1947-01-28, #2: Doctors' Trial (late morning)

THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.

THE PRESIDENT: Before proceeding, Mr. McHaney, I desire to read some matters into the record. The Tribunal has received the following:

28 June.

Defendant Oberheuser is suffering from anal fissures. She is being treated now and it is very likely that she will be able to attend court tomorrow or the next day.

Mr. Roska, 1st Lieutenant, Medical Corps, Prison Physician

I have also received the following:

Nurnberg, January 23, 1947

Horst Pelckmann, Attorney-at-Law, Defense Counsel for Dr. Schaefer.

Mr. President, Military Tribunal I, Secretary General, Nurnberg.

Mr. President:

Owing to proceedings in Kempten (Bavaria) which cannot be posponed because important witnesses have to go back to the United States, I am unfortunately prevented from presenting the opening statement myself during the dates 28 - 31 January. I entrusted this to my collaborator, Herr Rauschenbach.

I kindly request you to excuse my absence from the sessions.

/s/ Pelckmann

These matters have been noted for the record, the original documents filed with the Secretary General.

The Prosecution may proceed.

MR. McHANEY: The next document is NO-922, which will be Prosecution Exhibit 435. This is a partial translation of the report on the 2nd Meeting East of Consulting Physicians, from 30 November to 3 December 1942, at the Medical Academy, Berlin. The first part of the excerpt which I wish to read is the foreword contained in the report written by the Defendant Handloeser. It roads as follows:

From 30 November to 3 December 1942, the '2nd Work Conference East' took place in Berlin. The conference was held for the first time under the sponsorship of the Wehrmacht and combined leading medical officers, consultant doctors, and specialists from, all branches of the Wehrmacht, as well as Waffen SS and organizations and associations attached or subordinate to the Wehrmacht.

As in the First Work Conference East in May 1942, the object was to carry out, within small groups of consultant physicians of various special branches, a study of the recently decreed medical conclusions and directives in the sphere of medical science. The second winter of war on the Eastern Front was before us. It was thus essential that during this conference also, urgent problems which arose out of the experiences of the first winter on the Eastern Front, be discussed. As a result of the participation of numerous medical officers and consulting physicians of all branches of the Wehrmacht as well as the Waffen SS and organizations and associations connected with and subordinated to the Wehrmacht, the scientific conferences were particularly stimulated, especially in relation to those subjects concerning which a solution to certain scientific problems resulting from the peculiarity of the service conditions within the various branches of the Wehrmacht, was found.

The cooperation of the specialist on internal medicine with physiological Chemical Institute of the Military Medical Academy resulted in valuable conclusions which require special mention and which are of particular importance to the diet of soldiers in peace and war, regarding scurvy. These conclusions showed that our opinions concerning malnutrition require revision, particularly in regard to those in the form of hypovitaminoses.

The world wide character of this war, the various climates in which combat of greatest proportions is being carried on, have more and more drawn the geo-medical point of view into the field of debate. Tropical diseases, where they appear, have come to be recognized by the troop doctors and have entered the realm of research by consultants in regard to their importance, diagnosis and clinical treatment.

Thus this conference brought about the treatment of many and various problems. In certain respects, in its diversity, it reflects the events of the war in 1942, which took place on the lands of three continents.

The notes on the contributions and discussions had to be shortened. They are herewith handed to the leading medical officers and all of the consulting physicians. Where the guiding principles, which were worked out on the various themes, require alteration in the existing information leaflets of the require alteration in the existing information leaflets of the H. DV. 209; this will be taken into account in later publications of the leaflets. The publication of cover notes is not intended, especially since essential changes are not found necessary as a result of the conference. Action should already new be taken in accordance with the conclusions reached at the conference, providing no fundamental organization changes are required.

The army group doctors, the Army doctors, leading medical officers, as well as consulting physicians, will devote their attention particularly to the practical application of the scientific conclusions reached at the conference. A small number of booklets is enclosed for the large army hospitals.

This little foreword indicates that the research, which was being carried out under the auspices of the Wehrmacht and reports of which were made to the Military Medical Academy were not ship-shape matters, but things which required the closest scrutiny and attention of Dr. Handloser himself, because, on the basis of this, research instructions and orders were issued according to which various patients of the army, navy, air force, etc., were to be treated. This foreword is signed by Dr. Handloser.

