All together we carried out 800 such dives in the course of three months and we only interrupted these experiments when we found signs of exhaustion of the heart and blood circulation of the pilot.
A. (Continued) A further experimental series was to determine the effect of vibrations and shakings on the occupants of a plane. These experiments were carried out partly in the plane and partly on certain shaking tables. In the case of these vibration experiments strong disturbances in the nervous system become apparent which are registered by certain methods. My assistant Wisehoefer found his death during one such experimental flight. This was not because of medical reasons but because of a technical error in the flight. -Then there was another experimental question concerning parachute jumping up to what speed the unprotected face of the pilot is not exposed to injury. These experiments were partly carried out in the plane by the experimental subject going out into the air after a certain speed was reached, exposing the face to the air current, and after that, by some means, the person was brought back into the plane. In cases of high speeds such experiments were carried out in a wind tunnel. During such experiments we went to 820 kilometers per hour speeds. And, in order to give you some idea, of what that means, one can say that with over 800 kilometers there is a wind pressure of over 3000 kilograms per one square meter. In order to explain it a little better one may point out that a normal ceiling in an office building takes three hundred to three hundred fifty kilos per square meter. In the case of this speed of the wind, which corresponds to 3,000 kilograms per square meter, the air becomes very hard. Even the smallest bits of dust enter the skin as if they were projectives, and the skin of the face becomes so worn and so effected that after the experiment several experimental persons had their faces covered with blood on the pores of the skin. -- Then experiments were carried out in order to ascertain what the shocks were that a person could stand after the parachute had unfolded. During these experiments the spine is very strongly strained. Also these experiments were carried out to the limits of what was necessary for practical flying. Furthermore experiments were carried out in the question of what would happen if in the pressure cabin of a plane -- this is a cabin where the crew of a stratospheric flight plane are being housed.
This has the pressure which corresponds to do out 3000 meters and if this cabin suddenly should leak because of a gun shot or because of a window pane breaking, the people inside can experience an acceleration of altitude compared to 3 to perhaps 15 thousand meters within a period of time of 1/10 of a second. Since it was not at all clear whether the human organism could stand it, we, in the same way as other nations, carried out such experiments. -- A further question which will effect us later is the question of parachuting from high altitudes which was dealt with by us in self-experimentation. I should like to limit myself to these examples, and I should only like to read a number of these experiment series just by naming their titles: Experiments on the effects of certain laughing-gas concentrations, which is a narcotic gas; examination of the damage of ears by noise; examination of the resistance of the human spine against shocks as occur when planes are landing; examination of the physiological basis when building catapult seats; examination what affects resistance at high altitudes etc. The number of these experimental series could be increased as desired.
Q. Mr. President, I should like you to take notice of Document 19. It is to be found in Document Volume Ruff, Supplement No. 1. This document will receive Ruff Exhibit No. 5. This is a compilation of the publications of the defendant, in which he constantly reported to the public on the experiments which were carried through, and on their results. I ask you to take notice of that document. -- Dr. Ruff, we have already seen from your description that all these experiments were apparently carried out in the interest of aviation, is that correct, or were other experiments carried out?
A. No. All these experiments were in the interest of aviation, and as I said before they were mostly in the interest of the prevention of accidents or the dimunition of damages in case of accidents.
Q. Do you think you can say that all of these experiments were actually necessary in the interest of the Aeronautics and personnel?
A. It is my opinion that this was so.
Q. During these experiments did there occur any fatal accidents which effected either experimental subjects or the people in charge of the experiment or any assistants. I am particularly referring to the high altitude experiments such as they were carried on at Dachau in the year of 1942?
A. In the entire German Aviation Medicine, although thousands and thousands of experiments were carried out, we only had two fatal cases. One occurred in the year of 1937 in the Himalayas where one aero medical scientist when carrying out medical experiments in the mountains received his death because of an ice avalanche. This was not due to his medical experiments. The second case of death which occurred in the entire Aviation Medicine in Germany, was the death of my assistant Wiesehoefer.
Q. You have already mentioned, that, haven't you?
A. Yes, I mentioned that before. The death of this man also was not due to medical conditions but merely duo to a technical error in the plane.
