1947-01-06, #3: Doctors' Trial (early afternoon)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
MR. McHANEY: If the Tribunal please, before the luncheon recess, the Prosecution had offered Document Number 265 as Prosecution Exhibit Number 178. This offer had been contested by Dr. Flemming, Counsel for the Defendant Mrugowsky. I told the Tribunal I would ascertain the source of this document during the recess.
This document was secured by agents of the Office of Chief Counsel from one Eugene Kogan. Kogan will take the stand and testify later in the afternoon and will tell you that he was the First Clerk to the deceased Dr. Ding-Schuler, and that this document was secured by him 2 April 1945 in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, and that it has been in his custody since that date with the exception of a short time when it was microfilmed by an organization known as FIAT which is a Joint Intelligence operation of the United States and British Army.
It was continuously in his possession up until the time the Office of Chief Counsel secured it from him. However, this purports to be an original German document. It is signed by the deceased Dr. Ding-Schuler; accordingly, for reasons which are satisfactory to the Prosecution, we have offered it before Kogan takes the stand on the around that it is an original and that it is admissible under the certificate we customarily attach to captured German documents.
The Tribunal also requested that I secure samples of the signature of Dr. Ding; samples of his signature when he was known as Dr. Schuler also. Upon re-examination of the record I find that we have samples of those signatures already in the record and I take it that the genuineness of these signatures is not contested bu Defense Counsel.
Prosecution Exhibit Number 284 contains in the lower left hand corner the signature of Dr. Ding.
Prosecution Exhibit Number 283 contains the signature of Dr. Schuler and I submit that both of these signatures are rather unique. Now we will pass up Document Number 265 which has been offered as Prosecution Exhibit Number 287 and which is the Diary kept by the deceased Schuler on experiments at Buchenwald.
On substantially all of the pages of this diary there appears either the signature of Dr. Ding or of Dr. Schuler. I will again pass this document to the Tribunal. I will point out the first time the name "Dr. Schuler" appears is on Page 25 of this Document Number 265.
On the preceding pages appear the name, "Dr. Ding." I think that you will find that the similarity between the uncontested signatures of Ding and Schuler and those appearing in the contested exhibit are almost similar.
THE PRESIDENT: The objections to the admission in evidence of this exhibit are overruled. The document will be admitted.
MR. McHANEY: Before reading the earlier portions of the Ding Diary, I would like to remind the Tribunal that Prosecution Exhibit 286 was the paper written by Dr. Ding on his experiments on typhus patients with the drugs Acridin and Rutenol. The Tribunal will recall that the paper states that these experiments were made from April to May, 1943, and that 39 persons were used in these experiments.
You will also recall that 15 were given the drug Rutenol and 15 Acridin; 9 were given neither and retained as a so-called control.
I would therefore ask the Tribunal to turn to Page 46 of the English Document Book which shows the entries on 13 and 14 April 1943 in the Ding Diary. We shall see what an ingenious thought this Ding Diary is inasmuch as it very exactly reports the experiments in Ding's papers submitted to Reicharzt and SS Police on the 17 of November, 1944.
Permission was then asked to publish a paper.
This entry reads:
Unit of SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Ding ordered to I. G. Farbenindustrie A. G. Hoechst. Conference with Prof. Lautenschlaeger, Dr. Weber, and Dr. Fussgaenger about the experimental series 'Akridin Granulat and Rutenol' in the concentration camp Buchenwald.
Visit to Geheimrat Otto and Prof Prigge in the institute for experimental therapeutics in Frankfurt-on-Main.
24 April 1943:
Therapeutic experiments Akridin-Granulat (A-GR2) and Rutenol (R-2)
To carry out the therapeutic experiments Akridin-Granulat and Rutenol 30 persons (15 each) and 9 persons for control were infected by intravenous injection of 2 cubic centimeters each of fresh blood of a spotted fever sick person.
All experimental persons got very serious spotted fever.
1 June 1943:
Charts of case history completed.
The experimental series was concluded 21 deaths (8 with Akridin-Granulat) (8 with Rutenol) (5 control) /s/ Dr. Ding SS-Sturmbannfueher
Now I say to the Court that it is absurd to urge that this document is anything in the nature of a fraud.
Here we have two completely independent documents reporting about the selfsame experiments carried out in April and May of 1943, the same number of persons, the same number of controls, the same drugs, the same date, and we see that these 39 unfortunate people did not contract this disease naturally. The first entry here makes very clear that all 39 were infected by intravenous injections of 2 cubic centimeters each of fresh blood of a spotted fever sick person. We can, therefore, see that the stamp with the name Poppendick on the original paper submitted by Dr. Ding for his approval for publication carried somewhat more than usual significance.
I might also remark with respect to this paper written by Dr. Ding and submitted to Poppendick for approval that it states therein that the treatment through the use of these drugs was started during the incubation period. I am advised, and I suggest to the Tribunal and to the defendants that in and of itself indicates on the face of the paper that these people were artificially infected with typhus and that even if we did not have the very interesting Ding Diary it would be sufficient to prove that these experiments were criminal, and why is that? The incubation period means before the symptoms of the disease appeared. Now, how could these men know that these persons in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp had typhus during the incubation period unless they themselves had infected these persons? If they had contracted the disease naturally, during the incubation period no symptoms appeared and it was not possible to ascertain that they had the disease typhus at that time. But we need not rely upon such medical facts because we have the Ding Diary and that makes perfectly clear what was done during the course of those particular experiments in April and May of 1943.