Following that we have an address by the Chief of the Medical Services of the Wehrmacht, whom of course was the Defendant Handloser and it reads as follows:

Gentlemen: The demands and extent of this total war, as well as the relationship between needs and availability of personnel and material, require measures, also in military and medical fields, which will serve the unification and unified leadership. It is not a question of 'marching separately and battling together', but marching and battling must be done in unison from the beginning in all fields.

As a result, as concerns the military sector, the Wehrmacht medical service and with it the Chief of the Medical Services of the Wehrmacht came into being. Not only in matters of personnel and material -- oven as far as this is possible in view of special fields and special tasks, which must be considered -- but also with a view to medical scientific education and research, our path in the Wehrmacht Medical Service must and will be a unified one. Accordingly, the group of participants in this Second Work Conference East, which I have now opened, is differently composed from the First Work Conference in May of this year. Then it was a conference of the army; today the three branches of the Wehrmacht, the Waffen SS and Police, the Labor Service and the Organization Todt are participating and unified.

Gentleman: You will surely permit that I greet you with a general welcome and with the sincere wish that our common work may be blessed with the hoped for joint success.

I would, however, like to extend a special greeting to the Reich Chief of Health Service, Under Secretary Conti, who holds the central leadership of medical services in the civilian sector. I see in his presence not only an interest in our work themes, but the expression of his connection with the Wehrmacht Medical Service and his understanding of the special importance of the Wehrmacht in the field as well as well as at home. I need not emphasize that we are as one in the recognition of the necessity to assure and case the mind of the soldiers that he need not worry about the physical well-being of the homeland as far as this is within the realm of possibility in wartime/

In consideration of the enlarged composition of today's group of participants, a short review of the fields covered by former war conferences is required.

January 1942.

Care of wounds, infection of wounds.
Blood transfusions under combat conditions.
Injuries caused by chemical warfare agents.
Dysentery.
Neurosis, psych-pathology and organic ailments.
Transportation of wounded.

October 1940.

Gas odema; prophylaxis and therapy.

December 1940.

Protective vaccinations: typhus, dysentery, combined vaccination.

I would like to remark parenthetically that as early as December of 1940 they were interested in typhus vaccinations and the Tribunal will recall that the so-called Commission on Typhus met in December of 1941 and set up the experimental series, which were carried out during the following four years at Buchenwald.

May 1942.

1. Work Conference East.

Experiences, which the war in the East, the expanse of the Russian territories, the cultural conditions in Soviet Russia and its population, the relatively limited means of communication in Easter Europe and, last but not least, the always present danger of diseases which may sweep in from the Asiatic area, but in particular which the Russian winter sent us, make it necessary that the following themes be considered at this Work Conference East:

Amputation technique - brain wounds and their care.
Coordination of neurology and surgery.
Chemo-therapy on wound infections.
Transportation of wounded.
Typhus, Wolhynia fever, recurrent fever.
Bacillary and amebic dysentery. Typhoid.
Diphtheria. Tularemia.
Acute nephritis.
Freezing.
Lowering of resistance.
Handling of psychic reactions.
Sulfonamide treatment of neurological ailments.

Now, it is interesting to consider the themes of today's conference necessitated through the further development and the continuation of the hard war in the East.

As concerns surgery questions and experiences are concerned with the field of abdominal surgery, the treatment of lung shots, jaw shots, shots in joints, fractures of the thigh and the surgical treatment of severe freezing. the internists put hepatitis epidemica and war nephritis in the foreground.

Of course tuberculosis requires greater attention in the fourth year of the war. Dermatologists and forensic medical men have been newly added since the last conference. The dermatologists, not because venereal diseases have particularly increased, which happily is not the case, but their work will be essentially in connection with questions concerning care after freezing. The forensic medical men have particularly weighty tasks. Their work, which is a necessary support for legal findings, is naturally of greater importance in the fourth year of the war than it was formerly. Their impending placement within the army groups will require special handling. The work of the hygienists and tropical-disease hygienists will be concerned, among other things, with wounds, diphtheria and malaria.

Oberkriegsarzt Professor Kliewe will inform you about the necessary knowledge of particular, until now never discussed, preparations of our enemies.

That, if it please the Tribunal, is a reference I submit with reference to biological warfare, as you will recall that Kliewe's name appeared on several Documents concerning biological warfare.

The pharmacologists, who were not represented at the previous Pork Conference, have again been called into service, since it is vital in the fourth year of war to recall essential questions concerning the treatment of injuries through chemicals.

That being in reference to Chemical warfare.

