1947-04-18, #1: Doctors' Trial (early morning)

Official transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America, against Karl Brandt, et al, defendants, sitting at Nurnberg, Germany, on 18 April 1947, 0930, Justice Beals presiding.

THE MARSHAL: Persons in the court room will please find their seats.

The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal 1.

Military Tribunal I is now in session. God save the United States of America and this honorable Tribunal.

There will be order in the courtroom.

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Marshal, you ascertain that the defendants are all present in court.

THE MARSHAL: May it please your Honor, all defendants are present in the court.

THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary-General will note for the record the presence of all the defendants in court.

MR. HARDY: May it please your Honor, the Defendant Rose to this date is charged by the prosecution on Count No. 1 with the conspiracy, in Count No. 2 with participation in the yellow jaundice experiments, typhus experiments and experiments involving yellow fever, smallpox, paratyphus A and B, cholera and diphtheria. In addition there to, the Defendant Rose has been charged with participation in biological warfare, more specifically, participation in the organization of Blitzableiter [lightning rod committee], also the malaria experiments. In Count No. 3 it follows that he is charged with the same.

At this time the prosecution withdraws all charges against the Defendant Rose save the charge of conspiracy in Count No. 1, the charge of participation in the typhus experiments in Count No. 2 and the participation in the malaria experiments in Count No. 2, and in Count No. 3, participation in the same, as set forth in Count No. 2.

THE PRESIDENT: Will counsel for the prosecution prepare a written statement to that effect.

MR. HARDY: Yes, your Honor.

THE PRESIDENT: And file it with the Tribunal in the office of the Secretary-General.

MR. HARDY: Yes, your Honor.

DR. HEINZ FRITZ (Counsel for Defendant Rose): Mr. President, with the approval of the Tribunal, I am now calling the Defendant Rose to the witness stand.

THE PRESIDENT: The Defendant Rose will take the witness stand. The witness will be sworn.

DR. GERHARD ROSE, a defendant, took the stand and testified as follows:

BY JUDGE SEBRING:

Q: Raise your right hand, please, repeating after me before the Tribunal:

I swear by God, the almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.

(The witness repeated the oath.)

THE PRESIDENT: You may sit down.

DIRECT EXAMINATION

BY DR. HEINZ FRITZ (Counsel for the Defendant Rose):

Q: Professor Rose, at first a few questions as to your personality. Will you state your full name.

A: Gerhard August Heinrich Rose.

Q: When and where were you born?

A: I was born on the 10th of November 1096 at Danzig in Western Prussia as a German. I have always retained German citizenship, although my home was separated from Germany in the year of 1920.

Q: Would you please very briefly describe your professional career, and, at first, up to the time you completed your medical studies.

A: Gymnasium at Stettin, Dusseldorf, Bremen and then Breslau. These changes came about owing to my father's transfers who was a senior civil servant. I made my matriculation on the 9th of March 1914, and from 1914 until 1921 I studied medicine. I did my military service at the Second Guard Regiment with the Infantry, and I went through the war with that regiment from 1914 until 1918. My medical State examination I passed at the University of Breslau on the 15th of November 1921. My medical approbation I received on the 16th of May 1922 by the Reich Ministry of the Interior at Berlin.

Q: What success did you have in terminating your medical examination?

A: My State examination was very good, doctor degree "magna cum laude".

Q: Would you please describe to the Tribunal very shortly your career as a physician?

A: I worked in Breslau as an intern with the Pathological Institute of the hospital, there, and I was also at the Medical Polyclinic and the Hygiene Institute of the university. I started my years as assistant at the Hygienic Institute of the University at Breslau. In the year of 1922 I went to the Robert Koch Institute at Berlin and, finally, in the year of 1923, I went to the Hygienic Institute of the University at Basel in Switzerland. During that time I studied for two months as a guest at the Prussian Institute for Water, Earth and Air Hygiene in Berlin, Dahlem.

In order to supplement my education I decided to do a few years of clinical work and became assistant at the surgical clinic at the University of Heidelberg. Upon the wish of my clinical chief there I had spent one winter before that with the anatomical Institute of the University at Heidelberg. During my Heidelberg years I had a place for work with the Hygienic Institute in order to carry out my scientific work there.

