1947-08-19, #11: Doctors' Trial Verdict — Dr. Kurt Blome

Judgment: Kurt Blome — NOT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS

THE CASE OF THE DEFENDANT KURT BLOME

JUDGE SEBRING: The defendant Blome is charged under Counts Two and Three or the Indictment with personal responsibility for, and participation in Malaria, Lost Gas, and Sulfanilamide experiments; the extermination of tubercular Poles; and the execution of the euthanasia program.

Proof has also been adduced for the purpose of showing that he participated in the freezing, bacteriological warfare, and blood coagulation experiments.

The charge with reference to sulfanilamide experiments has been abandoned by the Prosecution and hence will not be considered further.

The defendant Blome studied medicine at Goettingen and received his medical degree in 1920. From 1924 to 1934 he engaged in private practice. In the later years he was summoned to Berlin where, in 1935, he reorganized the German Medical educational system. He also acted as adjutant in the central office of the German Red Cross and as Business Manager of the German Physician's Association, which position he held until the end of World War II. In 1938 he became President of the Bureau of the Academy for International Medical Education. From 1939 on Blome acted as deputy for Dr. Leonardo Conti who was leader of the German Physician's Association, Head of the Main Office for Public Health of the Party, and Leader of the National Socialist Physician' Association. In 1941 he became a member of the Reich Research Council, and in 1943 was appointed Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research, connected with the Research Commission for Protection against biological warfare.

Blome joined the SA in 1931 and became the Chief Medical Officer of the SA in the province of Mecklenburg. In 1934 he was appointed a province office leader, and in the SA he attained a rank equivalent to the one of Major General. In 1943 he was awarded the highest decoration of the Nazi Party.

As Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research, it was his duty to determine which re search problems should be studied and to assign such problems to scientists best fitted to investigate them.

FREEZING EXPERIMENTS:

The Prosecution argues that Blome is criminally responsible for participation in the freezing experiments as charged in the Indictment. In the sub-paragraph, which particularly refers to freezing, Blome is not named among the defendants charged with special responsibility for the experiments. Moreover, the record does not contain evidence which shows beyond a reasonable doubt that Blome bore any responsible part in the conduct of the freezing experiments.

MALARIA EXPERIMENTS:

The evidence is insufficient to disclose any criminal, responsibility of the defendant in connection with the malaria experiments.

LOST GAS EXPERIMENTS:

The evidence is insufficient to disclose any criminal responsibility of the defendant in connection with these experiments.

EXTERMINATION OF TUBERCULAR POLES:

The basis for the Prosecution's case against the defendant in this regard is to be found in a series of letters with reference to the tuberculosis menace in the Reichsgau Wartheland, which had been overrun by the German Reich and settled by its citizens.

During the year 1941 the German Government began a program of extermination of the Jewish population of the Eastern occupied territories. On 1 May 1942 Greiser, the German Military Governor of Reichsgau Wartheland, wrote Himmler advising him that as to the 100, 000 Jews in the district, the "special treatment approved by Himmler was about completed." The letter then continued:

I ask you for permission to rescue the district immediately after the measures taken against the Jews from a menace which is increasing week by week, and use the existing and efficient special commandos for that purpose.

There are about 230,000 people of Polish nationality in my district who were diagnosed to suffer from tuberculosis. The number infected with open tuberculosis is estimated at about 35,000. This fact has led in an increasingly frightening measure to the infection of Germans who came to the Warthegau perfectly healthy...... a considerable number of well known leading men, especially of the police, rave been infected lately and are not available for the war effort.... The ever increasing risks were also recognized and appreciated by the deputy of the Reich Leader for Public Health, Comrade Professor Dr. Blome —

Though in Germany proper it is not possible to take appropriate draconic steps against this public plague, I think I could take responsibility to have cases of open tuberculosis exterminated among the Polish race here in the Warthegau. Of course, only a Pole should be handed over for such an action, who is not only suffering from open tuberculosis, but whose incurability is proved and certified by a public health officer.

Considering the urgency of this project I ask for your approval in principle as soon as possible. This would enable us to make the preparations with all necessary precautions now to get the action against the Poles suffering from open tuberculosis under way, while the action against the Jews is in its closing stages.

Heil Hitler!

/s/ Greiser

Two days later, Koppe, the police leader on Greiser's staff, wrote to Rudolf Brandt restating Greiser's proposal and urging Brandt to call the matter to Himmler's attention.

