1947-08-19, #14: Doctors' Trial Verdict — Dr. Helmut Poppendick
Judgment: Helmut Poppendick — MIXED VERDICT
THE CASE OF THE DEFENDANT HELMUT POPPENDICK
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant Poppendick is charged under Counts Two and Three of the Indictment with personal responsibility for, and participation in, High Altitude, Freezing, Malaria, Sulfanilamide, Seawater, Epidemic Jaundice, Sterilization, Typhus, and Poison, experiments.
He is charged under Count Four with being a member of an organization declared criminal by the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal.
The charges with reference to High Altitude and Poison Experiments have been abandoned by the Prosecution and hence will not be considered further.
Poppendick studied medicine at several German universities from 1921 to 1926, and passed his state examination in December of the latter year. He joined the NSDAP on 1 March 1932 and the SS on 1 July following. He rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the SS and to the rank of Senior Colonel in the Waffen-SS. He was also a member of a Nazi SS Physicians Association. In August 1935 he was appointed as a physician in the Main Race and Settlement Office in Berlin, and became Chief physician of that office in 1941.
He held the latter appointment until the Fall of 1944.
From 1 September 1939 until sometime in 1941 Poppendick was on active duty in the army as a surgeon. During the latter year he resumed his duties with the Race and Settlement Office in Berlin. Between 1939 and 1943 he performed some duties as a member of the staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police, Dr. Grawitz, taking care of special assignments.
In the fall of 1943 Poppendick was made Chief of the Personal Office of Grawitz, which position he retained until the end of the War.
FREEZING EXPERIMENTS:
The evidence is that Poppendick gained knowledge of the freezing experiments conducted by Rascher at Dachau, as the result of a conference held between Rascher, Gawitz, and Poppendick on 13 January 1943, for the purpose of discussing certain phases of the research. The evidence does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Poppendick was criminally connected with these experiments.
MALARIA EXPERIMENTS:
The Prosecution contends that Poppendick is criminally responsible for the malaria experiments conducted by Dr. Schilling at Dachau. Dr. Ploetner was engaged in the malaria experiments as a subordinate of Schilling. Sievers' Diary, which is in evidence, contains a notation that on 23 May 1944 Grawitz, Poppendick, Ploetner and Sievers, held a conference, which had probably been arranged by Poppendick three days previously by telephone. The subject of the conference is not disclosed by the diary entry, but it appears else where in the diary that on 31 Hay 1944 Grawitz sanctioned Ploetner's collaboration with Schilling.
Poppendick testified as a witness in his own behalf that he had heard that Schilling was carrying on special investigations at Dachau concerning immunity from malaria. He stated further that his knowledge of the nature of the investigations went no further. The record does not contradict his testimony.
The Tribunal finds that the evidence does not disclose beyond a reasonable doubt that Poppendick was criminally connected with the malaria experiments.
SULFANILAMIDE EXPERIMENTS:
Poppendick attended the Third Meeting of Consulting Surgeons at the Military Medical Academy, Berlin, and heard lectures by Gebhardt and Fischer concerning the sulfanilamide experiments, which have been discussed elsewhere in this Judgment. Under date of 7 September 1942 he signed a certificate to a true copy of a report concerning sulfanilamide experiments which had been conducted at Ravensbruck, made by Gebhardt to Grawitz. Grawitz forwarded the report, or a certified copy thereof, to Himmler.
We are of the opinion that Poppendick had knowledge of the original nature of the experiments conducted by Gebhardt and Fischer at Ravensbruck, but the defendant's criminal connection with any such experiments has not been proved by the evidence.
SEAWATER EXPERIMENTS:
The evidence does not disclose beyond a reasonable doubt that Poppendick was criminally implicated in these experiments.
EPIDEMIC JAUNDICE EXPERIMENTS:
The evidence does not disclose beyond a reasonable doubt that Poppendick was criminally implicated in these experiments.
STERILIZATION EXPERIMENTS:
Poppendick was Chief Physician of the Main Race and Settlement Office. The Judgment of the International Military Tribunal found that this office was "active in carrying out schemes for Germanization of occupied territories according to the racial principles of the Nazi Party and were involved in the deportation of Jews and other foreign nationals." See the Trial of the Major War Criminals, Vol.l, p. 270.
Testifying before this Tribunal, Poppendick stated that the Nazi racial policy was two-fold in aspect; one policy being positive, the other, negative, in character. The positive policy included many matters, one being the encouragement of Germany families to produce more children. The negative policy concerned the sterilization and extermination of non-Aryans, as well as other measures to reduce the non-Aryan population. According to Poppendick's testimony he was not concerned with the execution of the negative, but only with positive measures.
By letter dated 29 May 1941 Grawitz wrote to Himmler concerning a conference held on 27 May 1941 at which Dr. Clauberg was present and discussed his "new method of sterilization of inferior women without an operation."
Poppendick by letter dated 4 June 1941, which referred to a previous telephone conversation with Grawitz, wrote Roduolf Brandt stating that he was enclosing "the list of physicians who are prepared to perform the treatment of sterility" as requested by Himmler. The list referred to is evidently the same as was contained in a letter from Grawitz to Himmler, dated 30 May 1941, which stated:
In the following, I submit a list of specialists in charge of the treatment of sterility in women according to the method of Professor Clauberg.