Q. Dr. Ruff, in the affidavits read which it is already repeatedly mentioned, you carried out all experiments first upon yourself, where you were putting yourself at disposal as an experimental subject. During those experiments which you performed upon yourself, did you experiments any personal damage of health, etc?
A. Then carrying out these many diving flights experiments, a condition of exhaustion of heart and circulation appeared which never quite left me.
But it on the other hand is not particularly dangerous.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel, at this time the Tribunal will be in recess until 9:30 Monday morning.
Official Transcript of the American Military Tribunal in the matter of the United States of America against Karl Brandt, et al, defendants, sitting at Nuernberg, Germany, on 28 April 1947, 0920, Justice Beals presiding.
THE MARSHAL: Persons in the courtroom will please find their seats. The Honorable, the Judges of Military Tribunal I. Military Tribunal I is now in session. God save the United States of America and this honorable Tribunal. There will be order in the courtroom.
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Marshal, you ascertain if the defendants are all present in court.
THE MARSHAL: May it please Your Honor, all defendants are present in the court.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary General will note for the record the presence of all defendants in court.
Counsel may proceed.
SIEGFRIED RUFF - Resumed DIRECT EXAMINATION (Continued) BY DR. FRITZ SAUTER (Counsel for the defendant Ruff):
Q. Dr. Ruff, I would like to remind you that you are still under oath. Before the adjournment we discussed the experiments which you generally performed in your institute and it would interest me new to hear something from you as to what extent you were yourself an experimental subject, and I am not only speaking about the Dachau experiments but all the others.
A. The experiments in our institute were performed upon my collaborators and upon myself in the case of 90 percent of the experiments. In the case of certain experiments which were not carried out for purposes of research but in order to teach the crews which had to fly in high altitude, soldiers were furnished to us by the Luftwaffe, and we carried out high altitude experiments with them in order to show them what effects high altitude has on human organisms. To a very slight extent we also used one or the other members of the experimental institute for aviation for our experiments.
Q. All these were voluntary subjects, were they?
A. Yes, as far as this concerned experimental research they were voluntary people. However, the soldiers were detailed by the Wehrmacht for these lecture experiments.
Q. Do you know whether the detailing of soldiers of the Wehrmacht for those experiments was in any way something special or whether that is also the case with other nations who carried out aviation research?
A. This is customary with all air forces because it has shown itself that it is necessary to make the crews acquainted with how high altitude would affect them.
Q. Dr. Ruff, could you estimate approximately what the amount of all the experiments was which you carried out during those years at your institute?
A. We never counted them, but a superficial estimation of that amount would show that it is somewhere between nine to twelve thousand.
Q. In that case the amount of experiments carried out at Dachau was only very small in comparison?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you gain any personal advantages because of your numerous experiments upon your own persons?
A. No, on the contrary my collaborators as well as I had to pay our own life insurance.
Q. Did you have any disadvantages because of these experiments on yourself? I am thinking in particular about disadvantages of health.
A. I already said Friday that we had no very serious incidents in the course of these experiments, and that in effect any lasting damages to health did not occur.
DR. FRITZ SAUTER: Mr. President, in this connection I should like to ask you to accept an affidavit which mainly deals with the general aspect of these experiments. This is Document No-8 to be found in Document Book Ruff on pages 27 to 30. This document originates from a physician, Dr. Loeckle, who from the year of 1937 on was a member of that institute and personally participated in numerous experiments.
He confirms mainly that all the experiments carried out by Dr. Ruff were at first performed by him as experiments upon himself, that is, Dr. Ruff, and that his assistants in the institute were acting as voluntary experimental subjects.
I ask you to take notice of this document, and I should only like to read a few excerpts of a very important nature on page 2. I shall read the paragraph before the last. Here the witness says from his own experience, and I quote:
"The danger of the different experimental conditions could never be settled ahead. We therefore always proceeded with the greatest possible care and took all imaginable precautions. The demands were only increased gradually. We worked exclusively on voluntary experimental subjects; I never heard of a single case when anyone was induced to undergo certain experiments or was forced in any way. Some employees of the institute, who had an aversion towards certain experiments, did not, of course, have to take part in them. I cannot remember any incidents worth mentioning. Minor complaints, such as headaches, over-tiredness, and similar complaints were observed occasionally. Of course, the Primum Nil Nocere was the motto for all work. There never was even the slightest suspicion that any unscrupulous experiments were carried out or any atrocities committed."
