Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume IIVarious
Philosophy
Trials of war criminals before the Nuernberg military tribunals under control council law no. 10, volume II
Various
Nuremberg Trial of Major German War Criminals, Nuremberg, Germany, 1945-1946; War crime trials -- Germany -- Nuremberg
More than 150 years ago, the motto and guiding principle created for
German military doctors and their successors was “Scientiae, Humanitati,
Patriae” (For Science, Humanity, and Fatherland). Like the medical
officers in their entirety I also have remained true to that guiding
principle in thought and in deed. Realizing the outcome of the events of
these recent times, may the joint endeavors of all the nations succeed
in avoiding in future the immeasurable misfortune of war, the dreadful
side of which nobody knows better than the military doctor.
C. Final Statement of Defendant Rostock[35]
I have nothing to add to the pertinent statements by my defense counsel,
Dr. Pribilla, regarding the individual points of the indictment in this
trial; but with regard to the general position of German medical science
during this war, there are a few words, which I would like to say from
this dock.
During my direct examination I have already stated why I, as the Chief
of the so-called “Science and Research” department undertook to work for
medical science as late as 1943 and 1944. At that time the problem was
to avoid, or at least to minimize, the great and acute danger of
teaching and research, and with that Germany’s universities, becoming
completely destroyed. When this had been prevented at the very last
moment, there arose the task and the duty of improving the means and the
possibilities of basic research which had been more and more restricted
in the course of the war, and through dwindling resources research in
Germany would have come to a standstill. Due to the chaotic development
of the last year of the war, success was comparatively small. There
were, however, some results and there were a few things which were saved
after the end of the war.
Today through the evidence produced in this trial, I know the reasons
which paralyzed the work at the time. It was the striving for power on
the part of certain organizations which used the effective support of
certain executive departments of the Third Reich who held unrestricted
power. It was the principle of totalitarianism which these organizations
followed particularly in the case of what they called the “university
science”. It was there, however, that we had founded the tradition of
German science recognized the world over. In contrast to that, their
aim, as shown in some of the testimonies given in this trial and some of
the documents submitted, was to found a “politically directed science”
of their own. That was the reason why my personal efforts and those of
the health and medical services, which I have referred to in this trial,
did not achieve complete success. Today, at the end of this trial, that
is now clear to me. At that time, in the year 1944, we did not know of
this masterly camouflaged and, therefore, so very dangerous opponent to
that branch of science with which I myself had grown up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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