By further decree bearing date 25 August 1944, signed by Hitler, Lammers, Bormann, and Keitel, Karl Brandt received further authority. This decree reads: “I hereby appoint the General Commissioner for Medical and Health matters, Professor Dr. Brandt, Reich Commissioner for Sanitation and Health [Reich Commissioner for Medical and Health Services] as well, for the duration of this war. In this capacity his office ranks as highest Reich authority. “The Reich Commissioner for Medical and Health Services is authorized to issue instructions to the offices and organizations of the State, Party, and Wehrmacht, which are concerned with the problems of the Medical and Health Services.” Prosecution Exhibit 445, a letter bearing date at Munich, 9 January 1943, signed by Conti and marked “Strictly Confidential” directed to the Leaders of Public Health Gau Offices of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, refers to a decree of the Fuehrer on “Suspending the Pledge to Secrecy in Special Cases.” The letter continues: “For your strictly confidential information I am sending attached Fuehrer decree and the circular letter I am writing on that subject to the heads of the medical chambers.” Another portion of the exhibit consists of a copy of Conti’s letter, also bearing date 9 January 1943, to the heads of the medical chambers, and reads as follows: “Strictly Confidential. “Subject: Fuehrer decree on suspension of pledge to secrecy in special cases. “Gentlemen: “I am sending you enclosed a Fuehrer decree which I received from Professor Dr. Brandt. “Communications having bearing on the Fuehrer decree should be directed to the following address: Professor Doctor Karl Brandt, Personal Attention, Berlin W8, Reich Chancellory. “It is left to the discretion of the physician who is handling the case whether he wishes to acquaint the patient with the information himself.” Hitler’s decree, bearing date 23 December 1942, reads as follows: “I not only relieve physicians, medical practitioners and dentists of their pledge to secrecy towards my Commissioner General Professor Dr. med. Karl Brandt, but I place upon them the binding obligation to advise him—for my own information—immediately after a final diagnosis has established a serious disease, or a disease of ill-boding character, with a personality holding a leading position or a position of responsibility in the State, the Party, the Wehrmacht, in industry, and so forth.” Concerning this matter Karl Brandt testified that the decree “in special cases” relieved German physicians from one of the generally accepted principles of medical practice. From the year 1942 to the end of the war Karl Brandt was a member of the Reich Research Council and was also a member of the Presidential Council of that body.