The defendants in the dock (left) and their lawyers (right) at the Doctors Trial.
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Doctors' Trial
Started9 December 1946
Decided20 August 1947
Court membership
Judges sitting
Walter B. Beals (presiding)
Harold L. Sebring
Johnson T. Crawford
Victor C. Swearingen (alternate)
The Doctors' trial (officially United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.) was the first of 12 trials for war crimes of German doctors that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone in Nuremberg, Germany, after the end of World War II. These trials were held before US military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms at the Palace of Justice. The trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg trials", formally the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).[1]
Twenty of the twenty-three defendants were medical doctors (Viktor Brack, Rudolf Brandt, and Wolfram Sievers were Nazi officials), and were accused of having been involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia. Josef Mengele, one of the leading Nazi doctors, had evaded capture.
The judges, heard before Military Tribunal I, were Walter B. Beals (presiding judge) from Washington, Harold L. Sebring from Florida, and Johnson T. Crawford from Oklahoma, with Victor C. Swearingen, a former special assistant to the Attorney General of the United States, as an alternate judge. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was Telford Taylor and the chief prosecutor was James M. McHaney. The indictment was filed on 25 October 1946; the trial lasted from 9 December that year until 20 August 1947. Of the 23 defendants, seven were acquitted and seven received death sentences; the remainder received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to life imprisonment.
Contents
1Indictment
2See also
3References
4Further reading
5External links
Indictment
The accused faced four charges, including:
Conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity as described in counts 2 and 3;
War crimes: performing medical experiments, without the subjects' consent, on prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries, in the course of which experiments the defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts. Also planning and performing the mass murder of prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries, stigmatized as aged, insane, incurably ill, deformed, and so on, by gas, lethal injections, and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums during the Euthanasia Program and participating in the mass murder of concentration camp inmates.
Crimes against humanity: committing crimes described under count 2 also on German nationals.
Membership in a criminal organization, the SS.[2]
The tribunal largely dropped count 1, stating that the charge was beyond its jurisdiction.
I — Indicted G — Indicted and found guilty
Defendants, functions, verdicts, and fates
NamePhotographFunctionChargesVerdict and sentence
1234
Hermann Becker-FreysengHermann Becker-Freyseng.jpgStabsarzt in the Luftwaffe (Captain, Medical Service of the Air Force); and Chief of the Department for Aviation Medicine of the Chief of the Medical Service of the LuftwaffeIGG 20 years' imprisonment, commuted to 10 years. Died 1961
Wilhelm BeiglböckWilhelm Beiglboeck KZ-Arzt.jpgConsulting Physician to the LuftwaffeIGG 15 years' imprisonment, commuted to 10 years. Died 1963
Kurt BlomeKurt Blome KZ-Arzt.jpgDeputy [of the] Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsführer); and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research CouncilIII Acquitted. Died 1969
Viktor BrackViktor Brack Nürnberg 2.jpgOberführer (Senior Colonel) in the SS and Sturmbannführer (Major) in the Waffen SS; and Chief Administrative Officer in the Chancellery of the Führer of the NSDAP (Oberdienstleiter, Kanzlei des Führers der NSDAP)IGGGDeath, executed 2 June 1948.
Karl BrandtKarl Brandt SS-Arzt.jpgPersonal physician to Adolf Hitler; Gruppenführer in the SS and Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) in the Waffen SS; Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation (Reichskommissar für Sanitäts und Gesundheitswesen); and member of the Reich Research Council (Reichsforschungsrat)IGGGDeath, executed 2 June 1948.
Rudolf BrandtRudolf Brandt (SS-Mitglied).jpgStandartenführer (Colonel); in the Allgemeine SS; Personal Administrative Officer to Reichsführer-SS Himmler (Persönlicher Referent von Himmler); and Ministerial Counselor and Chief of the Ministerial Office in the Reich Ministry of the InteriorIGGGDeath, executed 2 June 1948.
Fritz FischerFritz Fischer KZ-Arzt.jpgSturmbannführer (Major) in the Waffen SS; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the Hospital at HohenlychenIGGGLifetime imprisonment, commuted to 15 years. Released 1954, died 2003
Karl GebhardtKarl Gebhardt, SS-Arzt.jpgGruppenführer in the SS and Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) in the Waffen SS; personal physician to Reichsfuehrer-SS Himmler; Chief Surgeon of the Staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police (Oberster Kliniker, Reichsarzt SS und Polizei); and President of the German Red CrossIGGGDeath, executed 2 June 1948.
