Japanese Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Review Article ISSN 2435-1210 Volume 6 Human Experiments on Hepatitis During the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial Halioua B1* and Halioua D2 1Universite Paris Sud-Department of Research in Ethics, Saint-Louis Hospital, Paris 75010, France 2Lycee Yavneh. Paris 75013, France *Corresponding author: Received: 07 Mar 2021 Copyright: Bruno Halioua, Accepted: 24 Mar 2021 ©2021 Halioua B, This is an open access article distributed un- Department of Research in Ethics, Published: 29 Mar 2021 der the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, Hopital Saint-Louis, espace ethique, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon 1, avenue Claude-Vellefaux, 75010 Paris, your work non-commercially. France, E-mail: [email protected] Keywords: Citation: Human experiment; History of hepatology; Halioua B. Human Experiments on Hepatitis During the Nuremberg doctors’ trial; Hepatitis; Bioethics; Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial. Japanese J Gstro Hepato. Nuremberg code 2021; V6(6): 1-6 1. Abstract Schroeder, Karl Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Joachim Mrugowsky, During the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial, physicians have been accused Helmut Poppendick, Wolfram Sievers, Gerhard Rose, and Hermann of hepatitis’ experiments on concentration camp inmates in Sachsen- Becker-Freyseng) have been accused of participating of hepatitis’ hausen and Natzweiler. The Nuremberg trial’s retranscription about experiments on concentration camp inmates. in Sachsenhausen and hepatitis’ experiments are an important source of knowledge. It ex- Natzweiler. The Nuremberg trial’s retranscription about hepatitis’ plains the overall process of their action. Eugen Haagen and Ernst experiments are an important source of knowledge. It explains the Gerhard Dresel denied that they committed hepatitis’ experiments. overall process of their creation, but also the intellectual develop- Arnold Dohmen carried out hepatitis’ transmission experiments in ment and creators’ motivations of the personnel that created them Sachsenhausen to Polish Jewish children, selected by himself at Aus- [1,2]. The exceptional testimony of Saul Oren-Hornfeld, who was chwitz. The lawyer Robert Servatius undertake defendants’ defence 14 years old at the time he endured hepatitis’ experiments, permit us by developing his argumentation in six different axes: Hitler regime’s to understand victims' suffering [3]. Seven decades later, it is worth responsibility, responsibilities’ rejection on superiors, analogy be- recalling that this black page of the history of hepatology. tween German and American experiments, the best way to redeem 3. Context of Studies their crimes, the moral quality and the high reputation of German The occurrence of the hepatitis epidemic (« hepatitis epidemica » in doctors and the absence of danger on hepatitis’ experiments. Follow- German), which corresponds to an infection by the hepatitis A, has ing the trial, the Nuremberg Code has been created. Seven decades been a major focus for the military physicians during various conflicts later, it is worth recalling this black page of the history of hepatology. of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries [4, 5]. During the Nurem- 2. Introduction berg medical Trial, a report from Professor Gerhard Rose, the head The Medical Case, U.S.A. vs. Karl Brandt, et al. (also known as the of the Department for Tropical Medicine at the Robert Koch Insti- Nuremberg Medical Trial) started on the 9th of December 1946, 19 tute of Berlin [6] which permits an understanding of knowledge’s months after the world discovered the enormous crimes committed level of German physicians. Gerhard Rose conducted a study of this by the Nazis and the horror of the Shoah. This trial has been a mod- condition during the Spanish Civil War on the hepatitis epidemic. He el legal organization with 32 witnesses presented by the accusation, had established that this disease was contagious, favored by a poor 53 by the Defense and the quotation of 1471 documents. Among sanitation conditions, but the transmission mechanisms are still un- 23 persons judged, 10 of them (Karl Brandt, Paul Rostock, Oskar known. He believes that childhood infection confers lifelong immu- 1 2021, V6(6): 1-2 nity. During the Second World War, German military authorities have was instrumental in the decision of starting or not the experiments, been faced with an important impact of hepatitis among troops in because we know in our days, that he wrote a letter to Generalarzt North Africa and Russia [7]. Kurt Gutzeit, professor of medicine at Karl Brandt (personal physician of Hitler) on April 30, 1943. He the University of Breslau and Army Medical Inspectorate, considers explained what he wants to do during the experiments: inoculate to in 1950 that almost 5 to 6 million German soldiers had contracted six humans sample, mainly obtained through animal experiments, hepatitis [8]. This situation represented a major concern for Ernst by intranasal way, duodenal probe, subcutaneously or intravenously