1947-08-19, #12: Doctors' Trial Verdict — Rudolf Brandt

Judgment: Rudolf Brandt — GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS

THE PRESIDENT: Judge Crawford will continue reading the Judgment.

THE CASE OF THE DEFENDANT RUDOLF BRANDT

JUDGE CRAWFORD: Under Counts Two and Three of the Indictment the defendant Rudolf Brandt is charged with special responsibility for, and participation in, High/Altitude, Freezing, Malaria, Lost Gas, Sulfanilamide, Bone, Muscle and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation, Seawater, Epidemic Jaundice, Sterilization, and Typhus Experiments. He is also charged under these counts with criminal responsibility for the murder of 112 Jews for the purpose of completing a skeleton collection for the Reich University of Strasbourg; for the murder and ill-treatment of tubercular Poles; and for the euthanasia program carried out by the German Reich.

Under Count Four of the Indictment he is charged with membership in an organization declared criminal by the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal.

The prosecution has abandoned the charge of participation in the Bone, Muscle and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation Experiment; hence, it will not be considered further.

The defendant Rudolf Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932. He was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the SS in 1935. In approximately ten years he rose 11449-A to the rank of SS Colonel.

He is one of the three defendants in the case who is not a physician.

From the commencement of his career in the Nazi organization until his capture by the Allied Forces in 1945 he was directly subordinate to and closely associated with the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and he had full knowledge of his chief's personal and official interests and activities.

To Himmler, Rudolf Brandt was first of all an important and trusted clerical assistant. The record shows him to have been an unusually proficient stenographer. That is the road by which he finally arrived at a position of considerable power and authority as Personal Referent on Himmler's personal staff, Ministerial Councillor in the Ministry of the Interior, and a member of the Ahnenerbe [Ancestral Heritage]. Acting for Himmler during his absences, Rudolf Brandt, in these positions, had a tremendous opportunity to and did exercise personal judgment and discretion in many serious and important matters.

HIGH ALTITUDE EXPERIMENTS:

These experiments extended from March to August 1942.

Their details are dealt with elsewhere in this judgment. A portion of the evidence in this specification consists of correspondence between the defendant Rudolf Brandt and various others in the German military service who were personally engaged in, or were closely connected with, the physical details of the experiments performed. The correspondence just previously mentioned was admitted in evidence, is well authenticated, and even standing alone, without additional oral testimony — of which there was also plenty — is deemed amply sufficient to disclose beyond reasonable doubt that except for the sanction and diligent cooperation of the defendant Rudolf Brandt, or someone occupying his position, the high altitude experiments mentioned in the indictment could not have been conducted.

Taken altogether, the evidence on this item discloses that during the period between March and August 1942 certain medical experiments were conducted at the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany, for the benefit of the German Air Forest to determine the limits of human endurance and existence at extremely high altitudes.

Various human beings, unwillingly, and entirely without their consent, were required and compelled to, and did participate in the aforesaid experiments as subjects thereof. The said non-consenting subjects were prisoners of war, German civilians and civilians from German occupied territory, whose exact citizenship, in many cases, could not be ascertained. Among the experimental subjects there were numerous deaths, estimated by witnesses at 70 or 80, resulting directly from compulsory participation in the experiments. Exact data on the total fatalities cannot be stated, but there is convincing evidence that during the last day's operation of the high altitude experiments five participating and non-consenting subjects died as the result thereof. The greater number of the experimental subjects suffered grave injury, torture and ill treatment.

FREEZING EXPERIMENTS:

In this experiment, or series of experiments, Rudolf Brandt is established as an intermediary and necessary aid between Heinrich Himmler, who authorized the work to be done, and those who were appointed by him actually to perform the ruthless task.

Evidence is conclusive that Rudolf Brandt at all times knew exactly what experimental processes would be carried out. He knew the procedure followed was to select from the inmates at Dachau such human subjects as were considered most suitable for experimental purposes. He knew that no consent was ever deemed necessary from the persons upon whom the experiments were to be performed. He knew that among the experimental subjects were non-German nationals, including civilians and prisoners of war.

