"11. For 10 days before the experiments started, the experimental subjects received full special airmen's rations. During the experiments they received sea emergency rations, and at the conclusion of the experiments they again received special airmen's rations for 10 days."
"14. Members of the SS were never used as orderlies, nor did they help in any other capacity during these experiments.
"15. Several inmates, however, were employed as doctors and orderlies in these experiments.
Signed: Dr. Theodore Lesse."
Certified by a notary. This is Exhibit #30.
Witness, we must now discuss a few documents put in by the prosecution in this connection. The first one is in Document Book 3, page 6 of the English book. This is Document No. 474, Exhibit 131. This is an affidavit by Dr. Konrad Schaefer. This is in Document Book 5, Your Honors, page 6. In this affidavit, there are a few passages that could lead to misinterpretations. Please say something about them.
A I believe that Dr. Schaefer, when he is in the stand, can best correct these misinterpretations. I should like to point out again, Your Honors....
MR. HARDY (Interrupting): Your Honor, it seems most unusual that this witness should correct an affidavit of the defendant Schaefer. Schaefer will be here in the witness stand and will be able to correct that affidavit if he has any corrections to make.
THE PRESIDENT: I understood that the witness made that suggestion. I don't know what the witness is going to say, but the defendant Schaefer would certainly be in a better position to correct his own statement.
The witness may proceed.
BY DR. MARX:
A I myself had just requested that Dr. Schaefer clarify these misinterpretations. I believe that settles the matter.
Q Let me simply ask you, witness, to say something about #7 in this affidavit. He says here, and I quote:
"It was an open secret in the highest medical circles that the Berka method was used on inmates of concentration camps. It was also known that sea water, processed by the Berka method, was substantially the same as sea water and was, therefore, exceedingly dangerous. I was always of this opinion and personally advised Schroeder, Becker-Freyseng, Anthony, Christensen, Berka and Schickler of this, my opinion."
Please say something about that passage.
A First of all, as to this question of the open secret is concerned. It was neither an open nor a closed secret. It was, as far as we were concerned, a perfectly irreproachable matter. So far as the highest medical circles are concerned - I don't know whether Dr. Schaefer includes me in those circles. I never thought that I belonged to those circles - and so far as the exceedingly dangerousness of the Berka method was concerned, I can refer to what I have already said; namely, that I also held the application of the Berka method in practical emergency sea stations as dangerous, but certainly did not consider it dangerous in experiments. Dr. Schaefer is right in saying that I knew of his opinions about Berkatit.
Q But, witness, you remember that the prosecution spoke of the socalled toxicity of sea water.
A Yes, I heard that. I can say about that the following. Since the famous Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim known as Paracelsus, who lived around 1500, it has been known in medicine that any material can be a poison. It only depends on the dose. I can kill a person with oxygen. I can even kill him with distilled water, but still no one is going to assert that those two substances are poison.
Regarding sea water, I may point out that for centuries sea water has been used for therapeutic purposes, even in large amounts, by doctors. I know, of course, that there is a difference between this doctor's prescription of sea water and our experiments, but I thin, it is impossible to speak of the toxicity of sea water as such.
Q. Your Honors, I put in Becker-Freyseng Document No. 44, pages 175 to 181 of document book 3. This will be exhibit 31. This is a recent description of the history of the use of sea-water as a drinking cure. This is written by Dr. Hermann Bruening. This document proves that sea water has long been used in medicine as a therapeutical means and if using less than 300 cc you do not have to expect diarrhea and also sea-water is used for intestional infections such as typhoid and cholera. From this document, I may quote briefly. It is page 1. The book is entitled: "On the History of the Sea Water Drinking Cures, Methods and Indications," by Dr Hermann Gruening, Director of the Restock University Childrens-Clinic.
MR. HARDY: I object to this Document, it is immaterial, Your Honor.
DR. MARZ: Mr. President, I believe I can dispense with reading the passages from the book, because I have already set forth what the essential points in this document are to which I wish to draw your attention. I ask that this document be accepted in evidence.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel, on just what points do you offer this document? In other words, what do you think it tends to prove in the case, how will it be helpful?