I shall skip the next paragraph and I shall now read the last paragraph. It says:
"Dr. Ruff showed the same courage and devotion to duty, in research duties, which he was working on himself; he was always the first to undergo the dangers which, at the beginning, could never be calculated, and he always cooperated also as an experimental subject in the experiments of others. As head of the institute, Dr. Ruff always showed an exemplary, liberal attitude. In that period of intolerance and force, of spiritual rape and suppression of individuality, he always appeared to me to be an estimable representative of true humanity."
The witness furthermore describes the liberal attitude of Dr. Ruff. He says at the end:
"I cannot believe that Mr. Ruff ever took part in any unscrupulous experiments and I am convinced that if ever at that time he came across atrocities, even in the research, he would have opposed them with all his might. Furthermore, I never heard that Dr. Ruff worked on other than voluntary experimental subjects; I consider this out of the question in view of his whole attitude."
This is an affidavit and I should like you to take notice of its entire contents. It was certified in the customary manner.
There is another aff. davit with similar meaning by a certain Franz Scheiber.
THE PRESIDENT: What number did you assign to this exhibit?
DR. SAUTER: The exhibit which I have just submitted, or rather the document which I have just read, Document No. 8, will receive the exhibit number 6, Ruff No. 6.
Regarding the general aspect of the experiments, the physician Dr. Scheiber makes a general statement. This affidavit you will find in document Ruff under No. 1, Exhibit No. 7. I ask you to take notice of this affidavit in its entirety. I shall only read a few paragraphs on pages 2 and 3. This Doctor Scheiber, from whom this affidavit originates, is a physician who ever since 1936, that is, for a period of eight years, had collaborated with Dr. Ruff, and had had occasion to make his very close acquaintance. In his affidavit he at first describes the entire attitude and professional conception of Professor Ruff, and then he says on page 2 at the bottom: "These demands made on the experimental persons were unpleasant to bear individually, but all --"I don't think the interpreters have these document books, Your Honors.
INTERPRETER: The interpreters have the document book.
at
THE PRESIDENT: The translation did not come through/first, doctor.
DR. SAUTER: I shall start once mere on page 2 at the bottom of the page and I quote:
"These demands were disagreeable, but out of all the experiments known to me, not one person undergoing an experiment suffered any kind of bodily injury. I would certainly have noticed such cases because I could follow these experiments from a medical point of view, and also I was well informed of everything that went on in the Medical Section of the Experimental Institute for Aviation."
THE PRESIDENT: From what part of the exhibit are you reading?
DR. SAUTER: Document No. 1, page 2, the bottom of page. I think it is the last paragraph. I think you will find it also in the English document book.
It starts:
"In none of the cases described was any person forced to undergo such experiments. All the experimental subjects I knew came from among the German clerks and assistants of the medical institute of the German Experimental Institute for Aviation, and they were all volunteers. I repeatedly became clearly conscious of Dr. Ruff's acute feeling of medical responsibility towards the experimental subjects and of the almost exaggerated Caution with which he conducted these experiments in order to avoid injury to health in every case.
"Dr. Ruff considered the healthy well-being of the experimental subjects entrusted to him as the supreme medical law and he would rather have abstained from the desired highest scientific knowledge than run any risks regarding the health of these persons."
This is the end of the quotation. The witness goes on the describe Dr. Ruff's action in individual cases and I should only like to quote a sentence at the end of page 4, the next to last paragraph. Here the witness says:
"The frequent experiments Dr. Ruff underwent in the course of years, however, led to an irreparable heart injury which I and others who had known him when he was in perfect health and had observed him constantly could not fail to notice. This heart defect caused us frequently to ask him to take more care of himself, but we could not influence his actions at all. I was never of the impression that an unsatiable urge for knowledge or personal ambition made him pursue the experiments to the utmost limit of scientific possibility. Cruelty or force towards an experimental subject are to my mind quite inconceivable when passing judgment on Dr. Ruff's character."
