1946-12-10, #4: Doctors' Trial (late afternoon)

Prosecution: high altitude experiments

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal is of the opinion that the objection should be sustained, as the witness is apparently available, and that if the affidavit should be admitted in evidence and the defendants thereby deprived of an opportunity to cross-examine the witness it will be extremely unfair. The affidavit merely states in some places matters of opinion in any event, and the Tribunal is of the opinion that it would have very little probative value in any event. The objection as to the admission of the affidavit is sustained.

MR. McHANEY: Your Honor, we will not call the witness Osenberg to the stand. If the defense wishes to call him and make him a defense witness they are at liberty to do so. I will, therefore, proceed to Document 002-PS which will be Prosecution Exhibit 39.

THE PRESIDENT: What is the number of that document? My book is unbound. I cannot find some of these documents.

MR. McHANEY: That should be on page 76 of the Document Book. It is 002-PS. That is the last page of the document.

THE PRESIDENT: Describe that document again, if you will.

MR. McHANEY: Document 002-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: Page 76?

MR. McHANEY: Page 76, by mistake in poor translation of this document it was included in the English Document Book before the court, and we would like to submit for inclusion a new document book now, the corrected translation of Document 002-PS, and this will be Prosecution's Exhibit 39. We have been discussing Reich's Research Council. We have seen what kind of an organization this was from the Fuehrer's Decree, and we have seen that its purpose were the contralization of scientific research in Germany for the purpose of aiding the war effect. That will come out in more detail during the course of the trial, but I would now like to read several excerpts from 002-PS.

These documents show that the Reich's Research Council approved a grant of money to the Medical Service of the SS on the ground that the SS had experimental material, namely concentration camp inmates which was not so readily available to other research organizations. If your Honors will look on page 8 of the new document, which has been handed up, I would like to read parts of this letter which is dated 19 December 1942. It is from the Reichsminister of Finance directed to the Reichs Research Council to the attention of Ministerial Director, Professor Dr. Mensol, whom, you will recall, was the direct superior of the defendant, Sievers, in the Reichs Research Council. I will point out, however, that Sieveres, as I recall, did not become a member of the Reichs Research Council until June 1943, whereas the letter which I am now reading is dated 19 December 1942. The letter reads us follows in parts:

The Reich Physician SS and Police has requested 53 key positions (ratings C3 to C8) for the new organization of [his] office.

The organizational plan shows that not only special consultants for "research" in the pharmaceutical and chemical, the dental and the clinical fields, and a special department for scientific service are considered for the staff of the Reichs Physician SS and Police itself but establishments are also requested for a group of institutes which likewise are essentially engaged in research tasks.

The letter then enumerates the institutes which have been asked by Grawitz, the Reichs Physician SS. The next paragraph reads:

In the budget discussions the fact was referred to, that establishments for research institutions of the Waffen SS can only be granted if the research tasks started by the Reich Physician SS are not undertaken by other independent institutes or the Universities or belong under them. According to the plan available to me the Hygiene Institute comprises seven departments.

And then the letter lists the seven departments which I shall not read.

As to other institutes I still lack accurate information. I have postponed the decision on this charter of the budget. Referring to the decree of the Fuehrer of 9 June 1942 and the necessity stressed therein to concentrate the efforts of scientific research I ask you to give me your opinion immediately. Signed Dr. Bender, Reich Ministry of Finance, Ministerial Chancellery.

In other words, the budget department has here addressed a letter to Dr. Mensol asking him whether or not other research institutes in Germany are carrying out research tasks for which the Reichs Physician Grawitz is now asking him for money.

We turn then to page 6, which is the reply to the letter of 19 December, and although it apparently is not signed, it presumably was written by Menzol the Head of the Executive Council of the Reich Research Council, and it was directed to the Reich Minister of Finance.

In your letter of 19 December concerning the taking over of research tasks by the Reich Physician SS and Police you asked for the positions of the Reich Research Council in this matter. Since, for the present, the activities of the Reich Research Council have been concentrated on the armament sector proper I was not in a position to clear up the problems connected with the medical sector. But I shall do this in the near future and I believe I am able to say already that the larger part of the new institutes requested by the Reich Physician SS and Police will be unnecessary since other institutes will be able to take over the tasks planned. In the near future I shall have a talk with the Reich Physician SS and Police to discuss details of the work planned and I shall inform you of my final position in out time.