DR. MARK: This document shall prove first of all that seawater is even used as a drinking cure and this proves that it is not in itself harmful, then it will prove in what amounts sea-water can be administered, that it causes no intestinal disorders and that on the contrary sea-water is used in treating intestional infections such as typhoid and cholera. That can be seen from this document No. 44, Exhibit No. 31.
Mr. HARDY: This is a situation, Your Honor, comparable to Professor Rose with malaria. Some of the work he did with malaria was for the benefit of his patients, however Professor Rose does not maintain that malaria is harmless.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal feels that the probative value of the exhibit offered is very slight. The Tribunal will admit it in evidence and over-rule the objection.
BY DR. MARX:
Q. Mr. President, I should like to point out the bibliography attached to this document, which will show you how extensive the literature on this subject is, all going to prove that seawater is not poisonous or harmful if used in sensible, clinical dosages. Witness, the Prosecution changes you with causing the experimental subject inhumane pains and misery; what do you have to say about that?
A. I believe that first of all it is a question to be put to the expert who will be heard on this particular matter. As for myself, I should like to say that this is a confusion on the part of the Prosecution between the conditions that prevailed in experiments and conditions which prevailed in actual emergency sea situations.
The experiments which Beiglboeck made of the four and one half days in the experiment on himself I have seen. I have also spoken with two or three of Dr. Schaefer's technical assistants, who stayed without food and drink for four full days and still continued their laboratory duties. I know of course that hunger and thirst are unpleasant, in fact that can be very unpleasant, but I do not believe that it can be called inhumane or inhuman to carry out such experiments. Moreover, Professor Beigloeck informed the experimental subjects precisely how the experiments would be conducted and in the experiments themselves, in the planning of the experiments, we did everything possible to avoid any unnecessary unpleasantness. For instance, the thirst group did not receive any solid food, because, as is known, that simply aggravates the sense of thirst and produces unpleasant symptoms.
Q. Witness, is not the resulting loss of weight damaging to these people and impairs danger to their health?
A. This loss of weight, which certainly occurred during the experiments, consists for the most part simply in a loss of water and in part consists in real loss of weight, but in no case did this loss of weight approach the limits of what can be tolerated. I know that for instance conscientious objectors in other countries carried out experiments in which they lost as much as 25% of their total weight.
"Time" magazine of 10 December 1946 published an article on this and in medical literature there are cases of much longer fasts with much greater loss of weight. I believe that it can be seen that such a loss of weight within a limited period of time does not constitute any essential danger to the person's health.
Q. Mr. President, I should like to put in a document here. Document No. 45, Document book 3, page 182 to page 193. This is an excerpt from Dr. Schenk and Dr. Meyer's book, entitled "Fast". I wish to read nothing from this document, but wish to refer briefly to what its main contents are. This book reports on a medical self experiment, the author of the book fasted for 26 days, losing 14.3 kilograms. This loss of 17% of his total body weight can be tolerated with no danger. There is no reduction in the person's ability to resist disease, but quite the contrary. The scientific attitude toward fasting over brief periods of time or limited periods of time is here made clear. I should like to put this in as Exhibit 32 and ask that it be admitted.
MR HARDY: Your Honor, I object to this document. I don't think it has any probative value whatsoever.
THE PRESIDENT: Frankly, the substance of this document is to the effect that the person who fasts will lose weight. The Tribunal is of the opinion that it has no probative value whatsoever and the objection is sustained.
DR. MARX: I shall withdraw this document.
Witness, it will be necessary to deal with one point on which the Prosecution laid great importance, namely, the question whether these experiments had any sense or purpose and you are charged with the fact that a chemist could have come to the same conclusions that the experiments led to by experimenting for one half hour with water with a filter in it.
MR. HARDY: It seems to me this question is out of order. I object to it. This defendant is charged with having participated in experiments on human beings at Dachau concentration camp, not for participation in sea-water research. We do not content that the research as to the potability of sea-water is unnecessary, it was certainly necessary, it was done in America and it was done here in Germany. I don't see any reason for continuing along these lines. It has been going on for five hours and I think the defense counsel can end up his case much sooner than he has.