Karl GenzkenKarl August Genzken KZ-Arzt.jpgGruppenführer in the SS and Generalleutnant (Lieutenant General) in the Waffen SS; and Chief of the Medical Department of the Waffen SS (Chef des Sanitätsamts der Waffen SS)IGGGLifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years. Released 1954, died 1957
Siegfried HandloserSiegfried Handloser NS-Arzt.jpgGeneraloberstabsarzt (Lieutenant General, Medical Service); Medical Inspector of the Army (Heeressanitätsinspekteur); and Chief of the Medical Services of the Armed Forces (Chef des Wehrmachtsanitätswesens)IGG Lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years. Released/died 1954
Waldemar HovenWaldem Hoven.jpgHauptsturmführer (Captain) in the Waffen SS; and Chief Doctor of the Buchenwald concentration campIGGGDeath, executed 2 June 1948.
Joachim MrugowskyJoachim Mrugoswsky SS-Arzt.jpgOberführer (Senior Colonel) in the Waffen SS; Chief Hygienist of the Reich Physician SS and Police (Oberster Hygieniker, Reichsarzt SS und Polizei); and Chief of the Hygienic Institute of the Waffen SS (Chef des Hygienischen Institutes der Waffen SS)IGGGDeath, executed 2 June 1948.
Herta OberheuserHerta Oberheuser.jpgPhysician at the Ravensbrück concentration camp; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the Hospital at HohenlychenIGG 20 years' imprisonment, commuted to 5 years. Released 1952, died 1978
Adolf PokornyAdolf Pokorny.jpgPhysician, Specialist in Skin and Venereal DiseasesIII Acquitted
Helmut PoppendickHelmut Poppendick.jpgOberführer (Senior Colonel) in the SS; and Chief of the Personal Staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police (Chef des Persönlichen Stabes des Reichsarztes SS und Polizei)IIIG10 years imprisonment. Released 1951, died 1994
Hans-Wolfgang Romberg [de]Wolfgang Romberg.jpgDoctor on the Staff of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for AviationIII Acquitted. Died 1981
Gerhard RoseGerhard Rose.jpgGeneralarzt of the Luftwaffe (Major General, Medical Service of the Air Force); Vice President, Chief of the Department for Tropical Medicine, and Professor of the Robert Koch Institute; and Hygienic Adviser for Tropical Medicine to the Chief of the Medical Service of the LuftwaffeIGG Lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years. Released 1955, died 1992
Paul RostockPaul Rostock (NS-Mediziner).jpgChief Surgeon of the Surgical Clinic in Berlin; Surgical Adviser to the Army; and Chief of the Office for Medical Science and Research (Amtschef der Dienststelle Medizinische Wissenschaft und Forschung) under the defendant Karl Brandt, Reich Commissioner for Health and SanitationIII Acquitted. Died 1956
Siegfried RuffSiegfr Ruff.jpgDirector of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt) and First Lieutenant in the Medical Service of the Air Force; still researching and publishing in the field of aviation as late as 1989[3]III Acquitted. Died 1989
Konrad SchäferKonrad Schaefer.jpgDoctor on the Staff of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in BerlinIII Acquitted
Oskar Schröder [de]Oskar Schroeder.jpgGeneraloberstabsarzt (Colonel General Medical Service); Chief of Staff of the Inspectorate of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe (Chef des Stabes, Inspekteur des Luftwaffe-Sanitätswesens); and Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe (Chef des Sanitätswesens der Luftwaffe)IGG Lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 15 years. Released 1954, died 1958
Wolfram SieversWolfram Sievers.jpgStandartenführer (Colonel) in the SS; Reich Manager of the Ahnenerbe Society and Director of its Institute for Military Scientific Research (Institut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung); and Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board of Directors of the Reich Research CouncilIGGGDeath, executed 2 June 1948.
Georg August Weltz [de]Georg Weltz.jpgOberfeldarzt in the Luftwaffe (Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Service, of the Air Force); and Chief of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in MunichIII Acquitted
All of the criminals sentenced to death were hanged on 2 June 1948 in Landsberg prison, Bavaria.
For some, the difference between receiving a prison term and the death sentence was membership in the SS, "an organization declared criminal by the judgement of the International Military Tribunal". However, some SS medical personnel received prison sentences. The degree of personal involvement and/or presiding over groups involved was a factor in others.
