1947-02-11, #2: Doctors' Trial (late morning)

THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel may proceed.

SIEGFRIED HANDLOSER — Resumed DIRECT EXAMINATION (Continued)

BY DR. NELTE:

Q: The last question which I asked was your further development as a physician.

A: In 1906 I took the preliminary examination. In October, 1908 I became an Unterarat, and until October 1909 I was an intern in the charity hospital in Berlin. After that I took my medical state examination and there I came to the garrison at Strasbourg. There I served as a doctor in an artillery regiment, and also in a ward in a large hospital.

In 1912, in October, I came to Berlin as battalion doctor. I was in a battalion with dirigibles, and another battalion which worked with balloons. At this time I also took my examination as commander of a balloon. In 1914 I became Oberarzt and became corps physician of the guard corps in Berlin, and I went into the first World War in this capacity.

During the World War I was with the corps command as troop physician in a guard regiment, and finally I was chief physician of a medical company. From 1920 to 1923 I was ordered to the Medical University Clinic at Giessen to be trained as a specialist for internal diseases, after the end of this specialized training, I was sent to Ulm where I became head of a big internal medical section of the hospital and was in this capacity from 1923 to 1928.

I was suddenly called to Berlin to the Ministry, to the Army Medical Inspectorate, and. t here I had to take over the department for the care of the sick for the hospitals and for everything connected with the sick. In 1932, after I had worked in that capacity for four years, I became defense district physician in Stuttgart; that is, I was the chief medical officer in this Wehrkreis. On the 1st of January 1935 I became Generalarzt, and as army group physician. I was sent to Dresden. I remained in this position until 1938. At that time I was transferred to Vienna, still as army group physician. In this position, as army group physician and later as army physician, I worked under Field Marshal List. I participated in the campaign in Poland and then in the campaign in France.

In October 1940 our army was sent back to the East, to Krakow, and there on the 5th of November I received an order from Berlin that I was to leave the same day for Berlin since the Army Medical Inspector was sick. On the 6th of November, in Berlin, I talked to Professor Waldmann very briefly. He was leaving immediately for a sanatorium in southern Germany since he was very seriously ill. On the 1st of January 1941 I was appointed his successor and also promoted to Generaloberstabsarzt. From 1941 on I was Army Medical Inspector, and later, Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service.

Q: You had the position of Army physician Heeresarzt?

A: Yes.

Q: What happened after the capitulation?

A: In 1945 until the 21st of April I was near Berlin. I suddenly had to leave this post since the Russians were approaching. I went to the Northand came to the area of Flensburg. Field Marshal Keith was also there with a large part of the OKW. After the capitulation I as well as the rest of the OKW reported to the English staff and work developed since I was very frequently called upon to work out a number of questions.

When the High Command of the Wehrmacht was taken into custody or the 23rd of May, I remained where I had been and was still called on by an English staff to work on further questions. Later an American Army doctor was also added to this staff. This was called the Control Commission OKW North. I did work for this Commission which considered from my point of view was to help to take care of the innumerable wounded and sick, especially of the amputees, and to transfer these people to civilian life.

This was a very close collaboration, and on the 16th of June the American Colonel told me that a German Medical advisory Staff was to be created of about seven to ten medical officers. I was to make suggestions. I did so, and since a few of my most important associates were in the South of Germany, I suggested that they be called upon.

On the 23rd of June, 1945, the English Colonel Escritt ordered me to come to the airfield at two o'clock with an escort so that we could fly to the South to ether to look for these gentlemen the We left at two o'clock and arrived in Munich at three-thirty. We went to the headquarters of the American Army. There the English and American Colonels reported, and then we — that is, the person accompanying me and I were sent to the prisoner-of-war camp at Pularch near Munich. The Commission —- that is, the two English officers and the American officer —- went from there to Thuringer with us because all my material, all my files were there.

When we got there, everything had already been taken away by other commissions and officers. There was nothing left. Then the gentlemen said that we would all come to the district of Kassel to work on a staff, but nothing came of this.