I would like at this time to go back to the beginning of the Diary and read from it at some length. On the first page we find the years 1941/42, "Diary of the division for research of spotted fever and virus at the Institute of Hygiene of the Waffen SS." This is on page 38 of the English document book. The first entry, and certainly a most interesting one, is dated 29 December 1941:
Conference between army sanitation inspector, GeneralChief Surgeon Professor Dr. Handloser; states secretary for the department of health of the Reich-SS Gruppenfuehrer Dr. Conti; president Professor Gildemeister of the Robert Koch Institute (Reichs Institution to combat contagious diseases) and SS-Standartenfuehrer and lecturer Dr. Mrugowsky of the Institute of Hygiene Waffen-SS, Berlin.
It has been established that the need exists, to test the efficacy of, and resistance of the human body to the spotted fever serum extracted from egg yolks. Since tests on animals are not of sufficient value, tests on human beings must be carried out.
Here we see a meeting of these distinguished gentlemen in which it is decided that animal tests have not been sufficient and to work on human beings. And what are they going to do? Are they just going to inject this serum and see what the reaction of the human body to the serum alone is? Not at all. They are testing the efficacy of the human body, the efficacy of the serum as well as the resistance of the human body to the serum. And that, if Your Honors please, means simply that they were going to infect the test subjects with typhus following the inoculation to test how efficient the vaccine was. And that is precisely what happened. The defendant Handloser participated in this conference, Professor Gildemeister of the Robert Koch Institute participated in this conference and his closest collaborater in this field was the defendant Rose, the vice-president of the Robert Koch Institute. The defendant Mrugowsky was there, the deceased Dr. Conti, the superior of the defendant Blome was there; and all together, as the responsible agents of the German government, they decided that these criminal experiments should be carried out. The Diary continues:
2 Jan. 42:
The concentration camp Buchenwald is chosen for testing the spotted fever serums. SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Ding is charged with these tests.
5 Jan. 42:
Preliminary test A:
Preliminary test, to determine the surest and most practical way of infecting human beings artificially. Five humans for test purposes received intramuscular and subcutaneous injections of virus in doses of 1 cubic centimeter. Infection was not possible...
And the signature of Ding appears after those 3 entries.
The first step they took in carrying out the project decided upon at this conference was to find out how they could artificially infest those unfortunate experimental subjects with typhus. So let us not hear the defense urge that this Institute was established simply for the purpose of testing the reaction of the human body to the serum itself.
10 Jan. 42:
Preliminary test B:
Preliminary test to establish a sure means of infection:
Much as in small pox vaccination, 5 persons were infected with virus through 2 superficial and 2 deeper cuts in the upper arm.
All of the humans used for this test fell ill with true spotted fever. Incubation period 2 to 6 days.
20 Jan. 42:
Preliminary report of reactions of vaccinations. Through continually produced blood counts a strong neutrophile Linksverschiebung Stabkernige was discovered.
2 Feb. 42:
Chart of case history of the preliminary tests to establish a sure means of infection were sent to Berlin.
1 death out of 5 sick.
6 Jan 42 - 1 Feb 42 Spotted fever vaccination material - Research Series I "Execution of vaccination for the immunization from spotted fever, using the following vaccines:
1) 31 persons with Weigl-vaccine from the intestines of lice of the institute for spotted ver and virus research at the Supreme Command Army (OKH) Crakow...
And if I may pass over we can note that their vaccine was being obtained from the same Dr. Eyer who I mentioned earlier, the subordinate of the defendant Handloser, who had participated in the meeting which decided upon these experiments not 30 days earlier.
2) 35 persons with vaccine from Huehnereidottersackkulturen made by the process Cox. Gildemeister & Haagen.
3) 35 persons with vaccine 'Behring Mornal' (1 egg bloated (aufgeschwemmt) to 450 cubic centimeters caccine. Mixture of 70% Rickettsia Mooseri and 30% Ricksettsie Prowazeki).
4) 34 persons with (Behring Normal' 'Behring Strong' (1 1 egg bloated to 250 cubic centimeters).
5) 10 persons for control...
Always we find we have these unfortunate control persons who received no protective inoculation whatsoever.
Always we find that we have these unfortunate control persons, who received no protective inoculations whatsoever.
3 March 1942:
All persons vaccinated for immunization between 6 January 1942 and 1 February 1942, and the ten persons for control, were infected with a virus culture of Rickettsiz-Prowazeki, in the presence of president, Professor Gildemeister. SS Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain) Dr. Ding infected himself in the process (laboratory accident).
So here we find that not only was Professor Gildemeister in the meeting that outlined this program but he also appeared in person on March 3rd, 1942, to see how things were going and in his presence these persons were infected with typhus.
17 March 1942:
Visit of Prof. Gildemeister and Prof. Rose (Department head for tropical medicine of the Robert Koch Institute at the experimental station. All persons experimented on fell sick with spotted fever, except two, who, the fact was established later, already had been sick with spotted fever during an epidemic at the police prison in Berlin. SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Ding fell sick with spotted fever and lies at the hospital in Berlin. SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Hoven, station medical officer of the Waffen SS in Weimar, supervises in the meantime the stations (Block 44 and 49).
So we find that the Defendant Rose visited Buchenwald with his friend and superior, Prof. Gildemeister and watched these experiments, which included the injections on the concentration camp inmates. We also see from this entry that the defendant Hoven took over for the first time in the experimental station and the defendant Rost won't deny that he made this visit to Buchenwald. He will admit now that he was there.
19 April 1942:
Final report on the first spotted fever vaccine research series: The stone block #45 was made available for the purpose of these spotted fever experiments.
