1947-06-09, #3: Doctors' Trial (afternoon)

AFTERNOON SESSION (The hearing reconvened at 1330 hours, 9 June 1947.)

THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel may proceed.

WILHELM BEIGLBOECK — Resumed
DIRECT EXAMINATION (Continued)

BY DR. STEINBAUER:

Q: Professor, how long did the experiments last?

A: That differed considerably. I said already that the group who received the de-salted sea water was in an experiment for eleven to twelve days. The thirst group remained in the experiment four up to six and a half, that is, up to the seventh day. The two people who remained in the experiment for six and half days had, as calculations showed, apparently drunk some fresh water in between. Of the group who drank a thousand cubic centimeters of sea water none showed results that were without doubt. Four of them must have drunk relatively small amounts of fresh water. They remained for four or five days in the experiment. Of the others who drank a large amount of fresh water, some by the liter, as we could calculate later on, most remained in the experiment six and seven days with the exceptional eight days and one, I believe, even nine days. In this case it was especially difficult to recognize immediately that he had taken in water and that for the following reason:

When I noticed for the first time by the amount of urine that the experimental subject had drunk water, because the amount of urine had, of course, increased, I reproached him about that. Thereupon, they adopted the trick to throw away half of the urine that they eliminated in order to deceive me in that manner. Through that I was caused to draw a wrong conclusion. In the examination of the urine it showed now that relatively small amounts of salt were eliminated. Thus I was of the opinion that salt was kept in the body and in that way water was saved.

In these cases, of course, the loss of body weight was small. It stayed the same. There was even sometimes a temporary increase in weight. In this case the condition of losing weight was stopped by this means and was made up again and also the experimental subjects felt fine and they did not show an increase or even showed a lessening of the dehydration symptoms.

After the event, of course, it is easy to say one should have noticed immediately all of that, but in the middle of the experiment it was not so simple as all that, especially since we were dealing with a preparation, the effects of which had not been clarified yet entirely, and one was not quite sure that an unsuspected effect of this preparation might appear. This experiment put us in a very difficult position in judging it and several times one could almost despair, especially because it was so difficult to prove that these people had taken in fresh water and because it was so difficult to get the experimental subjects to confess. The means by which they obtained water were, of course, many fold and everybody in the surroundings was helpful. Therefore, this experiment, at least for a large part of the sea water group, was to be regarded as a complete failure. Our fight against this constant drinking of water was a difficult one, not because I had perhaps not understood that a person if he is thirsty obtains water, but what I wanted to achieve was that these people should have honestly come to me and said, "I just couldn't stand it any more. Last night I drank a liter of water." Everything would have been all right and quite simple; it is quite clear that sea water makes you thirsty and that, therefore, the group with the thousand cubic centimeters of water, of course, was subject to this temptation the most.

On the other hand, the group with five hundred cubic centimeters of sea water, to a relatively large extent, yielded at least a useful result. There are some among them who certainly did not drink anything on the side and some who drank very little. They remained in the experiment five to six days. Those who had obtained fresh water remained seven, eight, or, a few of them, even nine days in the experiment.

Of all the groups that of the five hundred cubic centimeters of sea water was in the best situation because their loss of body weight was the lowest and there was hardly any experimental subject in this group who reached the limit of ten percent. The loss varied according to the manner of conducting the experiment from four percent to eight percent. Some of them drank so much fresh water that they were balanced at the end of the experiment and had the same water content as at the beginning of the experiment. In the two most difficult groups, in the thirst group and in the thousand cubic centimeters of sea water group, too, no one exceeded the limit of ten percent to, at the most, twelve percent of loss.

Thus, not a single experiment is included which advanced into the zone where one can really consider damage to the health of the subject. I made these calculations very carefully and I believe that for the manner in which they were made that I can take the responsibility before any scientist. I am convinced that the dehydration did not reach any dangerous extent in the case of any one of my experimental subjects.

Q: These last remarks you could repeat with express reference to your oath which you have sworn?

A: Yes, I can do so. As I have already stated, I made the calculations in such a way that I worked out the loss which came about through fasting with special consideration of the water balance of the Schaefer group. What remains is the water loss and that loss of water was calculated by me and in no case, as I said, did it amount to more than twelve percent. Thus, to the best of my knowledge and my conscience, did I calculates it and state it according to the truth.

Q: In the case of those experimental subjects, after the drinking of sea water, did they get diarrhea?

A: No, not in a single case. On the contrary it was noticeable that practically all of the experimental persons were strongly constipated.

Q: But Dr. Schaefer reports that in Dr. Sirany's experiments diarrhea was observed.

A: The difference between Sirany's experiments and my experiments was the following: The experimental subjects used by Sirany could drink sea water just as they liked and some of them drank large amounts at one time and that is at a time when the body still had sufficient water. Taken in such amounts the sea water has the effect of causing diarrhea. In our experiments, the experimental subjects received sea water in small amounts of 100 to 200 cubic centimeters per dosage, five times a day. The witness Pillwein has stated in the affidavit which the Prosecution has submitted as Exhibit No. 140, if I am not mistaken, in his statement of the 13 March 1946, stated before the Vienna police as follows: The participants were moreover in addition given daily four to five times a day salt water in amounts of one half to one quart all together. This shows that the amounts were not larger than 100 to 200 cubic centimeters per day. From the experiments undertaken by the Englishman Hay from the year 1884, it is known already that the salts which cause diarrhea, if one is in a state of dehydration already, do not have that effect any more, but in the case a stubborn constipation appears. Moreover, Sirany used water from the Adriatic which had not been examined bacteriologically and ours was guaranteed to be free of germs.