Therefore I would like to suggest to defer decision on the matter. In this connection I should like to say that the Reich Chief for Public Health, State Secretary Conti, has approached the President of the Reich Research Council requesting funds for the establishment of a Reich Institute for Virus Research in Frankfurt/Main. Checks up to now could very well be carried out in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute at Berlin-Dahlem and in the Institute for Medical Research of the University of Strassburg.

Now, I call the court's particular attention to the reference to the institute at Strassburg. That is Dr. Hodgson, subordinate of the defendant, Schroeder, the man who received orders from the defendant, Becker-Freyseng, who carried out the decisions of the Fuehrer which was not only done at Strassburg, but at the close by Concentration Camp of Katzweiler. Experiments with virus killed a number of concentration camp inmates there. Continuing back to page 5 we find a letter from Menzel to SS-Gruppenfuehrer Professor Doctor Grawitz stating in effect that "The Reich Minister of Finance has informed me that you request money for those 53 key positions to your office." He goes on to state that:

After the Reich Marshal of the Greater German Reich has, as President of the Reich Research Council, taken over the entire German scientific research directives have been issued by him to the effect that, in connection with the carrying out of war important scientific tasks the available institutes, including equipment and personnel, be utilized to capacity for reason of necessary economy of effort. The establishment of new institutes therefore is to be considered only insofar as there are no suitable institutes available for the carrying out of war important research tasks. As your intentions are not know to me and since I cannot get a clear picture from the list of institutions which are planned to be newly established, given by the Reich Minister of Finance, I should be grateful to you if you further explained your plans and intentions. I will gladly be available to anyone of your coworkers for a discussion and would also be willing to call on you in person. Please let me know when and where this discussion should take place.

This letter is dated -- I don't see a date on it. In any event it was around the early part of 1943, and I would say parenthetically that Mensel would have had no necessity of writing this letter to Grawitz to find out this information if at that time the defendant, Schroeder, had not benn his subordinate, but that occurred a few months late and so we have Mensel having to get this information from Grawitz himself. Reading from a letter which is on page 2 of the translation, dated 26 February 1943 from the Reich Physician SS and Police it refers to the previous letter of February 19, 1943, and is to the Head of the Executive Council of the Reich Research Council, Ministerial Director Mentzel.

My dear Ministerial Director: In acknowledgment of your letter of 19 February 1943 I am able to reply the following today. The appropriation for the 53 key positions for my office which you made the basis of your memorandum was actually a plan for peace times. The special institutes of the SS which partly are to be staffed through this appropriation are to serve the purpose of establishing and make accessible for the entire field of scientific research, the particular possibilities of research only possessed by the SS. In view of the further developments of this war I have, however, already postponed this plan for the time being on the occasion of the negotiations with the Reich Ministry of Finance last year, so that my authorized personnel was reduced to 25 key positions. Of these positions only 5 are filled at present. Under these circumstances your misgivings with regard to an impracticable duplication of work of scientific institutes will certainly be invalid for the duration of the war. I will gladly be at your disposal at any time to discuss the particular research aims within the framework of the SS, which upon the direction of the Reichsfuehrer SS, I would like to bring up after the war. Besides I attach importance to the fact that these research tasks, once their realization is possible, will be carried out in close connection with the other pertinent research aims. Hoping to have been of service to you by this provisional exposition I remain with best regards and Heil Hitler, Your. /s/ Grawitz.

And finally we have on page one of the translation a letter from Mentzel-- the problem has been resolved. He has found out both by these letters and perhaps by personal contact with Grawitz that his request for money from the Minister of Finance is more than justified. So, as head of the Security Counsel, he directs this letter of 25 March 1943 to the Reich Minister of Finance:

In regard to your correspondence of the 19th of December to which I gave you a preliminary communication on the 19th of February, I finally take the following position:

The Surgeon General-SS and Police, in a personal discussion, told me that the budget claim which he looks after is used primarily in the pure military sector of the Waffen SS. Since it is established on a smaller scale for the enlarging of scientific research possibilities, they pertain therefore exclusively to such affairs that are carried out with the material which is only accessible to the Waffen SS and are therefore not to be undertaken for any other experimental purpose.

