1947-01-13, #3: Doctors' Trial (early afternoon)
AFTERNOON SESSION (The hearing reconvened at 1330 hours, 13 January 1947.)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
MR. SCHILLER: If the Tribunal please, I should now like to continue reading Document1696-PS. That is on page 212 of the document book, page 4 of said document. Dated 12 May 1941, Public Utility, Ambulance Transportation G.m.b.H. to the Director of the Hospital of the District Association of Swabia, Kaufbeuren, Bavaria.
Dear Director: By order of the Reich Defense Commissioner I must remove mental cases from your institution and from the Branch at Irrsee to another institution. A total of 140 persons are to be transported, 70 on 4th June and 70 on 5th June. I forward you herewith Transport Lists Nos. 8, 9, 10, and 11 in triplicate. The additional names on the lists are intended for possible deficits (discharged meanwhile, died, etc.)
The marking of the patients is most suitably done by means of a strip of adhesive tape, on which the name is written in ink-pencil, to be pasted between the shoulder blades. At the same time the name is to be put on an article of clothing.
The hospital reports and personal histories are to be prepared for the transportation and handed to our Director of Transport, Herr Kupper, in the same way the personal possessions of the patients, as well as money and articles of value.
I enclose property information cards and information cards as to the defrayer of the expenses, which, accurately filled out, must be handed in at the time of transportation. Money and articles of value, besides being noted on the property information cards, must also be noted on separate special lists (in duplicate). Transportation takes place: On 4th June, 8:46 a.m. from Kaufbeuren - 70 patients: on 5th June, 8:46 a.m. from Kaufbeuren - 70 patients. Our director of transport, Herr Kupper, will visit you the previous day in order to discuss further details with you.
I further request you to provide the patients with food (2 to 3 slices of bread and butter each and some cans of coffee). Heil Hitler!
/s/ [illegible], Public Utility Ambulance Transportation G.m.b.H.
On page 214:
Provincial Association for Social Welfare, Swabia; Address, Augsburg 1, P.O. Box Regierungspresident, addressed to Director Dr. Faltlhauser of the Hospital, Kaufbeuren.
Your reference: 2080. Your letter of 13.11.40 Augsburg, 6.5.1941, concerning the transfer of patients.
I have the honor to inform you that the female patients transferred from your institution on 8.11.1940 to the institutions in Grafeneck, Bernburg, Sonnenstein and Harthein all died in November of last year. Signature, (illegible).
Page 215:
Copy. Ministry of State of the Interior, Oberregierungsrat Gaum, dated Munich, 24 November 1942, to the Director of the Hospital, Kaufbeuren, Doctor of Medicine, Dr. Faltlhauser. To Head Physician Dr. W. Leinisch, Guenzburg. Re letter of 13.11. 1942.
Dear Doctor: In your letter of 13.11.1942 you requested me to send suitable epileptics for the carrying out of your research work. I had an opportunity of discussing this with the Obermedizinalraten Dr. Faltlhauser and Dr. Pfannmueller. Both will willingly deliver you suitable patients. For various reasons patients from the Institution at Kaufbeuren are primarily to be chosen. If this institution has no suitable material, I agree to the transfer of patients from Eglfing-Haar to Guenzburg for your research work. I request you to get into touch with Dr. Falthausen. Heil Hitler, /s/, Gaum.
Now turn to page 216 of the document book and I offer in evidence Document Number NO-825 as Prosecution Exhibit Number 358. This would seem to be form letter from Conti to administrators of various mental institutions.
Copy. The Reich Minister of the Interior, Berlin, 24 October 1939, to the Chief of Blank or official deputy at Blank.
With regard to the necessity of coordinating the mental institutions through planned economy I request you to fill out the attached questionnaires immediately according to the enclose instruction leaflet and to return them to me.
This is signed by order, Dr. Conti.
On page 217, 218 and 219 we see the different pages of the enclosed leaflet.
On page 219, the first paragraph, "All patients are to be enumerated who, (l) are suffering from the following illnesses and cannot be employed, or for mechanical work only (plucking and similar work), in the institution." Dropping to number 3, "are interned as criminally insane persons, or (4) are not of German nationality or are not of German or German-related blood, indicating the race and nationality."
On page 220 we find a page headed: "Explanations"; that is, explanations of the leaflet. The last paragraph reads as follows:
In cases of patients being newly admitted after the deadline date, questionnaires are to be filled out as well and to be sent to me collectively every year on 1 February (for the deadline date of 1 January) and 1 August (for the deadline date of 1 July).
In view of this paragraph it may be questioned whether the authorities cared as to whether or not the doctors could perform a good diagnosis in a few days for the patients newly admitted after the deadline.
This completes Document Book 14, part II. My associate, Mr. Robbins, will now continue with the presentation of evidence in Document Book 14, Part III.
MR. ROBBINS: May it please the Tribunal, I now offer Document Number 3871-PS as Prosecution Exhibit 359. The first part of this document is a notice printed on green paper which accompanies the questionnaire and merely states that notification is to be made of all patients who fall in the following four categories:
"1. Those who suffer from communicable diseases", listed there; "2) those who have been inmates of the Institution for at least five years or 3) those who are confined as criminally insane persons; or it) those who do not possess German citizenship or who are not of German or related blood. State race and..."
THE PRESIDENT: From what page of this document book are you reading, counsel?
MR. ROBBINS: "...citizenship." The footnote on the document...
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel, from what page of this document book are you reading?