5 deaths (3 under control) 1 with "Behring Normal" 1 with "Behring Strong" (stark)
19 August 1942 - 4 September 1942; Spotted fever vaccine, research series 11; Execution of vaccination for the immunization from spotted fever, using the following vaccines:
1) 20 persons with vaccines, made by the process of Durane and Giroud (Pasteur Institute, Paris) from rabbit lungs.
2) 20 persons with vaccine, made by the process of Combiescu, Zetta and collaborators from dog lungs. (Producer: Contacuzine, Bucharest). (This vaccine was made available by Prof. Rose, who received it from Navy Doctor Prof, Ruge from Bucharest).
So we may conclude that Prof. Rose was impressed by what he saw on March 17, 1942, and is now aiding in the criminal conspiracy by supplying them with vaccine to be tested.
15 October 1942:
Artificial infection of all persons, vaccinated for immunization between 19 September 1942 and 4 October 1942, and 19 persons for control with Eidottersack Virus (Rickettsia Prewazeki).
25 October 1942:
"The infection has started on all persons experimented on
20 May 1942:
Charts of case history sent to Berlin.
4 deaths of control persons.
I would like to pause here to refer again to the objection to this document. It seems to be rather obvious that this diary was not kept on a day to day basis because from the 20th of May 1942 to 19 August 1942 appear only about four entries and to them there is only the signature of Dr. Ding, so I assume it is entirely possible that inasmuch as six or seven months elapsed before the formal entries were made in the diary, these entries were quite obviously made from work notes which were kept by Dr. Ding.
10 September 1942 to 10 October 1942:
Unit of SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Ding (ordered) to the Pasteur Institute in Paris to Prof. Giroud.
22 October 1942 to 5 November 1942:
Spotted fever vaccine Research Series 111.
Vaccination for immunization from spotted fever of 20 persons with vaccine made according to the process of Giroud, Paris. This vaccine was taken by SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Ding from Paris immediately after production.
20 November 1942:
Artificial infection with Huehner idettersack material
(and they give the name of the virus)
from the Robert Koch Institute of the 20 persons vaccinated for immunization and of 6 control persons. This research series was observed for six weeks and then abandoned without results, as no sickness broke out among the control group.
27 October 1942 to 8 November 1942:
Spotted fever vaccine, Research Series IV:
Vaccination for immunization of 20 persons with a vaccine from intestines of lice made by the process of Weigel (sent by lecturer Dr. Haas of the spotted research institute 'Emil v. Behring' in Lemberg).
20 November 1942:
To test the affect of the immunization, the infection shall be made with lice, sick with spotted fever. The lice and their cages must be burnt immediately, as the latter becomes leaky during transport and therefore represents a danger of epidemic in Camp Buchenwald.
3 December 1942:
Newly sent lice are applied to 15 persons (5 immunized and 10 persons for control). The lice again must be destroyed as the cages are not tight.
The report is again made that an infection with live spotted fever lice is not possible because the danger to camp inmates is too great.
4 January 1943:
Due to infection by lice on 3 December 1942, five persons show short term illness.
The research series was concluded.
So we see by this series of entries that they developed a second means of injection. The first we saw was that comparable to smallpox vaccines, where they made small incision on the upper arm. Now they are using a second method of injection through lice.
15-18 December 1942:
Unit of SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Dr. Ding (ordered) to the opening of the spotted fever research foundation in the General-Government 'Emil v. Behring' in Lemberg (Lecturer (Dozent) Dr. Haas).
28-31 December 1942:
Vaccination for the immunization from diphtheria of the Reserve Bn. of the Leihstandarte SS 'Adolf Hitler' (approximately 2500 men) because of the outbreak of an epidemic.
Inspection of quarters and advice to the medical officer for the fighting against epidemic.
1 December 1942 to 20 December 1942:
Spotted fever vaccine, Research. Series V:
To determine the immunization effect, 20 persons were actively vaccinated for immunization with vaccine 'EM' of the Behring Works - Dr. DEMWITZ - (vaccine, where beside the chicken embryos were used).
26 January 1943:
Artificial infection with Eidotter-Virus Op No 223 and 226 from Robert Rock Institute.
We see that the Robert Koch Institute through the Defendant Rose was supplying the virus with which these unfortunate victims were injected with typhus.
9 January 1943:
By order of the surgeon general of the Waffen SS, SS-Gruppenfuehrer and Major General (Generalleutnant) of the Waffen SS, Dr. GENZKEN, the hitherto existing spotted fever research station at the concentration camp Buchenwald becomes the 'Department for spotted fever and virus research'. The head of the department will be SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. DING.
During his absence, the station medical officer of the Waffen SS, WEIMAR, SS-Hauptsturmfuehrer HOVEN will supervise, the production of vaccines. The chief of the economic and administrative headquarters, SS-Obergruppenfuehrer and Lt. Gen (General) of the Waffen SS POHL, orders the extension of block of stone buildings.
SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. DING is appointed at the same time as chief department head for special missions in AMT XVI (Hygiene), of the group department (Amtsgruppe) D (Medical affairs of the Waffen SS) of the SS Main Headquarters.
10 January 1943; Therapeutic experiments Akridin and Methylene Blue: On suggestion of the I G Farbenindustrie AC, as spotted fever therapeuticum were tested: a) Preparation 3582 'Akridin' of the chemical pharmaceutical and aero-bacteriological department in Frankfurt-on-Main-Hoechst Prof. Lautenschlaeger and Dr. Weber - (Therapeutic experiment A); b) Methylene blue, tested in an experiment on mice by Prof. Kiekuth, Elberfeld (Therapeutic experiment M).
26 January 1943: Artificial infection with EidotterVirus Op No 223 and 226: 2- persons for therapeutic experiment A: Akridin; 2- persons for therapeutic experiment M: Methylene blue, and 7 persons for control.
