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Doctors' Trial

March 04, 2023

Not to be confused with Doctors' plot or clinical trial.

The Doctors' Trial (officially United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.) was the first of 12 trials for war crimes of high-ranking German officials and industrialists 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]

Doctors' Trial
Courtroom at the trial, 12 December 1946
CourtPalace of Justice, Nuremberg
Full case nameUnited States of America v. Karl Brandt et al.
Started9 December 1946 (1946-12-09)
Decided20 August 1947
Court membership
Judges sitting

Twenty of the twenty-three defendants were medical doctors and were accused of having been involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia. 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.

Background

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.

Indictment

The accused faced four charges, including:

  1. Conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity as described in counts 2 and 3;
  2. 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.
  3. Crimes against humanity: committing crimes described under count 2 also on German nationals.
  4. 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
Name Photograph Function Charges Sentence
1 2 3 4
Karl Brandt   Personal 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) I G G G Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
Siegfried Handloser   Generaloberstabsarzt (Lieutenant General, Medical Service); Medical Inspector of the Army (Heeressanitätsinspekteur); and Chief of the Medical Services of the Armed Forces (Chef des Wehrmachtsanitätswesens) I G G   Life imprisonment; commuted to 20 years; released/died 1954
Paul Rostock   Chief 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 Sanitation I I I   Acquitted; died 1956
Oskar Schröder [de]   Generaloberstabsarzt (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) I G G   Life imprisonment; commuted to 15 years; released 1954; died 1959
Karl Genzken   Gruppenführer 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) I G G G Life imprisonment; commuted to 20 years; released April 1954; died 1957
Karl Gebhardt   Gruppenführer 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 Cross I G G G Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
Kurt Blome   Deputy [of the] Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsführer); and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Council I I I   Acquitted; died 1969
Rudolf Brandt   Standartenführer (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 Interior I G G G Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
Joachim Mrugowsky   Oberführer (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) I G G G Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
Helmut Poppendick   Oberführer (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) I I I G 10 years; released 1951; died 1994
Wolfram Sievers   Standartenführer (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 Council I G G G Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
Gerhard Rose   Generalarzt 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 Luftwaffe I G G   Life imprisonment; commuted to 20 years; released 1955; died 1992
Siegfried Ruff   Director 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] I I I   Acquitted; died 1989
Hans-Wolfgang Romberg [de]   Doctor on the Staff of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation I I I   Acquitted; died 1981
Georg August Weltz [de]   Oberfeldarzt in the Luftwaffe (Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Service, of the Air Force); and Chief of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Munich I I I   Acquitted; died 1963
Viktor Brack   Oberführer (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) I G G G Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
Hermann Becker-Freyseng   Stabsarzt 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 Luftwaffe I G G   20 years; commuted to 10 years; released 1952; died 1961
Konrad Schäfer   Doctor on the Staff of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Berlin I I I   Acquitted; died after 1951
Waldemar Hoven   Hauptsturmführer (Captain) in the Waffen SS; and Chief Doctor of the Buchenwald concentration camp I G G G Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
Wilhelm Beiglböck   Consulting Physician to the Luftwaffe I G G   15 years; commuted to 10 years; released 15 December 1951; died 1963
Adolf Pokorny   Physician, Specialist in Skin and Venereal Diseases I I I   Acquitted
Herta Oberheuser   Physician at the Ravensbrück concentration camp; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen I G G   20 years; commuted to 10 years; released 1952; died 1978
Fritz Fischer   Sturmbannführer (Major) in the Waffen SS; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen I G G G Life imprisonment; commuted to 15 years; released March 1954; died 2003

All of the criminals sentenced to death were hanged on 2 June 1948 at Landsberg Prison.

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.[citation needed]

See also

 
Witnesses at the trial

References

  1. ^ "The Doctors Trial: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings". Holocaust Encyclopedia. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C.
  2. ^ . United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Archived from the original on 2007-10-11. Retrieved 2007-10-11. – Excerpts from the official trial record, opening and closing statements, and eyewitness testimony.
  3. ^ Ruff, Siegfried, et al. Sicherheit und Rettung in der Luftfahrt. Koblenz : Bernard & Graefe, c1989.