End quote. The affidavit is certified in the customary manner. I have one last question regarding animal experiments.
MR. HARDY: Your Honors, it seems to me that--. First of all, I can't understand what the defense counsel is attempting to do here and I request the Tribunal to ask him, regarding all of the experimental work which the defendant Ruff has worked on since he graduated from medical school.
It would seem to me that the experiments he conducted at his institute are not in issue here and the methods by which he conducted them ere not at issue here. It would be comparable to a situation where a man who has been driving the automobile for several years finally drives the automobile criminally, and we would have to discuss every trip he took for ten years. I think all of this is immaterial, Your Honors. I don't see why we have to go any further unless counsel has some definite reason.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel, what is the reason, what is the materiality of the probative value which these affidavits carry with the charges upon which the defendant is on trial?
DR. SAUTER: According to my opinion as to what the Tribunal deems of importance, I think it is of importance that one learn that a defendant who is accused, how he was carrying out his professional activities. It is impossible to gain a clear and reliable picture about his character and his entire activities if you merely confine yourself to the one or the two visits which he paid to Dachau. Nothing at all can be seen from that. The possibility must be given to the defendant to prove in the course of many years he was active as a researcher and as a scholar and was particularly following in these matters a consience.
I shall come back to these matters in my final plea because this is not the time to argue in detail. Furthermore, Mr. President, I had intended anyhow, as I already stated, to put only one more question regarding these general aspects of Dr. Ruff's experiments, which can be finished with one sentence. I intended to ask him-
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel may propound the question to the witness.
BY DR. SAUTER:
Q. Witness, one last question regarding these general problems. Why did you apply the possibility of the experiments on animals to such a small degree, and what is the situation of animal experiments in that special field of aviation research?
A. In the entire aviation medicine and that not only in Germany but in all other nations, the use of animals in experiments is very slight, and if one would estimate it one would arrive at the figures of 30 to 35 percent. Furthermore, these experiments have to be performed on human beings because otherwise many questions could not be clarified in any other way. In flying I mentioned a series of experiments during which it was to be ascertained what the stomach can stand in the case of crash landings. Such experiments cannot be performed on animals since the bodily construction of animals is completely different than that of human beings.
Q. Dr. Ruff, I should like now to pass to the charge which is raised against you in this trial which concerns your participation in high altitude experiments in Dachau, This is the only count under which you are indicted in the indictment, Those experiments as they were performed in the Spring of 1942 in the low pressure chambers at Dachau were they earlier performed in your Berlin institute?
A. Experiments regarding parachute descent from high altitudes were carried out before and after the Dachau experiments at our institute in Berlin.
Q. Would you briefly describe to us what the actual aim of such high altitude experiments with a low pressure chamber is?
A. Quite generally one could summarize that in one sentence. The sense of those experiments with a low pressure chamber is to find out the influence of high altitude on the human or animal organism.
Q. Were such high altitude experiments with a low pressure chamber a specialty of the German Air Force or were they also known abroad?
A. The low pressure chamber belongs to the experimental equipment of every aviation institute. It is known since the end of the last century and it is everywhere applied in the case of such experiments.
Q. Would you perhaps describe to us briefly how such a low pressure chamber is furnished and upon what basic principles the experiments with it rest?
A. The low pressure chamber is a space from which air can be drawn with the help of pumps. Through this drawing out of air the air pressure in the chamber is being decreased in accordance with the conditions as they arise when an airplane ascends to high altitudes. This speed of the ascent, that is to say the speed of the decrease of pressure, can be regualted by ventiles. In the case of our experiment in addition to this actual low pressure chamber we had a second very small low pressure chamber for experiments with sudden drop in pressure. These experiments are carried out in order to perform very speedy ascents into high altitudes. High altitude ascents as they occur in airplanes with so-called pressure cabins. If such a plane is flying, say, at 1500 meters altitude and the pressure cabin is damaged, the passengers in that pressure cabin go through an altitude ascent within one second amounting to 3 to 5 thousand meters. The descent with low pressure chamber is effected by letting in air from the outside into the chamber through a ventile.
Then the pressure in the chamber is increased - and that would be in accordance with the condition which prevails when an airplane descends from high altitudes.