DR. MARX: Mr. President, I quite understand what the Prosecutor said and I am glad to hear that the Prosecutor said these experiments had a purpose to them. I distinctly remember he said they were senseless and consequently I had to take that into consideration in my defense, but now that he makes this statement to the Tribunal, this is no longer necessary, I will accept that.
MR. HARDY: That last statement, I accept without prejudice, Your Honor.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel may proceed.
DR. MARX: Mr. President, I shall try to come to the conclusion of this presentation rapidly. I now put in document Becker-Freysengjust a moment
Q Witness, did you talk about these medical experiments with any other doctors?
A I felt no reason not to and did so.
Q In other words, you did not feel that these experiments should be kept secret.
AAt any rate I spoke with colleagues about this matter, who I thought would be interested in it.
Q Now I put in, Mr. President, Document 48, page 206-9 in Document Book 3. This will be Becker-Freyseng Exhibit No. 32. This is a affidavit by Otto Loebert, who had an official reason for talking with the witness about these experiments. The affidavit is of the 15 January, 1947, and I quote from page 2:
"When new problems were discussed - in my presence at least - no dangerous or even cruel experiments on prisoners were ever debated. I also regarded this as quite impossible in view of the extremely high minded and ethically immaculate fundamental attitude of the aviation medical research workers I knew."
And then on page 3, about the middle:
"Becker-Freyseng was very upset that he had especially to set a difficult metabolism experiment in motion for such 'obvious nonsense' but he saw no other possibility of preventing the layman from wasting considerable quantities of raw material and subsequently distributing to the troops a preparation which was not completely harmless. He was all the more annoyed about the experiment, because on account of the strained situation on the various fronts, which, of course, affected the troops at home, it was very difficult to obtain a sufficiently large number of soldiers for days on end to be used exclusively for the metabolism experiment. These difficulties are eliminated if inmates were used as experimental subjects.
I had not the faintest idea that the experiments were carried out until permanent injuries to health occurred, and I did not get the impression that Becker Freyseng intended anything of this kind. By opinion was that only the period up to the first indication of the beginning of metabolic disturbance was to be determined strictly scientifically and under careful medical control. Consequently, an experiment for which a great many voluntary experimental subjects would have been found without further ado - also among the prisoners."
Now, witness, I come to the conclusion. If you critically appraised these experiments today what is your point of view toward them now?
A Dr. Marx in these eight long months I have often asked myself this question and have meditated on it profoundly. I ask myself this question with particular honestness because three of my co-defendants, namely, Schroeder, my former chief, and Schaeffer, and Beiglboeck would not be here in the dock today if I had succeeded in finding some other way of carrying out these experiments. And even today I can see in retrospection no other possibility which could have been undertaken with any likelihood of success.
I know, however, that the subjects for these experiments were only volunteers; that the problem which the experiments were meant to solve was the oldest and the most urgent in the whole history of rescue from sea; that the results of solving it would hot help simply soldiers at war, but beyond that all persons who found themselves ship-wrecked. I know that before the experiments began, the director of the experiments explained to the subjects what unpleasantness they could expect from the experiment. No experimental subject suffered the least damage to his health and consequently I am today still of the opinion that these sea water experiments were perfectly irreproachable; medical experiments that offended in no way against the laws of ethics or morality. In the last two days I have given you the reasons for this conviction of mine as a doctor and as a scientist. As an officer of the former German Wehrmacht I consider it to be my natural claim today even to bear the responsibility that falls to me on the basis of my official position at that time.
DR. MARX: Mr. President, this concludes my direct examination of Dr. Becker Freyseng.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now be in recess until onethirty o'clock.
AFTERNOON SESSION.
(The hearing reconvened at 1330 hours, 23 May 1947.)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
MR. HARDY: May it please the Tribunal, during the noon recess it was called to my attention by Mr. McHaney that the objection to Document NO 185 -- that is Prosecution Exhibit No. 134 -- had been raised prior to today and at that time the prosecution had submitted to the Tribunal, and to defense counsel, a memorandum to which I referred to this morning. However, if further work is being prepared which the prosecution may intend to do in addition to that memorandum, if the interpretation department has anything to add thereto, we will submit that at a later date. But at this time the prosecution wishes to state that they stand firmly upon the translation as it appears in the prosecution document book, No. 5.