20 February 1943: From the spotted fever infections of the 26 January 43 the persons for control show no typical spotted fever symptoms, also in the group Vaccine 'EM' of the Behring Works, Akridin, Methylene Blue, about * are without sickness, the remainder have medium spotted fever. The research series was designated to the manufacturer as 'negative', as the persons for control could not be infected clearly. One death in therapeutic experiment Akridin.
10 January 1943: Yellow fever vaccine tests: The 'Behring Works Marburg/Lahn', the 'Robert Kock Institute Berlin', and the 'Institute for spotted fever and virus research of the Supremo Command of the Army(OKH)' in Crakow were commissioned by the Supreme Command of the Army (OKH) to manufacture yellow fever vaccine of Beltier and collaborators. Since a live virus is being handled, for safety's sake from each vaccine charge a test is to be performed on five persons.
At the same time 50 persons are to be vaccinated once with Op No. 25 of the 'Robert Koch Institute' which already has been tested for its harmlessness, to determine the decrease of working capacity.
The results of the yellow fever vaccine tests are to be sent to Department XVI in the SS Main headquarters, in duplicate, who will forward one to the manufacturer, and one to the supreme command of the army (OKH), attention Major Dr. Schmidt (Army Medical Inspectorate)
-- And there fellows a list of tested OP numbers which we need not read.
3 February 1943: Sterility experiment with an egg vaccine. A package was sent with a small bottle of 20 ccm spotted fever vaccine from egg yellow cultures. Op No 35 from 1t October 42. A second injection on 8 December 42, a third injection on 13 December 42 of a spotted fever vaccination for immunization was carried out on Sister Lilli Boehm, born on 3 April, 1912 by resident surgeon Dr. von Eysmond. Towards evening a temperature of 104° F. 48 hours after the last vaccination death in coma in the German clinic in Kauen.
Section protocol: Spotted fever (No 2033, University of Kauen, pathological institute, Lecturer Dr. Starkus.)
And then he gives an investigation on material vaccinated on and so forth.
During animal experiments, guinea pigs and mice were vaccinated intra-peritoneal and under the skin of the back. No pathological symptoms at all. Results: The vaccine not responsible for the death. The vaccination still took place during the incubation period.
8 February 1943: Visit of major Dr. Eyer from the institute for spotted fever and virus research of the OKH in Crakow and Major Dr. Schmidt from the army medical inspectorate.
There again we have two of the chief subordinates of the defendant Handloser visiting the murder factory at Buchenwald.
22 February 1943: Examination of unknown bacteriological material: During August 42, Soviet parachutist was brought into the district Marienburg; he carried in his baggage the Amphielon Material, which was turned over by the RSHA, (Department IV A/3 on 25 February 43) They were Ruhrbakteriophan (Dysentery B...), which could be diagnosed without doubt by animal and culture experiments, and which can be used for therapeutic purposes in case of diarrhea.
28 February 43 to 6 March 43: Unit of SS Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Ding ordered to Paris to procure laboratory material of the department for spotted fever and virus research, and the institute of hygiene.
23 March 43: Conference between SS Sturmbannfuehrer Barnewald, SS Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Ding and SS Hauptacharfuehrer Schlesinger from Department W 5, W.V.H.A. about the breeding of rabbits, ruin a pigs and mice as experimental animals for the experimental department.
25 January 43 to 28 February 43: Spotted fever vaccine Research Series VI. To determine the immunization effect the following are actively vaccinated for immunization. 2- persons with vaccine 'Zurich' from the hygiene Institute of the University of Zurich (lungs of mice), and 2- persons with vaccine 'Pigs' from the serum institute of the University of Riga.
31 March 43: Artificial infection with egg-RickettsiaProwazecki of the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin.
11 April 43: The infection of 31 March 43 has not resulted in any sickness so far.
28 April 43: Experimental series abandoned.
8 March 43: Examination of the water and inspection of the concentration camp Vught near Herzegenbusch.
8 March 43 to 1- March 43: Inspection of billets in Apeldoern-Arnheim and vicinity. Advice of chief surgeon of the commander of the Netherlands in respect to a Diphtheria-epidemic in Apeldoern.
24 March 43 to 2- April 43: Carrying out of a large scale experiment on 45 persons by the process of the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS by SS Standartenfuehrer lecturer Dr. Mrugowsky.
Vaccinations were made on 8 different days within four weeks against smallpox, typhus, typhoid A and B, cholera, spotted fever, diphtheria. Compatibility was generally good. Exact protocol and report were delivered on 27 April 1943 to department chief of department XVI.
It led partly to a strong decrease of working capacity, losing of strength, increase of temperature and swelling of the lymph glands. It must be considered, typhus and smallpox were not vaccinated on the same side of the body, otherwise strongest swellings of the lymph glands take place.
The diphtheria-Adsorbat vaccine led to about 20 cases of strong formation of abcesses. If still in the camp, the persons were again vaccinated for smallpox within * year.
We then come to 31 March, 1943, therapeutic experiments "Akridin Granulat" and "Rutenol".
For the execution of therapeutic experiments 'Akridin Granulat' and 'Rutenol' 40 persons were infected with egg Rickettsien.
11 April 43: after observation of several weeks, no sickness started. Report to SS Standartenfuehrer Lecturer Dr. Mrugowsky and President Prof. Gildemeister. The type 'Matelska' of the Robert Rock Institute, which will lead to spotted fever sickness with certainty.