The tuberculosis specialists are also newcomers. Fundamentally they work together with the pathologists and physicians. Careful pertinent examinations, which have been carried out during the war, have thrown much light on tuberculosis among colored people, who formerly had seldom or never come into contact with the disease, as also on the effects of war conditions on the development of lung tuberculosis among our soldiers and, in close connection therewith, the problems of reduced effectiveness of personnel and the evaluation of matters of previsions are extremely important and will be discussed.

The war has led our troops into places, which present many problems in deserts and salt steppes, in regard to the possibility of water supplies for large masses of people. Chemical testing of water and storage of drinking water have necessitated special arrangements for this purpose. But the evaluation of foodstuffs from the point of view of chemical nutriment, qualitative and quantitative examination also become important when one remembers the many various maintenance difficulties which are brought about by the great distance from the homeland of the theaters of war, the limited means of transportation, and the climatic influence of heat and cold. Of particular importance is the question of the value of prepared foods, for example, the question of effective nutrition, the necessity of the classification of foodstuffs in simple form with a view to their qualitative value.

As during the last Work Conference, all problems will be decided and measures and guiding principles will be established in accordance with present day knowledge. I consider it most important that the basis for orders and regulations in the field of medical science be created among the consulting physicians here in the homeland and outside with the troops at the fronts, and that German medical science be the surer wide basis on which the health operation of the army stands, and in this way does its best to maintenance the combat power of the Wehrmacht.

Again a Russian winter with all its difficulties and endless dangers lies before us. We enter it better fortified than last year. We are rich in experiences gained during the last year, and it can hardly be more difficult than the winter of 1941-42. Our army is equipped with a winter outfit though out in every detail. The foresighted precautions taken against typhus are particularly extensive. Besides well functioning big delousing institutions numerous similar installations have been erected, which allow for the decentralization of the combatting of lice. We have been successful in greatly increasing the production of typhus vaccine, and now methods have been begun in the production of vaccine which promise even greater accomplishment.

And, I could say that was not done without the experience gained in the pest-hole of Buchenwald.

The malaria prophylaxis with atabrine has proved itself in every respect and has kept the army at combat strength in particularly malaria infected regions. Rich experiences could be gathered particularly in this field, and the work of general hygienic combating of malaria and establishment of sanitary conditions in the area, which has been carried out during the course of the summer in the malaria regions, is especially extensive. Exhaustive inquiries into the malaria conditions in the various theaters of war were necessary in order to make studies which concern themselves not only with the land but also with people, and which led to the determination of spleen indices in children in the territories in question. The laboratory train and the High Command of the Army, as well as the motorized laboratories of all branches of the Whermacht, and the malaria education troops, together with the consulting physicians, have performed distinguished work, the worth of which will be of value to the indigenous populace in the areas in question long after this war.

The combating of diseases in the various theaters of war has brought about special accomplishments. Its basis had to be medical topography. The first part of the recently published disease atlas will encompass all territories which might conceivably come into consideration as theaters of war. It will be placed at the disposal of all branches concerned as a basis for their work. If, for obvious reasons, it is to be withheld from open sale for the present, it will nevertheless be placed at the disposal of German universities and clinics at this time as a means of education of the students, and thereby as a preparation for their future war tasks. In war the soldier has to look forward; also the doctor who is part of the Wehrmacht as a soldier. After three years of war, however, I had to look back, particularly before this group and review the work of the past year. A deep-rooted understanding must exist of the peculiarities inherent in medical science and soldierly ways. The paths which soldier and doctor must take can be very different in the medical officer the necessary synthesis must be found so that the never-varying goal may be reached in the quickest way.

That is not, in fact, the end of the speech made by Handloser at this meeting of the Military Medical Academy in December of 1942.

It continues two pages beyond where I have just left off. You see page 8 of original at the top continued over on the next page and ends at the top of what is noted at the bottom as page 3. This translation has been very poorly put together. However, I shall not read this last portion of the speech but will instead go to what is noted as page 3 of this translation.

Does the Tribunal find that? The pagination is at the bottom of the page in the middle of page 3 which is on page 48 of the original document. We have extracted a synopsis and a report given by Stabsarzt Professor Holzloehner. The Tribunal will recall that Holzloehner was the man who cooperated with Rascher and Finke in carrying out the freezing experiments in Dachau, and they took place during the late autumn and early winter of 1942, and here Dr. Holzloehner is making a report in December 1942 on the results of his experiments at Dachau. Holzloehner was a doctor of the Luftwaffe. The extract is headed "Prevention and Treatment of Freezing."