Brandt promptly acknowledged the letter, advising Koppe that the proposal had been referred to the Chief of the Security Police for opinion, but that the final decision would rest with Hitler.

On 9 June 1942 the Chief of the Security Police rendered his opinion to Himmler:

I have no scruples against having the Protectorate members and stateless persons of the Polish race who are afflicted with open tuberculosis submitted to the special treatment in the sense of the proposal of Gauleader Greiser.

The individual measures, though, will first have to be discussed thoroughly with the Security Police, in order to carry out the execution with the least possible attraction of attention.

The opinions thus rendered undoubtedly received the full approval of Himmler for on 27 June 1942 Rudolf Brandt passed on to Greiser a letter from Himmler containing the following decision:

Dear Comrade Greiser!

I have no objection to having protectorate people and stateless persons pf Polish origin who live within the territory of the Warthegau and are infected with tuberculosis handed ever for special treatment as you suggest; as long as their disease is incurable. I would like to request, however, to discuss the individual measures in detail with the Security Police first, in order to assure inconspicuous accomplishment of the task —

/s/ H. Himmler

The Himmler letter was acknowledged by Greiser on 21 November 1942, Greiser advising Himmler that in pursuance of the permission given him to apply "special treatment" to tubercular Poles he had made arrangements for an X-Ray examination of all people in the territory, but that now that "special treatment" had been approved, Blome, Deputy Chief of the Public Health Office of the NSDAP was raising objections to its execution.

A copy of Blome's letter to Greiser was enclosed for Himmler's information.

Blome's letter to Greiser is dated 18 November 1942. It opens by recalling various conversations between the writer and Greiser concerning the campaign against tuberculosis in the Warthegau, and then proceeds to consider the matter in detail; the letter proceeding:

With the settlement of Germans in all parts of the Gau an enormous danger has arisen for them... What goes for the Warthegau also holds true for the other annexed territories —

Therefore, something basic must be done soon. One must decide the most efficient way in which this can be done. There are three ways to be taken into consideration:

1. Special treatment of the seriously ill persons.

2. Most rigorous isolation of the seriously ill persons.

3. Creation of a reservation for all TB patients.

For the planing, attention must he paid to different points of view of a practical, political and psychological nature. Considering it most soberly, the simplest way would be the following:

Aided by the X-Ray battalion, we could reach the entire population. German and Polish, of the Gau during the first half of 1943. As to the Germans, the treatment and isolation is to be prepared and carried out according to the regulations of Tuberculosis Relief. The approximately 35,000 Poles who are incurable and infectious will be "specially treated". All other Polish consumptives will be subjected to an appropriate cure in order to save them for work aid to avoid their causing contagion.

Blome then proceeds, stating that he has made arrangements for commencement of the "radical procedure", but suggests that some assurance should be procured that Hitler would agree to the project.

The letter then goes on to say:

I could imagine that the Fuehrer, having some time ago stopped the program in the insane asylums, might at this moment consider a "special treatment" of the incurably sick as unsuitable and irresponsible from a political point of view. As regards the Euthanasia program it was a question of people of German nationality afflicted with hereditary diseases. Now it is a question of infected sick people of a subjugated nation.

Blome then voices the opinion that if the program is put into execution it cannot be kept secret and will be made the basis for much adverse and harmful propaganda both at home and abroad. He suggests accordingly that before the program is commenced all points of view should again be presented to Hitler.

Continuing, Blome writes that if Hitler should forbid the radical proposal suggested by Greiser, three other solutions were open: (l) consumptives and incurables could be isolated with their relatives; (2) all infections consumptives might be strictly isolated in nursing establishments; (3) the consumptives might be resettled in a particular area.

If the latter plan were adopted, the sick could reach the assigned territory on foot, and thus save the costs of transportation.

Blome's letter finally concludes:

After a proper examination of all these considerations and circumstances the creation of a reservation, such as the reservations for lepers, seems to be the most practicable solution. Such a reservation should be able to be created in the shortest time by means of the necessary settlement. Within the reservation one could easily set up conditions for the strict isolation of the strongly contagious.

Even the case of the German consumptives represents an extremely difficult problem for the Gau. But this cannot be overcome, unless the problem of the Polish consumptives is solved at the same time.