I went from one prisoner-of-war camp to another. Finally on the 21st of September, 1945, I was put in solitary confinement in Obeorsel where I remained until the 13th of October. From October to January there was an intermediate period. On the 13th of January 1946, I was sent to a war crime camp near Stuttgart. In August-that is, eight months later — I was sent to Dachau, and on the 24th of August I was sent here from Dachau.

Q: You said a while ago that during the big war you were Army Medical Inspector and finally Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service?

A: Yes.

Q: Will you first describe your function generally as Army physician?

A: The functions of the Army physician are established precisely in the regulations, especially in the War Medical Regulations.

DR. NELTE: Mr. President, in regard to this decree, for your orientation I should like to submit Document HA-28 as Exhibit 1. It is in the document book 1, Page 41. It deals with the function: of the Army physician. I ask that this document be accepted as Exhibit 1. We need not go into this question now. We can come back to it later.

BY DR. NELTE:

Q: What is your authority as Medical Inspector of the Army?

A: The authority of the Army Medical Inspector is also regulate exactly also in the War Medical Decree.

DR. NELTE: In this connection I submit an excerpt from the War Medical Decree, Document HA-28a, Page 44 of my document book 1 as Exhibit 2.

MR. McHANEY: If the Tribunal pleases, I have no objection the admissibility of this Document except I note, in reading the English translation, for example, paragraph 6, which is on page 45, it says in the first sentence: "The Army Medical Inspector is the head of the Medical Section of the War Crime Army." I am at a loss to understand just what it might mean. I assume it is some mistake in the translation, but I never heard of any organization known as the "War Crime Army", and if that could be clarified I would like to know exactly what it means. It occurs again, from time to time, in the text.

DR. NELTE: I thank Mr. McHaney for pointing out this mistake. I received the English Document Book only this morning. I ask that the word "Crime" be stricken.

THE PRESIDENT: Just a moment Counsel. The Tribunal would be pleased if the Translators would examine the German Document and inform the Tribunal as to their idea of a correct translation of the phrase.

MISS VON SHON: Your Honor, the German word is "Kriegs" here, which could be translated "War Army" or "War-time Army". I think there may have been a misunderstanding with the word "War-Time".

THE PRESIDENT: I ask Counsel if that translation is satisfactory to him, "War-time Army"?

DR. NELTE: It would corresponds to the sense. May I continue Mr. President?

THE PRESIDENT: Proceed.

BY DR. NELTE:

Q: What was your position as Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service? How was it regulated?

A: There was a special decree, the decree of 1942, specifically, and the decree of 1944 with the regulations pertaining to it.

Q: Where was the seat of the various agencies?

A: The seat of the Army Physician was at the Headquarters of the High Command of the Army; that was usually in East Prussia. For six months in 1942, it was in the Ukraine.

The seat of the Army Medical Inspectorate was in Berlin, and the seat of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service was also in Berlin. Until 1944 it was in the building of the Army Medical Inspectorate; from September 1944 on, it was 50 kilometers from Berlin in a small town.

Q: Where were you most of the time?

A: Primarily at the Headquarters.

Q: That was the relation, from the point of view of the time, between the time spent at Headquarters on the one side and in Berlin on the other side?

A: One could say nine tenths of the time at Headquarters, and one-tenth of the time at Berlin. At other times one could say three-quarters of the time at Headquarters, and one-quarter of the time at Berlin.

DR. NELTE: Mr. President, in this connection I submit a table, that is Document HA 29-A, as Exhibit 3. This table has the following significance: You will see there the most important and the longest trips inspection trips, of the defendant Handloser to the various theaters of war, and the time is given as accurately as possible. You will find it in the Document Book 2, page 67. In the case of the defendant Handloser, it is important.

MR. McHANEY: If the Tribunal pleases, I will not offer an objection to the admissibility of this document if it can be put in without reading or without any discussion with the witness. The Tribunal will note this is nothing more than an affidavit from the witness, stating that he did make these trips. In order to shorten the proceedings, if Doctor Nelte is willing to put this in without reading it into the record, and without any questions to the witness, I offer no objections. If he is going to engage in interrogating the witness about these trips or anything of that nature, then I object to its admissibility on the ground it is nothing more than a statement of the witness who is now on the stand.