11 April 43: Preliminary Experiment C: To determine a sure means of infection, experiments with whole blood from persons stricken with spotted fever, were made. Infection took place as fellows: 3 persons - 2 ccm each of whole fresh blood intravenous; 2 persons - 2 ccm each of whole fresh blood intramuscular; 2 persons - 2 ccm each of whole fresh blood subcutaneously; 2 persons - after scarification; 2 persons - with a vaccinating scapol cutaneously.
These infected intravenously got typical, serious spotted fever, and died because of failure of the circulatory system. The other experimental persons complained only about minor discomforts, without becoming hospital cases.
13 April 43: Preliminary Experiment D. The following were infected. 6 persons with 2 ccm each whole fresh blood intravenous; 6 persons with 2 ccm each whole fresh blood intramuscular; 6 persons by means of a vaccination scalpel cutaneous.
The six-intravenously infected persons again got very serious spotted fever, 5 died.
Of the six, infected intramuscularly, one person got medium spotted fever. The others were without any reasonable difficulties, and were not hospital cases. The surest means of infection to produce spotted fever in humans is therefore the intra veneous injection of 2 ccm spotted fever whole blood.
I think by reading this portion of the Ding Diary the Court has gotten a pretty good picture of how these experiments were conducted at Buchenwald, and the deaths which occurred there. Accordingly, before reading into the record the remainder of the diary which is equally interesting, I should like at this time to call to the stand Eugen Kogon.
JUDGE SEBRING: Witness Dr. Eugen Kogon will take the stand.
EUGEN KOGON, a witness, took the stand and testified as follows:
JUDGE SEBRING: The witness will hold up his right hand and be sworn, reporting after me the following oath.
I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.
(The witness repeated the oath.)
JUDGE SEBRING: You may be seated.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. McHANEY:
Q: Witness, your name is Eugen Kogon?
A: Yes.
Q: You were born on February 2, 1903 at Munich, Bavaria, Germany?
A: Yes.
Q: What is your citizenship, Witness?
A: I am an Austrian citizen.
Q: What is your present address?
A: Oberursel near Frankfurt, Am Hang 26.
Q: And what is your occupation at present, Witness?
A: I am a publicist, editor of the monthly for culture and politics, "Frankfurter Hette".
Q: How long have you held that position?
A: Since April, 1946.
Q: And what were you doing for the year prior to that time?
A: From April 1945 until July 1945 I was working with the Psychological Warfare Division and later for Control Division in Paris and Bad-Hemburg and from then on I was an independent author.
Q: Now, Mr. Kogon will you tell the Tribunal something about your education?
A: I attended primary school in Munich, elementary school in Munich; a secondary school with the Benedictines and Dominicans I studied at the Universities of Munich, Florence and Vienna, national economy and sociology. From 1927 I was in Vienna and worked on the Catholic weekly, "Schoenere Zukunft" as editor. At the same time I was advisor to the central committee of Christian Unions in Vienna. In 1932 I became editor in chief of the paper of the Christian Unions in Vienna until the end of 1933. From 1934 on I was administrator of the Austrian-Nurgarian Prince Saxe-Coburg Gotha and on the 12th of March 1938 when the national Socialists marched into Austria I was arrested.
I was put in the police prison in Vienna; in the fall of 1939 I was sent to the concentration camp Buchenwald where I was a political prisoner until the liberation on the 12th of April 1945.
Q: Now, witness, will you tell the Tribunal in a little more detail about your relationship with Prince Coburg, the work you did there, and will you also tell the Tribunal about any previous arrests to which you have been subjected?
A: I was administrator of the property of this Austrian-Hungarian Prince Coburg, and as such, I repeatedly had business in Germany. We had considerable blocked accounts in Germany. I was arrested twice Germany by the Gestapo. Once in 1936 for one day only. The second time in March 1937 by the Gestapo. In both cases an attempt was made to involve me in violations of German foreign currency laws and to prove that I had supported the immigrants in Austria by my collaboration with anti-Fascists abroad, in Czechoslovakia and in Switzerland. The second time, I was arrested and put on probation after 12 days, but I could not leave Germany. After four and a half months, there was a trial in Wiesbaden at which I, as a representative of Prince Coburg, was tried for extensible violation of the German foreign Currency laws and for financial support of a large Catholic publishing house in Germany from abroad I was given a fine of ten thousand marks.
Q: Who paid that fine, witness?
A: Prince Coburg.
Q: Was this a responsible position which you had with Prince Coburg?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you have to handle and administer large sums of money?
A: Yes, I had all the free fortune in Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland under my charge. As trustee, I was in charge of the Vienna private bank of this prince.
Q: How large an estate was that?
A: The estate of this prince in Austria included about 25 Million schillings, of which I had about two and a half to three million under my administration.
Q: Is this Prince Coburg with whom you had this relationship the same one who was an Obergruppenfuehrer in the SA?
A: No, he had nothing to do with him.
Q: This family Coburg is the one from which rulers of various countries in Europe have come?
A: Yes, it is the same family.
Q: Now, as I remember your earlier statement, you were sent to Buchenwald in September 1939, is that right?
A: Yes.
Q: Now, what work did you do while you were in the camp, Doctor Kogon
AAt first, I was used as a ground worker and after about six months as a blacksmith, later a tailor. In the beginning of '43, I came to the pathology section as a secretary-clerk, and from the spring of '43, I was first doctor's clerk, working for Sturmbannfuehrer, who was later Hauptsturmbannfuehrer, Dr. Ding. He later assumed the name of Schuler for the newly created vaccine station in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp.
Q: That was in the spring of 1943 that you became chief clerk to Schuler?
A: In April 1943.
Q: What were your duties as clerk to Schuler-Ding?
A: I was in charge of all his correspondence. I had to take all the dictation from Dr. Ding, I had to take care of the files, and I had to pass his orders.