Q: In the case of your experimental subjects, did they get fever?

A: The highest temperatures which I saw in the sea water cases were around 37.5 centigrade, only on two cases immediately after the intravenous injection of hypertonic sugar solution on salt solution, there was a short rise in temperature, an occurrence which otherwise in practice is quite frequent after intravenous injections, but that is not the effect of sea water but the effect of intravenous injections of liquid that appears in every tenth or twentieth patient, and it is a short rise of temperature which lasts for about an hour and then it subsides again, but as to sea water itself nobody could get any fever from it.

Q: What was the degree of temperature?

A: I already said that they did not go above 37.5.

Q: Why then according to statements of witnesses, were those patients delirious with fever, the experimental subjects?

A: Normally there was a delirium from fever if a patient has a 41 degree temperature, over 100, but where it is 37.5 or even less, one cannot have a delirium from the fever. Such testimony is a shame for the witness, otherwise there was also no delirium in any case, not in a single case, the delirium which usually comes more from drinking than from thirst after the drinking of sea water, can be observed once in a while in the most rare cases, but in such a degree of dehydration as occurred in my experiments they are not possible and actually they never occurred.

Q: Witness, how did the ending, the interruption of the experiments occur?

A: I either discontinued the experiments by the intravenous injection of liquid, or in the thirst group, I gave them a solution of salt, light hypertonic salt solution, because causes the salt solutions to remain in the body longer than water and therefore, the body depots are filled up with a more lasting effect. In the sea water group I either only gave sugar solution or sugar solution mixed with hypertonic salt solution, and that is the reason why some individuals from that group had eliminated more salt than they had received, which was unusual, so that inducing small amount of salt could be undertaken here and regarded as useful. A large number of the experimental subjects, at the moment I cannot remember their number, discontinued the experiment, simply by drinking water or milk.

In the intravenous administration of a liquid, I sometimes administered some calcium.

Q: For what purpose did you add the calcium?

A: One knows from results of experiments that through administration of salt over an extended period calcium is eliminated from the blood and in order to prevent such a loss or salt or lowering of the salt content, I added some calcium.

Q: Witness, what was the effect of these injections or the drinking of water?

A: The effect was extra ordinarily impressive. If, in the case of the intravenous injection, one injected about 150 to 200 cubic centimeters, the feeling of thirst stopped already, and the entire appearance was, after about one quart of liquid had been administered, changed strikingly. It is true that the thirsting person through his loss of water, looks bad, his eyes are sunken in. This and a certain lassitude and a fatigue, lassitude in the muscles, was strikingly ended with the injections. I know that only with the giving of sugar and other insulin shots I noticed such a quick effect.

Q: Now I have to tell you that the witness Bauer, in the exhibit which was not given under oath, testified exhibit No. 138, that the interruption took place always only when the experimental subjects were already in agony. What do you have to say to that?

A: The witness Bauer was perhaps three times at the most, for perhaps half an hour, at my station. He himself has said in his statement that the experiments lasted four to six days, at the time when he was there, there was at most only 500 cc of sea water in the experiment, and after this amount had been administered nobody is in agony after 6 days. That does not exist. I know the witness Bauer and I am convinced of nothing more than that he doesn't know at all what agony is, but a lay person of course, likes to throw about medical terms. What did occur in the experimental person was a so-called apathy, a certain somnolence, what is called sleepiness, but what one means by agony, death agony, one means the condition of somebody shortly before dying in his last moments, and now the witness Bauer said after the injection of the serum, as he expresses it, the experimental subject revived, all of them, so it is a considerable medical achievement if one can recall forty people from the last gasp.

Q: The witness Bauer, who is a business man in a civilian profession, says further that he saw symptoms of heart weakness. What do you say about that?

A: The witness Bauer developed the electro cardiograms which I took. He developed the films. I suppose that on that opportunity he also examined them like an expert. What occurred in the case of the experimental subjects was a slowing down of the pulse. This is called in German medical literature "Schonstellung", it is a protective position of the blood circulation. This is supposed to express that through the slowing up of the heart beat as in the case of any case of deficiency, as in the case of hunger a certain economic using up, that is a quieting down of the circulation results. This theory I believe is the correct one but not the one that Herr Bauer accepted.

Q: Now the same witness says that many of them get rabies and similar things?

A: There was no case of rabies, not a single one. The case of rabies has not been described in literature about sea distresses or later depressive conditions. In healthy persons psychiatric symptoms do not belong among the symptoms of thirst but there is a certain nervousness and excitableness as in any condition of deficiency. Those are all part of the thirsty person's reaction.

One single time it happened that one of the experimental subjects went to the male nurse and cried for water. I was in the adjoining room and I heard these loud voices so I came out and asked what was going on. I was afraid that in his nervous condition the person would perhaps continue to scream. I asked him to return to his bed and with the held of a linen bandage let him be fastened and asked for the termination of the experiment, which took place in a few moments. The experimental subject remained in bed absolutely quiet and he was told by me that the experiment would then be terminated. I said nothing more and he waited quietly until the injection was prepared. From this incident, which from a medical point of view, was quite insignificant, the case of madness was made out of that. In this case of madness, finally it has been said that I had the person tied to his bed as a punishment. Such an extraordinary statement shows, how one can distort facts which are quite insignificant and how they can be misinterpreted to have motives of ill will.

Q: Were there any other incidents which occurred during the experiments?