MR. ROBBINS: This is page 223, your Honor, of Document Book Number 3. The footnote at the bottom of the page defines race, several categories of race, as Germans and those of related blood, Jew, part Jew, first and second grade, negro, part negro, gypsy, part gypsy and so forth. I will merely refer to the last paragraph of the same green notice on page 224. of the document book. It reads as follows:
Fresh cases of patients to be reported from your Institution after the date as specified are to be similarly reported on questionnaires and collected and sent to me by the 1st February (as of 1st January) or 1st August (as of 1st July) of each year.
I will omit reading the next part of the document which is similar to a document read by Mr. Schiller. The document that he read was 1695-PS. It merely contains instructions as to the filling out of the questionnaire and is signed by Dr. Conti as deputy.
The third part of the same document, 3871-PS, is found on page 225 of the document book. It is a letter signed by Linden. It is on the letterhead of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, dated Berlin, 10 November 1942, to the Director of the Dr. Hertz Private Clinic in Bonn, regarding the survey of the institutions for the care and treatment of the insane of all types.
Supplementing my above mentioned letter, it is laid down that the Institutions for the Care and Treatment of the Insane are to notify me by the first of February (as of 1st January) and by the first of August (as of 1st July) of each year after the last notification, in other words, during the last six months what patients they have received.
I take this opportunity of reiterating this directive. At the same time I note the following.
For special reasons I now stress the necessity of making a complete report of all patients in the individual institutions.
I, therefore, request that in future notification be made of all patients irrespective of the form or length of illness who have been received into the Institution since the last six months notices.
I especially extract here that "notification be made of all patients irrespective of the form or length of illness." Continuing reading the letter:
In order to obviate certain difficulties which might arise in regard to patients received into the Institution a few days before the date as of which reported and on whom nothing can be said as yet. I am in agreement that a questionnaire be filled out especially for such patients who on the said date have been in the Institution for one month. In this way persons who have been received only temporarily can be eliminated.
For the next date of notice, i.e., 1 February 1943, I request in addition that you include in your report also all these inmates of your Institution for whom hereto, in accordance with my earlier directive, forms have not been sent.
The notifications should be made as before by completion of the questionnaire as prescribed and which can be obtained from me, and which are to be collected and forwarded to me as of the semi-annual date stipulated. Only the latest form of Questionnaire 1 with the printed reference 10407. 41.2 C is to be used (form enclosed). Any old questionnaire forms in your possession can be used for other purposes.
I request the most careful completion of these forms with regard to all columns, as insufficient completion requiring necessary further inquiries will only involve additional work for you.
In forwarding the questionnaires I am to be informed regularly of any changes which have taken place in the meantime in regard to patients already earlier reported, for instance, through death, discharge, transfer to other institutions, etc. This report can be made as of the dates in question on a list in duplicate, however, always giving the full name, date and place of birth, to which Institutions transferred, etc.
Should it occur that such changes have not take place, then a notification to this effect should be made by the date in question.
The supervising authorities of the Institutions have been notified. By Order, Seal of the Reichsminister of the Interior. (Signed) Linden.
I should next like to offer into evidence Document No. NO-841 as Prosecution's Exhibit 360. This is a form letter which was used to notify relatives of the transfer of patients from mental institutions. The original contains blanks as indicated in the translation. It is on the letterhead of the Director of the State Mental Institution, to the Attorney General in (blank), and it reads as follows:
By virtue of a decree of the Reich Commissioner for the Defense the patient (blank) has been transferred today the (blank) to another institution, whose name and address is not yet known to me. The institution in which the patient shall be accepted will notify you accordingly. I ask you to resist from further inquiries.
In case you should not receive any communication from the institution which has accepted the patient, I recommend to make inquires with the Patient Transport Corporation, Berlin W 9, Potsdamerplatz 1.
I next offer into evidence Document No. NO-828 as Prosecution Exhibit 361 which is a typical letter informing parents of the Death of their son. This particular letter being dated 20 February 1940, State Mental Institution Brandenburg on the Havel.
My dear Mr. Dr., Court.
No. 1 We regret to inform you that your son, who in the meantime had to be transferred to our institution, has died here unexpectedly as a result of abcessed tonsils on 17 February.
We are sorry to say that all our medical efforts were in vain. He died softly and without any pain. With his serious and incurable disease death means relief for him.
Due to the present danger of epidemic here, the body of the deceased had to be cremated immediately according to police request. We are asking you to inform us at your earliest convenience whether you want the urn with the??rthly remains interred at any special cemetery. In that case we ask you to name the cemetery and give its correct address so that we can have the urn transferred to the administration of that cemetery. If you have no special wishes as to the burying or if you fail to inform us within a month, we will have the urn buried here free of charges. The belongings of the deceased had to be burned due to the danger of spread ing of disease.
We enclose two copies of the death certificate which you will carefully keep in order to submit them eventually to the authorities.
Heil HITLER by order /s/ Dr. Meyer.
Evidence which I will present later show that letters such as this, identical letters, were mailed to several persons in the same locality. At times it was stated that the patient died from appendicitis when, as a matter of fact, the appendix had been removed as much as ten years previously.
The next document which I would like to offer into evidence is Document NO-828. I beg your pardon. This is still part of Document828, and it is found on Page 229 of Document Book No.111. This also a typical letter. I will not burden the Court with reading it since it is very similar to the previous letter.
The next document which is contained in the Document Book is No. NO-1190. I do not purport to offer this document in evidence at this time.
This document has been offered in evidence as Prosecution's Exhibit No.321.