Q: Now, were you working in Block 46 or Block 50?
A: In Block 50.
Q: Now, will you explain to the Tribunal just what work Ding-Schuler was doing in Buchenwald, that is, over which blocks he had jurisdiction and what was being done in each of the blocks?
A: Dr. Ding, in 1939, was camp physician in Buchenwald. Then he went to the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS in Berlin and returned about the end of '41 as head of the newly created experimental station. Here returned to Buchenwald. In 1943, or the end of '42, he suggested that typhus vaccine for the fighting troops at the front should be produced in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp, and for this purpose a station within the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS should be founded.
Actually, in the first months of 1943, a section for typhus and virus research was set up in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp with the two blocks, 46 and 50. Block 46 was called the "Clinical Station for Typhus and Virus Research" under the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS-Berlin. Block 50 was called "Section for Typhus Vaccine Production." Dr. Ding was the head of the Block 46 and of Block 50. Both the two blocks had nothing to do with each other as far as personnel was concerned. The prisoners in Block 50 for the most part were enemies of the Block 46 Dietsch. Dr. Ding issued the instructions for Block 46 directly to Arthur Dietsch, CAPO of block 46. Only when there were visits or reports which had to be made was I told to ask for the material from Capo Arthur Dietsch to draw up the reports or to announce visits in Block 46. Dr. Ding-Schuler when he was not in Berlin personally used to write reports to Mrugowsky every three months. Dr. Ding-Schuler from the fall of 1943 on was also special deputy of the so-called block districts of the SS. Especially for Block Area "B" in the Hartz Mountains.
Where there were about fifteen auxiliary camps of Buchenwald, he had to control the hygienic conditions there because about twenty-five thousand inmates of Buchenwald were sent there as workers in subterranean installations, especially the Junkers works.
Q: Now, Mr. Kogon, some interest has been shown in the change of the name of Ding to Schuler. Will you explain to the Tribunal what you know about Ding's having his name changed to Schuler, and if, in fact, they are one and the same person?
A: Dr. Ding is identical with Schuler. From the Spring or Summer of 1944 on he generally used the double name Ding-Schuler, outwardly only the name Schuler. Mrugowsky, however, wished him to use the name Ding with the name Schuler, or to call himself Schuler, too, because there was another SS officer in Berlin who had the name Schuler. The name Ding also is not the real name of this SS physician. He was the illegitimate child of a girl named Braun. A merchant at Bielefeld later adopted him, and that is how he got the name Ding. His father was a physician, Dr. Von Schuler and Ding endeavored from 1938 on to get the noble name Von Schuler. When the war broke out, changes in names were prohibited by the Ministry of the Interior. Ding, however, did not stop his attempts to change his name, and through Himmler personally in 1944 he managed to have his name changed. He welcomed this fact in 1944 very particularly because he hoped that in this way he would be able to achieve the advantage after the end of the war, after the victory -- the victory of the Allies which he no longer doubted that he would be able to disappear.
Q: Now, Mr. Kogon, I believe you stated that Block 50 began the production of typhus vaccines sometime in the early part of 1943, is that correct?
A: In 1943.
Q: Now, were the typhus experiments carried on in the Clinical Block, that is, Block 46?
A: Only in Block 46.
Q: And when did those experiments begin, do you know?
A.I know from Dr. Ding-Schuler, from my comrades who worked in the prisoners' hospital, and later from Arthur Dietsch that the first experiments took place about the turn of the year 1941, '42.
Q: Now, you had stated what your duties were with Dr, Ding. Can you tell us some of the persons with whom Ding had correspondence in connection with the typhus experiments at Buchenwald?
A: The correspondence was carried on primarily with Mrugowsky as the head of Office 16, and later Chief Hygienist of the SS, also partly -officially partly privately with Gruppenfuehrer Genzken, furthermore, with the Military Medical Academy in Berlin, with the Institute for Typhus and Virus Research of the OKH in Krakow, with the Behring works in Marburg, with the I. G. Farben Industry, the Hoechst Laboratory in Hoechst on the Main, and with a number of smaller firms, finally with the SS Hospital in Berlin, Untar den Eichen 125, and with a few doctors personally, for example, Professor Ruge in Rumania, and a few other doctors.
Q: Do you remember if he had any correspondence with the Institute at Leipzig under Poppendick?
A: Yes. There was also correspondence between the firm Mauthausen & Company in Dresden/Raterpoll, the experimental section 5 in Leipzig. This correspondence was in part through Poppendick in Berlin and part through Obersturmbannfuehrer Dr. Kirchert in Leipzig. This concerned experiments-- two kinds of experiments. In the first place, phosphorous, kautchuk, incendiary bomb experiments in Buchenwald, and in the second place, experiments of a Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Bernhardt who tried to make homosexuals sexually potent through gland treatment. These two experiments went through the Section 5 in Leipzig.
Q: "We will discuss in more detail these two experiments later on, Witness. Now, did Ding confide in you with respect to his work in these typhus experiments?
A: From the time when I had to work with Dr. Ding-Schuler, I learned virtually every important detail concerning the experiments in Block 46.
Q: Did you have an opportunity to read secret reports on these experiments?
A: What reports?
Q: Secret reports on the experiments?
A: There was no correspondence, whether private, from Dr. Ding-Schuler, or official, pen or secret which did not go through my hands, as far as this correspondence originated from Block 50 in Buchenwald.
Q: Now, were you able to obtain any knowledge of medicine? Did you make any study of medicine because of the position you had in Buchenwald?