A: Otherwise I only experienced cramps in the muscles which lasted for a short period. They are called tetanoid or tetanorphous attacks, which can be observed in any case of deficiency of water, which are conditioned by the drawing of water out of the muscles.

In this case I immediately discontinued the experiment by means of an injection of calcium and immediately achieved that the cramps stopped and immediately achieved the restoration of a completely normal feeling. From that incident the famous crying attacks were developed and the so-called tetanoid attack, a relatively frequent happening. There are people who can bring it about on purpose if they breath quickly. This attack can be controlled with certainty immediately with calcium. We experienced it quite frequently in our practice and I never saw any damaging effects from it. How such an attack looks may perhaps be seem from the picture which I had made up in order to show how it looks.

DR. STEINBAUER: Your Honor, I would like to call the attention of the Tribunal to the picture from the famous text book, it is a photostat of the picture of the famous text of a tetanoid attack. I am only submitting the photograph, I give this picture the title "tetanoid picture" No. 17, that is exhibit No. 17. It is referred to in Document Book 2, under Document No. 35.

THE WITNESS: This manner of cramps shown in the picture, that shows how these crying attacks look.

MR. HARDY: Has Dr. Steinbauer as yet introduced Document No. 35?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: That Document has not been introduced in evidence.

MR. HARDY: I am not aware that it has, Your Honor. This apparently is a supplement to Document No. 35; is that correct?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes.

MR. HARDY: Do you at this time propose to introduce this? May I ask the defense counsel to explain just what Document No. 35 is. In this document book I have a copy of the picture but if it refers to the weight table, I do not have that.

DR. STEINBAUER: This is to explain to the Court in the form of a picture how such a tetanus cramp looks. It is unnecessary that an expert description of tetany be made, it is altogether unimportant in itself; it is important only because the witness for the prosecution emphasizes it.

MR. HARDY: Is it an extract of Exhibit 17, Your Honor?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel do you now offer your Document No. 35 in evidence?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes, Your Honor, It is only the picture to illustrate to the court how such a tetanus cramp looks.

MR. HARDY: I have it straightened out. The picture is the exhibit and not a supplement in the document book. I did not have a copy of the picture and I thought it was a supplement. I don't see the materiality of the document, but I won't object to it.

DR. STEINBAUER: May I continue, Your Honor?

THE PRESIDENT: You give this No. 17?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes, your Honor, No. 17.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel may proceed.

BY DR. STEINBAUER:

Q: Witness, what would have happened if such an incident had occurred when you were outside of the camp at your own quarters?

A: During the day I was practically all the time at this experimental station or in the adjoining laboratory. And, during the night there was a night service. There was always a medical non-com there who was on duty during the night. In the plan which I explained before it is shown that the medical students had their room next door to the experimental room. That is, they were available at any time when anything was needed. Certainly I could be reached by telephone from there. I had given strict orders that I must be called at any time if anything unusual should occur and I could be in the experimental room in a few minutes from my own quarters. Every day I myself paid my night visit about 11 O'clock. And, I believe that I saw to it that everything was taken care of for the night that could be taken care of in advance.

Q: Witness, the witness Tschofenig tells us now that the experimental subjects were so thirsty that they even drank the water out of the pails that were used for cleaning.

A: I believe that the experimental subjects had so much opportunity as has been shown to obtain water by other means that they did not have to use the pails that were used for cleaning. Moreover they could drink out of the pails only at a moment when there happened to be nobody to supervise them or guard them and I don't believe in such cases they would have waited until the water was dirty and moreover that they drank out of such pails I think impossible because I had issued a strict prohibition that no water should be carried into the experimental room.

I do not believe that this ever happened either. If, however, it did happen it was a strict violation of my order. If I had seen it I would have held the person responsible.

Q: Tschofenig, who was far away at his x-ray station, not at the experimental station, continues to say that you withdrew large amounts of blood out of people that damaged them. What do you say about that?

A: The amount of blood which we needed for our chemical determinations amounted to about 10 cc per day. And they were not even taken every day. I do not believe that anyone of my experimental subjects had more than about 150 cubic cm. of blood taken out of them before and during the experimental period. If somebody gives blood he gives 500 to 600 cc of blood at one time. And I myself gave blood during this war at least five or six times and I knew that even such a large amount is of no significance, much less can 10 cc per day have an influence on the health. We cannot talk here about large amounts of blood at all and if Tschofenig states that the taking of the blood was done in am unscientific manner I can only say that it was done almost exclusively by myself. Only in very few cases did one of the French medical students take the blood under my supervision. I myself had experience in clinics for about 15 years prior to that and I hope that during that time I reached the place that I could take blood tests in a scientific and correct manner.

Q: You are also supposed to have carried out liver punctures uninterruptedly.

A: These liver punctures have the following history. In the case of some experimental subjects as it became evident later on after the drinking of water there was a temporary enlarging of the liver When Eppinger was there I showed this to him and Eppinger thereupon told me to puncture the liver in order to be able to exclude the possibility that through the addition of salt in the case of a different amount of water there were any changes in the liver. On his order I carried out some liver punctures at that time.

I believe there were about 8 or 10 and I did it by the method which was practiced for years at the clinic and which I knew very well. During my life I carried out about, let us say about 100 liver punctures already. The method is absolutely not dangerous if it is carried out correctly and it is also absolutely painless.

Q: Now Tschofenig says further—

As it was the case in other experimental stations Beiglboeck too transferred prisoners to the regular hospital in order to veil the figures of death cases.

I ask you now, did you transfer experimental subjects during the experiments to the regular hospital?