In the year of 1929, upon recommendation of the Berlin tropical disease Professor Ziemann; I was assigned to China to the Government of Chekiang. There I created the State Institute for Public Health of Chekiang. Two years later, I was appointed consultant for public health with the Commissioner for Civil Affairs at Chekiang. In addition, in the year 1934 the Chinese National Government offered me the job as a director in the Schistosomiasis control. I stayed officially at Hangehow, during my stay in China, which is the capitol of Chekiang. Hangehow has half a million inhabitants, and Chegiang more than twenty million. During that time I had a number of subsidiary offices such as are usually had in case of any such hygienic position. I was a member of the City Planning Committee, of the Water Works Committee, of the Committee for Police Reform with the Ministry of the Interior at Chekiang. I was an honorary member of the Hygienic Committee of the Chinese Medical Association. Then in the year 1934 I became chairman of the Parasitological Section of the Far Eastern Association for Tropical Medicine. Although the Commissioner for Civil Affairs had changed five times during that period, I stayed in that position for a period of 7 years until I myself asked to resign in order to accept an offer which was made to me by the Robert Koch Institute of Berlin as a professor.

DR. HEINZ FRITZ: Mr. President, with reference to Professor Rose's activity in China, I should like to submit to the Tribunal the Document Rose Number 1 under Rose Exhibit No. 1. This is a certification of the Chinese Education Minister Chu Chia-hua, and it is dated 26 September 1946. The document can be found in Document Volume Rose Number 1, page 1. I do not intend Mr. President, to read that document, I merely attach value to the fact that the High Tribunal take notice of that document since it represents a characterization of the Defendant Rose

MR. HARDY: May it please Your Honor, this document contains no jurat, hence does not meet with the regulations prescribed by the Tribunal in that it is a duly authorized affidavit, certified, and in good form; hence the Prosecution objects to the admission of this document in evidence.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel, have you the original document?

(Original document handed to the Tribunal)

Objection will be overruled. The document will be admitted for such probative value as it may have.

BY DR. FRITZ:

Q: Did you receive any special assignments during these years in China?

A: In 1933 I received an assignment from the Hygiene Section of the League of Nations in order to study the Schistosomiasis problem in Egypt and to make a report, which was to constitute a comparison between that problem in Egypt as compared to China. In 1935 I participated in an International Information Course for Senior Public Health Officers of the Far East at Singapore. Malaria questions were dealt with there and then, with the support of the Far Eastern Bureau of the Hygiene Section of the League of Nations, I visited the most important malaria territories of British Malaya and Java and studied the plague control at Central Java. In 1935 the Public Health Administration of the Southern Chinese Province, Kwangsi, invited me to advise them on plague control questions. Before my return to Germany, I visited the most important parasitological institutes at Japan and then, upon recommendation of the Rockefeller Foundation, I visited a number of important parasitological institutions in the United Status of North America. On these occasions I also held lectures.

Q: After your return to Germany did you immediately assume your office at the Robert Koch Institute?

A: No, I only entered formally my new position with the Robert Koch Institute. I immediately took a vacation in order to take a trip to Africa for purposes of study.

I wanted to find out what the tropical medical special problems were as they prevailed in Central Africa. With the agreement of the Colonial Office in London, and the Colonial Ministries in Paris and Brussels, I traveled through Africa. I visited the most important plague territories of Africa. This journey lasted for approximately one year and went through the Union of South Africa, Portuguese East Africa, the Tanganika territory, the Colony Kenya, the Protectorate of Uganda, Uranda-Urundi, Murabat Mandate, Belgian Congo, French Equatorial Africa, French Cameroon, Nigeria, Gold Coast, Sierra Leone and French Senegal. On the basis of an invitation which I received while on my travels, I terminated my journey by visiting French Morocco. Then, in the year of 1937, I assumed the leadership of the Tropical Department at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. In the year 1939 I received a short special assignment in order to investigate a hepatitis epidemic in Spain. In the year 1943 I became the vice president of the Robert Koch Institute but could not practically exercise that office since my service with the Wehrmacht took all my time.

Q: In addition to the activities which you just described, did you have any instruction assignments?

A: In the year 1938 I received a lecture assignment for tropical medicine and tropical hygiene for the medical faculty of Berlin. In the year 1940 I received a similar assignment for the faculty of Foreign Sciences. In addition, I held lectures with the academies for post graduate medical training.

Q: Did you hold any other scientific subsidiary offices?

A: I was a member of the Scientific Senate of the Academy for Post Graduate Medical Training for Naval and Tropical Medicine at Hamburg. I was a member of the Board of the German Association for Tropical Medicine there. I was co-publisher of the handbook entitled "Tropical Medicine." I was a member of the committee of the German Tropical Medical periodical. I was a member of the Working Committee for disinfectants and chemical for insect-pest control.

Q: To what German scientific associations did you belong?

A: To the German Micro-Biological Association the Berlin Micro-Biological Association I belonged to the Berlin Medical Association, the German Tropical Medicine Association; and the Association for Applied. Entomology.