THE PRESIDENT: Does that refer to Handloser's Document No. 41?

DR. NELTE: Document HA 29-A, Exhibit 3.

For the reasons which Mr. McHaney has just given, I had this table prepared so that I would not have to ask the witness on the stand about his individual trips.

And, I therefore assume that he has no objection to the submission of this document, and I ask you to accept this document. In the case of defendant Handloser, it is important whether he knew of certain events which took place at home, in Berlin. It makes a difference whether some one was continually in Berlin, at his office, or whether he was at the Headquarters of the Army, and at the various theaters of war. This table is to help you to determine the question of what actual possibility there was at various times for Handloser —

THE PRESIDENT: (Interposing) Does the Counsel understand? The Counsel for the Prosecution has no objection to the admissibility of this document in evidence. The Counsel has simply stated that he would suggest that the examination of the witness be limited to refreshing his recollection from this document as to certain matters, and not testifying in detail concerning it. Now the document may be admitted in evidence. You may proceed.

BY DR. NELTE:

Q: I ask you, Professor Handloser, whether this table which you have signed is correct?

A: It is correct. I have seen only one mistake in it. That is on page 68, in the year 1944. The meeting in Breslau which has been mentioned frequently here is entered under August; it was not in August, it was in June. That is the only thing that is incorrect.

THE PRESIDENT: The error of the witness may be corrected.

Q: Now, before you present your individual functions, I should like to ask you to explain to the Tribunal the terms Medical Sanitaeswesen and Sanitaesdienst, which has frequently been used here?

A: That is as follows: If the word Sanitaesdienst is used, that means the duties referring primarily to the Medical Service in connection with the troops; that is, the medical tasks which are connected with Military Service, and where the medical superiors are bound to their military superiors; whether that is in the field army or in the home army, it makes no difference. If I use the word Sanitaeswesen, then in addition to this Military Service, this is everything which makes possible this Medical Service in the Military Service; that is, all the basic work and duties which make the Medical Service in the Army possible at all.

And, if I may give an example, something which played a role here, it must be emphasized that research has nothing to do with Sanitaesdienst. Those working in the Sanitaesdienst in the Medical Service have, on the whole, no opportunity to concern themselves with research. However, the basic work of the Sanitaeswesen does include research. Concerning the extent and the manners as to how research is connected with medical matters, I might say it is another phase.

Q: Now, will you please tell the Tribunal about your activities as Army Physician?

A: I must make a distinction between the two fields of work here.

MR. McHANEY: If the Tribunal pleases, I think that Doctor Nelte should be admonished to try to keep to the issues of the case. Now we are about to hear a long and detailed exposition on the experiences and functions of Heeresarzt Army Physician. I assume that the defendant once hold such a position, but there is nothing in the Indictment, or no issue in this case connected with his activities as the Heeresarzt. We have got an affidavit from the defendant, beginning on page 48 of your Document Book, and it runs to page 52. Pages 45 to 52 all deal with the activities of an Army Physician, and only on page 52 do we begin to hear about the Medical Inspector of the Army. I perfectly willing to have the defendant explain at length about is activities, duties, and functions, as the Army Medical Inspector, but I do not think there is any necessity to hear any great exposition about his activities as Army Physician with which we are not concerned.

DR. NELTE: Mr. President, I was also of the opinion that the defendant Handloser was not indicted as Heeresarzt, but the prosecution submitted as Document NO-1758 a diary of Halder, or excerpts from it. I do not know the exhibit number. It was handed in late in the proceedings. In this diary Generaloberstabsarzt Handloser is mentioned four times. One time army physician is mentioned. That was Dr. Oberarzt Schreiber.

Q: In what capacity were you, witness, in the headquarters when you reported to Halder?

A: I was connected with him only in my capacity as an army physician.