I cannot object therefore on the part of the Reichs Experimental Counsel against the budget claims of the Surgeon General, SS and Police

/s/ Mentzel

If your Honor, pleases, this is one of the research organizations which the defendant Karl Brandt with his alternate Paul Rostock, defendant Sievers, the defendant Blome, occupied important positions. And we find that information has brought him in a very direct manner to them as to the greater research possibilities which are available to the SS. I also wish to stress the point that this document indicates that the Reich Research Counsel was consulted as an expert organization where information could be obtained by medical and scientific research in Germany as a whole. And I also would like to remind the Tribunal that on the chart, organization of the office of the Reich Commissioner for Health and Medical Services, the Reich Research Counsel is one of the organizations over which Rostock had scientific and medical jurisdiction. In further reference to the Reich Research Counsel, I wish to call to the Tribunal's attention a finding in the judgment of the International Military Tribunal in Case No. 1, This excerpt has been inserted as being true and correct Colonel John E. Ray, Secretary General of the International Military Tribunal, and that it appears on page 16955 of the official English transcript. This excerpt, your Honor, appears on page 85 in the English document book.

It is the last document in the book. It reads as follows:

In connection with the administration of the concentration camps, the SS embarked on a series of experiments on human beings which were performed on prisoners of war or concentration camp inmates. These experiments included freezing to death, and killing by poison bullets. The SS was able to obtain an allocation of Government funds for this kind of research on the grounds that they had access to human material not available to other agencies.

Your Honor, please, this is being submitted in order that you may take judicial notice of it under Article 9, Ordinance Number 7. The document 002-?? was the proof and evidence which underlies the finding which I have just read you.

If it pleases the Tribunal, we have now completed our presentation on the personal histories and the positions held by the defendants in the document. We feel that we laid the foundation in order that we may now proceed to the proof on the subsequent crimes themselves. And, I therefore, come to the presentation of evidence on the high Altitude Experiments carried out in the Dachau Concentration Camp in the spring and summer of 1942.

This is the first experiments and the list of those charged in the indictment. First, under Paragraph 6, under War Crimes, and also under Paragraph 11, Crimes against Humanity.

THE PRESIDENT: Before you proceed Counsel, I notice in this book of documents, that your document 002-PS is included on pages 75 to 80 inclusive. Then the excerpt that you mentioned, signed by Colonel Ray, is on page 85. Now, are there any pages omitted from this copy or is it a complete statement that jumps from page 80 to 85. It may not be important, but I would like to be satisfied on this point.

MR. McHANEY: Yes, indeed, your Honor, I want to be sure you have received a full copy of the document.

THE PRESIDENT: The document is included in 7 pages, from page 74 to page 80.

MR. McHANEY: Well, your Honor, has been supplied with the correct English translation of 002-PS.

THE PRESIDENT: Then those pages were not included. I was confused with the non-consecutive numbering of the pages, but that probably is unimportant.

MR. McHANEY: That may very well have occurred, your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: Very well, proceed.

High Altitude Experiments at Dachau

MR. McHANEY: The defendants, Karl Brandt, Handloser, Schroeder, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Sievers, Ruff, Romberg, Becker-Freyseng, and Weltz, are charged with special responsibility for and participation in the High Altitude Experiments at Dachau.

If your Honors will obtain document book Number 2, you will find that contains the English translation of the documents which will be introduced under this part of the case.

THE PRESIDENT: We do not seem to have that document book here.

MR. McHANEY: I am advised by Mr. Hardy that he delivered the English document books.

THE PRESIDENT: They were delivered but they were not brought to the bench. We have then in the other room, and we can get them.

MR. McHANEY: Would you care to adjourn for a few moments or should I proceed?

THE PRESIDENT: We shall have them in a moment.

