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
At this point, I should, however, like to add the following: The
prosecution has tried to make out that it was the purpose of these
sea-water experiments to decide whether Berkatit removes the salt from
sea water. This contention of the prosecution has in no way been proved.
I must stress here again, most emphatically, that this was never the
purpose of the sea-water experiments.
All people concerned realized that Berkatit does not remove the salt
from sea water. The question which was to be clarified and which
necessitated the experiments was rather the following: Under the action
of the vitamins contained in Berkatit, will the kidneys be capable of
producing a urine with a higher sodium chloride concentration than is
normally the case? Dr. Eppinger answered this question neither in the
affirmative nor in the negative; he stated that this question could be
decided only by experiment.
In addition there was another question to be decided, as to whether in
case of shipwreck it would be more desirable to endure thirst, or
whether marooned fliers should be advised to drink small quantities of
salt water. In 1942-1944 this question was also raised in the United
States and England and there, too, human experiments were carried out.
But all these individual questions were only part of the great issue of
how shipwrecked persons could be helped to escape the agony and danger
of dying from thirst. These issues were the basis for the experiments
conducted in 1944. In my opinion it is not admissible to construe
arbitrarily another issue today and to contend on the basis of such
issue, which never existed, that these experiments were not necessary.
These medical issues alone necessitated the experiments. There were
other issues too, to which I want to make short reference.
Until 1944 the world lacked an agent to make sea water drinkable. Such
an agent was an absolute necessity. Nobody denied even then that
Wofatit, developed by the defendant Schaefer, would have been an ideal
agent for this purpose. It was, however, equally clear that this agent
could only be manufactured by withdrawing the necessary raw material,
namely silver, from other war-essential uses.
Furthermore, it was not denied that Berkatit did not require critical
raw materials in the same measure. Another circumstance to be considered
was that Berkatit could have been produced in existing plants, whereas
it would have been necessary to erect new plants for the production of
Wofatit. Accordingly, these technical reasons favored the introduction
of Berkatit. It can hardly be denied that it was necessary for a medical
officer conscious of his responsibilities in war to consider these
reasons when reaching a decision. Incidentally, the expert of the
prosecution, Professor Ivy, also stated that these reasons were
definitely worthy of consideration.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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