THE PRESIDENT: Did I understand you to say that a written memorandum on the translation has already been filed?
MR. HARDY: It already has been filed with the Tribunal and defense counsel.
THE PRESIDENT: When this supplementary translation is prepared, a memorandum by the interpreters, see that it is attached to that and made one file, if you please.
MR. HARDY: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: Has any defense counsel any questions to propound to this witness?
HERMANN BECKER-FREYSENG Resumed CROSS EXAMINATION (By Defense) BY DR. FLEMING (For Dr. Sauter, counsel for the Defendant Ruff):
Q. Witness, in your direct examination you said that the mobile low pressure chambers had to be transported by rail in the second half of 1942 at the latest because there was no longer any diesel oil available for long trips. Did I understand you correctly?
A. If I said that, you understood me correctly. I can't remember my words at the moment.
Q. How can you still remember that was the case from the second half of 1942 on?
A. I happened to remember a definite event, the transport of a low pressure chamber from Berlin to the area of the Gross-Glockner. A low pressure chamber was needed there for high-altitude research and a low pressure chamber was sent there. That was the same low pressure chamber which at the end of July or the beginning of August 1944 -- excuse me, 1942, was taken over by a Luftwaffe crew at the German Research Institute for Aviation, and this must have been the same chamber which according to Dr. Ruff had earlier been in Dachau. Since at that time I was in the Referat for Aviation Medicine and was responsible for these chambers, I, myself, was concerned with this transport and I know that we were unable to get any diesel oil for this long trip, and that we had to move the chamber by rail.
Q In some documents which have been submitted, that is in various letters from SS agencies and in a letter from Mrs. Nini Rascher, it is suggested that Rascher be assigned to the DVL branch office Dachau. Although no such office existed and no letter from any Luftwaffe agency took up this suggestion I should like you to tell me whether it was at all possible to assign soldiers and medical officers to the DVL? Did you yourself not arrange for medical officers working for a shorter or longer time at the Aviation Medicine Institute to work there as guests?
A I am at least well informed about the steps connected with this and I can first of all confirm that the German Research Institute for Aviation was not a military agency, that it certainly had no branch office in Dachau; and if medical officers or soldiers were to work at the Institute of Dr. Ruff, were to learn something there, it was handled as follows: These soldiers or officers were assigned to the nearest Luftwaffe unit by the personnel office and the DVL was asked to take these soldiers in as guests and let them work in the institute.
Q Do you know that the officers and soldiers who worked as guests in the DVL had for their identification a guest pass of the German Research Institute for Aviation and not the same pass that the members of the institute had?
A Yes, that is true. I can confirm that from my own knowledge because at the beginning of 1943 I myself set up a machine in Dr. Ruff's institute which I could not set up elsewhere because of difficulties with the current. And, because I was at the Institute frequently during that time, I had such a guest pass myself and I know that other members of the Luftwaffe had the same kind of guest pass.
Q In the examination of Professor Weltz the question of adaptation to altitude played a certain role. I, therefore, have a few brief questions to you on this subject which you can answer as an expert on the basis of your experimental work or from your knowledge of literature. Does the effect of adaptation to altitude play an important role in experiments such as we heard of in Dachau for rescue from high altitude?
A First of all I should like to answer a preliminary question. I do actually consider myself some sort of an expert on these questions. I worked for some time on adaptation to altitude and I may refer to numbers 24 and 25 of the list of my scientific publications offered as Becker-Freyseng Exhibit 1. Those are papers on altitude adaptation which I wrote during the years 1939 to 1942, I believe. I do not believe that the question of altitude adaptation was important in Dr. Ruff and Dr. Romberg's experiments.
Q Can one compare altitude adaptation gained through cumulative and long stays in a low pressure chamber with the altitude adaptation acquired for example by mountain climbers. It is well known that climbers in the Himalayas have reached 8,000 meters by means of the most difficult physical exertion without artificial sources of oxygen.