It is shown by the evidence that Clauberg later carried out sterilization experiments on Jewesses at Auschwitz. Similar experiments were carried out in other concentration camps by SS doctors who were subordinate to Grawitz. It is evident that Poppendick knew of these sterilization experiments, although it is not shown that he was criminally connected with them.
TYPHUS EXPERIMENTS:
It is not clear from the evidence that Poppendick was criminally connected with, or had knowledge of, the nature of the typhus experiments at Buchenwald, or the type of subjects upon which they were conducted.
INCENDIARY BOMB EXPERIMENTS:
There is some evidence in the record the effect that after incendiary bomb experiments were completed at Buchenwald, reports of the experiments were forwarded to Poppendick and Mrugowsky. It is evident that through the reports Poppendick gained knowledge of the nature of the experiments, but the record fails to show criminal responsibility of the defendant in connection therewith.
PHLEGMONE EXPERIMENTS:
The evidence clearly proves Poppendick's knowledge of these experiments, but it fails to show the defendant's criminal connection there with.
POLYGAL EXPERIMENTS:
The record does not show Poppendick's knowledge of or connection with these experiments.
HORMONE EXPERIMENTS:
The prosecution contends that the evidence shows Poppendick's criminal responsibility in connection with a series of experiments conducted at Buchenwald by Dr. Varnet, a Danish physician who claimed to have discovered a method of curing homosexuality by transplantation of an artificial gland.
Under date 15 July 1944 Poppendick wrote to Dr. Ding at the concentration comp Buchenwald, as follows:
By request of the Reichsfuehrer SS the Danish doctor SS Sturmbannfueher [Major] Dr. Varnet has been given opportunity to continue his hormone research with the SS, particularly the development of his artificial gland. The Reichfuehrer SS anticipates certain results from the treatment of homosexuals with Varnet's artificial gland.
The technical preparations have come to such a point that experiments on human beings can be started within a reasonable space of time.
An SS Standartenfuehrer [Colonel] Dr. Lolling informed me, the concentration camp Weimar-Buchenwald has been directed to make available 5 prisoners for SS Sturmbannfuehrer Varnet's experiments. These prisoners will be made available to SS Sturmbannfuehrer Varnet by the camp physician at any tine.
SS Sturmbannfuehrer Varnet intends to go to Buchenwald shortly in order to make certain necessary preliminary tests on these prisoners. In case there will be special laboratory tests, you are requested to assist Varnet within the scope of your possibilities.
Particulars on Varnet's research were sent today to the camp physician of the Weimar-Buchenwald for his information.
There is evidence that during the summer of 1944 Dr. Varnet conducted the experiments referred to in Poppendick's letter. However, the nationality of the prisoners used for the experiments is not shown, nor has it been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the experiments were harmful or caused death, or injury to the experimental subjects.
We have given careful consideration to the evidence concerning the charges made by the Prosecution against the defendant Poppendick. Certainly the evidence raises a strong suspicion that he was involved in the experiments. He at least had notice of them and of their consequences. He knew also that they were being carried on by the SS of which he was and remained a member.
But this Tribunal, however, cannot convict upon mere suspicion; evidence beyond a reasonable doubt is necessary.
The evidence is insufficient to sustain guilt under Counts Two and Three of the Indictment.
MEMBERSHIP IN A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION:
The defendant Poppendick is charged with membership in an organization declare criminal by the Judgment of the International Military Tribunal, namely; the SS. Poppendick joined the SS in July 1932. He remained in the SS voluntarily throughout the war, with actual knowledge of the fact that that organization was being used for the commission of acts now declared criminal by Control Council Law No. 10. He must, therefore, be found guilty under Count Four of the Indictment.
With reference to the nature of punishment which should be imposed under such circumstances the International military Tribunal has made the following recommendation:
That so far as possible throughout the four zones of occupation in Germany the classifications; sanctions; and penalties be standardized. Uniformity of treatment so far ac practical should be a basic principle. This does not of course, mean that discretion in sentencing should not be vested in the court; but the discretion should be within fixed limits appropriate to the crime.
Law No. 10 leaves punishment entirely in the discretion of the trial court even to the extent of inflicting the death penalty.
The Denazification law of 5 March 1946; however; passed for Bavaria; Greater Hesse; and Wurttemberg-Gadem; provides definite sentences for punishment in each type of offense. The Tribunal recommends that in no case should punishment imposed under Law No. 10 upon any members of an organization or group declared by the Tribunal to be criminal exceed the punishment fixed by the De-Nazification Law.
No person should be punished under both laws.
See Trial of the Major War Criminals Vol. 1, p. 257.
In weighing the punishment, if any, which should be meted out to the defendant for his guilt by reason of the charge contained in Count Four of the Indictment, this Tribunal will give such consideration to the recommendations of the International Military Tribunal as may under the premises seem meet and proper.
CONCLUSION
Military Tribunal I finds the defendant Helmut Poppendick not guilty under Counts Two and Three of the Indictment; and finds and adjudges the defendant Helmut Poppendick guilty as charged in the Fourth Count of the Indictment.