Robert Grawitz Reich, a physician-SS and police member, SS Lieu- [13]. This project followed a series of experiments in which Dohmen tenant-General, General of the Waffen-SS and Managerial President transplanted liver fragments taken from people with an epidem- of the German Red Cross, who wrote to Heinrich Himmler the 1st ic hepatitis on white mice and chicken embryos [14]. He wished of June 1943. He informed Himmler about the disastrous impact to expend his research on hepatitis and undertake experiments on of hepatitis on the German troops, in particular in Southern Russia: humans. Dohmen has been invited a first time by Karl Brandt, the « This disease became very widespread in the past. Over a 6 weeks’ Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation, at the headquarters period, the figure reached 60% of sufferers within the troops [9]. ». of the Führer on May 20, 1943 and in a second time by Dr. Ernst In this context, authorities encouraged the conduct of experiments Grawitz in Berlin on the 1st of June, 1943. in order to gain a deeper understanding of hepatitis by various re- During those two interviews, Dohmen spoke about his research in search teams: Dr. Arnold Dohmen, Eugen Gildemeister’s assistant Pr Eugen Gildemeister’s laboratory. On June 23, 1943, for four days, at Robert Koch Institute of Berlin, Dr. Kurt Gutzeit, Professor of Dohmen didn’t waste his time, he went to Auschwitz’s extermina- Medicine at the University of Breslau, Dr. Eugen, Professor at the tion camp in Poland [13, 15]. He selected 19 Jewish Prisonners from University of Strasbourg in Strasbourg and Ernest Gerhard Dresel the Sosnowiec and Bedzin ghettos at the Auschwitz ramp, includ- from Leipzig. Arnold Dohmen and Eugen Haagen have obtained the ing a 14-year-old boy called Saul Oren-Hornfeld. He testified that most promising results by successfully isolating « both the influenza Dohmen interrogated them if there was « the Gelbsucht, but we virus of the disease » as witnessed Kurt Gutzeit during the trial [10]. didn’t understand which disease it was, he showed us the yellow star: These interesting experimental results encouraged the German au- jaundice. » [15]. On August 1943, eleven of them, aged between 9 thorities to conduct experiments on humans « Versuchspersonen ». and 19 years-old, have been transferred from Auschwitz to Sach- 4. Experiments on Hepatitis senhausen. For 7 weeks, they were kept in a small hospital before 4.1. Arnold Dohmen’s Experiments they were subjected to experiments that entailed injections to obtain samples [15]. The first results of Dohmen are unknown. He inter- The prosecution lawyers did not have all the information about Ar- rupted his experiments in Sachsenhausen due to bombing raids in nold Dohmen’s experiments, owing to his absence from the trial, al- November 1943 at Robert-Koch Institute of Berlin. Since January though his superior Kurt Gutzeit was present. The judicial inquiry 1944, his laboratory has been transferred to the Department of Hy- provided a letter addressed to Dr., Lt. Gen. Waffen-SS, Reich Phy- giene in Animal Feeding in Giessen University. On June 5, 1944 in sician SS Ernst Grawitz au SS Reichsfuhrer on 1st of June 1943. Breslau, Siegfried Adolf Handloser organized a meeting dedicated Heinrich Himmler asked the availability of the Staff physician Ar- to research progress on hepatitis in Kurt Gutzeit’s service. On this nold Dohmen: « Eight prisoners condamned to death, of a young occasion, they exerted pressure on Dohmen to collaborate with Eu- age if possible » [11], so that he can realize his experiments « in the gen Haagen for hepatitis experiments. The last one wrote a letter to prisoners’ hospital of the KL (Konzentrationslager in German con- Oberstarzt Kalk to ask him: centration camp) Sachsenhausen ». The potentially dangerous nature of these experiments is clearly spelled out in the letter « cases of « We must proceed as soon as possible with the experiments on hu- death (Todesfalle) must be anticipated » [11]. This mail suggested man beings. These experiments of course should be carried out in that Grawitz was responsible for hepatitis’ transmission experiments Strassburg or in its vicinity. Could you, in your official position take on deportees. On June 16, 1943, Himmler made the following re- the necessary steps to obtain the required experimental subjects? » ply to the Grawitz letter “I approve that 8 criminals condemned in [16]. It appears that Dohmen had been interrogated on the merits of Auschwitz (8 Jews of the Polish resistance movement condemned human experiments such as the letter written by Gutzeit addressed to death) should be used for these experiments.” [12]. In our days, to his collaborator Wilhelm Fahndrich on August 21, 1944. « I had we know that various protagonists in experiments have discharged once again tried - I don’t know how many times - to wake Dohmen themselves to incriminate Gratwitz, who killed himself in Babelsberg up from his lethargy in animal experiments, so that we finally get on April 24th 1945, and Himmler, who killed himself on May 23, to a conclusion » [17]. On September 1944, we know that Dohmen 1945.