In case of freezing in water of a temperature below 15°, biological, countermeasures are practically ineffective, whether in the case of human beings or animals. Human beings succumb to reflectory rigidity, increase of blood sugar and acidosis, at an earlier stage and to a greater extent than animals. At a rectal temperature of below 30° under such conditions of distress at sea auricular flutter regularly sets in; at under 28° heart failure frequently occurs in human beings. (Over-exertion due to unequal distribution of blood, increased resistance and increased viscosity.) Treatment with drugs is senseless and has no effect. In the cases of human beings best results are also achieved with hot baths. The foam-suit was developed as a prophylaxis against freezing in water below 15°.

Of course, it is impossible to know precisely what Holzloehner said in his talk before the Military Medical Academy on freezing, but we submit that even from this short paragraph which was reported in the book, that it must have been apparent to those who were listening to Holzloehner's report that he had in fact carried out experiments on living human beings. He gives rather detailed clinical observations here, even going to the extent of stating the temperature at which a man will die.

I submit that it must have been known to those men that experiments were carried out, even if Holzloehner said little more than this one paragraph digest we have of his talk.

Below that extract of the report given by Holzloehner we have comments made by Handloser, Bremer, Hippke, Jarisch and Buechner. Hippke, Jarisch, and I think, Buechner were certainly all doctors of the Luftwaffe and the Tribunal will recall that Hippke was the very man who, together with Milch, commissioned these freezing experiments on the part of Rascher, Holzloehner and Finke, who at that time were all Luftwaffe doctors. So I submit also that the presence of Dr. Hippke, Dr. Jarisch, who was also suggested by Hippke to cooperate in those experiments, and Buechner, shows that we have a number of men present at this meeting who very well knew the manner in which these experiments were carried out at Dachau.

I do not want the Court to understand that these remarks by Holzloehner, Bremer, Hippke, and so forth were specifically directed to the talk given by Holzloehner. In addition to Holzloehner's talk on freezing problems an additional report was given by Oberfeldarzt Professor Schulz, Professor Lendle, and after those three papers were read, apparently then came the comments by Handloser and the other men.

The extract on Handloser's comments reads:

Handloser stresses the extraordinary importance of education also in combating cold effects and appeals to all medical officers, in their capacity as leaders of the health service, to see to it that through ever repeated explanations each individual is taught to observe the necessary precautionary measures.

Bremer said: "The importance of the status sysraphicus, which very often is the cause of constitutional susceptibility to freezing of the extremities is pointed out." And then he continues with comments on frostbite.

Hippke said: "In all cases of injury to the general healthy through freezing it is important to follow up the administering of a hot bath and the restoration of the normal functioning of the skin with body massage, heart remedies are unreliable, likewise other remedies. It is difficult to determine the intensity of short wave treatment."

And, of course, Hippke's comment is based upon the report made by Rascher, Holzloehner and Finke who had tested these various methods of rewarming, such as the hot baths, body massage, heart remedies with drugs and also this short wave treatment.

I turn now to page 11 where, under the heading "Hepatitis contagiosa (epidemica)" we find a report by Oberfeldarzt Professor Gutzeit.

THE PRESIDENT: The pages in these documents are not numbered.

MR. McHANEY: You do not find page 11? At the bottom of the page, in the middle.

THE PRESIDENT: I have found that. I will ask now is it the purpose of the Prosecution to make this into a document book and number the document book?

MR. McHANEY: No sir, we probably shall not put the documents which I am now submitting into a document book. I would suggest that they be kept in the folder which has been furnished the Tribunal and simply insert the exhibit numbers on the top of each document.

The Tribunal will recall that in the proof on the epidemic jaundice experiments that the name of Gutzeit was mentioned, or I think he signed a letter which went into evidence concerning certain hepatitis epidemica experiments. You will also recall that Dr. Dohmen carried out experiments in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp under the direction of the defendant Brandt.

I simply wish to point out that in the last paragraph of this talk by Gutzoit on epidemic jaundice, that is to say, on Page 15 -- that is the last page of this document -- he says:

I shall not discuss the pathological anatomical as well as the current etiological research which was carried out by my collaborators Oberarzt Dr. Voogt and Oberarzt Dr. Dohmen by means of liver punctures and animal passages.

This excerpt we submitted simply to show the close relationship and collaboration between particularly Gutzeit and Dohmen and derivatively the Defendant, Brandt.