DR. NELTE: Mr. President, would you ask the prosecution whether Document1758 is in connection with the defendant Handloser. If they do not intend to draw any conclusions in connection with the indictment, then I am ready to dispense with the discussion of the defendant's position as army physician. If they do not want to do that, then I shall have to insist that this activity of his be discussed here.

MR. McHANEY: The document about which Dr. Nelte is now having some concern contains certain entries dated August 31, 1941, and thereafter. As I recall, the witness became the army medical inspector on January 1, 1941, or seven months preceding this entry. Be that as it may, we don't draw any criminal inferences from this document. It simply shows that the witness had some interest in August 1941 in typhus problems, a matter which I think he would not deny in any event. So, therefore, I think that we are all probably agreed that it is unnecessary to discuss these activities of the defendant as army physician.

DR. NELTE: Then may I say that as to charges arising against Handloser from Document NO-1758 the prosecution does not want to make any charges on this basis.

Q: Then will you please tell about your activity and your functions, witness, as army medical inspector?

A: To explain the contrast between the activity of the army physician and the army medical inspector, I must say something quite briefly about the army physician. In the field he had a small staff. His activity was limited entirely to taking care of the fighting troops and was directed to a large extent by military viewpoints.

In contrast to this the activity of the army medical inspector was more of a ministerial nature, I should like to say, as far as it did not refer to the practical care of the sick and the wounded in hospitals at home and as far as it did not refer to the medical care of the troops of the replacement army at home. The activity of the army physician required quick decisions and it was free of all ballast. The army medical inspector had to deal with big problems. He had to create the foundation for everything which the troops needed in the field and at home. Consequently, the army medical inspector bad a big staff. He had to deal with the personal data of all medical officers, with organizational questions, with questions of science and the care of health, with supplying the injured and wounded, with the medical care of the prisoners of war, with all the volunteer medical help, and with all the transport system for the sick and wounded as far as it was carried on land. The army medical inspector was also compelled to maintain numerous connections and contacts with other authorities or institutes or organizations at home, which were absolutely necessary in carrying out his duties.

DR. NELTE: Mr. President, Mr. McHaney has already pointed this out. I have a work of the defendant Handloser, HA-29, Document Book 1, page 48. This work contains the sphere of work and the meeting of the heads of the medical service of the army and the Wehrmacht. I submitted this work in order when examining the witness on the stand to save time and also to help you by a detailed exposition to judge the functions of the defendant as Heeresarzt, as army medical inspector, and as chief of the Wehrmacht medical service, as well as the methods of work in these agencies. Even if the defendant is not indicted as Heeresarzt, as army physician, he held this position and this activity took a great deal of his time and his efforts and therefore I ask that these parts of this document also be considered because only through them can you gain a true picture of the total activity of Professor Handloser a knowledge which is important in judging the further questions as to what extent he had opportunities to learn of certain things or not. I ask that this document be accepted as Exhibit 4.

MR. McHANEY: The prosecution as with the preceding document will make no objection, with the understanding that the general statement of the witness, which he has just given about his functions as army medical inspector, will suffice and that no more questions be put to him. I would ask, if that is satisfactory to Dr. Nelte, that he now put a general question to him about his activities as chief of the medical services of the Wehrmacht and let him answer that and then admit the affidavit because it also deals with his activities as chief of the medical services of the Wehrmacht.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel for the defendant is referring to Document HA-29 on page 48, Handloser Document Book 1. Is that correct?

DR. NELTE: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: The document may be admitted in evidence. That will be Handloser Exhibit 4.

Q: As to your function as chief of the Wehrmacht medical services, we must spend a little more time. For the statement which you must make, I will have shown to you Document NO-080 of the Prosecution, Exhibit 5 of the prosecution, in Document Book 1, page 10; also Prosecution Document NO-227, Exhibit 6 of Document Book 1, page 18.

You will also receive your diagram, to which you have sworn, on the Medical Service of the Wehrmacht. Before you explain your functions as Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service I must point out to you that the Prosecution alleges that in your capacity as Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service you had authority and supervision of the Medical Services of all three branches of the Wehrmacht. This is quoted from the speech of General Taylor, page 61 of the Transcript. General Taylor also says since the SS developed to an important part of the German Armed Forces, Handloser's supervision also applied to the defendant, Genzken, Chief of the Medical Service of the Waffen SS.