Q. Dr. Ruff, in the course of this trial we repeatedly heard that in the case of these experiments so-called altitude sickness occurred. I should now like you to explain to us what altitude sickness actually means and in what way your experiments took altitude sickness into consideration and exploited it?
A. Under altitude sickness one understands the damages to the health of a human being by reason of lack of oxygen. And, that is also true in the case of animals. The expression altitude sickness is often misunderstood. In the case of altitude sickness we are not really concerned with a sickness but this is a deficiency of the body the same as thirst or hunger. In the case of thirst there is a deficiency of water. In the case of hunger there is a lack of nourishment or food. And, in the case of altitude sickness there is lack of oxygen. It would be best to explain altitude sickness by briefly observing what happens to a human being when he ascends into altitudes without a supply of oxygen. Let us assume a speed of ascent of one minute per thousand meters. If such a human being is observed either in the plane or in the low pressure chamber one finds in the first four minutes, that is up to 4000 meters, that no change has occurred in bis body. The body is in a position to adjust because of certain compensatory provisions in his body for the lack of oxygen. From 4000 meters upwards certain deficiencies occur which can at first be found in the central nervous system. This occurs in the following manner: His senses and his power of observation are decreased. For instance, a lamp which may be burning in that space appears less bright to the experimental subject than before. Very high sounds are no longer heard. As soon as altitude increases his power of thinking and his memory are decreasing. His attention, his power of concentration, and his power to carry out criticism decreases as soon as altitude increases.
His emotional life, too, undergoes a strong change. In few cases we have a depression but in most cases we have an euphory which is the opposite of a depression - an elated emotion. For that reason because of the change of his emotions one often compares the effect of high altitude with the effect of alcoholism. In aviation medicine one often speaks of the altitude drunkenness and in the same way as alcohol reacts differently on different people so does lack of oxygen react differently One experimental subject becomes particularly active and overjoyed. The other one becomes tired and sleepy. This entire condition developes gradually as the altitude increases and becomes progressively more severe. In altitude of 7500 to 8000 meters this condition goes over into complete unconsciousness. This condition in high altitude was already described at the end of the last century by the Frenchman Dissanthier and he used the followed condition: "In the case of altitudes of 7500 meters the rigid condition which a person has to undergo is surprising. Body and mind become weaker and weaker and that gradually and hardly recognizable. One experiences no pain on the contrary one feels an inner joy. One no longer thinks of the dangerous condition. One ascends and one is glad of the ascent." Because high altitude sickness brings about no unpleasant symptoms, such as for example, lack of breath, it is particularly dangerous for aviation, which are here to warn the flyer that altitude sickness is beginning and that means that he is not warned of danger.
I was just saying that in altitudes of 7500 to 8000 meters, unconsciousness appears. Shortly before unconsciousness comes about, one finds that there slight and painless twitches in one's hand. Then a person's consciousness disappears entirely. If one then continues to ascend with the plane, or the low pressure chamber, one finds changes in the breathing of this unconscious person. Breathing becomes irregular. One finds that there are a few breathing movements following quickly upon one another, then a lengthy pause, then again a few quick movements, and this is how it goes on. Simultaneously with this severe change of breathing, cramps occur in the condition of this unconscious person. Because of these cramps, one sees a picture which can be compared with a person who is suffering from an epileptic attack or it may correspond to cramps as they are artificially caused for therapeutic reasons, that is, for treatment, with the aid of insulin, or cardiazol, or electrical current. In the case of all these conditions of cramp - high altitude cramps, epileptic cramps, or therapeutic cramps - the person concerned does not notice anything. He has lost his consciousness.
I was just saying that in an altitude of approximately 4,000 meters one can see the first symptoms. For that reason, it is a regulation in all states who carry on aviation that, starting from that altitude, the passengers of airplanes would have to be supplied artificially with oxygen. For that purpose, the airplanes carry oxygen equipment. They have bottles of oxygen, and this oxygen is introduced into the passengers of the plane through the medium of breathing masks.
