1947-07-19, #9: Doctors' Trial (Joachim Mrugowsky's final statement)

THE PRESIDENT: The Defendant Mrugowsky.

DEFENDANT MRUGOWSKY: My attorney and I have made every effort during my examination on the witness stand and by means of the considerable evidence which we have submitted to restrict the charges which have been raised against me, just as much as we tried to assist in ascertaining the truth.

The outcome of the trial and the evidence against me is in the hands of the Tribunal and its closing brief, and in the reply the brief of the Prosecution. I am firmly confident on the basis of this trial that this high Tribunal will examine the evidence objectively and carefully. Thus in my final speech I merely would like to draw your attention to the fact that my life in its entirety was solely devoted to my profession and my science. It was my aim, not by any means to represent some political ideology, but to go to the university and to reach the position of a free and independent doctor and scientist.

The Prosecution has charged us, the defendants, with destructive tendencies which were supposed to have been the causes of our actions. I declare myself and know that I am free of such tendencies. They never occurred to my collaborators and myself at any time. In the Waffen-SS too, the troops of which were among the bravest divisions of the German armed forces, such tendencies never played a part.

As far as my own concepts of the ethical duties of the doctor are concerned, they are contained in a book regarding medical ethics, and I believe always to have acted according to the principles of that book and lived according to them. My life, my actions and my aims were clean. That is why now that at the end of this trial I can declare myself free of personal guilt.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now be in recess.

(A recess was taken.)