The evidence shows that the letter from Greiser to Himmler, with Blome's suggestions enclosed, was acknowledged by Himmler on 3 December 1942 with the following final decision:

Dear Party Comrade Greiser:

I have received your letter of 21 November 1942. I, too, believe that it would be better to take into consideration the misgivings set forth by Party member Dr. Blome. In my opinion it is impossible to proceed with the sick persons in the manner intended, especially since, as you have informed me, it will be possible to exploit the practical results of the tests only in six months.

I suggest you look for a suitable area to which the incurable consumptives can be sent. Beside the incurables, other patients with less severe cases of tuberculosis could quite well be put into this territory too. This action would also, of course, have to be exploited with the appropriate form of propaganda.

Before writing you this letter I again thoroughly thought over whether the original idea could not in some way be carried out. However, I am convinced now that it is better to proceed the other way.

The Prosecution maintains that this series of letters which we have referred to establishes the criminal participation of the defendant Blome in the extermination of tubercular Poles. We cannot follow the argument. It is probable that the proposal to isolate tubercular Poles, as suggested by Blome and approved by Himmler, was at least partially carried out; although the record discloses but little with reference to what actually transpired. It may be that in the course of such a program Poles may have died as the result of being uprooted from their homes and sent to isolation stations; but the record contains no direct credible evidence upon the subject.

Blome explained from the witness stand his letter to Greiser by saying that it was written in order to prevent the extermination program of tubercular Poles from being put into execution. Certainly, his letter indicates on its face that he opposed the "special treatment" suggested by Greiser.

We cannot say, therefore, that the explanation offered is wholly without substance. It at least raises a reasonable doubt in our minds concerning the matter. Blome knew Hitler and Himmler. He well knew that any objections to "special treatment" based on moral or humanitarian grounds would make but small impact upon the minds of men like these Nazi leaders. He knew, moreover, that before Greiser's proposal for extermination would be abandoned a plan which appeared to be better must be suggested. If viewed from the standpoint of factual and psychological considerations, it cannot be held that the letter was not well worded when considered as an attempt to put an end to the plan originally adopted, and to bring the substitution of another plan not so drastic. Whatever may have been its purpose, the record shows that in this particular the letter did in fact divert Himmler from his original program and that as a result thereof the extermination plan was abandoned.

EUTHANASIA PROGRAM:

Blome is charged with criminal responsibility in connection with the euthanasia program, but we are of opinion that the evidence is insufficient to sustain the charge.

BACTERIOLOGICAL WARFARE: The Prosecution contends that the evidence in the case established Blome's guilt in connection with research concerning different forms of bacteriological warfare. Blome who was Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Council, admits that the problem of cancer research was allied with the Research Commission for Protection against biological warfare. He admits further, that he was placed in charge of an institute near Posen in which the problems of biological warfare were to be investigated, but states that the work being done at the Posen institute was interrupted in March 1945 by the advance of the Russian Army.

This latter fact seems to be confirmed by the evidence. In this connection Schreiber appeared as a witness before the International Military Tribunal. His testimony given there has been received in evidence before this Tribunal. From the testimony it appears that Blome visited Schreiber at the Military Medical. Academy, Berlin during March 1945 and stated to him that he, Blome, had abandoned his institute in Posen due to the advance of the Russians, but before leaving had attempted to destroy his installations as he feared that the Russians might discover that preparations had been made in the institute for experiments on human beings.

Counsel for the Prosecution has brought to our judicial notice a finding by the International Military Tribunal in its judgment wherein it is found that:

In July 1943 experimental work was begun in preparation for a campaign of bacteriological warfare; Soviet prisoners of war were used in the medical experiments, which more often than not proved fatal.

See "Trial of the Major War Criminals". Vol., I, p. 231.

It is submitted by the Prosecution that this finding of the International Military Tribunal, when considered in connection with other evidence in the case, requires this Tribunal to find the defendant Blome guilty under the indictment.

The suggestion is not tenable. It may well be that defendant Blome was preparing to experiment upon human beings in connection with bacteriological warfare, but the record fails to disclose that fact, or that he ever actually conducted experiments. The charge of the Prosecution on this item is not sustained.

POLYGAL EXPERIMENTS:

The Prosecution has introduced evidence which suggests that Blome may be criminally responsible for polygal experiment conducted by Rascher at Dachau, in which Russian prisoners of war were used as experimental subjects. In our view the evidence does no more than raise a strong suspicion; it does not sustain the charge beyond a reasonable doubt.

CONCLUSION

Military Tribunal I finds and adjudges the defendant Kurt Blome not guilty as charged under the indictment and directs that he be released from custody under the indictment when this Tribunal presently adjourns.