Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume IVarious
Philosophy
Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume I
Various
Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946; War crime trials -- Germany -- Nuremberg
Then Sievers watched a second freezing experiment. Himmler had
instructed Professor Hirt of Strasbourg to have a look at Rascher’s work
on freezing, since he (Himmler) obviously had come to the conclusion
that Rascher alone was not sufficient for the clarification of these
scientifically extensive and difficult questions. For this experiment a
professional criminal was introduced whom a regular court had sentenced
to death for robbery and murder. Sievers and Dr. Hirt made sure about
this by examining the files of the criminal police department of the
Dachau concentration camp. Dr. Hirt then asked the person to be
experimented on whether he realized that the experiment might prove
fatal to him. The person to be experimented on answered in the
affirmative.
By personally questioning the person to be experimented on, Sievers then
made sure that he agreed to the experiment. The person in question
answered in the affirmative and added: “If it does not hurt.” This
assurance could be given since the experiment was carried out under full
narcosis. Sievers did not take part in the entire experiment, but he saw
that it was carried out under full narcosis. (_German Tr. pp. 5685-86._)
The witness Dr. Punzengruber, at that time an inmate of the Dachau
concentration camp and from 1942-1943 assigned to Dr. Rascher’s station
as a chemist, confirms that the person used had been condemned to death.
The same witness confirms that Sievers was not present during other
freezing experiments. Dr. Punzengruber could establish this because his
laboratory was located next to the room where Dr. Rascher carried out
his experiments. (_Affidavit of Dr. Punzengruber, 14 March 1947._)
A further presence of Sievers at freezing experiments has not occurred
and has not been claimed from any side.
In order to prove Sievers’ participation in the freezing experiments,
the prosecution pointed out the following documents:
Rascher’s letter of 10 September 1942 to Himmler. “SS
Obersturmbannfuehrer Sievers, who observed the experiments in
Dachau last week, is of the opinion that if during a convention
there would be a report at all, I, too, would have to be called
in for reporting.” (_NO-234, Pros. Ex. 83._)
Himmler’s letter of 22 September 1942 to Rascher in which the
former instructs Rascher to carry out experiments in quick
increase of body temperature and increase of body temperature
through medicaments and animal heat [medikamentanimalische
Erwaermung], Sievers received a copy of this letter for
information on 25 September 1942. (_1611-PS, Pros. Ex. 85._)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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