Furthermore, the Prosecution in a document which is not an exhibit, but which was given to the Tribunal, it says: Basic facts about the German State Health System, the Prosecution says the following about this:

By a decree of 1942 Hitler appointed defendant Handloser, Chief of the Medical Service of the Wehrmacht. In this capacity he coordinated and supervised the activity on the Health Services of all three branches of the Wehrmacht, as well as of the Waffen SS. In this way he became the Supreme Health Officer in the military field as Conti was in the civilian sector.

Now, will you please comment on these decrees here, the decree of 1942, and the decree of 1944?

A: As far as the history of the origin of the Chief of the Medical Service of the Wehrmacht is concerned, Professor Brandt has already testified. I can only confirm his statements and I should like to repeat briefly that the occasion for the creation of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service was the emergency in the winter of 1941-1942. The decree of 1942. In the decree I must emphasize the introductory sentence, which reads: "The utilization of personnel and material in the field of the Medical and Health matters takes a coordinated and planned direction."

Under No. 1 it is also said: "That the Army Medical Inspectorate as Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Services is coordinating all tasks common to the Medical Service of the Wehrmacht." and so forth.

The emphasis was definitely on the personnel and material tasks, and for the sake of completeness one should really have added that in addition to personnel and material questions, there was above all the just distribution of the accommodations for the wounded and sick. This is no doubt included in the concept of material in connection with this decree.

I should also like to emphasize that I did not participate in its final composition. That was done by the OKW and many things were changed from the draft which I had submitted. Thus, for example, I had not requested that I should have a Chief of Staff from the Luftwaffe and an associate from the Navy. My application was that the Army Medical Inspector will be given the tasks of a Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Services, his working staff for the Army Medical Inspectorate. It did not do me any good to have this Chief of Staff and this man from the Navy who were in no position when the tasks of all parts of the Wehrmacht were coordinated to do any comprehensive work here. In effect, they primarily made the work more difficult since there were thus two Chiefs of Staff, one from the Army Medical Inspectorate and one of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service. On the side of the Army Medical Inspectorate there were all of them workers. On the side of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service or his Chief of Staff there was only one person, a medical officer from the Navy. I emphasize this because it forms the basis for further considerations. Now, if it is a question of which work the new chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service attacked first, this developed from two points of view, first, urgency, and second, the point of least resistance. One must understand that it is very difficult with a newly created agency to incorporate one's self into the activities of the old branches of the Wehrmacht. Consequently, the first thing that were undertaken are work dealing with personnel and the commitment of personnel.

The winter of 1941 — 1942 was not only the occasion but also a very good example. The material work, that was the field where there was the least difficulty and least opposition to be expected, but in this field too, as can be proved, it took one year until we had more or less accomplished what had bee; demanded of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service.

I must at this point describe the relation with the various branches of the Wehrmacht. I shall skip the Waffen SS, because it was not very important. We have heard that in the year 1942 when the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service was established the Waffen SS had about four divisions. At the end of the war it had thirty or thirty-six and since the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service dealt only with the front divisions, that is the four divisions of the Waffen SS, this had no important role in the frame-work of the whole thing, but it was soon shown that the Waffen SS insisted strictly that the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service was competent only concerning those divisions of the Waffen SS which were committed to the Wehrmacht. They refused any interference beyond these divisions. Nothing was changed in this relationship when the number of divisions of the Waffen SS increased in the course of the years. What was the greatest burden to the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service in the following time was the circumstance that the Waffen SS always approached the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service with demands. This refer primarily to doctors, but also dentists and other personnel. The Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service was in no position to decide whether he should let them have their personnel or not. The demand was made with the explanation that the Fuehrer has ordered so and so many divisions to be set up, and has at the same time issued the order that the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service is to make the necessary personnel available.

THE PRESIDENT: It is time for the Court to recess.

The Tribunal will recess until one-thirty o'clock.

(A recess was taken until 1330 hours)