A I have had no experience in the Himalayas. I performed my own experiments in Switzerland at the high Alpine Research Station on the Jungfraujoch at altitudes between 3,500 and 4,000 meters. Moreover, later, as a referent under the Chief of the Medical Services of the Luftwaffe I had to consider the possibility of altitude adaptation by repeated stays in a low pressure chamber. As proof of this I may refer to Document NO-934, Prosecution Exhibit 458. That is the list of the 97 research assignments. On page 3 of the copy, I have at my disposal on page 4, I beg your pardon, under III 5 three research assignments on this subject are listed. And since I know the results of this research well, I can answer this question. By repeated ascents in the low pressure chamber no actual altitude adaptation can be achieved. A slight increase in resistance to altitude is observed to be sure in the second, third, or fourth ascent with the low pressure chamber. The extent of this effect is so slight, however, that in effect it is of no importance, especially in the experiments which Drs. Ruff and Romberg carried out at altitudes above 12,000 meters.
Q Then I can assume that the slight degree of adaptation which occurred in the course of a series of experiments such as was performed at Dachau does not influence the results of the experiments to any important extent.
A Yes, this assumption is correct.
Q Is it true that as far as possible after a long series of experiments with the low pressure chamber the experimental subjects are left out for a short time to do away with even the slightest adaptation which may exist?
A Yes, that is true, but I must point out the following: with the aviation medicine experts who constantly performed experiments on themselves in their institute, we are concerned with repeated ascents over a period of many years. That is of course, something quite different than in series of experiments limited to 2, 3 or 4 months. And, an attempt will of course be made after conclusion of a series of experiments lasting several months to insert a certain pause.
Q In Dachau about 20 experiments were carried out in the course of approximately three months. Is it your opinion as well as that of the medical expert of the Prosecution who has repeatedly told the defendant Dr. Ruff and Dr. Sauter that in the scientific execution of the experiments for rescue from high altitudes there was nothing objectionable?
AAfter carefully reading the detailed report made available by the Prosecution I, too, consider it an unobjectionable scientific report aside from the fact that through years of acquaintanceship I observed nothing but perfectly legitimate scientific work done by Drs. Romberg and Ruff.
Q If there was nothing to be objected to in the scientific execution of this work, then there could not have been any over-burdening of the experimental subjects either, since otherwise this would have influenced the results. Is that also your opinion?
A Yes, that is my opinion and I should like to add -- you said that there were about 20 experiments carried out in three months. That could not be an overburdening under any circumstances, I myself had those when I subjected myself to more than 20 similar experiments in the course of 3 months period and I know that Dr. Ruff had periods when he performed considerably more experiments on himself in a similar period.
Mr. President, I now have some questions for Nelte on behalf of the defendant Handloser.
While you were working in the Luftwaffe Medical Inspectorate, did you ever see an order or instructions from the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service referring to research of the Luftwaffe?
A No, I never saw such an order from Generaloberstabsarzt Handloser.
Q While you were working there did you ever see a report to the Chief of the Medical Service about the execution of any research carried out or ordered by the Luftwaffe Medical Service, or did you ever draw up such a report?
A I cannot remember any such report.
Q What was the effect of the establishment of the Office for Science and Research, from the end of 1943 on, on your reports in research questions?
A I can answer this question only from 15 May 1944, on, when I myself became Referent for Aviation Medicine. The effect was that we made one more carbon copy of our research assignments, and this copy was sent to the office of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service.
Q Did these letters about research assignments indicate how the research was to be carried out?
A No, that could hardly be seen from them. I may refer to what I have stated in considerable detail here about research assignments.
Q Do you know of a case when Professor Handloser visited or inspected the Research Institute of the Luftwaffe?
A No, I do not know of any such case.
Q Do you believe, on the basis of your knowledge of the organization of the Wehrmacht Medical Service, that Professor Handloser could have prohibited any research which the Luftwaffe considered necessary?
A First of all, I don't know of any case when he did so or attempted to do so. I can't imagine his doing it or being able to do it.
Q Was the medical research system of the Luftwaffe under the command of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service?