(The documents were delivered to The President.)

THE PRESIDENT: Proceed, please.

MR. McHANEY: I would like to introduce first document No. NO-476, Prosecution's Exhibit 40. This is an affidavit signed by the defendant Romberg, and it reads as follows:

I, Hans Wolfgang Romberg, being duly sworn, depose and state:

The first paragraph, your Honor, I will not read since it simply presents the personal history, which evidence has all ready been obtained from the earlier statement. The second paragraph.

From about the first part of March 1942 to about the end of May 1942 experiments were conducted at the Dachau Concentration Camp to determine the effects of extreme high altitudes on the human body. These experiments were conducted for the benefit of the Luftwaffe. Dr. Ruff was first approached to assist in the high altitude experiments at Dachau by Dr. G.A. Weltz, Chief of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Munich. This was in December 1941 or January 1942. Dr. Weltz advised Ruff that Dr. Sigmund Rascher, doctor in the Luftwaffe and also a member of the SS, was to perform the high altitude experiments. Weltz wanted an expert to work with Rascher on these experiments.

3. In January or February 1942 Weltz, Ruff, Rascher and I had a meeting at Weltz's Institute in Munich to discuss arrangements for the experiments. Dr. Weltz introduced Rascher to us at that time. A few days later a second meeting was held in the Dachau Concentration Camp and this was attended by Weltz, Ruff, Rascher and myself as well as Piorkowski, who was the camp commander, and Schnitzler, who was on the staff of the Reichsfuehrung-SS. Further arrangements were made at this time for carrying out the experiments.

4. A low pressure chamber was sent from the DVL in Berlin.

And, if I may insert emphatically, your Honor, that is the institute in which Doctors Ruff and Romberg were working. Ruff was the Chief of the Department for Aviation Medicine in DVL.

A low pressure chamber was sent from the DVL in Berlin first to Weltz's Institute in Munich and from there to Dachau. This chamber could deplicate atmospheric conditions and pressures prevailing at high altitudes.

It consisted of two parts, one of which was used for slow ascensions and descensions and could accomodate as many as twelve people at a time, while the other was used for explosive decompression and could accomodate only one or two people. This low pressure chamber was set up in one of the blocks at the Concentration Camp and the experiments were conducted on Concentration Camp inmates. The experiments actually started around the first part of March and the initial experiments were conducted on twelve prisoners. When prisoners were requested, we asked that they be in a physical condition which compared with members of the Luftwaffe. The experimental subjects were tested in either the large or small part of the chamber, usually one at a time, and their reactions to high altitudes were checked with an electrocardiograph. Four series of experiments were conducted:

a. Slow descent without oxygen.

b. Slow descent with oxygen.

c. Falling without oxygen.

d. Falling with oxygen.

The latter two tests were designed to simulate a free fall from an airplane before the parachute opens. Several tests were from time to time conducted on the same experimental subject.

5. The experiments lasted until approximately the end of May. During this time I was living at Dachau and, with the exception of several trips to Berlin, I was in Dachau for the whole course of the experiments. On my trips to Berlin I reported to Dr. Ruff as to the progress of the experiments. I remember that Dr. Ruff visited Dachau on at least two occasions when he observed the experiments. Dr. Ruff and I worked at the experimental station at Dachau as representatives of the German Experimental Institute for Aviation (DVL)".

6. I witnessed the death of three of Dr. Rascher's human experimental subjects during the experiments. The first death occurred in the latter part of April. On this particular occasion I was studying the electrocardiograph of the human experimental subject then being tested. After the death of this human experimental subject, I raised objections to Rascher and also informed Ruff concerning the matter. Hereafter two other deaths occurred on different days in May I also reported these to Dr. Ruff. I know that other experimental subjects were killed while I was not present, and would estimate that they totalled between five and ten.

7. After a human experimental subject died as a result of the low pressure experiments, an autopsy was performed. The purpose of this was to determine the exact cause of death. Once to my knowledge the autopsy was performed under water in order to observe the air bubbles which might have formed in various parts of the human experimental subjects body. I have been shown pictures (numbered 1, 2, and 3), which show an open section of the brain of the body and also a dissected portion of the breast. Autopsies of this character were performed in Dachau on experimental subjects who died during the low pressure experiments; and I assume that these pictures are photographs made of such subjects. I know that photographs were made of the autopsies at Dachau.