A: Not a single one of my experimental subjects was transferred to the regular hospital during the experiment. I have already told that during the preliminary period to the experiments one experimental subject fell ill with fever, that is in the preliminary part when the experiments weren't in process yet and that I transferred this person to the hospital. That was the only case which was transferred at all from my station from the beginning of the preliminary period. Tschofenig does not seem to know what thirst means. Otherwise he would know that it would be absolutely senseless to transfer somebody who is thirsting to another hospital in order to veil the bad condition because while one is thirsting there are only two things to do, either you let them die from thirst or you administer liquid to him and then he recovers. And giving him liquid if such a condition had occurred at any time I would have given him liquid and I wouldn't have undertaken any long transports because that wouldn't have made any sense. But, not a single one was transferred and this one transfer at the beginning, that is the first elimination of people whom I did not keep at all in my station, during the preliminary examination-these persons were not my experimental subjects but they were sick prisoners whose illness I discovered whose treatment I initiated and who were never included in my experiments.

It happened in the interest of those prisoners that their illness was treated. Here again that was an action on my part which was necessary from a medical point of view and which had nothing to do at all with my experiments and which then was made the basis for such misinterpretation. And the witness Pillwein who during the whole time during the experiments was at my experimental station and whose testimony the Prosecutor read to Dr. Schaefer says in his statement before the Vienna Police, Exhibit No 140 of the Prosecution Exhibits says the followings:

From other experimental stations I know from hearsay that many cases of death occurred. However, one practices in the following manner. The patients were in a very weakened and damaged condition and were transferred to the regular hospital where they died after a short period of time. Details about this could give a former co-prisoner Stohr. From this formulation it is shown unequivocally that the witness is speaking about transfers to regular hospital which occurred in other stations. This formulation is so clear that it cannot be mixed up with my experimental station at all. When I concluded the experiments, I still retained the experimental subjects in my station so that the second group was also observed afterwards for at least 10 days the first experimental group for 16-17 days. Then I required of the chief physician of the hospital as well as the camp officer that these people would not be allowed to work for another 14 days and that they would receive additional food rations even though the majority of them had reached again their original weight and in part had even exceeded that. I was assured of this quite certainly and at that time I absolutely thought that this promise would be kept.

Q: Witness, otherwise you also did something on behalf of the prisoners, you already mentioned cigarettes, and now this, did you do anything else for the prisoners?

A: I tried whatever I could do. Of course, I was a foreigner, and an outsider after all and had no influence myself but among the group there were some who had served in the Air Force, one of them had even received the iron cross decoration.

I called the attention to these people expressly and asked that the reason for their being kept in detention should be reexamined. This, too, was promised at that time. On that occasion I found out or rather I was told or assured that these people were not kept in the concentration camp because they were gypsies but because they were asocial or members of asocial families. I want to emphasize again that I had no opportunity to examine the files of these people and in that respect I had to rely upon what was being told there. Today here I do not want to characterize these experimental subjects as something possibly they were not. At that time, of course, I relied upon it that things were as I was told but now I have heard such things that now I could not guarantee if this was how the conditions actually were. Furthermore I have already mentioned that two of my experimental subjects had so-called escape insignia. After the conclusion of the experiments I went and said that they had reported to the experiments under conditions that this escape point would be taken away from them. Thereupon I was promised that the escape insignia would be removed and I now heard with pleasure that this actually happened. One of the prisoners requested that I do something that his hair be cut. I should have thought it ridiculous to mention the thing here if the witness Horn had not testified as to how difficult it was to get something like this accomplished. I succeeded in that too. Furthermore, in regard to the French medical students who were working for me I spoke on their behalf and I saw that they were removed from the lavor companies and were employed in the hospital. For them, of course that was a considerable alleviation first because it is more pleasant for a medical man to be able to work in his own profession, secondly because in the hospital they had quite different lodging, quite different food, and quite different work. I also tried in the case of two to get it through that their cases be examined, but I was refused and that was pointed out to me that in cases of these medical students we were concerned with political prisoners and therefore examination of their files was without any hope. One has to consider that I as a member of the Luftwaffe was nothing but an outsider and was there as a guest who had nothing to say, no influence, who didn't know anything about concentration camps either. There was nothing in my power but the ability to make requests that my experimental subjects and the prisoners who were working for me be given those alleviations which they had asked for and I saw to it that this was done. That was all that I was able to do. I could not do more and it was not in my power to do any more.

Q: In the Pillwein affidavit, exhibit 140, an incident is mentioned that you gave up a Yugoslavia medical student from your medical station; what was that about?

A: It is true that this Yugoslavia medical student had volunteered to work with me. I asked him whether he was acquainted with laboratory methods and blood examinations and when he said, yes, I took him on. I discovered that he was not capable of doing these things; therefore, I assigned him to the night service, and after the first time, I discovered that he had slept all night. In every hospital a nurse who sleeps at night, ignoring the people who are entrusted to his care, is called to account, but I only said to him that was impossible; if he was assigned to night service he had to stay awake. Two days later I came to the station at midnight to inquire, to see how the experimental subjects were getting along. He was on night duty again, and was somewhere in the hospital, but he was not where he was supposed to be; thereupon, I asked that he be exchanged for another medical student. This Yugoslavian medical student was not punished. He was assigned to another part of the hospital I do not believe that I did anything inhumane there.

Q: Professor, the nurse Max, was mentioned by the Prosecution. What do you have to say about that?