Further reading

  • Hanauske-Abel, H. (1996). "Not a slippery slope or sudden subversion: German medicine and National Socialism in 1933". British Medical Journal. 313 (7070): 1453–1463. doi:10.1136/bmj.313.7070.1453. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 2352969. PMID 8973235.(subscription required)
  • Heller, Kevin Jon (2011). The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-955431-7.
  • Lifton-Robert, Robert J. (2000) [1st. Pub. 1986 London:Macmillan]. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-04905-9.
  • Pellegrino, E. (15 August 1997). "The Nazi Doctors and Nuremberg: Some Moral Lessons Revisited". Annals of Internal Medicine. 127 (4): 307–308. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.694.9894. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-127-4-199708150-00010. PMID 9265432. S2CID 30547329.(subscription required)
  • Seidelman, W. (1996). "Nuremberg lamentation: for the forgotten victims of medical science". British Medical Journal. 313 (7070): 1463–1467. doi:10.1136/bmj.313.7070.1463. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 2352986. PMID 8973236.(subscription required)
  • Spitz, Vivien (2005). Doctors from Hell. Sentient Publications. ISBN 978-1-59181-032-2.
  • Weindling, P.J. (2005). Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials: From Medical War Crimes to Informed Consent. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-3911-1.

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Doctors' Trial.
  • . The Nuremberg Trials Project. Harvard Law School Library. Archived from the original on 2011-04-15. – Partial transcript from the trial
  • Cohen, Baruch C. "The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments". Jewish Law.
  • Biddiss, M (June 1997). "Disease and dictatorship: the case of Hitler's Reich" (pdf). Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. 90 (6): 342–346. doi:10.1177/014107689709000616. PMC 1296317. PMID 9227388.

