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
According to the testimony of Weltz, Ruff, and Romberg, the basic
consideration which impelled them to agree to the use of concentration
camp inmates as subjects was the fact that the inmates were to be
criminals condemned to death who were to receive some form of clemency
in the event they survived the experiments. Rascher, who was active in
the conference, assured the defendants that this also was one of the
conditions under which Himmler had authorized the use of camp inmates as
experimental subjects.
The decisions reached at the conference were then made known to Hippke,
who gave his approval to the institution of experiments at Dachau and
issued an order that a mobile low-pressure chamber which was then in the
possession of Ruff at the Department for Aviation Medicine, Berlin,
should be transferred to Dachau for use in the project.
A second meeting was held at Dachau, attended by Ruff, Romberg, Weltz,
Rascher, and the camp commander, to make the necessary arrangements for
the conduct of the experiments. The mobile low-pressure chamber was then
brought to Dachau, and on 22 February 1942 the first series of
experiments was instituted.
Weltz was Rascher’s superior; Romberg was subordinate to Ruff. Rascher
and Romberg were in personal charge of the conduct of the experiments.
There is no evidence to show that Weltz was ever present at any of these
experiments. Ruff visited Dachau one day during the early part of the
experiments, but thereafter remained in Berlin and received information
concerning the progress of the experiments only through his subordinate,
Romberg.
There is evidence from which it may reasonably be found that at the
outset of the program personal friction developed between Weltz and his
subordinate Rascher. The testimony of Weltz is that on several occasions
he asked Rascher for reports on the progress of the experiments and each
time Rascher told Weltz that nothing had been started with reference to
the research. Finally Weltz ordered Rascher to make a report; whereupon
Rascher showed his superior a telegram from Himmler which stated, in
substance, that the experiments to be conducted by Rascher were to be
treated as top secret matter and that reports were to be given to none
other than Himmler. Because of this situation Weltz had Rascher
transferred out of his command to the DVL branch at Dachau. Defendant
Romberg stated that these experiments had been stopped soon after their
inception by the adjutant of the Reich War Ministry, because of friction
between Weltz and Rascher, and that the experiments were resumed only
after Rascher had been transferred out of Weltz Institute.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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