A: One day during the preliminary period of the experiments when the people were given the Luftwaffe rations, I came to the station one day, and I was told by the Gypsies that they had had a discussion with this male nurse. They complained, they said, that he did not give them the food they were supposed to get. The nurse Max, said that the Gypsies had beaten him, and the Gypsies said that he was always brutal with them.

I investigated the matter and found out that this nurse had given part of the food to someone else, not to the experimental subjects. I demanded that he be exchanged. The witness Viehweg testified he was sent back to his former station. He was not punished in any way; and he was replaced, from that time on there were no longer riots any more.

Even at the time when there really was hunger. This first incident occurred when the experimental subjects were supposed to be getting 4000 calories a day.

Q: Witness, now I am coming to the most serious charge which the Prosecution has raised against you; that is, that in these experiments you had death cases. I should like to refer you to the testimony of August Viehweg. I should like to remind the Tribunal of document 24, from document book V of the defendant Ruff, which was submitted by my colleague, Dr. Sauter. This file shows that this Prosecution witness, aside from the five years penitentiary sentence, which he admitted, had a number of sentences, five sentences before the one which he mentioned. The witness said on the 13th of December 1946:

Two or three times I believe I can remember that the stretcher was carried out with a cloth over it, and they were taken to the mortuary.

He was examined by Mr. Hardy on page 472 of the record, where he repeatedly said that there were two or three cases which were taken to the Mortuary, and when I questioned him, on page 499 of the German record, he said:

I can remember from my own observation having seen that people were taken down the road from the station to the mortuary.

DR. STEINBAUER: Then, you were not positively told that these people had died?

VIEHWEG: I cannot say that under oath. I do not know I don't remember exactly.

I want to remind you of your oath, witness. I ask you, did you have any death cases or do you believe that such were consequences of your experiments?

A: Not a single person died in these experiments. No one was harmed. All the experimental subjects were released by me in a satisfactory condition and with a weight corresponding to their original weight. I was not able to have any body covered with a cloth and taken to the mortuary because there were no bodies. Several times, however, I sent experimental subjects over to the X-ray room, and it is true that I had them covered because they had to pass water, and I didn't want these thirsty people to see water all the time. That is the explanation of these "dead persons". Moreover, some of the experimental subjects were carried out into the court yard so we could photograph them. The testimony of the witness Viehweg is definitely a mistake if it is not anything else.

Q: Do you remember the witness Viehweg?

A: I remember having seen him. I noticed him because all the nurses working in the hospital when I had seen before, and my medical students and-so-firth, had a red triangle. I noticed that there was one nurse there with a green triangle. I inquired about that green triangle and I was told that that was for criminals. I was told that this man had quite a past.

Q: Did you ever see Professor Eppinger in Dachau during the experiments?

A: Yes, Eppinger was there once with Berka and looked at the experiments. He was there in the experimental room or the laboratory for about an hour.

Q: But, the witness, Tschofening, says that Eppinger was in Dachau earlier and took care of setting up the experimental station?

A: According to what has been said in the course of the presentation of evidence on the sea water experiments, it is quite impossible—Eppinger had nothing to do with the whole preliminaries, except that he was present at the discussion on the 25th of May. Before my arrival in Dachau no experimental station was set up or even talked about. This testimony of Tschofening, that Eppinger arranged an experimental station there is incorrect. His statement that Eppinger took advantage of the opportunity to convert prisoners to National Socialism, for everyone who knew Eppinger and his attitude is ridiculous and incredible. But this testimony had a part in harming Eppinger in his position in Vienna, and it probably had a considerable part in Eppinger's unfortunate decision to commit suicide. Only the final impetus, in the last years of his life, Eppinger suffered so much misfortunate, and was so often in despair that it required only a small impetus to take that final step. Eppinger lost his only son in the war; his grandchild was killed by a bomb; his son-in-law was sent to Russia for service; Eppinger lost his home in an air raid; Eppinger was driven out of his clinic Epinnger was refused permission to publish his scientific life's work.

And, for a man who had been honored throughout the world before these things brought him to despair, at the end of such a rich life. Not in every suicide is there a confession of guilt; it can he the result of hopeless despair.

A: Eppinger had no more part in these experiments than that he was asked for his scientific opinion; that he gave his opinion; that he was asked to observe these experiments and to check with whether they were being performed correctly; that was all, and not one grain more.

Q: Witness, I brought that up only because Mr. Hardy mentioned Eppinger and his suicide in a different connection. Let's go back to the experiments. I should like to ask you about the food after the end of the experiments?

A: After the experiment was finished, the subject, for one or two days, got a very light diet. That was of course necessary because some of them had been fasting; because it is a mistake to give him a heavy diet immediately when a person has been fasting. They were given milk for one day and light foods for one or two days; that was not chicanery, that was a medical measure. After that they were given the relations of the flying personnel as they had been given before the experiment. When the second group was finished I had temporary difficulties with the food. There were about fifteen men. This was because the airfield from which I got the food had been bombed and the supplies had been burned out. I went to the kitchen of the camp, therefore, and requested food of the same number of calories as the flying personnel got. I had difficulties for one or two days until the supply from the Luftwaffe was re-established and this arrangement for high calorie food from the prisoners' kitchen for two days brought me into temporary difficulties with the SS. The prisoners did not get less; they really got more food. If I had given them the regular camp food I would not have had any further difficulties because the camp kitchen would have been obliged to supply this food.

Q: Witness, at the end did you ascertain that all the experimental subjects were returned in good health?