A I am not aware of anything that might indicate such a subordination.
Q Do you have your affidavit, NO-448, before you?
A Yes, I have it.
Q How do you explain your statement in this affidavit which led to wrong conclusions?
A I presume you mean this sentence:
"Handloser, as Inspector of the Wehrmacht Medical Service, must have been acquainted with the research assignments carried out by the Army, Navy and Luftwaffe."
Q Yes, that's the sentence I mean.
A This refers only to what I said before, that the office of Generaloberstabsarzt Handloser received a carbon copy of our research assignments.
Q Did the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service have official knowledge of the sea-water experiments?
A No.
Q Do you know the Military Medical Academy?
A Yes.
Q Do you know that there were institutes which carried out research; for example, Lost research under Wirth and blood serum research under Lang?
A I must tell you how I knew of the Medical Academy of the Army. The Aviation Medicine Research Institute was in a building which was part of the Military Medical Academy, and I, of course, knew Professor Wirth and Professor Lang. I know that Professor Lang produced blood serum, and I know that Professor Wirth was working on questions of chemical warfare. I am not informed of any details of the work of either of these men.
Q Do you know that experiments were performed there on human beings?
A Yes, because I often met the cadets of the Academy who partici pated in all kinds of experiments.
Q The experiments were performed on cadets?
A Yes, I know of one big experiment on Pervitin, for example, when the cadets could not sleep for several days, and then I know of chemical warfare agent experiments because, in the institute, I saw many cadets who had bandages on their forearms, and I was told that these were chemical warfare agent tests.
Q Do you know the Mountain Medical School of the OKH in St. Johann?
A Yes, I know that institute. The Army Mountain Medical School in St. Johann in the Tyrol.
Q Do you know that experiments were performed there on volunteer soldiers?
A Yes, I know that very well. This knowledge was the reason for the suggestion which I mentioned yesterday, that a similar training company such as the army had in St. Johann should be set up for the Luftwaffe in the Training Section in Jueterbog.
Q What you said yesterday might have been interpreted to mean that the Army did not perform any experiments at all on members of the Army. That is not right?
A What I said on the subject referred only to what I heard here in this court room; I believed that either Professor Handloser or someone else had spoken of a basic order from Keitel that no experiments could be performed on soldiers of the Army but, of course, I know that in both the medical offices in St. Johann in the Tyrol and in the Medical Academy such experiments were performed on volunteers.
Q In the list of participants of the Nurnberg meeting - NO-401 -under # 41, there is Oberarzt Dr. Koenig of the laboratory train of the OKH. Is it true that Dr. Koenig was not present?
A Yes, that is true. That is obvious in the original document. Where the lecture of Dr. Koenig is printed, there is a footnote at the bottom of the page indicating that Dr. Koenig was unable to attend the meeting personally for reasons connected with the war, and that Koenig's lecture was read by Dr. Benzinger, at whose institute Koenig had worked.
The name of Koenig is listed among the participants only because his lecture is included.
Q Thank you. I have no further questions.
BY DR. PRIBILLA (Defense Counsel for the defendant Rostock and also representing Dr. Servatius, Defense Counsel for the defendant Karl Brandt):
Q Dr. Becker-Freyseng, did you, from your former work, know the duties of the Office for Science and Research well?
A I believe I have already made a statement to the effect that I did not have any knowledge of my own about the specific duties and position of the office for Science and Research.
Q Then I may sum up your statements to the effect that when you said that Karl Brandt was perhaps the highest medical authority in science and research you did not say this from your own knowledge, but that it was a conclusion which was suggested to you?
A The word "perhaps" expresses that I admit only the possibility.
Q Then the emphasis is on the "perhaps"?
A Yes.
Q During your work, at that time, did you ever receive any instructions from Professor Rostock or any suggestions to carry out any experiments?
A No.
Q Then, Rostock did not suggest the sea-water experiments and had no connection with them?
A No.
Q Then, in the field of these experiments, there is no connection which you remember today with the Office for Science and Research?
A I have said that the sea-water experiments were not worked out on the basis of a research assignment given to a civilian research worker, but were carried out by ourselves on a purely military basis.