TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT KARL BRANDT 12
KARL BRANDT DEFENSE EXHIBIT 11
AFFIDAVIT OF DR. WALTHER SCHIEBER ON HIS EFFORTS TO PURCHASE
EXPERIMENTAL ANIMALS IN SPAIN AND BRING THEM TO GERMANY
_Affidavit 111_
I, Dr. Walther Schieber, at present in Nuernberg, Justice Prison, have
been duly warned that I am liable to punishment if I make a false
statement. I affirm under oath that my deposition corresponds to the
truth and was made to be offered in evidence before Military Tribunal
No. I at the Palace of Justice, at Nuernberg, Germany. During the summer
of 1944, Professor Karl Brandt informed me during discussions concerning
the execution of the especially urgently operated Brandt—and
defense—program against chemical warfare agents that he was having
considerable difficulties in procuring animals which were needed for
test purposes concerning the effect of the top chemical warfare agents
and for which he had requests from testing office.
At that time the problem was how to convert the production of chemical
warfare agents on account of raw material shortage to the production of
the top chemical warfare agent Sarin, the effect of which would not yet
be finally determined.
To carry out these tests, an action to procure animals was started by me
in Spain, instigated by Professor Karl Brandt; because of the biological
reaction parallels to human beings, apes resembling men were allegedly
needed. An assistant was sent there especially for this purpose. For
this, the armament office offered approximately 200,000 Swiss francs,
and after my resignation as Chief of the Armament Supply Office in
October 1944 from the Speer Ministry I made strenuous efforts, together
with Professor Karl Brandt, to have a large number of animals brought by
extremely difficult air transportation from Spain to Germany. These were
put at Professor Karl Brandt’s disposal for the testing offices.
[Signed] WALTHER SCHIEBER
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT KARL BRANDT 101
KARL BRANDT DEFENSE EXHIBIT 41
AFFIDAVIT OF DR. OTTO AMBROS,[39] 21 APRIL 1947, CONCERNING THE URGENCY
OF EXPERIMENTS IN THE FIELD OF CHEMICAL WARFARE AGENTS AND THEIR
COUNTERMEASURES
I, Dr. Otto Ambros, at present in Nuernberg, Justice Prison, having been
duly informed that I shall render myself punishable if I submit a false
affidavit, declare under oath that my statement is true and was made for
presentation in evidence to Military Tribunal No. I in the Palace of
Justice, Nuernberg, Germany.
During the war I was a director of I. G. Farben and had to work on
chemical warfare agents and protective agents, and can therefore state
the following:
I got into touch with Professor Dr. Karl Brandt during 1944. On that
occasion Professor Brandt told me he had to take an interest in chemical
warfare agents and countermeasures. At the same time he showed me a
letter from Adolf Hitler referring to this subject. Furthermore, he
stated that he did not understand very much about chemical warfare, as
he was not an analytical chemist. His primary concern in this field was
the question of the supply of materials for gas masks, i. e., activated
charcoal and the synthetic materials and textiles which are necessary
for these.
Professor Brandt visited two poison gas plants at Dyherrnfurth and
Gendorf, to become generally acquainted with the nature of poison gas
itself.
There was the greatest uneasiness at that time regarding protection
against chemical warfare, as it was thought that the Allies would use
poison gas. It was said that they had brought poison gas over with them
when they landed at Tunis.
It was also said that the Russians had new gas masks which fact pointed
to the possibility of the use of a new kind of poison gas.
On the German side, there was definitely a serious shortage of chemical
warfare protective equipment, as not even the most urgently needed gas
masks were available, nor was it even possible to produce the required
number.
Nuernberg, 21 April 1947.
[Signature] DR. OTTO AMBROS
TRANSLATION OF DOCUMENT KARL BRANDT 103
KARL BRANDT DEFENSE EXHIBIT 42
AFFIDAVIT OF DR. WALTER MIELENZ, 21 APRIL 1947, CONCERNING THE
ASSIGNMENT OF KARL BRANDT IN CONNECTION WITH CHEMICAL WARFARE
I, Dr. Walter Mielenz, born 20 November 1888 in Berlin, residing in
Berlin-Friedenau, Ceciliengaerten 45 (business address:
Berlin-Lichterfelde W, Kadettenweg 67, Telephone 245218), have been duly
advised that I shall render myself liable to punishment if I give a
false affidavit. I declare under oath that my statement is true and was
made to be submitted in evidence to Military Tribunal No. I, at the
Palace of Justice, Nuernberg, Germany.
From 1933 to 1945 I worked at the Reich Air Ministry as an analytical
chemist, technical advisor on the question of the protection of the
civilian population against gas.