A: When on the 6th of June, 1946, I was called for the first time to take dictation from Dr. Ding, I was in extremely great difficulties because I had only very little primitive medical knowledge in the -- which I had acquired in the preceding weeks in the Pathological Section. From then on I began to study biology and infectious diseases at night, first in order to learn the technical expressions, and, second, in order to gain an understanding of the material. Personally, I was interested in learning a field of natural science. Dr. Ding gave me the necessary literature to do this from Jena.
Only later did I have an opportunity to talk with a number of important bacteriologists in Block 50. They were primarily foreigners, French, Czechs, Poles, Russians. They generally could not talk to the Sturmbannfuehrer, and they asked me to present the results of their experiments to the Sturmbannfuehrer The so-called scientific work of Dr. Ding-Schuler -- I had to write it which was to be published in German medical publications since Dr. Ding wanted to become a Lecturer. In such cases he gave me directives and hints and instructed me to work out a subject with the bacteriologists, the biologists and the other scientists In Block 50, and possibly in the Camp, to draw up the work and to submit it to him. In this way in the course of two and a half years I was able do learn a minimum-- to acquire a minimum of medical knowledge by virtue of which I was able to understand the things that happened in Block 46.
Q: Now, Mr. Kogon, did yon ever write any reports for Ding on the experiments in Block 46?
A: Yes.
Q: Now, Mr. Kogon, did you ever write any reports for Ding on the experiments in Block 46?
A: Yes; the results of the series of experiments conducted in Block 46, I had to sum them up on the basis of the material which Block 46 turned into me. I had to submit them to Doctor Ding, then he dictated to me the reports, which were generally sent to Doctor Mrugowsky in Berlin.
Q: Do you know whether Doctor Ding was under instructions to type up these secret reports himself?
A: There were such cases. Doctor Ding told me then, "Kogon, here is another case where I must report personally. It is a very secret matter. I will dictate to you now. You will write the thing on the typewriter, but without a diary number and without your initials, and make a few typewriting mistakes in it so that it will lock authentic, so that Mrugowsky will not think somebody else wrote it." I did that and Doctor Schuler sent these letters personally.
Q: Did you ever see Mrugowsky at Buchenwald?
A: Yes; as far as I can recall, I saw Mrugowsky probably three times. At least twice in Buchenwald.
Q: Will you look at the defendants in the dock to your right and tell me if you see Mrugowsky there?
A: The first from the right in the lower row.
MR. McHANEY: We ask that the record show that the witness has properly identified the defendant Mrugowsky.
THE PRESIDENT: The record will show the witness properly identified the defendant Mrugowsky in the dock.
Q: Did you ever take any dictation from Mrugowsky?
A: As far as I can recall, once.
Q: Now, I will ask you again -- strike that. Do you know a man by the name of Hoven?
A: Yes
Q: What do you know about Hoven? That is, what he was doing in Buchenwald?
A: Hoven had a double function in the concentration camp Buchenwald. He was camp physician, and he was the deputy of Doctor Ding-Schuler for the experimental station 46.
Q: Will you look at the dock of defendants and tell me if you see Hoven?
A: The fifth from the right in the upper row.
MR. McHANEY: We will ask that the record show that the witness properly identified the defendant Hoven.
THE PRESIDENT: The record will show that the witness has correctly identified the defendant Hoven in the dock.
Q: Now, Mr. Kogan, before going into the details of some of the things that occurred at Buchenwald, I would like to ask you to tell the Tribunal briefly what types of experiments on the concentration camp inmates took place or were carried out at Buchenwald while you were there?
A: The main experiments in the concentration camp Buchenwald concerned typhus, the so-called exantimaticus. There were also experiments with yellow fever; with small pox: dysentry; typhoid fever -typhoid A and B; convalescence serum; blood durability of blood plasma. A series of experiments with Fraenkel - toxius was introduced. The contents of the phosphorus - kantcnuk - incendiary bombs. And, blood was taken from invalids to produce blood for the SS hospital in Berlin. The typhus experiments were extended to the most varied means of combating typhus. The following vaccines were used: A typhus vaccine of the Behring works, produced from egg yolk cultur according to the process of Cox, Gildemeister and Haagen. Also a vaccine from Rabbit lungs, according to the process of Professor Giraud of the Pasteur Institute in Paris. And, in the third place a vaccine of the OKH Institute in Krakow, the so-called Beigel vaccine from the intestines of lice. Then a vaccine from mouse liver. A Danish vaccine from Copenhagen. And, various chemical therapeutical agents, for example. Methylene blue, Persical, Ruthenol, Nifro-Acredine.
Q: Before we go into the details of the typhus experiments, I would like to ask you if you know anything about the manner in which subjects were selected for the experiments which you have mentioned and which took place in Buchenwald?
A: The selection of experimental subjects was not the same at different times. In the very first period the inmates of the camp were called upon to volunteer. They were told that it was a harmless affair; that the people would get additional food. After one or two experiments it became impossible to get any volunteers whatever. From then on, Doctor Ding asked the camp physician or the SS camp Director to select the suitable persons for the experiments. He had no special directives for this. The camp administration chose people arbitrarily from among the prisoners, whether they were criminals, or political prisoners, or homosexuals. Intrigue amongst the prisoners themselves also played a role in the selection, and occasionally people came who had -- for whom there was no special reason, but they came into the experiments. From the fall of 1943, approximately, the camp leaders did not want to keep the responsibility for the selection of experimental subjects. Doctor Ding, himself, no longer wish to have verbal instructions from Mrugowsky to carry out the experiments, but he demanded written orders. For this purpose he approached Mrugowsky with the request that the Reichsfuehrer SS should appoint his own people for the experiments. SS Gruppenfuehrer Nebe of the Reich Criminal Police Office in Berlin then, according to a directive from Himmler, which I saw, ordered that only those people were to be used who had at least a ten years sentence to work out. Then, the officials of the Reich Criminal police Office in Berlin twice selected 110 and 99 people in Buchenwald, who were made available for the experiments. They were exclusively criminals who had been punished before. In the last period, people were selected from various concentration camps and prisons in Germany. Transports came to Buchenwald with these people. In addition to this, political prisoners from the camp itself were almost always included in these series of experiments which, because they were inconvenient to the SS in some way or because they were victims of camp intrigues.