8. I have been shown a series of other pictures which show persons undergoing experiments in a low pressure chamber. Of these I recognize the pictures numbered 1-A, 2-A, 3-A, and 4 as being photographs made during the course of the low pressure experiments conducted in Dachau. I suppose that the other pictures numbered 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and so on consecutively through 37, and 45 were also made at Dachau, although I do not know. I do not know of any low pressure experiments on concentration camp inmates other than those made at Dachau. After the low pressure experiments were completed, Dr. Rascher and I made a report which was approved by Duff and signed by the three of us. This was circulated to all interested offices in the Luftwaffe. In my opinion, Dr. Anthony of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe must also have received a copy of this report. I do not remember if Becker-Freyseng was with the Medical Inspectorate at that time; but if he was, he certainly knew that these experiments were being conducted. Wolfram Sievers of the "ahnenerbe" Society of the SS was also familiar with these experiments and was in Dachau several times when they were being conducted.

I myself saw him there once at the experiments tation. Milch and Hippke were also quite familiar with these experiments. Dr. Oskar Schroeder was the second highest ranking medical officer in the Luftwaffe in 1942; and he also probably knew of these experiments, although I never personally talked to him about them.

10. No one in the Luftwaffe ever made any objection concerning these experiments. Dr. Weltz certainly never expressed any moral scruples against these high altitude tests since it was he who originally asked Dr. Ruff and me to assist Dr. **scher.

/s/ Dr. Romberg

I have no comment to make on this affidavit except with respect to the position of the defendant Becker-Freyseng at this time; and I will remind the Court that the affidavit of Becker-Freyseng submitted this morning shows that he was as early as autumn of 1941 a subordinate of Dr. Anthony in the Department for Aviation Medicine in the Medical Inspectorate of the Luftwaffe.

I would also point out that experiments of this type, namely, the study of extreme high altitudes on the human body, is a subject which fits in with the work being done by the Department for Aviation Medicine. It is a problem of aviation medicine.

If your Honors please, I would now like to introduce a series of pictures which are included in Document NO-610; and we offer themes Prosecution Exhibit 41. These are the pictures among which the defendant Romberg has definitely identified picture numbered 1-A, 2-A, 3-A, and 4. These appear, your Honor, on Page 8 of your document book, Pages 8, 9, 10, and 11; and you can see in these pictures, not only these hour but in the others, the electrocardiograph attachments on the wrist of the experimental subject who is, in the case of Picture 1-A, suspended by a parachute harness from the roof of the low pressure chamber.

Now, it so happens that these pictures were taken from a continuous strip of film which was found among the personal possessions of Dr. Rascher; and we submit that the identity of Pictures 1-A, 2-A, 3-A, and 4 conclusively show that all of the pictures included, as Document NO-610 are in effect pictures taken during the course of the high altitude experiments conducted at Dachau and charged in the in Indictment.

I will not take up the time of the Tribunal in going over each of these thirtyeight or more pictures. I would like, however, to call your particular attention to the very ghastly pictures on pages 5, 6, and 7 of your document book; and these pictures were identified in Paragraph 7 of Romberg's affidavit, in which he states that he knows that autopsies were performed in Dachau; that he had seen these three pictures; and that he knows that autopsies of this character were performed at Dachau on subjects who died during the course of the experiments there.

We will come at a later point in the trial, either this afternoon or early tomorrow morning, a report made by Dr. Rascher, in which the Court will be very easily enable to relate these pictures showing the autopsy on the body to the experiments conducted in Dachau.

DR. SIEGFRIED WILLE: Dr. Wille, counsellor for the defendant Weltz. I should like further like to ask the representative of the prosecution how he can prove the authenticity of these pictures. It cannot be seen from the documents who it actually as that took these photographs; and I should like to ask him to clarify how these photographs were taken and who took them.

THE PRESIDENT: You are proceeding too fast.