Q: Were you also a member of foreign medical associations?

A: I was a member for life of the Chinese Medical Association, and in 1934 I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for Tropical Medicine. I was a member of the Far Eastern Association for Tropical Medicine. I was chairman of the Parasitology Section at the Eighth International Congress for Tropical agriculture at Tripple in the year 1939. In addition, I was the official delegate for Germany at the International Congress for Tropical Medicine and the Third International Malaria Congress in the year 1938 at Amsterdam.

Q: Mr. President, in order to prove the Fellowship of Professor Rose at the Royal Society, I offer as Rose Document No. 2, which will become Rose Exhibit No. 2, the original certification of the Royal Society in London. This can be found in Document Book Rose No. 1, on page 2.

Did you publish any medical scientific work?

A: Yes, these papers are contained in the list which was compiled by you. Since all my material was lost during the war, this list is probably not quite complete but only a few relatively unimportant papers may be missing. In addition to that, there are the yearly work reports about the activity of the Institute for Public Health at Chekiang during the 7 years in which I headed that institute; also there are the work reports of the tropical medicine department at the Robert Koch Institute from the years of 1937 up to 1944. They are printed in the yearly reports of that institute and there you can also find all the work published by my collaborators.

Q: Mr. President, with reference to the activity concerning writing for technical literature by Professor Rose, I offer into evidence the affidavit by the Defendant Rose dated the 11 of February 1947, as Rose Document No. 3, Rose Exhibit No. 3. The document can be found in Document Book Rose No. 1, on pages 3 to 7. I do not intend to read that document.

Were you a member of the NSDAP?

A: Yes, since 1930.

Q: But you were in China, weren't you?

A: Yes.

Q: Well, how did it come about that you became a member of the NSDAP when you were in China?

A: A number of National Socialists in Nanking tried to recruit people into the NSDAP and also asked me. I heeded that invitation.

Q: Did you at any time hold an office in the Party or did you ever receive any Party awards?

A: No, I held no office in the Party or in any of its affiliations, although such office was offered to me on two occasions. I received no Party awards not did I get any honorary ranks.

Q: Did you at any time belong to the SA or the SS?

A: No. Under-Secretary State, Conti, asked me on one occasion to enter the SS but I did not do so.

Q: Did you have any disadvantages by reason of your refusal to join these formations?

A: Yes. At the end of 1939 I had been asked to participate in the Health Service at the occasion of the resettlement of the racial germans. This was done by reason of the German-Soviet Pact. I was to head this Public Health Service outside the Reich Borders and that by collaboration with the Soviet, Romania, Yugoslav and Hungarian authorities. After the conclusion of this work I remained the hygienic consultant to the Chief of this public health service. The actual resettlement on the German side was headed by Himmler and one agency, which was affiliated to the SS, the so-called Volksdeutsche Mittelstelle [Coordination Center for Ethnic Germans].

The public health service at first was independent of that agency, and was subordinated to the Undersecretary of State, Conti. Physicians of the Reich Chamber of Physicians worked in that service, or physicians that had been loaned to that organization by the Wehrmacht such as my case. The Vulksdeutsche Mittelstelle on the other hand endeavored to transfer these physicians that participated in the resettlement work to the SS. Since I refused my entry to the SS in addition I had a number of scraps with them concerning some fundamental interests, and that with a number of higher SS loaders I was asked to resign and be replaced by an SS physician. In the year 1944 I was invited to be a president for a new reich institution which was yet to be founded, an institution for insect pests dangerous to human health, and for professional reasons was supported by Conti. The SS at that time tried to get the field of insect control under their authority, since Himmler personally was interested in that subject. This fact can also be seen from Sievers diary which contained in the files of the tribunal. In the Committee for disinfection I had already opposed any that any special place be reserved for the SS in that field. In addition to that I — from the resettlement — I was knew as a troublesome collaborator and it was not difficult for the Gentleman of the SS who were interested to dissuade Himmler from requesting my appointment, who in the meantime had become Minister of the Interior.

DR. FRITZ: Mr. President, with reference to the difficulties which Rose suffered in that regard, I offer Rose Document, NO 4, as Exhibit, No. 4 an affidavit made by Dr. Gerhard Peters, on the 28th of February 1947. This can be found in the Document, pages 8 to 10, Document Book, no 1, I should like to read the most essential parts of that document, and I quote on page 1, paragraph 2:

I have known Professor Dr. Rose since the early years of the war, for, as a consultant hygienist of the Luftwaffe, dealt closely with all questions of insect control and engaged his department in respective scientific work. Independent of this, he was assigned in May 1942 by the Reich health Leader as a member to the Working Committee on De-verminization and epidemic control, including the supply of equipment, manpower and General enlightenment.

