Nazi Medicine and the Trials Also by Paul Julian Weindling

HEALTH, RACE AND GERMAN POLITICS BETWEEN NATIONAL UNIFICATION AND NAZISM, 1870–1945 EPIDEMICS AND GENOCIDE IN EASTERN EUROPE, 1890–1945 Nazi Medicine and the From Medical War Crimes to Informed Consent

Paul Julian Weindling © Paul Julian Weindling 2004 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-1-4039-3911-1 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2004 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, , N.Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the , United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-0-230-50700-5 ISBN 978-0-230-50605-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230506053 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weindling, Paul. Nazi medicine and the Nuremberg Trials : from medical war crimes to informed consent / by Paul Julian Weindling. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Nuremberg Medical Trial, Nuremberg, Germany, 1946–1947. 2. Human experimentation in medicine–Law and legislation–Germany–History–20th century. 3. World War, 1939–1945–Atrocities. I. Title. KZ1179.M43W45 2004 364.1’38–dc22 2004049123

10987654321 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 Contents

Figures vii Acknowledgements ix Abbreviations and Acronyms xi Introduction 1

PART I: Exhuming Nazi Medicine 9 1. The Rabbits Protest 11 2. Allied Experiments 21 3. Criminal Research 27 4. Exploitation 44 5. Aviation Atrocities 65

PART II: Medicine on Trial 91 6. From the International Tribunal to Zonal Trials 93 7. Pseudo-science and Psychopaths 126 8. The Nuremberg Vortex 133 9. Internationalism and Interrogations 146 10. Science in Behemoth: The Human Experiments 171 11. The Medical Delegation 211 12. A Eugenics Trial? 225 13. Euthanasia 250 14. Experiments and Ethics 257 15. Formulating the Code 270

PART III: Aftermath 295 16. Cold War Medicine 297 17. A Fragile Legacy 319

v vi Contents

Tables 344 Archives, Interviews, Bibliography 359 Notes 367 Index 461 Figures

1. The Accused

2. The Nuremberg Court

Source: Staatsarchiv Nürnberg, KV-Prozesse Generalia Q-1.

vii This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements

Documents on the Medical Trial are widely dispersed. This research would not have been possible without assistance from a small army of patient and exceptionally helpful archivists and librarians. Access to doc- uments required special procedures at the United Nations, the Archives de France, which have the most significant holdings on the Medical Trial, the Colmar archives of the French Occupation of Germany, and the Canadian National Archives. I am grateful to Christopher Laico in giving access at an early stage to the superbly indexed Telford Taylor papers at College of Law, and to the biographer of Telford Taylor, Jonathan Bush, for advice. The Stetson College of Law Library made available the Sebring Papers, and the University of Washington helpfully copied Beals materials. Robert Lifton kindly facilitated access to his papers at the New York Public Library. Rockefeller Foundation and Rockefeller University Papers, held at the superb Rockefeller Archive Center in Sleepy Hollow, have proved invaluable. My research owes a fundamental debt to Angelika Ebbinghaus and Karl Heinz Roth for the superb edition of the proceedings of The Nuremberg Medical Trial. This indispensable work covers not only the Medical Trial, but also medicine in the Second World War and the Allied war crimes investigations. I owe a special debt to the impressive Max-Planck-Gesellschaft project on the history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft, which has provided me with a base in Berlin over the past four years. I would particularly thank Doris Kaufmann, Carola Sachse and Susanne Heim as Directors of the project, and Florian Schmalz for advice on German wartime biochemistry. I have enjoyed considerable support from numerous colleagues in Germany, notably Alfons Labisch and colleagues in Düsseldorf, Wolfgang Eckart, Gabriele Moser and Alexander Neumann (Heidelberg), Sabine Schleiermacher (Berlin), Volker Roelcke (Giessen), Andreas Frewer (Göttingen), and Michael Hubenstorf in Austria. I am also grateful to Michal ˇSimonek and Petr Svobodny´ (Prague) for facilitating research there, and to Pietro Corsi, Lion Murard and Patrick Zylberman in Paris. Canadian research was assisted by a grant for Canadian studies from the Canadian High Commission, and I am grateful to Susan Solomon (Toronto) for help along the way. The bulk of the research was carried out with a grant from the Wellcome Trust, as well as with support for the funding of my post as Wellcome Trust Research Professor at Oxford Brookes University.

ix x Acknowledgements

Above all, it has been a pleasure and a privilege meeting those with memories of the Trial and the period. I benefited from both much wisdom and personal warmth. I would like to pay tribute to Telford Taylor, Keith Mant and Alice Platen, recognising their formative contributions to the problem of medical war crimes. Abbreviations and Acronyms

ADIR Association Nationale des Anciennes Déporteés et Internées de la Résistance ALSOS ‘Grove’: Allied Scientific Intelligence Organisation AMA American Medical Association Ashcan Allied Detention Center at Mondorf, Luxemburg BAOR British Army of the Rhine BIOS British Scientific Intelligence Organisation BMA British Medical Association BW Biological Warfare BWCE British War Crimes Executive CIC Counter Intelligence Corps CINFO Combined Intelligence and Detective Agencies of the British and US Armed Forces CIOS Combined Intelligence Objectives Sub-committee CW Chemical Warfare DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. German Research Fund. DP Displaced Person Dustbin Schloss Kransberg, an Allied Detention centre G-2 Allied Military Intelligence Division FIAT Field Information Agency, Technical HCN Hydrocyanic acid IG Farben ‘Interessen-Gemeinschaft’ Farben, a German industrial conglomerate IMT International Military Tribunal IRO International Refugee Organisation ISC International Sciencitic Commission JAG Judge Advocate General JAMA Journal of the American Medical Association KWG Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft KWI Kaiser Wilhelm Institute MPG Max Planck Gesellschalt MRC Medical Research Council NSDAP Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei OCCWC Office of Chief of Counsel for War Crimes OKL Oberkommando der Luftwaffe OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht OMGUS Office of the Military Government US OSS Office of Strategic Services POW Prisoner of War xi xii Abbreviations and Acronyms

RKI Robert Koch Institute RFR Reichsforschungsrat SA Sturmabteilung SEA Staff Evidence Analysis SHAEF Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force SS Schutzstaffel der NSDAP T-4 Tiergartenstrasse 4 [address of the killing organisation] T Force Allied military and industrial task force Tomato British detention centre at Minden UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization UNO United Nations Organisation UNWCC United Nations War Crimes Commission USAF United States Air Force USFET United States Forces European Theater USHMM United States Holocaust Memorial Museum USSBS United States Strategic Bombing Survey WHO World Health Organisation WMA World Medical Association