March 04, 2023
doctors, trial, confused, with, doctors, plot, clinical, trial, this, article, includes, list, general, references, lacks, sufficient, corresponding, inline, citations, please, help, improve, this, article, introducing, more, precise, citations, december, 2021. Not to be confused with Doctors plot or clinical trial This article includes a list of general references but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations December 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message The Doctors Trial officially United States of America v Karl Brandt et al was the first of 12 trials for war crimes of high ranking German officials and industrialists 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 Doctors TrialCourtroom at the trial 12 December 1946CourtPalace of Justice NurembergFull case nameUnited States of America v Karl Brandt et al Started9 December 1946 1946 12 09 Decided20 August 1947Court membershipJudges sittingWalter B Beals presiding Harold L Sebring Johnson T Crawford Victor C Swearingen alternate Twenty of the twenty three defendants were medical doctors and were accused of having been involved in Nazi human experimentation and mass murder under the guise of euthanasia 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 1 Background 2 Indictment 3 See also 4 References 5 Further reading 6 External linksBackground EditTwenty 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 Indictment EditThe 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 Name Photograph Function Charges Sentence1 2 3 4Karl Brandt Personal physician to Adolf Hitler Gruppenfuhrer in the SS and Generalleutnant Lieutenant General in the Waffen SS Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation Reichskommissar fur Sanitats und Gesundheitswesen and member of the Reich Research Council Reichsforschungsrat I G G G Death by hanging executed 2 June 1948Siegfried Handloser Generaloberstabsarzt Lieutenant General Medical Service Medical Inspector of the Army Heeressanitatsinspekteur and Chief of the Medical Services of the Armed Forces Chef des Wehrmachtsanitatswesens I G G Life imprisonment commuted to 20 years released died 1954Paul Rostock Chief 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 Sanitation I I I Acquitted died 1956Oskar Schroder de Generaloberstabsarzt Colonel General Medical Service Chief of Staff of the Inspectorate of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe Chef des Stabes Inspekteur des Luftwaffe Sanitatswesens and Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe Chef des Sanitatswesens der Luftwaffe I G G Life imprisonment commuted to 15 years released 1954 died 1959Karl Genzken Gruppenfuhrer in the SS and Generalleutnant Lieutenant General in the Waffen SS and Chief of the Medical Department of the Waffen SS Chef des Sanitatsamts der Waffen SS I G G G Life imprisonment commuted to 20 years released April 1954 died 1957Karl Gebhardt Gruppenfuhrer 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 Cross I G G G Death by hanging executed 2 June 1948Kurt Blome Deputy of the Reich Health Leader Reichsgesundheitsfuhrer and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Council I I I Acquitted died 1969Rudolf Brandt Standartenfuhrer Colonel in the Allgemeine SS Personal Administrative Officer to Reichsfuhrer SS Himmler Personlicher Referent von Himmler and Ministerial Counselor and Chief of the Ministerial Office in the Reich Ministry of the Interior I G G G Death by hanging executed 2 June 1948Joachim Mrugowsky Oberfuhrer 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 I G G G Death by hanging executed 2 June 1948Helmut Poppendick Oberfuhrer Senior Colonel in the SS and Chief of the Personal Staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police Chef des Personlichen Stabes des Reichsarztes SS und Polizei I I I G 10 years released 1951 died 1994Wolfram Sievers Standartenfuhrer Colonel in the SS Reich Manager of the Ahnenerbe Society and Director of its Institute for Military Scientific Research Institut fur Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung and Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board of Directors of the Reich Research Council I G G G Death by hanging executed 2 June 1948Gerhard Rose Generalarzt 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 Luftwaffe I G G Life imprisonment commuted to 20 years released 1955 died 1992Siegfried Ruff Director of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation Deutsche Versuchsanstalt fur 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 I I I Acquitted died 1989Hans Wolfgang Romberg de Doctor on the Staff of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation I I I Acquitted died 1981Georg August Weltz de Oberfeldarzt in the Luftwaffe Lieutenant Colonel Medical Service of the Air Force and Chief of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Munich I I I Acquitted died 1963Viktor Brack Oberfuhrer Senior Colonel in the SS and Sturmbannfuhrer Major in the Waffen SS and Chief Administrative Officer in the Chancellery of the Fuhrer of the NSDAP Oberdienstleiter Kanzlei des Fuhrers der NSDAP I G G G Death by hanging executed 2 June 1948Hermann Becker Freyseng Stabsarzt 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 Luftwaffe I G G 20 years commuted to 10 years released 1952 died 1961Konrad Schafer Doctor on the Staff of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Berlin I I I Acquitted died after 1951Waldemar Hoven Hauptsturmfuhrer Captain in the Waffen SS and Chief Doctor of the Buchenwald concentration camp I G G G Death by hanging executed 2 June 1948Wilhelm Beiglbock Consulting Physician to the Luftwaffe I G G 15 years commuted to 10 years released 15 December 1951 died 1963Adolf Pokorny Physician Specialist in Skin and Venereal Diseases I I I AcquittedHerta Oberheuser Physician at the Ravensbruck concentration camp and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen I G G 20 years commuted to 10 years released 1952 died 1978Fritz Fischer Sturmbannfuhrer Major in the Waffen SS and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen I G G G Life imprisonment commuted to 15 years released March 1954 died 2003All of the criminals sentenced to death were hanged on 2 June 1948 at Landsberg Prison 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 citation needed See also Edit Witnesses at the trial Command responsibility Declaration of Geneva Declaration of Helsinki Medical ethics Medical torture Nazi eugenics Nuremberg Code Nuremberg principles Nuremberg trials Bruno Beger Hans Conrad Julius Reiter Claus Schilling Hermann Stieve List of medical ethics casesReferences Edit The Doctors Trial The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings Holocaust Encyclopedia United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Washington D C The Doctors Trial United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archived from the original on 2007 10 11 Retrieved 2007 10 11 Excerpts from the official trial record opening and closing statements and eyewitness testimony Ruff Siegfried et al Sicherheit und Rettung in der Luftfahrt Koblenz Bernard amp Graefe c1989 Further reading EditHanauske Abel H 1996 Not a slippery slope or sudden subversion German medicine and National Socialism in 1933 British Medical Journal 313 7070 1453 1463 doi 10 1136 bmj 313 7070 1453 ISSN 0959 8138 PMC 2352969 PMID 8973235 subscription required Heller Kevin Jon 2011 The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 955431 7 Lifton Robert Robert J 2000 1st Pub 1986 London Macmillan The Nazi Doctors Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide Basic Books ISBN 978 0 465 04905 9 Pellegrino E 15 August 1997 The Nazi Doctors and Nuremberg Some Moral Lessons Revisited Annals of Internal Medicine 127 4 307 308 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 694 9894 doi 10 7326 0003 4819 127 4 199708150 00010 PMID 9265432 S2CID 30547329 subscription required Seidelman W 1996 Nuremberg lamentation for the forgotten victims of medical science British Medical Journal 313 7070 1463 1467 doi 10 1136 bmj 313 7070 1463 ISSN 0959 8138 PMC 2352986 PMID 8973236 subscription required Spitz Vivien 2005 Doctors from Hell Sentient Publications ISBN 978 1 59181 032 2 Weindling P J 2005 Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials From Medical War Crimes to Informed Consent Palgrave Macmillan ISBN 978 1 4039 3911 1 External links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Doctors Trial Transcripts The Nuremberg Trials Project Harvard Law School Library Archived from the original on 2011 04 15 Partial transcript from the trial Cohen Baruch C The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments Jewish Law Biddiss M June 1997 Disease and dictatorship the case of Hitler s Reich pdf Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 90 6 342 346 doi 10 1177 014107689709000616 PMC 1296317 PMID 9227388 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Doctors 27 Trial amp oldid 1124732037, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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