I turn now to Document NO-923 which will be Prosecution Exhibit 436. This document contains excerpts from the report on the Third Meeting Last of Consulting Specialists held on 24 to 26 May 1943 at the Military Medical Academy, Berlin. On page 43 of the original we find the much-discussed report made by Gebhardt and Fischer on the sulfanilamide experiments carried out at Ravensbrueck. It reads as follows:

SS Gruppenfuehere, Lt. General Professor Gebhardt and F. Fischer: Special experiments on effects of sulfanilamide. Conclusions: (1) Suppuration of the soft parts of the body caused by bacteria cannot be prevented even by immediate administration of sulfanilamide. (2) The course of the inflammatory disease of aerobic producers of abscesses and phlegmons could not be demonstrably influenced by sulfanilamide. Combined treatment of gas-gangrene made the impression of causing an easier course under the influence of sulfanilamide. (3) Surgery continues to be necessary in the control of inflammations. Supplementary notes: Powdering of wounds with S.A. powder may be detrimental if as a result fundamental laws of surgery are violated; for example, if the basic layer of powder does not dissolve in the liquid of the tissue and binders the discharge of secretions by clotting.

Wounds treated with S.A. powder are less inclined to flow. Work hypothesis: Inflammation of the mesodermal soft parts tends very fast to build necrosis. The necrosis whose surroundings show thrombosed vessels is the place where bacteria are settling. The necrosis is difficult to be reached by the Chemotherapeutic agents.

This, if the Tribunal please, is a statement of the conclusions reacted as a result of the criminal experiments carried out on a great number of Polish women in the Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp, four of whom have been brought to this Tribunal to testify so that we could all see the mutilating results of those experiments.

The Discussion under this report by Gebhardt's and Fischer's experiments do not qualify for an immediate comparison with animal experiments as performed by myself and others because ligature of vessels eliminated larger muscular parts and prevented the influence of orally administered sulfanilamide (cavity effect.) The range of locally administered sulfanilamide, especially of non-soluble ones, must not be overestimated because the conditions of diffusion are insufficient due to the poor solubility. Especially marfanil has to be considered in this respect. The poor takes of infections with gas gangrene which is stressed by the lecturer coincides completely with the findings in animal experiments. Infection does not start without special local conditions (demolition of the tissue, interruption of the circulation.) These points must also be considered particularly for surgical treatment, and costing of sulfanamides in wartime surgery should be carried out from the viewpoint of synthesis and not of antithesis.

This remark in the discussion that "The poor takes of infections with gas gangrene which is stressed by the lecturer coincides completely with the findings in animal experiments" makes it starkly clear that the Defendants, Gebhardt and Fischer, told these gentlemen very precisely what they had done, especially in animal experiments compared with human experiments and says they had poor takes when they artificially infected with gas gangrene the human subjects.

He goes on to state that "Infection does not start without special local conditions (demolition of the tissue, interruption of the circulation)", and the testimony before this Tribunal has very clearly demonstrated that that is precisely the way in which the artificial infection was made to take by tying of blood vessels at either end of the wound so that there would be a fertile field for the infection, infection which killed by the Defendant, Fischer's, own admission at least three people. And, if the Tribunal please, you will recall that when this sulfanilamide report was made by Gebhardt and Fischer, Rostock was chairman of that portion of the meeting, and in the front row sat the Defendant, Karl Brandt, and the Defendant, Handloser, and the deceased Dr. Conti.

I turn now to Page 5 of this same document, and we find that at the same meeting as has been testified to by Eugen Kogon a report was made by Dr. Ding on the murderous typhus experiments in Buchenwald, and this report reads as follows:

Typhus - Inoccupation SS-Sturmbannfuehrer Ding:

On the results of the testing of various typhus vaccines against classic typhus.

Among the vaccines used in the German Army and Civilian Administration for active protective inoculation against typhus with deactivated germs, only Weigl's vaccine from lice intestines has proved its usefulness in human experimentations. Male subjects in groups of approximately equal size who had not yet come into contact with typhus were under observation to test the tolerance and protective capacity of vaccines from egg yolks, rabbit lungs and dog lungs.

Equally large groups of typhus patients who had not been protectively inoculated were used for comparison.

The following vaccines were tested:

(1) Vaccines from lice intestines by total.

(2) Vaccines from egg yolks by Gildemeistrr, Haagen.

(3) Two vaccines of two different strengths from the Gehring Works according to the procedure developed by Otto Weblrab. These vaccines are no longer being used.