DR. WILLE: Should I repeat it? I should like to repeat, from the document it cannot be seen who it was that took these pictures. We cannot recognize the authenticity of these pictures; and we demand an explanation; and I therefore ask the representative of the prosecution to tell us how he came to possess these pictures and who took them.

MR. McHANEY: Would you like to hear from the prosecution now?

THE PRESIDENT: Yes.

MR. McHANEY: There are two questions involved in this objection; firstly, as to the admissibility of the documents themselves. These pictures, as I stated, have been printed from a strip of film which was captured by the Allied Army. I am advise and believe that it was taken with a number of other personal possessions of the now deceased Dr. Rascher. This film now resides in the document room here at Nurnberg and was received in the official course of business and has been daily certified as authhentic by the affidavit of Mr. Niebergall and by the certificate which is attached to the exhibit which I have just now put in, which is Exhibit 41.

THE PRESIDENT: Where is that certificate, Mr. McHaney? I don't find it in this book.

MR. McHANEY: Exhibit 41. If your Honor please, if I may be permitted to continue my observations, the first question is whether this is an authentic document. I submit that its been authenticated in the same manner that any other captured. German document is in this case, namely, by the affidavit of Major Googan, by the affidavit of Mr. Neibergall and by the affidavit which is attached to these pictures and the second question is what materiality these pictures have to this case. To prove that we have submitted these pictures to the defendant Romberg and he has identified very definitely, as stated in his affidavit, pictures 1a, 2a, 3a and 4 which are contained in a continuous strip of film. I submit, therefore, that our identification of these pictures as being some of a series taken at Dachau is perfectly sound and good.

DR. WILLE: My reply to that: I have not read that these photographs have been taken from a series of films. I am being confirmed by my collegue. I have come to the results that the statement regarding the authenticity of these document cannot be applied to the film and I should, therefore, like to ask the prosecution to prove that we are really concerned with photographs dealing with the experiments of Ruff, Romberg and Rascher in Dachau.

THE PRESIDENT: The objection interposed by counsel will be overruled and the exhibit admitted.

MR. McHANEY: I come down to the affidavit of the defendant Ruff, who was, in fact, the superior of Romberg for the purposes of these experiments and a scientist of considerable reputation in the field of aviation medicine. The affidavit is Document No. 437 and will be Prosecution Exhibit 42. The affidavit reads as follows:

I, Siegfried Ruff, being duly sworn, depose and state:

1. I was born in Frimershein/Niederrhein, Germany, on February 19, 1907. I studied medicine at Bonn and Berlin Universities and was a doctor in the University hospital at Bonn until January 1943, when I joined the staff of the German Experimental Institute for Aviation, hereinafter called DVL at Berlin-Adlershof. It was my job to establish a Department for Aviation Medicine in the DVL, which I id. I was with the DVL until the end of the war. I was an officer in the reserve of the Luftwaffe until the end of the war, and attained the rank of Assistant Physician (lieutenant). I joined the NSDAP in 1938.

2. Late in 1941, I believe December, Dr. G. A. Weltz of the Institute for Aviation Medicine at Munich told me that Dr. Sigmund Rascher was to make certain low-pressure experiments at the Dachau Concentration Camp. It was considered desirable to have experts in this field assist in the experiments and for that reason Weltz had contacted me. I took the matter up with Dr. Hippke, Chief of the Luftwaffe Inspectorate and he agreed that Dr. Romberg of my staff should collaborate with Rascher in these experiments.

3. Early in 1942, about January or February, a conference was held in Dachau in which Dr. Weltz, Dr. Rascher, Dr. Romberg, two officers who were apparently of the concentration camp staff, and I took part. We discussed the arrangements for conducting the experiments. It was understood that concentration camp inmates who had been condemned to death would be used in the experiments and that as a compensation they were to have their sentence commuted to life imprisonment.

4. In due course, a movable low-pressure chamber was taken from the DVL in Berlin to Munich. It was taken to Munich instead of directly to Dachau so that the driver would not learn of its final destination. I believe that the keys of the truck were turned over to Weltz and he handed them over to the SS men who drove the chamber on to Dachau.