I should now like to offer into evidence Document628-PS as Exhibit No.362 found on Page 233 of Document Book No.111. It is on the letterhead of the Country Asylum, Brandenburg on the Havel, and is another typical letter.
THE PRESIDENT: What number do you assign to this Exhibit?
MR. ROBBINS: This is No.628-PS, your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: As an exhibit, what number do you assign it?
MR. ROBBINS: No.363
THE PRESIDENT: Have you any 361?
MR. ROBBINS: The previous document, No.828, was Exhibit No.361, I believe.
This is typical of the other letters in the record. I will not read this document at this time. I should next like to offer in evidence Document NO-840 as Prosecution Exhibit 363. It is found on Page 235 of the Document Book. It is on the letterhead of the State Mental Institution, Grafeneck, dated 6 August 1940. It is addressed to Frau Barbara Schmidt and is signed by Dr. Keller. It read as follows:
Dear Frau Schmidt:
We are very sorry to have to inform you that you daughter Franziska Schmidt who was moved on 26 July 1940 in the course of measures taken by the Reich Commissioner for Defense to this institution, suddenly and unexpectedly died here on 5 August 1940 due to a swelling of the brain. In view of the serious mental illness, the life of the deceased meant suffering. You will, therefore, have to accept her death as deliverance from her sufferings.
As there is at present danger of an epidemic p>
-- presuming a swelling of the brain--
at the local institution, the police authorities have ordered the immediate cremation of the body.
I will not read the next paragraph. The following paragraph reads:
Possible inquiries should be made in writing, as visits here are at present forbidden for reasons of the danger of an epidemic.
I will omit reading the remainder of the letter.
I should now like to offer into evidence Document NO-3 -- I beg your pardon -- Document No. NO-837 as Prosecution Exhibit 364, which is a list of obituary notices contained in a Leipzig newspaper, 1940. I will not burden the Court by reading all of them. The first one reads as follows:
After fearful uncertainty we received today from Linz on the Danube the sad news of the sudden death of my dear wife, Mrs. Johanna Eckhardt, nee Mueller, born 18 March 1894), died 20 September 1940. She has already been cremated in Linz.
The second one read as follows:
After weeks of uncertainty we got the unconceivable news of the sudden death of my beloved son, Alfred Schuster. He died on 12 September. He has already been cremated in Linz on the Danube.
The third item is particularly interesting:
From Linz/Danube we received the sad news that my good husband, Paul Koenike, veteran of the World War 1914 to 1917, is no longer alive and already has been cremated there.
Evidence which I will present later will show that not even veterans of World War No. 1 were exempt from the Euthanasia Program. No. 4 reads:
After weeks of uncertainty we received the news of the sudden death of our beloved son, Robert Schnell, bearer of the cross of honor 16/18 for war veterans, born on 12 May 1897? died 27 September 1940. He has been cremated already in Grafeneck, district of Muensingen.
No. 5 reads:
After days of uncertainty we received the unbelievable news of the sudden death of my dear wife, Mrs. Elle Goerlitz, nee Rosenbaum, born 6 March 1901, died 24 September 1940, after she had already been cremated in Grafeneck.
I will skip to the thirteenth notice which reads as follows:
Hard and unbelievable was the news of the sudden death of my beloved hus band Fritz Paul Eberlein, bearer of the Iron Cross from World War 1. The quiet burial of the urn which has been transferred from Linz/Danube has taken place on 5 October 1940.
14. Hard and unbelievable was the news of the death of my dear husband, Martin Bogt, at the age of 48 years. The cremation has already taken place at Hartheim near Linz/Danube.
It will be noticed that No. 18 refers to death at the Institution Sonnenstein near Pirna.
I should now like to offer into evidence Document No. 3865-PS as Prosecution Exhibit 365, and it is to be found on Page 239 of this Document Book. This is an affidavit by Dr. Irene Asam-Bruckmueller. It reads as follows:
I, Dr. Irene Asam-Bruckmueller, med. counsel, born in Munich 21 December 1907, residing at Ansback, Feuchtwangerstrasse 38, herewith declare under oath:
While I studied medicine from 1929 to 1933 I worked as trainee at the lunatic asylum Gabersee during my vacation. I did this out of love for the profession in the asylum for the mentally deranged.
During my study of medicine I did not specialize in psychiatry; I only took the psychiatric courses prescribed within the syllabus of medical studies.
In 1934 I worked as junior assistant for eight months.
On 15 March 1935 I received a position as assistant doctor at the Ansbach asylum. In order to secure this position I became a member of the Frauenschaft in 1935. I knew that I would not be accepted anywhere without joining an organization because I had made 48 applications which were all rejected. From the day I started my job to my discharge in October 1945, I was the doctor in charge of the department for the most severe cases. In the course of my service in the Ansbach asylum additional duties were delegated to me, for instance, in 1939 with the beginning of the war I was also put in charge of the most severe male patients.
In 1940 a children's ward was added to my responsibilities.
The types of insane entrusted to my care were mainly the following: schizophrenics, epileptics, manic depressives, seniles and comparatively rare cases of paranoia and paralysis. Among the children the larger number were idiots with deformity and hydrocephalics.
The Ansbach Sanatorium had a capacity of 1400-1500 beds. Usually the number of patients was 1100; but during the war additional patients from the territories hit by the war were constantly brought in, and the highest number of patients was 1600. From 1935-1938 a Dr. Karl von Hoesllin was head of the asylum; Dr. Herbert Schuch from 1938 to the end of the year 1945. On the basis of my experiences as a trainee, I introduced occupational therapy in my wards and reduced medicinal therapy as far as at all possible. The patients physically suitable were occupied with washing, sewing and work in the garden. Professional ability and the professional past of the individual patient were taken into consideration as far as possible. But in general occupational therapy was always applied in the interest of the institution. Those patients for whom occupational therapy was not indicated were treated with medicine such as paraldehyde, veronal, luminal and similar opiates.