(4) Vaccine prepared according to Durand-Giroud from rabbit lungs.

(5) Vaccine prepared according to Combiosco and his collaborators from dog lungs.

The tolerance of all vaccines was good. Fitness for work was not reduced. The protective vaccination reduced the height of fever and the fever period was shortened by about a week in comparison with the non-vaccinated parallel groups.

The protective vaccination was particularly favorable when the Weigl, Gildemeister and Giroud vaccines were used, which are produced from pure Rickettsia Prowazeki cultures. In the overwhelming majority of cases the vaccination protects against death. It does not appear to reduce the frequency of cases of sickness.

It could not be determined that the protective vaccination influenced the diminished blood pressure, but the central nervous system of the vaccinated groups was less influenced than that of the non-vaccinated ones.

The exanthema of the vaccinated groups did not become hemorrhagic and disappeared on the average one week earlier than the exanthema of the non-vaccinated parallel groups.

So we see that at the same meeting at which the sulfanilamide experiments were being reported on, Dr. Ding also gave a report on he typhus experiments at Buchenwald, so we find that this organization received at a minimum reports on the freezing experiments at Dachau, the sulfanilamide experiments at Ravensbrueck and the typhus experiments at Buchenwald.

I come now to Document NO-924 which will be Prosecution Exhibit 437 which contains excerpts from the report on the Fourth Meeting of Consulting Physicians from 16 to 18 May 1944 at the SS Hospital of Hohenlychen. The Tribunal will recall that we put in a very long list of names of those attending this meeting at Hohenlychen. We find the report interesting particularly because of an address made by the General Commissioner of the Fuehrer for Health and Sanitation, the Defendant. Karl Brandt, a man who will tell you that he had no connection with the SS. He was a member by technicality only, but he was the man who welcomed the meeting at the SS "Hospital at Hohenlychen, and his address reads as follows:

Gentlemen: I am to welcome you here to Hohenlychen in the name of the Reichsfuehrer SS on the occasion of the Fourth Meeting of Consulting Specialists.

I am glad that it was possible to have this meeting carried out in spite of the difficult external conditions. The events of war hold our close attention and see us all in our accustomed readiness. Thus this meeting is particularly emphasized.

That you, Mr. Conti, as Reich Chief for Public Health and Secretary of State in the Ministry of the Interior, also were able to accept the invitation of the Chief of the Medical Service of the Wehrmacht has to be regarded as more important than a mere participation in a meeting. I enjoy it as the expression of a mutually comprehensive unity in face of the tasks and achievements which are expected from us physicians at home and in the field.

Today this unity in general is he supporting element, but this is particularly so within our medical profession.

All of us are bound to this common cause.

To be a physician means to give aid and to give aid means pledging one's self again and again.

All other considerations have to recede today in the face of this imperative demand. Our resolute and determined fight demands it. The Public Health Service and the Medical Service of the Wehrmacht are closely united.

Generaloberstabsarzt Handloeser, you, a soldier and a physician at the same time, arc responsible for the use and the performance of our medical officers.

The Reichsfuehrer desires that the meeting which you have called will not fail to have the expected success. I convey to you personally his special greetings.

I believe, and this probably is the sole expectation of all concerned, that this meeting which today starts in Hohenlychen will be held for the benefit of our soldiers. The achievements to date of your physicians, Hern Generaloberstabsarzt, confirm this unequivocally, and their readiness to do their share makes all of us proud and - I may also say - confident.

We have arrived here with visible good fellowship and in the spirit of mutual confidence. The heavy responsibility, which we bear at a decisive point in this war, holds us strengthened and rendered more acutely by the events of the fifth year of the war, strongly bound together.

We are aware of the value of our work. We do not have to step aside, but on the other hand, we cannot consider this as simply a matter of rank either. Everybody knows that the German physicians at home, as well as those in uniform, are accomplishing deeds unheard of.

MR. McHANEY: He was apparently correct when he said he was performing deeds unheard of: I continue:

And are dutifully performing their obligations, I do not need to describe the readiness for sacrifice of the practicing physician at home. All of you know his truly hard work by day and night. No terror bombing restrain him. Nor, do I need to refer to our medical officers, who are fighting intrepidly together with their troops, and in numberless hospitals are healing wounds which this pitiless war has inflected.

We, therefore, realize - and I say so with all emphasis, with determination and frankness - that we too stand in the first line in the fight for existence and the future of our German people.