The exact number of deaths cannot be ascertained from the evidence, but that fatalities occurred among the experimental subjects has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

LOST (MUSTARD) GAS EXPERIMENTS:

On this specification, an affidavit of the defendant Rudolf Brandt which is confirmed by other evidence reads substantially as follows:

Towards the end of the year 1939 experiments were conducted at the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp on persons who were certainly not all volunteers, in order to ascertain the efficacy of the different treatment of wounds inflicted by Lost gas. Lost is a poisonous gas which produces injurious effects on the epidermis. I think it is generally known as mustard gas. Therefore, experiments were conducted on inmates of concentration camps. As far as I understand, the experiments consisted of inflicting wounds upon various parts of the bodies of the experimental subjects and infecting them thereafter with Lost. Various methods of treatment were applied in order to determine the most effective one —

In the second half of 1942 Hirt (Dr. August Hirt) together with... who served in the Luftwaffe, initiated experiments on inmates of the Natzweiler Concentration Camp. The inmates for these as well as other experiments were simply chosen by Pohl's office, the Economic and Administrative Main Office (WVHA). In order to be employed for such purposes, the experiments on human subjects with Lost gas had been carried on during the years 1943 and 1944 in the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp as well as in the Natzweiler Concentration Camp. The result was that some of the inmates died.

In the course of the gas experiments above referred to, testimony in the record discloses that a considerable amount of correspondence was carried on by persons concerned (except the experimental subjects themselves), and it appears that some, at least, of this was referred to Rudolf Brandt for action, upon which he personally intervened sufficiently to associate himself actively with the conduct of the work being done. And so he must be regarded as criminally responsible.

STERILIZATION EXPERIMENTS:

Rudolf Brandt is charged, as in the indictment set forth, with special responsibility under the above heading.

The means by which sterilization experiments or processes were to be made or utilized included X-ray treatment, surgery, and drugs.

No specific instances of any drug being actually used have been clearly shown by oral testimony or exhibits herein submitted in evidence. In reference to the x-ray and surgery methods of sterilization, however, Rudolf Brandt is shown by the evidence to have taken a moving part in the preparation of plans, and in their execution, sufficient to justify the Tribunal in finding his criminal connection therewith. An affidavit executed by the defendant Rudolf Brandt reads as follows:

Himmler was extremely interested in the development of a cheap, rapid sterilization method which could be used against enemies of Germany, such as the Russians, Poles, and Jews. One hoped thereby not only to defeat the enemy, but to exterminate him. The capacity for work of the sterilized persons could be exploited by Germany, while the danger of propagation would be eliminated. This mass sterilization was part of Himmler's racial theory; particular time and care were devoted to these sterilization experiments.

We learn from the record that persons subjected to treatment were "young, well-built inmates of concentration camps who were in the best of health, and these were Poles, Russians, French, and prisoners of war."

It goes without saying that the work done in conformity with the plans of Himmler, substantially aided by the cooperation of Rudolf Brandt, brought maiming and suffering to great numbers of people.

TYPHUS EXPERIMENTS:

Medical experiments ostensibly conducted to benefit Germany in the prevention of typhus fever were carried on in the Natzweiler Concentration Camp beginning with the year 1942.

The details of these experiments have been dealt with elsewhere in this judgment.

In the evidence it is proven that not less than 50 experimental subjects died as a direct result of their participation in these typhus experiments. Persons of all nationalities were used as subjects. Regarding these enterprises, Rudolf Brandt, in his own affidavit, admits that these experimental subjects did not volunteer but were conscripted and compelled to serve without their consent being sought or given.

Inasmuch as information on the typhus experiments, both before and after their performance, was furnished, as a matter of course, to Himmler through Brandt, the defendant's full knowledge of them is regarded as definitely proven.

