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
The defendant Becker-Freyseng is charged under counts two and three of
the indictment with personal responsibility for, and participation in,
High-Altitude, Freezing, Sulfanilamide, Sea-Water, Epidemic Jaundice,
and Typhus Experiments.
The prosecution has abandoned all charges except as to high-altitude,
freezing, sea-water and typhus experiments, and hence only these will be
considered.
The defendant Becker-Freyseng joined the Nazi Party in 1933. In 1940 he
was drafted into the Luftwaffe. In 1943 he was promoted to the rank of
Stabsarzt in the Luftwaffe.
From August 1941 until May 1944 the defendant was an assistant
consultant to Anthony, Chief of the Referat for Aviation Medicine,
Berlin. This department dealt with all questions concerning aviation
medicine and reported to the Chief of the Medical Service of the
Luftwaffe. When Schroeder became Chief of the Medical Service of the
Luftwaffe on 1 January 1944, the defendant became the consultant for
aviation medicine in Schroeder’s office.
HIGH-ALTITUDE EXPERIMENTS
As shown elsewhere in the judgment, high-altitude experiments for the
benefit of the Luftwaffe were conducted at Dachau concentration camp on
non-German nationals, beginning in February or March 1942. These
experiments had been approved, in principle at least, by Hippke, Chief
of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe. A mobile low-pressure chamber
which had been in the possession of the department of aviation medicine,
Berlin, was transferred to Dachau for use in the experiments.
Concentration camp inmates were killed while being subjected to
experiments conducted in the chamber.
During the time the experiments were conducted, defendant
Becker-Freyseng was an assistant consultant to Anthony, Chief of the
Referat for Aviation Medicine, Berlin. All low-pressure chambers owned
by the Luftwaffe were under the general control of that office.
It is submitted by the prosecution that the record shows that
Becker-Freyseng was a principal in, accessory to, aided, abetted, took a
consenting part in, and was connected with plans and enterprises
involving the commission of these experiments.
The evidence upon this charge is not deemed sufficient to preponderate
against a reasonable doubt as to the defendant’s guilty participation in
the experiments here involved.
FREEZING EXPERIMENTS
It is claimed that in June 1942 Becker-Freyseng was informed from
certain of his official files that a meeting to consider experiments to
investigate the treatment of persons who had been severely chilled or
frozen would be held in Nuernberg the following October (referred to as
the “Cold Congress”). It is contended that the directive which set the
experiment into motion was issued from the office of the department for
aviation medicine, that the funds and equipment were supplied by that
office, and that Becker-Freyseng had knowledge of the experiments, and
that he admitted such knowledge.
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