This is our responsibility, which no other profession can take over from us, is the more binding.

To deal with it is a fact as sober as it is self-evident and honorable for all of us.

Where we are standing - where any German physician is standing - no thing but this ultimate dutifulness can be expected.

This cannot be explained away.

We are proud of the fact that we are not only responsible to the people in our common effort, but that this responsibility is borne by each of us individually, completely and with its full weight.

This remainder of our individuality has become a noble and thus a most deeply rooted German duty.

Therefore, I may extend my best wishes to this meeting out of my own conviction.

The exterior frame-work already promises success. The preparations which SS-Gruppenfuehrer Gebhardt, our host, has made for this meeting are promising in themselves.

Hohenlyhchen, which is for all of us the concept of genuine medical practice, medical efficiency and of soldierly life, provides the exterior frame.

To this house the recognition and thanks of innumerable injured and wounded are due. This is the inner worth and as such it is to your credit, Comrade Gebhardt. The work of your assistants is also closely connected with your name. I believe all of us look with appreciation upon your work. The solemn seriousness of this meeting is emphasized by the bestowing of a decoration upon you for the whole of your medical work, and all of us rejoice in it.

The Fuehrer has bestowed upon you the Knight's Cross of the War Service Cross with Swords. I am ordered to present this decoration to you.

MR. McHANEY: So, you can see that in this fourth meeting -- roughly in one year after Gebhardt had made his report on his marvelous sulfanilamide experiments on defenseless Polish women in Buchenwald -- the Defendant Gebhardt, in the name of the Fuehrer, now pins on this man's breast the Knight Cross of the War Service Cross with Swords:

Permit me to add a few more words to my repeated congratulations. It is understood that with the far-reaching frame work our medical field special results must be shown, that we must accomplish special task as the fighting forces know them also.

We will learn about such a field here at Hohenlychen and Mr. Gebhardt will show and exhibit it to us. We will then extend, with appreciation, the honor bestowed by the Fuehrer, to the medical collaborators and the unnamed assistants, who, shoulder to shoulder with their chiefs are prepared to work indefatigably and without rest in scientific and soldierly pursuits.

While in our medical activity at home repeated operations and treatments, and painstaking rehabilitation therapy which tries the patience of patient and doctor, play a major part, and often take an excess of time and preparation, the physician in the hard struggle on the fighting front, on the other hand, is often confronted with making lightning quick decisions, and his assistants with taking immediate action.

A shot makes a sharp decision.

Above all, I am thinking of treatment of the skull and brain, besides that of injuries to the large cavities of the body.

Today, brain surgery is a concept which wants itself regarded as a special field, this in reposition to Paracelsus' interpretation that the understanding of diseases and human beings should be looked upon as an entity. All of us perceive this emergency demand of the war, and therefore recognize the necessity of separate development and special working methods which the war is bringing about.

You, colleague Toennis, know of these tasks and of these problems. Your deserts in this connection are unique. Not only did you use new ways of organization, with the help placed at your disposal by the Luftwaffe; but more than that, your medical knowledge helped to relieve the soldier of fear of the most serious injuries and their consequences. You helped to strengthen confidence in us physicians and medical officers, finally, which is more decisive, you helped the soldier in seemingly hopeless cases. These, who know your special hospital, knew about your work. It certainly requires unshakable faith in oneself and in one's task, not to lose courage.

Here, if anywhere, the 'physician himself' is to be valued above all.

The Fuehrer honors this.

His heart is with his soldiers.

But all who are helping the wounded may be sure of his thanks. He had given me the order to present to you the Knight's Cross of the War Service Cross with Swords.

Gentlemen, we should be happy and proud to know that all of our cares and endeavors are thus appreciate. There is no doubt about this. And we, gentlemen, simply look at it that way.

The field of our work is enormous. The responsibility, of which we are conscious is tremendous.

It is good simply to call these things by their names and to look at them as they are. This meeting is the visible expression of it - it is, it shall be and it must be so in every respect; the Consulting Physicians are gathered around their medical Chief.

When I look at these ranks, you Generaloberstabsarzt Handloser, are to be envied medical experts, with the best and most highly trained special knowledge, are at your disposal for care of the soldiers. In reciprocal action between yourself and your medical officers, the problems of our medical knowledge and capacity are kept alive.

