will outline briefly the historical evidence which we
will offer and which, I believe, will show that these crimes were the
logical and inevitable outcome of the prostitution of German medicine
under the Nazis.
GERMAN MEDICAL ORGANIZATION
Before 1933
Two years after the reconstitution of the German Reich, in 1871, the
German Medical Association (Deutscher Aerztevereinsbund) was created,
which tied together the older local medical associations. This society
existed until it was abolished by the Nazi Government. Its structure was
democratic, and its interests included problems of hygiene and public
health, and to an increasing extent, socio-medical problems especially
in the field of sickness and disability insurance.
Bismarck’s legislation of 1881 established compulsory sickness insurance
for workmen. In the course of the ensuing years, the vast bulk of the
workmen were insured, and consequently most of the ordinary physician’s
patients came to be insured patients. There were lists of physicians
authorized to treat insured patients, and it was a matter of vital
moment to every practicing physician to be listed. To protect their
interest with respect to listing, fees, and other such problems, the
German doctors founded a voluntary association for the defense of their
economic interests known as the Hartmann Bund.
Questions of professional ethics, medical malpractice, etc., were
handled in Germany in two distinct sets of medical boards or “Courts.”
An entirely unofficial and voluntary system was established by the
German Medical Association. The other, which was endowed with
semi-official status, was called the Reich Chamber of Physicians. These
chambers were elected by vote of the members and were supported by an
assessment.
In addition to these organizations, there existed in Germany purely
professional societies of doctors, where papers concerning scientific
and practical problems were read and discussed, and which established
connections with similar societies abroad. The German Government
agencies which supervised the certification and licensing of physicians
as well as their professional activities were the Ministry of Education
and the Reich Health Office (Reichsgesundheitsamt) in the Ministry of
the Interior. The latter supervised medical practice and licensing
through the channels of the Ministries of the Interior of the various
German states, although licensing was a federal function rather than a
state function.
Medical education and training were rather standardized but good. The
students spent 5 or 6 years at one of several of the medical
universities; they took a final examination covering their clinical
studies and then spent a year at an authorized hospital under
supervision. Thereafter the interns were licensed and permitted to
establish a practice. After two more years they became eligible to treat
insurance patients, and, after submitting a thesis, could obtain the
degree of doctor from a university.