5. The experiments were actually conducted in Dachau during the spring or summer of 1942. They lasted from 2 to 3 months. Dr. Romberg stayed the whole time in Dachau with the exception of a few short trips to Berlin to report to me. I visited Dachau once while the experiments were conducted there.

6. Dr. Weltz was informed about these experiments as were a number of doctors in the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe. A motion picture of the experiments was shown in the Reich Ministry of Aviation. Dr. Weltz certainly never told me that he considered the experiments immoral or criminal or that his superiors thought so. After all, he came to me with the offer that Romberg and I, as experts in lowpressure research, participate in the experiments with Rascher, since he was not considered an expert. Personally, I would not consider these experiments as immoral specially in War Time.

/s/ Siegfried Ruff

MR. McHANEY: Now, if your Honor, please, there is an amendment to the affidavit of Siegfreid Ruff carrying the same document number, NO-437 and it also has been admitted along with the affidavit I have just read as Prosecution Exhibit 42 and I would now like to read this very short amendment which Dr. Ruff has added as a supplement to his affidavit of 18 October 1946:

Postscript Paragraph. Those condemned to long years of prison were said to get a reduction of punishment or dispensation of punishment. Names for the experiments should be entered voluntarily. The above completion is done in my own handwriting. Nurnberg, 25 October 1946.

MR. McHANEY: As the proof in this case proceeds and indeed upon the state of the proof as it now exists, I think it is perhaps a bit strange that the defendant Ruff should state positively in his statement that he did not consider these experiments immoral especially in war time.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. McHaney, are these two exhibits attached together.

MR. McHANEY: Yes, sir. That's on page 49, your Honor. I come now to an affidavit signed by the defendant Rudolf Brandt, who as the Court will recall, was adjutant to the Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler and who had a very remarkable opportunity to participate in and gain some information about the matters about which we are here concerned. This affidavit is Document NO. 191 and we offer it as Prosecution Exhibit 43 and it is on Page 50 of the English Document Book.

I, Rudolf Emil Hermann Brandt, being duly sworn depose and state:

THE PRESIDENT: How long will this affidavit that you are about to read take?

MR. McHANEY: Well, your Honor, it will probably take five or ten minutes. It is about three pages long.

MR. PRESIDENT: Proceed.

1. I was born on 2 June 1909 at Frankfurt/Oder, Germany, and was educated for the law in university in Berlin and Jena. I joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and my party number is 1,331,546. In October 1933 I became a member of the SS with the number 129,771. On November 9, 1935, I was commissioned an Untersturmfuehrer Second Lieutenant) and ultimately rose to the rank of Standartenfuehrer (Colonel). In 1936 or 1937 I became an Adjutant to Heinrich Himmler, Reichsfuehrer of the SS. This position was of an administrative nature as personal assistant to Himmler.

2. By reason of my position ad Adjutant to Himmler, I was able to obtain considerable knowledge of the details of many activities in which Himmler and various personalities participated. This knowledge came through discussions with Himmler and other persons concerned and through conferences, correspondence and the like. I **ad and answered a great deal of correspondence addressed to Himmler, and on my own initiative I handled various administrative details pertaining to welfare cases, for which the Reichsfuehrer-SS had set down fundamental regulations.

3. Because of my position and experience outlined above I also gained an in**ight into medical experimentation on human beings and I am able to make this statement on that subject.

The Low Pressure Experiments

4. I first heard of the plan to experiment on human beings in May 1941.

The idea originated with Dr. Sigmund Rascher, Stabsarzt der Luftwaffe and later *auptsurmfuehrer SS. At that time Rascher was attending a course in aviation medicine at the Luftgaukommando VII in Munich. He wrote Himmler suggesting that concentration camp inmates be placed at his disposal for experimentation to determine the effects extreme height on the human body. Volunteers could not be expected as the experimental subjects might die. Rascher stated further that the examination center for **fects of altitude, of which Dr. G. A. Weltz was the director, would be prepared to carry out such experiments.