In many cases these patients were given electric shock treatment, insuli?? shock treatment and in case of epileptics rattle snake venom injections. Those discharged from my ward rarely were completely cured patients; the majority were improved cases. These patients were transferred towards for average and light cases and discharged from there. Between 1940 and 1942 altogether approximately 240 to 300 departures took place. The patients were shipped to the institutions at Sonnenstein near Pirna/Elbe in four or five transports of about sixty each for the purpose of mercy killings. The history of these killings is as follows:
In spring or summer 1940 a commission headed by Dr. Steinmeyer arrived at our institution and studied the case histories of curpatients. The commission consisted of a total number of 25; among them were at least two medical doctors, the above mentioned Dr. Steinmeyer and another doctor who was pointed out to me by members of the group as an assistant to Dr. Heyde, direct of the Psychiatric Clinic in Wuerzburg, a number of medical students and clerical staff. The commission remained at our institution for three days; during this time they made summaries of case histories. According to Dr. Schuch approximately a quarter of a year later a list of inmates in our institution, made up by the commission, was received by us and instructions that those patients named should be kept ready for transfer to another institution. In the case of this first transport I did not know the real meaning of this transfer to another institution. All the hundred patients on the list were then brought to Sonnenstein in one transport. I do not recall, however, if Dr. Schuch kept back a number of the best workers among the patients on the list from this first transport as he did with the following transports. After six weeks or a quarter of a year a second such list was received at the institution which again included a number of valuable workers among the patients. Since, in the meantime it had become known in our institution that these transfers were undertaken for the purpose of mercy killings, Dr. Schuch crossed about 40 names from the list which represented either valuable workers or still very strong personalities.
Therefore only 60 to 70 instead of the requested 100 were sent to Sonnenstein. Till 1942 two or three additional lists were received and the respective transports carried out.
As far as I can judge the choice of the patients was not made in a consistent manner according to the degree of illness of the patient otherwise it would not have been possible that hopeless cases were not on the list and that physically able and more or less clever workers were. Dr. Schuch as well as his medical co-workers were upset about these mercy killings, and it is my opinion that Dr. Schuch lodged protests with the authorities against the shipment of patients doomed to die. This is also confirmed by the fact that Dr. Schmalenbach, as far as I know affiliated with the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaf for lunatic asylums and plenipotentiary of the Reich Ministry of the Interior, during his presence in Ansbach, violently accused and threatened Dr. Schuch because of the latters sabotage of the mercy killings.
This discussion between Dr. Schmalenbach and Dr. Schuch probably took place either in 1941 or 1942 after several transports had been carried out.
The transfers for the purpose of killing stopped in 1942. I believe that this was caused by difficulties in regard to foreign policy.
/s/ Dr. Irene Asam-Bruckmueller.
I should like next to offer into evidence Document No.720 as Prosecution's Exhibit No.366, on page 243 of Document Book No. 3. This is an affidavit by Dr. Moritz Schnidtmann, being duly sworn:
1. I was born in Munich, Germany, on 15 January 1886 and studied medicine at the University of Munich from 1905 till 1910, I graduated from the University of Munich. I joined the NSDAP in May 1937. Moreover, I was a member of the NS Organization for Public Welfare, the NS Civil Servants' League, the Reich Colonial League, the Reich Air Raid Protection League, the NS War Veterans League. My Party Number is somewhere above 5 million. I was Blockleiter of the local group HAAR since 1938. Since 1912 I worked at the Mental Institution EGLFING-HAAR, with an interruption during the first world war.
I have been Deputy Director of this institution since 1932.
2. Due to my position and my personal contact with Hermann Pfannmueller, I gained far-reaching knowledge of matters concerning the institution. From time to time I had conversations concerning the mission of the institution with Pfannmueller, the last director of this institution. In my capacity of Deputy Director, I had the opportunity to read a major part of the correspondence addressed to the administration. I received orders from the director. In this absence, I had to handle urgent matters.
3. Due to my position, I gained knowledge of the transfer of patients to Reich Institutions. After a few months I found out that patients were killed in these so-called Reich Institutions. I found this out through several remarkable death notices which the relatives of the patients received, and through conversations with Pfannmueller.
4. Altogether about 12 transports with approximately 80-100 patients were transferred from the Mental Institution EGLFING-HAAR. Besides these transfers, an exclusively Jewish transport left on 20 October 1940, presumably for a Polish Institution. It was a matter of 158 Jews who had come to EGLFINGHAAR on 18 September 1944, presumably for an Institution in their home country. To the best of my recollection, the transfer of these foreigners occurred upon order of the Labor Office, Munich, which declared these people unfit for work. All of these 56 foreigners were mentally ill.
I have read the above affidavit in the German Language consisting of 2 (two) pages and declare that it is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief. I was given the opportunity to make changes and corrections in the above affidavit. The affidavit was given by me freely and voluntarily, without promise or reward and I was subjected to no compulsion or duress of any kind.
/s/ Dr. Schnidtmann.