A: Before releasing the experimental subjects I performed a very careful examination of them. That was a matter of course. I examined them clinically; I made X-rays; I examined the electro-cardiogram; I repeated the blood analysis; the chemical blood analysis was made at the end and in none of the cases was there anything wrong.

I did not demand that they be given special care because they were sick but because I wanted them to have some time to recuperate and the affidavit will show I dictated these findings to the witness which showed that they were normal.

Q: Do you consider it possible that complications came up later?

A: I believe I have repeatedly emphasized my point of view that after a thirst experiment is interrupted the condition of thirst has come to an end once and for all. If one administers water everything is all right again. In all the literature on distress at sea available to me not a single case is described when there was any later complication because of thirst. The only cases of later complication are complications resulting from cold, that is, pneumonia or bronchitis and even these are very rare. I know from the English report that in about three hundred cases of distress at sea and rescue there were six or seven colds, catarrhs, and only one case of pneumonia. Now, my experimental subjects did not suffer cold; from thirst alone they could now have complications and as I said the sea water was examined bacteriologically and was found pure. It was impossible for them to have an intestinal diseases as a result, especially since we ourselves also drank this water and didn't notice any after effects because the incubation period of all such diarrhea diseases is so short that the diarrhea must have occurred while the persons were still under my observations.

Q: Witness, I should like to open another chapter now. How much inside view do you have now to live in a concentration camp?

A: Practically none; I was only admitted to our experimental room and laboratory; once I was in the pharmacy of the hospital in order to borrow equipment for the laboratory and several times I was in the kitchen to see to the preparation of food.

Those are the rooms which I saw during my stay in Dachau.

Q: Could you come and go when and where you wanted in the camp?

A: In the first two or three weeks on our way from the entrance to the camp on our way to the hospital room we were accompanied by an SS escort. Later because we often had to wait until a guard had to go with us — waited for fifteen minutes or longer at the gate, I asked that this be given up. The Adjutant of the Camp Commandant gave me and my associates permission to go these three hundred meters without a guard but I had to promise not to enter any other rooms in the camp except those assigned to us. I kept this promise and all my associates also had to make the same promise. Besides the guards and guard towers could watch us all the time from this way and it would have been very difficult for us to go to any forbidden regions.

Q: Then you could not receive visitors without the permission of the Camp Administration?

A: No.

Q: In this connection, your Honor, I should like to refer to the question of Judge Sebring to the witness Horn, page 5382, in the German record where the witness describes how difficult it is even for a high Wehrmacht officer to get to the camp and move freely there. Witness, did you yourself live and eat in the camp or outside?

A: The Camp Dachau consisted of three camps really, one was SS camp, one was the camp where the SS men of the concentration camp lived, and the third was the concentration camp itself. In the SS camp there was a hospital. In this we four doctors of the Luftwaffe were given a room and we lived there. That was outside the camp. We took our meals in restaurants and had practically no contact therefore.

Q: Were you subordinated to the SS in any capacity?

A: We had been strictly obligated to conform to all orders of the SS and SS guards while we were in the camp. Otherwise we were an agency of our own and quite independent and for the experiments themselves the SS had no right of disposition and never interfered.

Q: Witness, did you come into any other experimental stations during these experiments?

A: No, I have already said, apart from the kitchen and the pharmacy, I did not enter any other room, nor any other experimental station. I did not even know the existence of some of them.

Q: Now, what was the result of your experiments?

A: The following results more or less were ascertained which I believe were not without importance. First of all to show that the small amounts of sea water are better than complete lack of water. This is shown because the loss of weight was much slower and loss of water much less; that the thickening of the blood was less; that the loss of nitrogen was less and that the non-protein nitrogen in the blood did not increase while in those without water it did increase. It was shown that a larger amount of sea water had no advantage over pure thirst but under some circumstances even had disadvantages. It was shown that the concentration power of the kidneys had to be taken to be much higher than hitherto believed and about 2.3 percent could be achieved by almost anyone, with some even 3 percent or more.

It was shown that this concentrating power of the kidney was not considerably influenced by vitamins. It was shown that sea water in limited doses does not cause diarrhea. It was shown that the subjective symptoms, the feeling of thirst after salt water, is about the same as in complete thirst, that objectively in small amounts of liquid even salty liquid is better.

It was shown that even small amounts of fresh water taken in between have variable effects. It was shown that the Schaefer drug supplies quite usable drinking water and that the Berka method is useless. It was shown that in the blood an increase of salt is caused by drinking sea water and a slight loss of calcium and that it is therefore advisable to introduce calcium if a person is drinking sea water for a considerable period.

It was shown that in the condition of hunger and thirst there is a relatively high loss of table salt and that, therefore, it is certainly expedient for a person who has thirsted for a considerable period of time to be given salt water that is a physiological solution of table salt.

It was shown that after the experiment — that is, after a long period of thirst — there is a quick water retention and that the only danger from thirst and hypertonic liquid is the loss of water by the body. It was shown that the introduction of liquid leads to a very quick recovery.

I know that these experiments have not brought out as much in the way of results as would have been the case if the experimental subjects had cooperated completely, especially since most of the experiments were interfered with by the persons drinking fresh water and the concentration power of the kidney was subjected to great variations. A strictly scientific evaluation is possible only in a limited extent but for practical decisions they were sufficient that what was found in principle agrees with what was later discovered by English and American workers, that small amounts of sea water are better than complete lack of water.

Now, through the discovery of Professor Ivy and Dr. Schaefer, we are able to make sea water drinkable. It might still be that with someone who is in distress at sea without having this drug with him and the knowledge that with small doses of sea water he can improve his lot, this knowledge is not useless. If the extension of life, according to the theoretical calculations, is now possible — according to findings it might be only three or four days over complete thirst — still that might be decisive in practice.