Professor Rose here gave valuable and energetic assistance, I came to know him personally during this work and learned to estimate him for his incorruptible objectivity.

It had been intended to appoint Professor Rose president of a special Reich Institute for vermin control which was to be established in 1944, an appointment which was generally approved in expert circles. This proposal had the be the special support of the under Secretary Dr. Conti. Rose, however, was turned down in SS circles, of Himmler's entourage for the reason that he was "too difficult" Sturmbannfuehrer [Major] Pflaum, who had been appointed ' Special Commisioner for Vermin Control' by the Reichsfuehrer SS was a particular opponent of Rose, and constantly criticized the work of the Committee for its lack of compliance with the Party and the SS. Finally instead of Rose, an SS candidate was considered. Rose did not even then change his often expressed hostile attitude concerning the wishes of the SS, nor his critical rejection of the Machinations of the then personal physician Professor Merell "(Russia power)" but rather further antagonized the opposition through his support of my work in the Committee and by his intercession on my behalf — I was threatened with arrest by the SS-.

Now comes the signature of Dr. Gerhard Peters. This affidavit was certified.

Q: Now, Professor, Dr. Peters, in the affidavit I have just read speaks of difficulties which you had with the SS in the field of insect control. Could you please describe those matter in greater detail, so that they become more understandable?

A: It was at first a fundamental clash when the working committee was founded. Those committees had been founded by Minister Speer, as independent administrative organs of the industry. I was to represent in this committee the interest of the civilian consumers, namely the civilian health authorities the private persons. The committee was to decide what means for insect control could yet be produced, what firms were those means, what factories had to be stopped and what personnel of those factories had to be transferred to other factories.

Furthermore, it was to be decided how the products were to be distributed among the various meeting groups. During the first meeting where all the interested parties were invited, the representative of the SS is rejected giving in to decisions of that committee. He said whenever Himmler was interested in producing any means for the combatting of insect control it would have to be controlled anyway. He further said the SS did not think of submitting to the decision of that committee regarding the distribution of quotas to the various parties. At that time I rejected any independent position of the SS, including the Reichs Fuehrer, because at that time the president hesitated in voicing his opinion, although it was his business to make this rejection. This of course was afterwards always held against me. For reasons which I don't know, Himmler was personally interested in combatting insects.

That was always maintained by his representative. They even tried to get the professional organizations and insect control under their supervision. One of its heads a certain Mr. Demmer was arrested without our ever knowing the reasons why. Some agent of the SS was established as a trustee. Similar plans were made against the president of our committee. He could only be put into that because of the interference of Government or institutions, who were interested in the smooth working of the committee. I personally was only concerned in as much as it was worked against my appointment as president I would gladly accepted that position in order to become the president of an independent institute. Himmler, of course, was in position to prevent such an appointment since he was a Reich minister. I personally never knew why the SS had such a special interest in the field of insect control. The conflicts with Himmler's personal physician, Dr. Morrell, came about for the reason that he was producing an inactive lice means in his own factory. This was ordered by Hitler for the Army, since Morrell managed to represent this drug in a wrong light.

Dr. Morrell was known in this matter as notorious. Since he was using the same raw materials that another time could have used that was using a more effective drug, conflicts with the committee arose. Finally, I started to be very interested in the production of DDT preparations, something which was combatted by Morrell, because it had a tendency to limit his own production of his lice powder. It was all a very poor chapter.

Q: At any rate, during the outbreak of the war you were professor with the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin and also director of Hygiene of that Institute?

A: Yes, that was my position.

Q: Did you also have certain assignments abroad?

A: Yes, in 1943 the medical director of the Basel University put me on the proposal list as an expert in hygiene at their university at Basel, and then in the year 1944 I, including two candidates, was intended to be selected for the Turkish Public Health Office in Ankara. Both assignments for political reasons did not come about.

DR. FRITZ: In order to substantiate the proposal to assign Professor Rose to the University of Basel, I offer a document which was sent to me by the faculty of Basel, which can be found on page 11, up to page 14, of my document book. This is Rose Document 5, and Rose Exhibit No. 5. This is a certified excerpt of the opinion of the faculty insofar as Professor Rose is mentioned therein. This document is rather interesting, since it compares itself with the year 1943. Naturally, it was very difficult at that period of time to put a german in position of a lecturer at a Swiss University, and here in this document is explained why. In spite of those considerations professor Rose was suggested. I ask you to take a notice of that document, and I do not intend to road it.

THE PRESIDENT: The Court will now recess.