I have admired you during the inspections we frequently made together. Your position did not involve - and I consider this or primary importance your renouncing your physicianship. Your interest, which you kept alive from the time of your own practice in the field of internal medicine, has always led you to approach Acute problems, heme-Therapy, hepatitis epidemica, field nephritis - all these became true and serious problems, to the work on and the treatment of which you gave all your support and assistance. All of internal medical science and its researches is assisting you on account of the importance of hose and similar discusses and Therapeutic measures which the events of war demand from us. Your Consulting Physician, Dr. Gutzoit, has been a faithful assistant to you. We all know the influence, which has emanated from Dr. Gutzeit's personality and from his department. His unselfish personal effort, his scientific research work and importance as consulting physician to his Chief are incontestable.

Professor Gutzeit:

The Fuehrer honors you and internal Medical Science, which you represented and bestows upon you The Knight's Cross to the War Service Cross with Swords. In the light of the old comradeship, which binds us together, it is particular pleasure for me to be permitted to present you with this decoration.

MR. McHANEY: So, we get at least a second doctor decorated at this meeting, who was also implicated in medical experiments upon living human beings.

I assume, Gentlemen, that you share my joy and that you feel justified satisfaction in this honoring of medical officers. It is an appreciative thanks for the indefatigable effort in which the individual is immediately effective through his own personality, but in the long run vanishes in an army of millions: But, we should be proud of that too.

The front knows that, The front knows what we mean to them. Calling for the medic has long since ceased to be ridiculous. Today it means justified expectation of help and care.

In spite of all that, we do not want to over rate ourselves and we want to be grateful to recognize fulfillment of our life in the fulfillment of our vocation. Who is still able to do that today? The war demands of us always to be both physician and soldier. This we are and want to be. And now I conclude this train of thought and pictures of the front again are covered by pictures of the homeland. It is not destruction of terro-bombings alone, which is causing trouble for and testing the homeland and posing addition problems for us physicians.

Five years of war are showing effects:

We must clearly recognize and express this. We can meet a danger only if we perceive it. Mental and physical over-strain cause mental and physical instability. To combat and repress them are duties as difficult to fulfill as those of the soldier at the Front. Only the outward appearance will be different.

How toilsome it is for the practitioner at home to care for the innumerable patients with stomach troubles during his consultation hour, how difficult is it for him in this time of need to carry out a positive, but necessary fight, against Tuberculosis. Enormous tasks are to be accomplished in this field and they are being accomplished: But all of us have to help, and we all want to help. There are no limits to competence. There is no exceptional position either. Only the mutual solution of all these most difficult problems can be considered. We know without further discussion what Tuberculosis, for example, means. Where does it not appear? There is it not possible that it might appear? Must not all we physicians stand prepared and concentrate all our attention on that alone?

It goes without saying that the physicians stand prepared wherever he is needed. He is combating tuberculosis in the city, as well as in the country. He fights against it in adults and in children He fights against it in soldiers and in women:

It is the 'disease' which concerns us physicians, and it does not matter what positions or what sphere of responsibility the individual positions or what sphere of responsibility the individual physician might hold. If we want to master the problem, which the people and state have given us, we physicians must face this concept of 'disease as such' in one phalanx.

Therefore, no difference exists between the practicing physician and the medical officer and in the long run no differentiation can exist among or against medical officers. If the Fuehrer, foreseeing this, gives his judgment, we recognize his fundamental decision.

In combatting a disease it is most clearly expressed! In the fight against Tuberculosis, for instance.

We are facing it in a common effort. We have to attack it jointly and from all directions, and consequently we want to trust the leadership of the best exports. Professor Baemeister, here your work stands before us. You helped to take up the fight against tuberculosis at an early date. During the World war, you already were Chief of St. ***sien Army Hospital. Your temporary duty in the fortress hospital at Holigeland assured your inner bond with the Navy. Then, came the toilsome reconstruction work of the inflation and postwar period, which besides a long established and unreserved appreciation of your person, brought about today's honors. Your infinite knowledge and experiences will help us in this war too, to master tuberculosis.

May I present to you, the Flottenarzt, the well deserved Fuehrer decoration. He has bestowed on you the Knight's Cross to the War Service Cross with Swords.

In conclusion, I think I should tell you a word which building a bridge over the past to the present, which find us prepared. It is Gerhard Wagner's maximum, which may be a vow for us for the future too. The word of deceased will keep our heart strong:

Faithful to oneself!

Faithful to the people!

Faithful to the Fuehrer!

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will no recess until 1:30 o'clock.

(The hearing reconvened at 1330 hours, 28 January 1947.)