Q: Now, witness, after completing your experiments did you report on them to your superior authorities?

A: Yes, in October 1944 I sent in a report.

Q: Then I shall refer to the Schaefer document book 2, documents 14 and 19, the testimony of Heubner and Jehowsky, so that I will not have to submit affidavits of my own. Witness, why did you not publish the results of your experiments.

A: I have already given the reasons why exact scientific evaluations was possible only to a limited extent. Personally, I had no interest in it because I had no scientific benefits to reap from these experiments. I refrained from doing so, not because I thought I had anything to keep secret.

Q: Witness, are you even today of the opinion that, under the orders which were given to you, you carried out these experiments unobjectionably from the medical and scientific point of view?

A: I have had almost a year and a half now to examine my conscience and I believe that I can answer your question in the affirmative. I carried them out just as I would have done in any hospital or clinic, if I had to perform them at all. I never considered my experimental subjects a substitute for experimental animals and it is not true that I lacked sympathy with them. I know exactly how difficult it is to suffer thirst. It is not that I didn't care that I had to ask them to do this, to suffer thirst during the days of the experiment, but I was not able to spare them this after they had volunteered for the experiment.

That I recognized the services of the experimental subjects at the end I believe I can say, not only in words but also by doing for them what I could. That I enjoyed these sufferings of my victims — I was incapable of such a horrible thought. From the beginning I had serious misgivings and inner rejection of experiments on prisoners.

If I ignored my misgivings, I could still put up with the matter for several reasons: First of all, I was never of the opinion that I was doing anything illegal. If my superiors, the highest security authorities of the Reich, gave me such an assignment, then, in 1944 I had to believe that this could not be anything illegal. In 1944 I could not know that a few years later these laws would no longer be valid.

I overcame my misgivings because I was firmly convinced that my experimental subjects had volunteered for this certainly unpleasant experiment. I overcame them, furthermore, because I knew that distress of the time made such a possibility advisable but especially because from the medical point of view I considered that the rescue problem to be solved was the important thing and because I thought that if a person was to take on himself the sacrifice of going without food and drink for several days it will be in the interests of hundreds of others who would be in distress later, in war and peace, and they would benefit. It was not the negative side which motivated me but because of the positive goal I took the negative upon myself; and, under a military order and under a great personal, spiritual burden, I carried out this order; but I believe it would be illogical and hard to understand psychologically, if I did not want to perform experiments on prisoners from the beginning, I should go and mistreat the experimental subjects.

During my experiments I did not spare my own working capacity or that of my associates. I tried to carry out the experiments in such a way as to avoid any bodily harm and I am firmly convinced, even today, that I did not cause any harm.

I cannot reproach myself for having omitted any medical precautions which could be required. I have a quite clear conscience in this respect. I carried the experiment out with the seriousness and the scientific thoroughness which I had learned in my many years of university training, and at the moment when I stood behind this barbed wire for the first time I did not change basically and leave my former attitude and my former character outside; and that we really tried to do our best in these experiments Professor Ivy admitted later when he looked at the records of my experiments. He said, "You have made great efforts but you selected the wrong experimental subjects." It was not I who selected them. I was convinced from the beginning that it was an unfortunate choice but I was not capable, in spite of all the attempts which I made, to change this fact.

Q: Your Honors, the next document which I should like to submit is Exhibit No. 18, as Document No. 11, from Document Book i, page 25. This is an original letter from the defendant to his mother, written in Dachau on the 12 September, 1944. I shall read merely the first paragraph:

Dearest Mother:

Many thanks for your dear letter. I am sorry that lately I have been able to give you only occasional brief signs of life, as the mad rush to which we are subjected here did not permit of more. By and by also this job is coming to an end and I am not sorry about it. The results of my work are only fair. I had not planned it so but only carried out orders. I hope that I shall soon be able to return to my former office where I enjoyed the work much more.

MR. HARDY: This is document No. 11, Your Honors. I do not have that in my index.

THE PRESIDENT: It is not included in our index either.

MR. HARDY: Yes it is on page 25. I have found it.

THE PRESIDENT: It is in the document book on page 25.

BY DR. STEINBAUER:

Q: I want to ask you something. You said your work was only fair. What do you mean by that?

A: I had already evaluated most of the experiments at that time. We had seen that about two-thirds of the work had been in vain because it was quite clear that these people had some water and all of the work was in vain and what I had originally thought about the retention of salt was a mistake, that is, the results were relatively slight, in no proportion to the amount of work itself.

Q: The next document which I submit will be Exhibit No. 19, from Document Book I, Document 10, page 23. It is also a letter from the defendant to his parents in law from Dachau, 12 August 1944. I offer this letter on the question of the order and the voluntary approval. It reads:

Dear Ma and Pa;

After a very considerable delay I received your dear letter and the cigarettes for which I thank you very much.

This delay was due to my stupid transfer here, they sent on my mail only after I had finally 'settled down' and could give my unit my new address.

I shall skip the rest of the paragraph and read from the bottom of the page.

Since 1 July I have been roaming about in the district and have wasted exactly one month at this time. Now after great toil and trouble and after enough vexation to last for more than a year I have set up shop there and can at last conduct the examinations which an unkind fate has sent me here. My feelings are those of Pontius only it mattered less to him than to me.