Still a part of the Document No., No.270, are the following lists attached and at the end of the Document, namely, page 250, Doctor Braunmuehl makes the following statement:
I, Director of the Upper Bavarian Mental Institution EGLFING-HAAR, doctor medical habil. Anton von Braunmuehl, have drawn up the above list consisting of 6 (six) pages in the German language according to the ledger and lists of the Institution EGLFING-HAAR, and testify that these statements correspond with the original.
/s/ Dr. A. v. Braunmuehl.
The list on page 245, at the top of the page, contain the names of 15 Jewish men from the Institution EGLFING HAAR transferred on 20 September 1940. And, here I would like to refer back to a document introduced this morning by Mr. McHaney, which is Document No.135, on page 41 of the First Document Book, to establish that certain of these persons were nationals of foreign countries, Silberberg, Helmut, which is No. 10 on the Document before you, your Honor, is listed as a Polish national. Also No. 4 at the bottom of the page, Doctor Goldmann, is listed in the previous document as a Polish national.
THE PRESIDENT: You are referring to this prior exhibit?
MR. ROBBINS: Your Honor, that is Document No.135, which is Prosecution's Exhibit 334, and it is found on page 41 of Document Book No. 1 concerning the Euthanasia Program.
The list at the bottom of page 345 is headed "Jewish women from the Institution EGLFING HAAR transferred on 20 September 1940", and contains 19 names. The list on page 246 of the English Document Book is headed, "82 Jewish men from other Institutions (as far as names are available) transferred on 20 September 1940. The list on the following page is headed. "76 Jewish women from other Institutions (as far as names available) transferred on 20 September 1940," and contains the names of 35 women. Names 36 to 76 are listed as unknown. On the following page 248, out of the third Document Book, are two lists of 15 names each, "Under the designation 'called for'. The first name is listed as a Polish national who was transferred 18.9.1944. The second name listed is a Galicia national.
The third, from two Ukraine, and transferred 18.9.1944. It will be noted that each of the names of the 30 names listed on that page are of foreign nationality. And, so are those listed on page 249; the list contains the names of persons of foreign nationality, and the date on which they were transferred. The summary at the bottom of the page states:
Transferred on 20 September 1940 were: 158 Jews (82 men, 76 women) from various institutions. Thirty-three Jews (14 men, 19 women) from EGLFING HAAR, Transferred to a concentration camp on 2 August 1944, 1 Jew (1 man). Total 192 Jews (97 men, 95 women). Under the designation 'called for' on 18 September 1944 are carried 56 foreigners (15 men, 41 women).
I should now like to offer in evidence Document No. 3864 PS as Prosecution' s Exhibit No.367. It is found on page 251 of Document Book No. 3. It is an affidavit by Dr. Max Leusser, and it reads as follows:
I, Dr. Max Leusser, commissioned as head of the sanatory and recovery home Ansbach, after being duly sworn, declare and depose the following:
From 1928 to 1936 I was a resident physician at the lunatic asylum in Erlangen and on July 1, 1936, was dismissed on account of my previous membership in the Democratic Party. Later I was a general practitioner in Pommerania; from 1939 - 1941 I was a medical army officer and was released in 1942 after an automobile accident; I returned no Pommerania and lived hidden in Bad Kissingen after having left Pommerania without permission because I expected that it would become Polish if the war would be lost. In November 1945 I was commissioned chief of the lunatic asylum at Ansbach where I am now working. My predecessor was Dr. Ruppert Schuch, who was removed by the American Military Government for being a party member and head of the institution during the war and who was arrested in January 1946. He is now in the camp at Aschaffenburg.
My knowledge about the occurrences in the lunatic asylum at Ansbach during the war are based on information, which I received in the first place mostly from Dr. Schuch, but also from Frau Dr. Asam, a Dr. Priessmann, who was working at the asylum, but was removed on account of his membership to the party, and the nursing personnel.
At the resuest of the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior I made a report and submitted it to the Ministry. I am repeating and confirming this report in a condensed form:
A committee of physicians, announced by the Reich Ministry of the Interior appeared at the lunatic asylum at Ansbach with the order to examine the possibility of accommodating the incurable patients at some other place. It demanded the assignment of a special office room, access to the case-history files, obtained also oral report from the physicians of the asylum but gave only evasive answers to all questions with regard to the real purpose of their investigation. After four days their activities were concluded. Upon their departure the members stated that they had compiled a list of such patients who were going to be transferred to other institutions. After a while a letter of the Reich Ministry of the Interior arrived with the directive to make a number of patients, who were listed by name ready for transportation on a certain date. At the same time word arrived that the transport was to be carried out by the Mutual Corporation. The transport took place on the date named in the letter. According to the story of the transport manager the patients were being removed to the institution Sonnenstein near Pirna (Saxony). This procedure was repeated several times. When it became known that the transports served only the purpose of liquidating incurable patients inconspicuously, further directions coming from Berlin are supposed to have been sabotaged as much as possible.
In 1943 and 1944 a number of children were killed in the asylum by putting them to sleep with luminal. These children were supposed to be complete idiots and in addition to show serious body deformities on account of which it was to be expected that they would die from tumors or inhalation pneumonia. The killings took place by virtue of a directive of the Reichministry of the Interior, which reached the management of the asylum by way of the usual office channels. A previous consultation of the parents did not take place.
As far as I could learn approximately 300 adult patients were removed in the above mentioned way. The transports supposedly took place from the end of 1940/1941 to 1944. The total of patients in the asylum at the beginning of the war numbered 1400; at the end of the war, 1000. This number includes sick children. During these years approximately 150 children were processed in the asylum (admitted, died, released, transferred to other institutions or still staying at Ansbach). I was told that approximately fifty of these were killed in the above mentioned manner. At what time in 1943 these killings started I did not learn.