I am familiar with the decree of 1 March 1944 in which special tasks
were assigned to Professor Dr. Karl Brandt in connection with chemical
warfare. As far as I remember, the decree was worded approximately as
follows:
“I have ordered my Commissioner General for the Medical and
Health Service (Professor Dr. Brandt) to take a major part in
all matters concerning protection against chemical warfare (of
the army and the civilian population) and to issue orders to the
stations (military and civilian) established for this purpose.
In questions of the protection of the civilian population
against chemical warfare, he must obtain in advance the approval
of the Reich Air Minister and Commander in Chief of the
Luftwaffe.”
The decree certainly did not contain any order for research in
connection with chemical warfare agents.
The reason for the appointment of Professor Karl Brandt was the
assumption that the initiation of chemical warfare by the enemy was
shortly to be expected. This assumption was based on the fact that
intelligence was accumulating, according to which gas was being prepared
in large quantities by the enemy. Thus confidential agents reported that
poison gas ammunition was being stored at Tunis and Dakar, and these
reports were constantly being confirmed.
The greatest alarm was caused by the examination of captured Russian gas
masks, which showed that they afforded protection against far stronger
concentrations of poison gas than it had so far been believed possible
to achieve at the front. Their protective capacity far surpassed that of
the German Army and civilian gas masks. From this fact, it could be
concluded that the scientists and technicians of the Red Army had
succeeded in developing new and particularly effective methods of attack
in chemical warfare for known or new chemical warfare agents.
The German measures for gas defense were totally inadequate in number,
too. The civilian population in particular was exposed almost without
defense to gas attacks because the issue of civilian and infants’ gas
masks in many town and country districts was seriously behind schedule.
The relevant figures for civilian gas masks in the different supply
areas were between 10 and 70 percent of the population to be equipped,
the average figure being about 32 percent, and for infants’ gas masks,
about 7 percent. This estimate is based on the total number of civilian
and infants’ gas masks manufactured up to that date, in relation to the
total number of persons entitled to supply. This estimate did not take
into consideration the fact that, without doubt a large part of the
equipment which, in some cases had been in the hands of the population
for years, was no longer completely fit for use on account of faulty
unsuitable storage, or had been rendered useless by air raid damage,
evacuation of the owners, and other reasons, or lost completely. The
losses in civilian gas masks were estimated at about 15,000,000 (almost
50 percent of the total output up to that date) so that for the
completion of the initial equipment (without reserves) the manufacture
of 45,000,000 gas masks had to be planned.
In view of these facts, Professor Dr. Karl Brandt was assigned the task
of providing with the utmost speed for the improvement of gas defense to
avert the danger which threatened.
Through the initiative of Professor Brandt, the gas defense program was
finally given the highest priority and had an equal standing with the
program for the construction of fighter planes and tanks.
I know that Professor Dr. Brandt was most strongly opposed to the
propaganda demand spread by extreme Party circles for the initiation of
chemical warfare by Germany.
I regularly had to work with Professor Karl Brandt on gas defense and I
know that in view of their importance and urgency, he dispatched all
matters himself. The Department of Science and Research and its chief,
Professor Rostock, were not concerned with these matters.
The N-agent was not one of the chemical warfare agents. It is an
incendiary agent composed of chlorine and fluorine (ClF_{3}); this
N-agent has never been mentioned in connection with gas defense.
I know that there existed in the Armament Ministry a special commission
for the decontamination of drinking water; this had neither been
established by Professor Brandt nor was it under his command. The task
of this commission was the production of decontamination equipment but
not the development of such equipment, and especially not the
development of new processes for the decontamination of water. The
repeated suggestions made by Professor Haase in this context were
therefore beyond the field of activity of the commission. They were
discussed, however, at a meeting in December 1944, at which I was
present.
At this meeting the representatives of the army and the air raid
protection service stated that for their sphere, i. e., for the gas
defense of the troops and the civilian population, there was no need to
continue this work. Professor Brandt who was present at the meeting had
already agreed in advance with the general opinion that the efforts of
Haase did not admit of the expectation of any improvement on the
experiences presented for consideration, and that they should therefore
be rejected. He therefore asked me to work towards this end.
As far as I know, the commission was never concerned with sea-water
experiments. In particular, to my knowledge, the commission had no
knowledge of human experiments for the testing of agents designed to
render sea-water potable.
I can state with certainty that the undertaking of gas experiments on
human subjects was never spoken of by Professor Brandt and myself.
Moreover, during discussions with army experts concerned with gas
defense and chemical warfare, I never heard that Professor Brandt in any
way suggested human experiments or otherwise spoke of such experiments.