When one designates the altitude which a human being can reach without oxygen equipment as his summit, one arrives at the altitude of 4,000 meters. In that case, it is presupposed that the summit altitude is considered the point where no symptoms at all will occur yet. When breathing pure oxygen, the summit altitude is increased to 12,000 or 13,000 meters. That is to say, if the human being is inhaling pure oxygen, he can ascend to 12,000 or 13,000 meters altitude without any symptoms of illness. If going beyond that altitude, there develops, as the altitude increases, the same picture as one can see starting from 4,000 meters without the aid of oxygen.
This picture develops in the some sequence and in the same manner.
In aviation one seldom sees that altitude sickness occurs in the case of an ascent. The altitude sickness usually begins when, for some reason, the supply of oxygen is interrupted. If that case occurs in any altitude, starting from 6,000 meters, the altitude sickness will occur after a certain period of time. This period of time which elapses from the point of interruption up to the beginning of the altitude sicknessis designated in aviation medicine as "time reserve". This is the period of time which is still available to the person concerned in order to do something on his own initiative to defend himself against the beginning of altitude sickness. This so-called "time reserve" changes as altitude increases. The higher up this incident occurs, the shorter becomes the "time reserve". In the case of an altitude of 8,000 meters, we have approximately four minutes! "time reserve". In the case of 12,000 meters altitude, we have forty to fifty seconds, and in the case of 20,000 meters, approximately ten seconds.
If the plane descends after having experienced altitude sickness, cramps and breathing difficulties - these symptoms disappear in the reverse sequence they began. At first, the cramps disappear, breathing becomes more regular, then the person comes slowly back to consciousness, and the experimental subject finally is again able to act. The experimental subject is again capable to act in an altitude which can be compared with the altitude where air sickness started when the plane ascended. If, during an ascent, there was unconsciousness at 7,000 metersaltitude, and then the person was brought up to 12,000 meters altitude in this unconscious condition, his awakening will approximately take place at 8,000 meters altitude during the descent. The inner procedures - that is, what happens within the body of the human being during such ascents and descents - is not quite known. It is important that after the awakening from altitude sickness almost immediately there is a full ability to act.
No complaints of any sort exist, and exceptions from this rule are only those cases where the lack of oxygen has lasted for a considerable length of time. And the awakening is similar to the awakening from an anesthetic. That is, it takes from one to two hours. But, contrary to any awakening from anesthetics; this awakening has generally no complaints for the person and has no after effects.
A further fact which may be of some importance!is that; during the time of altitude sickness; the person concerned does not remember what happened. Experimental subjects often cannot state whether an experiment was carried out on them or not. They state that they had a very light feeling of warmth; but that otherwise nothing much had happened.
Q. Dr. Ruff, these difficult technical questions you may have to supplement in one regard. How is it possible, in the airplane or in the low pressure chamber, to ascend to an altitude of 20,000 meters if, on the other hand, you say that in an altitude of, I think, 14,000 meters,in spite of the introduction of oxygen, unconsciousness occurs? This question does not seem to be clear to me. Perhaps you could clarify it for us laymen.
A. In the airplane, the ascent to heights of over 14,000 meters is possible only if the airplane is equiped with the so-called pressure cabin. In these pressure cabins one takes a so-called "private climate" along with him for the benefit of the passengers. This is a climate as one experiences it in an altitude of 3,000 meters. Only in this manner is it possible to fly higher than 14,000 meters for any length of time.
In the low-pressure chamber we can ascend to such heights by increasing from 12,000 or 13,000 meters to 20,000 meters within a very short time, but that can only be done in the low-pressure chamber. The period of time has to be short enough to fall within the time reserve, of which I was speaking earlier. That is, in the case of 20,000 meters, it has to be within ten seconds.
A. Dr. Ruff, did you often perform these experiments which you just described to us--including altitude sickness, etc--upon yourself? And I want to ask you: Can you tell us from your own experience that these altitude sicknesses, this unconsciousness, these cramps, which occur--are without any pain for the experimental subject, and do not bring along with them any disadvantageous after-effects?
A. All these matters which I have described by me as a result of personal experience on my own body.
Q. Thank you, Dr. Ruff. Then Doctor, I should like to pass to the experiments at Dachau which were carried out in the spring of 1942. Then, for the first time, was the thought entertained to carry out experiments in concentration camps?