We have in our files only the journals which contained the date of admission and release, respectively date of death as well as the diagnosis, further the case histories kept about the patients. All the correspondence, especially that with the agencies in Berlin, was supposedly destroyed before the entering of the American troops. Dr. Schuch's story about this is credible according to my conviction because he repeatedly expressed his regret toward me that the documents which he assumes would exenerate him do not exist anymore I understood him to say that he himself destroyed them upon orders from above. /s/ Max Leusser.
I should next like to offer into evidence Document Number NO-817 as Prosecution Exhibit Number 368. It is found on page 254 of the document book and is an affidavit by Dr. Otto Gutekunst. It reads as follows:
I, Dr. Otto Gutekunst, swear, depose and state:
1. I was born on 7 February 1878 at Marbach a/N. From 1834 to 1886 I attended public school at Reutlingen and afterwards until 1896 high school there. From 1896 to 1902 I studied medicine at the Universities of Tubingen, Berlin, and Kiel. I passed the medical state examination in 1901-1902 at Tubingen where I also took the doctor's degree.
Since July 1934 I worked at first as a medical councillor at the mental institution of Winnentel. Since 1 February 1935 I was deputy director of the mental institution of Winnentel; effective as of 1 May 1935 I was appointed director of that institution.
I worked as such until November 1945. I joined the NSDAP on 1 May 1933. I was also a member of the Reich League of German Civil Servants, the National Socialist People's Welfare, the NS-Altherren Bund, the Reich Colonial Bund, and the league for the Germans Abroad.
2. By virtue of my knowledge as a psychiatrist and my experience of many years' standing in various Wuerttemberg mental institutions, I am able to make the following statement: As head of the institution in Winnentel I became familiar with the Euthanasia Program; and in February 1940.
3. From my institution a total of 395 patients were transferred. 24 of them had been transferred shortly before from the institutions of Geppingen, Rottenmunster and Stetten to Winnentel for reasons of camouflage. Among those transferred on 3 June 1940 was also Heinrich Pfauser, born 28 June 1886. Pfauser, who was born in Graz-Austria, was still an Austrian national on the day of transfer. It is possible that other foreign nationals were among the 24 patients who for reasons of camouflage had been transferred to my institution.
DR. GEORG FROESCHMANN: Dr. Froeschmann, counsel for Viktor Brack. The affidavit which was just read is not contained in my document book; and neither is it contained in the document books of the other defense counsel.
MR. ROBBINS: I'm sorry; I did not check the books personally; but I shall obtain that document for the defense counsel. There are only about three more sentences of the document, if I may be permitted to continue reading it.
THE PRESIDENT: The counsel may continue reading the document but will supply copies of the document to the defense counsel at the earliest possible moment.
MR. ROBBINS: Yes.
As I learned from the personnel accompanying the transports, all patients transferred from my institution were brought to the Castle of Grafeneck where euthanasia was to be carried out.
4. I never received an instruction to the effect that foreign nationals were to be exempted from euthanasia.
5. On the basis of the questionnaires, it was impossible for the experts or top exports to form an exact medical opinion on the physical state of the patients or to recognize their nationality.
I should like now to turn to the next document, which is 3867-PS, and offer it as Exhibit Number 369. It is found on page 256 of the document book.
I, Ernest Ganzer, male nurse at Heil- und Pflege Anstalt, Ansbach, after having been duly sworn, do hereby make the following statement:
I was employed at the Heil- und Pflege Anstalt, Ansbach (a public institution for the care and treatment of the insane), from 1929 to 1945. From 1920 to 1928 I cared for the patients in the wards; but in 1928 until 1939 I was entrusted with the care of the convalescent patients and gradually became fully employed in the office of the institution. The director of this institution was Dr. Hubert Schuch. In the autumn of 1940 a commission of about thirty persons, consisting of doctors and secretarial staff, visited the institution. I knew and it was general knowledge that these people had been commissioned by the Reich Ministry of the Interior, Berlin, to visit such institutions as ours. I personally announced the arrival of these persons to the director. The commission stayed about three days and, to the best of my knowledge, did not inspect any of the wards. Instead they were allotted a separate room and the case histories of the patients were brought to them and were discussed with the ward doctors. During the time the commission stayed, individual patients were brought to the administrative building of the institution; and it can only be assumed that it was for the purpose of their being inspected by the commission.
After the commission left, about three months elapsed and then directives were received. These I saw personally. They came in the form of letters from the Reich Ministry of the Interior, the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschafts Heil - und Pflege Anstalt, Berlin, stating that on a certain date sixty to eighty patients whose names were listed alphabetically, were to be moved from the institution. No destination was given. About a week later the institution delivered the patients to the railway station, together with their full case histories and inventoried personal effects.
They were brought in buses close up to the two coaches, one of which was set aside for the men and the other for the women. As I was engaged in checking the lists of patients and attending to the delivery of their baggage, it is not possible for me to state whether these patients were in a condition to travel; but I do know that some of them had to be carried to the carriages, which were ordinary "Personen-zug" coaches. These were, as far as I can remember, just the two coaches, without a locomotive, located on a siding which was ordinarily used for troop loading and offloading. It struck me as strange that the "male nurses" who received the patient from the director of the institution were silent and gave no direct answers to the questions we put to them out of professional interest.
At the time this Transport of patients did not appear suspicious because patients were frequently moved from one institution to another in order to make room for troop casualties.