Here, again, the managing hand of the defendant is shown. The smooth operation of these experiments is demonstrated to have been contingent upon the diligence with which Rudolf Brandt arranged for the supply of quotas of suitable human experimental material to the physicians at the scene of the experiment.

In view of these proven facts, the defendant Rudolf Brandt must be held and considered as one of the defendants responsible for performance of illegal medical experiments where deaths resulted to the non-consenting human subjects.

SKELETON COLLECTION:

In response to a request by Rudolf Brandt, on 9 February 1942 the defendant Sievers, business manager of the Ahnenerbe, submitted to him certain data on the alleged desirability of securing a Jewish skeleton collection for the Reich University of Strasbourg.

The report furnished to the defendant Brandt contained among other things the following:

By procuring the skulls of the Jewish Bolshevik Commissars, who personified a repulsive yet characteristic humanity, we have the opportunity of obtaining tangible scientific evidence. The actual obtaining and collecting of these skulls without difficulty could be best accomplished by a directive issued to the Wehrmacht in the future to immediately turn over alive all Jewish Bolshevik Commissars to the field police.

On February 27, 1942, Rudolf Brandt informed defendant Sievers that Himmler would support the enterprise and would place everything necessary at his disposal; and that Sievers should report again in connection with the undertaking.

Testimony and exhibits placed before this Court are abundantly sufficient to show that the plan mentioned was actually put into operation; that not less than 86 people were murdered for the sole purpose of obtaining their skeletons. Much more could be said in reference to this revolting topic but it would add nothing to the Judgment. The fact that Rudolf Brandt showed an initial interest and collaborated in the undertaking is enough to require a finding that he is guilty of murder in connection with the program.

MALARIA, SEAWATER, AND EPIDEMIC JAUNDICE EXPERIMENTS, AND THE CHARGE OF THE MURDER AND MISTREATMENT OF POLES:

It appears to be well established that Himmler sponsored, supported, furthered, or initiated each of these enterprises. Doubtless Brandt knew what was going on, and perhaps he helped in the program. The evidence is not sufficient, however, to justify such a finding.

The Tribunal finds that the defendant Rudolf Brandt was an accessory to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, was knowingly connected with plans and enterprises involving, and was a member of an organization or group connected with, the commission of medical experiments on non-German nationals, without their consent, in the course of which experiments murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhumane acts were committed; and the murder of no less than 86 non-German Jews for a skeleton collection. To the extent that these crimes were not War Crimes they were Crimes against Humanity.

MEMBERSHIP IN CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION:

Under Count Four of the indictment Rudolf Brandt is charged with being a member of an organization declared criminal by the judgment of the International Military Tribunal, namely, the SS.

The evidence shows that Rudolf Brandt became a member of the SS in 1933, and remained in this organization until the end of the war. As a member of the SS he was criminally implicated in the commission of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity, as charged under Counts Two and Three of the indictment.

An extremely persuasive and interesting brief on behalf of the defendant Rudolf Brandt, filed by his attorney, has received careful attention by this Tribunal. Therein it is urged that Rudolf Brandt's position under Heinrich Himmler was one of such subordination, his personal character so essentially mild, and he was so dominated by his chief, that the full significance of the crimes in which he became engulfed came to him with a shock only when he went to trial. This plea is offered in mitigation of appalling offenses in which the defendant Brandt is said to have played only an unassuming role.

If it be thought for even a moment that the part played by Rudolf Brandt was relatively unimportant when compared with the enormity of the charges proved by the evidence, let it be said that every Himmler must have his Brandt, else the plans of a master criminal would never be put into execution.

The Tribunal, therefore, cannot accept the thesis.

CONCLUSION:

Military Tribunal I finds and adjudges that the defendant Rudolf Brandt is guilty under Counts Two, Three, and Four of the indictment.

THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now be in recess for a few moments.

(A recess was taken.)