Q: Were all of these experimental subjects condemned to death, who were experimented on in Block 46?
A: I do not know of a single case in which some one came to the experimental station in Block 46 because he had been condemned to death. Once in the case of four Russian prisoners of war, it was claimed that they were to be shot, but there was no judgment, no sentence. They belonged to the category of Russian prisoners of war, of whom about 9500 who were partly shot, partly hanged or strangled in Buchenwald.
Q: Were any special consideration or favors granted to the experimental subjects who survived these experiments?
A: The experimental subjects in the first two or three weeks before the experiments were carried out received better food in order to get them into the condition of a normal German soldier. In addition to that, none of those prisoners, as for as they survived, had received no advantages, and they were never promised any such thing.
Q: Was an effort make to pick experimental subjects who were in good physical health, that is, comparable to a Wehrmacht soldier?
A: The conditions did exist as far as was probably with the other conditions of selection it was fulfilled.
Q: Did I understand you to say that Mrugowsky issued orders to Schuler with respect to the selection of inmates and the experiments themselves?
A: Doctor Ding told me in the first period, when I was working for him, that the instructions for the execution of the experiments had come from Mrugowsky in Berlin. He said nothing about the special method of how the people were to be selected.
Q: Witness, are you familiar with a diary kept by Dr. Ding on the experiments in Black 46 at Buchenwald?
A: Yes.
Q: I will ask you if you have ever seen the document which I will now have handed to you, Document NO-265, which has been admitted as Prosecution Exhibit 237.
(Document handed to witness.)
A: It is the original diary which was kept in Block 46.
Q: Did you ever have control of that book yourself?
A: In a limited way. The diary was kept in Block 46 by the head clerk there under the instructions of Dr. Ding and under the control of Cape Arthur Dietsch. Dr. Ding generally every six months, sometimes every three months, made reports to Standartenfurhrer later Oberfuehrer Mrugowsky. For the latter purpose, the diary was taken from Block 46 to Block 50; and I used it as control document in setting up the dates which were to be included in the reports and which concerned not only Block 46 but also Block 50.
A: few days before the end of the concentration camp Buchenwald, all SS documents which were in the camp were burned by the SS men. Dr. Ding gave me instructions to take the files of Block 50 to Block 46. These did not include this diary. This diary was kept in Block 46. I went to Block 46 with him; and he and Cape Arthur Dietsch in my presence began to look through the files of the patients in Block 46. Every record which seemed dangerous to him he put into a sack. Cape Arthur Dietsch later took them to the crematorium and burned them there. When the two men were in the next room for a moment, I took a bundle of these records, quite arbitrarily, just as they were lying there, and the diary which I saw lying there. I took them out and threw them into a box.
Two days later I told Dr. Ding that I had not burned the diary. He was quite astonished at this. He asked me whether I believed that this diary was not a terrible indictment against him. I told him, "If It can be proved before a court that you, Sturmbannfuehrer, went so far as to save this diary, that is conclusive evidence that you were really honest in your intentions."
Then he gave me permission to get the diary from Block 46, to get it out of there and to keep it. I took the diary with me out of the camp; and until the fall of 1945 I kept it in my possession.
Then I turned it over to the Military Intelligence Service Center and the Document Center in Oberursel. From then on it was no longer in my hands.
Q: When did you turn this document over to the Office of Chief Counsel here in Nurnberg?
A: I cannot say exactly. I believe it was in the fall of 1945. At least at that time it was used to prepare photostatic copies. It may be that it was given back to me once more and that I gave it to one of the many American officers again later. I must say in that connection that during this one and three-quarters years I was extremely busy and was concerned with a great number of documents so that I no longer know exactly when I turned over the document to the Office of Chief of Counsel. In any case it was in Oberursel.
Q: Did you change or alter this document in any way while it was in your possession?
A: Why should I have done that?
Q: Then your answer to the question is "No" is that right?
A: No. Absolutely no.
Q: Is this document still in the same condition it was when you turned it over to the Office of Chief of Counsel?
A: When I just looked at it new, it looked exactly the same, the same color, the same form, the signature of Ding, later Schuler, the same paper, the same typewriter type.
(Document handed to witness.)
Yes, it is absolutely the same copy.
Q: And those signatures appearing then in there are the signatures of Ding and Schuler?
A: It is the original handwriting of Dr. Ding and later Schuler.
Q: Witness, getting back for a moment to the selection of the experimental subjects, can you tell the Tribunal whether or not the defendant Hoven played any part in the selection of inmates for the typhus experiments in Block 46?
A: There were cases in which Dr. Ding asked the camp physician to see to it that the necessary number of experimental subjects should be selected from the prisoners. As for as I am informed, the camp physician passed on this request to the camp administration which in the first years carried out the selection until the Reich Criminal Police Office selected the people or sent the people.
THE PRESIDENT: As it was announced this morning, the Tribunal will now recess until 9:30 tomorrow morning; and the gentlemen whom I have requested to meet the members of the Tribunal will report in five minutes at the consultation room.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will be recessed until 9:30 tomorrow morning.
(The Tribunal adjourned until 7 January 1947 at 0930 hours.)