Even the fact that in this case no destination of the transport was given, so that we could notify relatives upon inquiry, did not concern us unduly as everyone acted in accordance with orders received. Probably about a month after this first transport left, our suspicions were aroused because communications arrived from relatives of the patients, complaining that they had been moved without their knowledge or consent and that they had since been notified from Schloss Hartheim, near Linz, and from another institution in Sonnenstein, in Thuringia, that the patients had died. Official and private inquiries as to the whereabouts of the patients had to be answered by us in a standard letter which I believe was officially prescribed. This contained in effect that following information:
'The management had no jurisdiction over the movement of these patients. For further information, contact the Gemeinnuetzige Krankentransportgesellschaft, Berlin, who directed the transfer of these patients.' (This is as near as I can remember the text of the letter.) In connection with these transports I remember that the name of a Dr. Schmalenbach was frequently mentioned.
I estimate that in all five transports of this kind were sent out from the Heil- und Pflege Anstalt, Ansback, between the years 1940 and the beginning of 1942. I would like to add that all of our doctors and the entire hospital personnel were firmly opposed to and condemned this action when eventually the truth transpired. /s/ Ernst Ganzer.
I should next like to offer into evidence Document Number 3816-PS as Prosecution Exhibit Number 370. This is found on Page 259 of Document Book Number 3 and is an affidavit of Gerhard Schmidt. It reads as follows:
I, Gerhard Schmidt, director of Haar-Eglfing I sane Asylum, after having been duly sworn, do hereby make the following statement:
I was licensed as M.D. by the University of Berlin (1930). In 1935 I became an assistant at the Institute for legal Medicine in Berlin. I worked in Bavaria since 1937 at the Public Hospital, Munich-Schwabing, and also at the Research Institute for Psychiatry in Munich. Since 1935 I have been familiar with the system of public asylums, mental hospitals, and similar institutions in Germany. I know that public institutions of this kind were under the supervision and control of the provincial administration of the Lander at the district level. All these public institutions were under the supervision and control of the Reich Ministry of the Interior in Berlin at the highest level. The Reich Minister of the Interior was, as I know, Dr. Wilhelm Frick. As Reich Minister of the Interior, he was chief of the medical department of the Reich Ministry of the Interior from 1933 until august 1942 when he became Reich Protector of Bohemia and Moravia.
After the beginning of the war in 1939 I learned from a colleague, Dr. Lemberger, who was in charge of an asylum in occupied Poland, that it was planned that the inmates of his asylum should be killed. About 1940 I became acquainted for the first time with the fact that inmates of asylums in Germany itself were being killed. I became acquainted with this fact first through an industrialist. A short time later I learned it from my colleagues and from many other people-- it was a so-called open secret that such killings were not only planned but were actually being carried out.
I was advised about these happenings not only by my colleagues but also by relatives of people who had been killed.
It is typical that, despite the fact that this whole affair was an open secret, a psychiatrist who was in the Institution of Haar-Eglfing, where such things happened, said he could not give any official answer. The organization of mass killings was as follows:
First, the physicians of mental and similar asylums had to fill out questionnaires, which were sent to a central agency in Berlin. Then the order came back from the central agency in Berlin that the persons listed should be taken out from one asylum and sent to another asylum where they were killed. The killing was done frequently by injections. For these organized mass killing the authorities used different administrative procedures. I can give the following example for the killing of children:
The names of newly born children who were deformed or partly paralyzed or mentally deficient were submitted to the health authorities and finally to a Reich agency in Berlin--W.9 P.O.B. 101. A short time after the reports were filed, the county health authorities of the respective districts received an order that these children should be sent to a special institution for special modern therapy. I know from hundreds of cases that this 'special modern therapy! was nothing less than the killing of these children-- for instance, in the institution of Haar-Eglfing and others.
I read dozens of such orders which said that this procedure of assignment of such children to institutions was 'in agreement with the Reich Minister of the Interior'.
Another method of killing so-called 'useless eaters' was to starve them. This was done particularly in a period when, for reasons I do not know, the killing itself was not possible because, possibly, of transportation difficulties from one institution to another.
At the end of 1943 a conference took place in the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior which is under the direct supervision of the Reich Ministry of the Interior about the procedure for starving such people to death. In this conference, the directors of the asylums were instructed that 'useless eaters' who could not work very much, should be killed by slow starvation. This method apparently was considered very good, because the victims would appear to have died a 'natural death'. This was a way of camouflaging the killing procedure.
I know from the files of the institution where I am now a director, that several hundred people were starved to death. In analyzing the whole system of these mass-killings, I can state as a psychiatrist, familiar with such cases, that hundreds of the people killed would have been absolutely able to perform a certain amount of simple work under supervision--among them, according to my knowledge, some people who had brain injuries from the First World War. Among the people who were killed were also aged people who were a little feeble-minded. So far as the children were concerned, they had mainly brain diseases, but not hereditary diseases, except in some very few cases. In any normal society, such children, mentally deficient and aged people, would have been treated and cared for in the proper way and not killed as 'useless eaters'.
/s/ Dr. Gerhardt Schmidt (Director of Haar Englfing Insane Institution)
DR. SERVATIUS: Counsel for Karl Brandt:
Mr. President, I should like to reserve the right to cross examine the witness who made this affidavit.
MR. ROBBINS: I think such a procedure is entirely proper. The defense has a right to make application to the Tribunal for examination of the witness.
THE PRESIDENT: That is right.
MR. ROBBINS: I should like to stress one point of the affidavit, and that is, that not even veterans of the First World War were exempt from the euthanasia program. This corroborates the statement earlier today, and which appears on page 236 of the Document Book, that World War veterans were subject to the euthanasia program.