5. Himmler had me answer this letter from Rascher, informing him that prisoners would be made available for the research. Later on, in July, 1941, Himmler authorize **. Weltz, Dr. Rascher and Dr. Kottenhoff to carry on the low pressure experiments **n the Dachau Concentration Camp.

6. The experiments did not get under way until about March 1912. In the meantime, the necessary technical arrangements were handled by Dr. Weltz. Dr. Kottenhoff as transferred to Rumania, but the experimental team was strengthened by Dr. Ruff, director of the Luftfahrtforschungsaustalt Berlin Adlershof, and his assistant, Dr. Romberg. These men, together with Weltz and Rascher, held a conference in Dachau in which technical arrangements were made with the Commandant of Dachau Concentration camp Piorkowski, and the Munich adjutant to the Reichsfuehrer-SS, Schnitzler. *r. Weltz agreed to supply the necessary orders for Dr. Rascher as far as the Luftaffe was concerned.

7. Instructions were given by the Reichsfuehrer SS that Rascher should personally take part in all experimentation on human beings at Dachau. Thus, in March 1942, I wrote to Sievers that the experiments had been approved so long as Rascher participated. This was essentially an experiment by the Luftwaffe and Rancher was the only SS doctor of the group. This was done at the request of Mrs. Rascher who *elt that other members, particularly Dr. Weltz, wanted to retain all control and re sponsibility for the experiments and to put Rascher aside. She wanted Rascher attached to the Luftfahrtforschungsanstalt Berlin-Adlershof, in order to make it impossible for Weltz to transfer him elsewhere. Generalstabsarzt Professor Dr. Hippke was requested by Himmler's office to transfer Rascher, and he extended the orders attaching Rascher to Weltz's organization in Munich "8. Rascher sent a preliminary report to Himmler in April 1942 on the progress of the experiments.

The report stated that the experiments were conducted to find out how long human beings are able to live if exposed to conditions existing at great heights (lack of oxygen, low pressure). Many of the experiments ended in the death of the person experimented upon, Rascher noted in a cover letter that Sievers had seen some of the experiments.

9. Himmler, after reading the report, requested Rascher to continue the experi ments on additional people sentenced to death. If the subject experimented upon live through the test, his sentence was to be commuted to life imprisonment. Himmler also requested Rascher to invite Dr. Fahrenkamp to his experiments. In the meantime Siev** had reported to Himmler about his visit to Dachau and his knowledge of an participation in the low pressure experiments. For volunteers the term of imprisonment should be reduced.

10. Later on Rascher inquired whether Poles and the Russians who survived the experiments were also to have their death sentences commuted. I replied to **ersturmfuehrer Schnitzler, by order of the Reichsfuehrer-SS, that Poles and Russians were not to have their death sentences commuted.

11. There is no doubt that numerous mishaps occurred during the course of these experiments. I remember that Mrs. Rascher wrote to me asking for permission to take **lor photographs of recently dissected subjects; permission for this was granted.

12. Generalfeldmarshall E. Milch

-- that should read, Your Honor -- "and professor Hipke, the 'Inspecteur des Sanitaetswesens der Luftwaffe'

had full knowledge of the low-pressure experiments. Indeed, the experiments could not have been conducted without the knowledge and consent of these men because they were conducted for the benefit of the Luftwaffe and the experimenters were for the most part Luftwaffe doctors. Rascher was also a member of the SS and it was for this reason that Himmler insisted on full participation by Rascher in the experiments - he wanted the SS to receive credit for this work. Karl Wolff acted as liaison between Himmler and Milch in connection with low-pressure experiments and also the freezing experiment remember the correspondence between Milch and Himmler in which Milch admitted **ding the reports of Rascher and Romberg. Motion pictures of the experiments were *own to the Air Ministry (RLW). I also know that Himmler wrote Wilch in an effort obtain Rascher's release from the Luftwaffe so that he would be subordinate only to the SS. This was finally accomplished through Hippke's office."

/s/ Rudolph Brandt.

THE PRESIDENT: We will recess until tomorrow morning.

THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will recess until nine-thirty tomorrow morning.

(The Tribunal adjourned until 11 December 1946 at 0930 hours)