I shall probably hang around here until the beginning of September. Then, unless a bomb drops shortly before completion, ruining all my work and efforts, I hope to have finished and to say goodbye to this generally unpleasant place. Anyhow, the moment I board the train at Dachau railway station will count as one of the nicest and never to be forgotten of my life.

And then the last sentence:

However, grumbling does not help.

Now I offer the Massion document, which I handed to the Tribunal today, the chart, it is in the second book, No. 31, page 113 to 116.

THE PRESIDENT: Has that not already been admitted as defendant Beiglboeck exhibit 12?

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes, that is the same document. Before I was just offering the chart and now I want to offer the document to make the Tribunal acquainted with the whole plan of the experiments. It is on page 113:

I, the undersigned —

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel, I see no reason why they cannot be both admitted as Beiglboeck Exhibit No. 12, and treated as one document.

DR. STEINBAUER: Yes, I merely want to read it now. I did not read it before.

THE PRESIDENT: I understood you to say you were offering the document. Just proceed with reading it.

DR. STEINBAUER: I am merely reading it now:

I, the undersigned, Walther Massion, have been cautioned that I am liable to punishment if I make a false affidavit.

I shall leave out the formal parts:

I wish to state the following:

I worked with Dr. Beiglboeck from 25 July until about 20 September 1944. I had been ordered there. On commencing my duties I discovered the salt water experiments were concerned. I myself was not always present as I frequently had to travel as a courier.

To the best of my belief the plan of the prisoners quarters at the Dachau camp is correct. I have signed it with my name.

The experiments were made on about 40 persons. The color of the chevrons worn by them was black, as far as I can recall.

Whether these experimental subjects had been sentenced or whether they had volunteered, I do not know. The prisoners were subjected to a thorough examination before the experiments were started. They were quartered in a large room with some single beds and some tiered bunks.

Before beginning the experiment the experimental subjects were given the same food as supplied to the flying personnel of the Luftwaffe, that is to say, a very nutritious diet of sardines, cheese, butter, milk, meat, etc.

During the experiment 4 persons assigned to the thirst group received no food whatsoever. The others received sea-emergency rations, with chocolate choco-cola, etc.

The experiments were controlled by a night shift consisting of medical non coms and prisoners who were medical students. These medical students lived in a small room adjoining the ward room. I took part in this night shift on three occasions. We were ordered to call Dr. Beiglboeck in the event of any special developments.

In addition, doctors who were prisoners were called upon to act as specialists, who were treated by Dr. Beiglboeck as fully qualified experts.

I remember two cases where infusions were made because the experimental subjects had had a peripheral collapse. After the infusion these people recovered immediately. I know also that the experimental subjects became extremely apathetic and somnolent. Nothing is known to me of brain-storm attacks, although I do know that in the two cases quoted the persons whimpered. I never observed any cases of hysteria.

I have no knowledge of any deaths occurring during these experiments. I would have known had there been any such case.

The experiments lasted 4 to 6 days as far as I can recall. The experimental period was longer for those experimental subjects who received water treated by the Schaefer method and was finally broken off without any special reason. The persons treated by the Schaefer method suffered no complaints, as far as I know. No diarrhea occurred during the experiments to my knowledge. In the beginning stool specimens were sent to a medical institute in Vienna, later this was stopped, possibly because it was unnecessary.

During the experiments blood was taken from the experimental subjects in the morning. I assume that it was. 10 cubic centimeters. I myself forwarded only the blood which had passed through the centrifuge and which was small in volume.

At the conclusion of the experiment the final report was dictated to me, and from this I know that none of the experimental subjects died. The report stated that no lasting ill effects to health remained.

Dr. Beiglboeck treated the prisoners as humanly as ordinary patients. He was rough to them—

The German word is "grob", and a better translation would be rude.

He was rude to them only when they obtained drinking water contrary to orders. I know definitely that none of the experimental subjects were turned over to the SS for punishment because of any offenses.

I am aware that Dr. Beiglboeck used his influence on behalf of two prisoner medical students, to ease their conditions.

The experimental room was located within the camp, but was otherwise not connected with the rest of the camp.

No SS doctors took part in the treatment. At first we were only allowed to enter the camp accompanied by an SS official, later we were allowed to enter unaccompanied but were forbidden to go into any part of the came outside of our rooms. To my knowledge Dr. Beiglboeck had no connection with the SS doctors, he only dealt with the junior physician (Unterarzt [Sergeant]) of the troop-training camp of the Waffen SS from whom he obtained his medicines.

The doctors taking part in the experiments ate only at first for about a week at the SS canteen and later at a restaurant. The concentration camp made an orderly and organized impression, we noticed nothing of cruelties which later became known.

I know that on one occasion difficulties arose in the Good supply which possibly were connected with an air raid. I was then sent to Frankfurt with the urgent order to obtain sea emergency rations there.

The signature of Walter Massion made before me, Attorney at Law, Dr. Robert Servatius, representative of the defendant, Karl Brandt, as representative of the Attorney at Law, Steinbauer, representative of the defendant, Professor Beiglboeck, is hereby certified.

The next document which I should like to offer is the affidavit of Dr. Karl Lesse. This is document Book I, page 32, and will be Exhibit No. 20. It is a very long document. I shall, therefore, read merely excerpts from it, containing the most important points.

THE PRESIDENT: Counsel it is now time for the Tribunal to recess. You may read such portions of the document as you desire in the morning.

The Tribunal will now be in recess until nine-thirty o'clock in the morning.

THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal will be in recess until 0930 o'clock in the morning.

(The Tribunal adjourned until 0930 hours 10 June 1947)