According to the Nazis to be a soldier is the greatest of all glories, to be a Nazi soldier and to face the dangers on the field of battle, but when the German soldier returned from the battlefield unable to work, he could find himself classified as a useless eater, destined for the euthanasia station.
The next document which I should like to offer in evidence is document No. 3882 PS, as Prosecution Exhibit No.371, which is found on page 262 of the Document Book No. 3. It is an affidavit by Dr. Joseph Jordans, and reads as follows:
I, Dr. Joseph Jordans, born on 19 March, 1901, living now at Emendingen, Baden, Romaniestrasse 4, make the following statement under oath:
I am a doctor of medicine and a doctor of law. At present I am the Public Health official of the City of Emendingen, Baden. From January 1940 until 31 March, 1942, I was a doctor in an adult section of the public asylum in Wieslach near Heidelberg. There existed in the asylum a section for children as well, in which killing of children were performed during the year 1941. How many children were killed during the year I cannot say. The killings were performed by injection.
These injections were given by a doctor and nurses, of the so called National Socialist Nurses Organization, who came for the purpose from Berlin. The orders to perform the killings were issued from the Reich Ministry of the Interior in Berlin. Our asylum was controlled by the Ministry of the Interior of Baden which was under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior at Berlin. But the commission which came to Wieslach for this special purpose came on orders from a certain Dr. Linden, who was an official of the Reich Ministry of the Interior at Berlin.
The whole manipulation was known to the personnel of the institution. Transports of children came to our asylum from time to time from other institutions. The children who were killed were not all original inmates of our asylum. The children were imbeciles or feeble minded.
I my self was transferred from Weislacht Emendingen at the end of March 1942 because it became known that I was opposed to the killings. After I left, one of my patients, an adult man, a gypsy, was killed by injections. He was on the list of these persons who were to be shipped out for killing at another asylum, but I saved him four times. Immediately after I left, he was killed according to my wife, who was at that time still at Wieslach. This man was in no way feeble minded. In fact, the institute made 300 marks out of him because he was an expert basket maker. His killing was part of the program to kill psychopaths.
After I came to Emendingen in March, 1942, I learned from my colleagues that a similar program existed there, though the patients were shipped to the institution at Graveneck to be killed.
/s/ Joseph Jordans.
I should now like to offer in evidence Document 3896 PS, as Prosecution Exhibit No.372. Since this is partially repetitious of what has already been read I do not propose to read the document in its entirety.
DR SERVATIUS: Counsel for Dr. Karl Brandt:
This document, as far as I can see, was not sworn to. It says underneath it: "read and approved, and then the signature Dr. Ludwig Sprauer, and then the signature of Robert Kempner, who was counsel for the Prosecution in the procedure before the International Military Tribunal, after that comes an explanation that it was sworn on the 23rd of April, 1946, by Henry Einstein.
Whether this is an Interpreter or not I cannot say. Maybe the counsel for the Prosecution can clarify that matter.
MR. ROBBINS: May it please the Tribunal, the affidavit at the beginning shows that it is in the nature of an affidavit, since it states: I, Dr. Ludwig Sprauer, swear to the following Statements, and apparently it was signed before Dr. Kempner, and sworn to before both Mr. Kempner and Captain Auchincloss, and Captain Auchincloss, by the way, is an American Officer, who it appears from the prior affidavit on page 262, was a military adjutant to the executive trial counsel of the International Military Tribunal, Mr. Dodd, and it appears at the bottom of the document referred to that he was a Captain in the Judge Advocate General's Department.
DR. SERVATIUS: Mr. President, the document in the original does not tell us any more than the copy does, and I, therefore, object to the submission of this document. In that case, the witness can be called himself. He is an important witness since he held a high position and can make important statements as to how this procedure was actually carried out. It will show itself that a number of actions were run parallel to one another, the euthanasia program according to the decree of the Fuehrer, then the Jewish action, and then the action of the so-called 14 S 13, which was mentioned previously. Apart from that, there was the proceeding of the Reich Executive Counsel, regarding Jewish children. I think that this witness, since he states that he was frequently in Berlin, would be able to make important statements in that regard, and I think it would be more proper if the witness appears here personally and that this affidavit not be admitted into evidence and not be read. It is not a statement which was sworn to, rather it was made in view of an oath.
THE PRESIDENT: You will submit the original document to the Tribunal for examination.
(The document is handed to the Tribunal.)
MR. ROBBINS: May it please the Tribunal, the Prosecution has no objection whatever to defense counsel making application to the Tribunal to call the witness, Dr. Ludwig Sprauer to Nurnberg.
INTERPRETER: Would ask counsel to repeat the statement. It did not come through in German.
MR. ROBBINS: May it please the Tribunal, the Prosecution has no objection whatever to defense counsel making application to the Tribunal for bringing the witness to Nurnberg to testify. That is a right given to him under Military Government Ordinance No. 7. However, I cannot see that it has anything to do whatever with the admissibility of the affidavit. Order or Article 144, I believe, or perhaps it is 144 of the Articles of War passed by Congress, gives an Army Officer, who is detailed to make an investigation, the authority to administer oaths, and it appears from the face of the affidavit that the Captain who administered the oath was a member of the armed forces and was a member of the Judge Advocate General's Department.
THE PRESIDENT: The document is probably admissible in evidence and the objection is overruled.
The Tribunal will now recess.
(A short recess was taken.)
(A recess was taken)