Doctors' trial

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]

Not to be confused with Doctors' plot.
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 (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.

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 Verdict and sentence
    1234  
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 IGG  20 years' imprisonment, commuted to 10 years. Died 1961
Wilhelm Beiglböck Consulting Physician to the Luftwaffe IGG  15 years' imprisonment, commuted to 10 years. Died 1963
Kurt Blome Deputy [of the] Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsführer); and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Council III  Acquitted. Died 1969
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) IGGG Death, executed 2 June 1948.
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) IGGG Death, executed 2 June 1948.
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 IGGG Death, executed 2 June 1948.
Fritz Fischer Sturmbannführer (Major) in the Waffen SS; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen IGGG Lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 15 years. Released 1954, died 2003
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 IGGG Death, executed 2 June 1948.
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) IGGG Lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years. Released 1954, died 1957
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) IGG  Lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years. Released/died 1954
Waldemar Hoven Hauptsturmführer (Captain) in the Waffen SS; and Chief Doctor of the Buchenwald concentration camp IGGG Death, 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) IGGG Death, executed 2 June 1948.
Herta Oberheuser Physician at the Ravensbrück concentration camp; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen IGG  20 years' imprisonment, commuted to 5 years. Released 1952, died 1978
Adolf Pokorny Physician, Specialist in Skin and Venereal Diseases III  Acquitted
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) IIIG 10 years imprisonment. Released 1951, died 1994
Hans-Wolfgang Romberg Doctor on the Staff of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation III  Acquitted. Died 1981
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 IGG  Lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years. Released 1955, died 1992
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 III  Acquitted. Died 1956
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] III  Acquitted. Died 1989
Konrad Schäfer Doctor on the Staff of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Berlin III  Acquitted
Oskar Schröder 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) IGG  Lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 15 years. Released 1954, died 1958
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 IGGG Death, executed 2 June 1948.
Georg August Weltz Oberfeldarzt in the Luftwaffe (Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Service, of the Air Force); and Chief of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Munich III  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.

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. "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.
  3. Ruff, Siegfried, et al. Sicherheit und Rettung in der Luftfahrt. Koblenz : Bernard & Graefe, c1989.

Further reading
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