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
“If the experimental subject were placed in the water under
narcosis, one observed a certain arousing effect. The subject
began to groan and made some defensive movements. In a few
cases, a state of excitation developed. This was especially
severe in the cooling of the head and neck. But never was a
complete cessation of the narcosis observed. The defensive
movements ceased after about 5 minutes. There followed a
progressive rigor, which developed especially strongly in the
arm musculature; the arms were strongly flexed and pressed to
the body. The rigor increased with the continuation of the
cooling, now and then interrupted by tonic-clonic twitching.
With still more marked sinking of the body temperature, it
suddenly ceased. These cases ended fatally, without any
successful results from resuscitation efforts.
* * * * *
“Experiments without narcosis showed no essential differences in
the course of cooling. Upon entry into the water, a severe cold
shuddering appeared. The cooling of the neck and back of the
head was felt as especially painful, but already after 5 to 10
minutes, a significant weakening of the pain sensation was
observable. Rigor developed after this time in the same manner
as under narcosis, likewise the tonic-clonic twitchings. At this
point, speech became difficult because the rigor also affected
the speech musculature.
“Simultaneously with the rigor, a severe difficulty in breathing
set in with or without narcosis. It was reported that, so to
speak, an iron ring was placed about the chest. Objectively,
already at the beginning of this breathing difficulty, a marked
dilatation of the nostrils occurred. The expiration was
prolonged and visibly difficult. This difficulty passed over
into a rattling and snoring breathing. * * *” [Emphasis not
shown.]
During the winter of 1942 and 1943, experiments with “dry” cold were
conducted. And Rascher reported on these in another letter to Himmler
(_1616-PS_):
“Up to now, I have cooled off about 30 people stripped in the
open air during nine to fourteen hours at 27° to 29°. After a
time, corresponding to a trip of 1 hour, I put these subjects in
a hot bath. Up to now, every single patient was completely
warmed up within 1 hour at most, although some of them had their
hands and feet frozen white.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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