The so-called Doctors’ Trial started on December 9th 1946. Nine of the twenty three doctors on trial had been members of the SS or the Waffen- SS. The Doctors’ Trial ended on August 20th1947. The doctors were tried before the American Military Tribunal Number 1 in Nuremberg and the indictment specified four charges:

 

1.    Common design or conspiracy

2.    War crimes.

3.    Crimes against humanity.

4.    Membership of a criminal organisation.

 

During the trial, it emerged that some of the accused had been involved in medical experiments that involved putting the victims in the equivalent of high altitude and assessing the impact it had on the human body. Other victims were made to drink large quantities of sea water. Some were deliberately infected with typhus or infectious jaundice. Experiments also took place using mustard gas. Some on trial were accused of mass sterilisation and the euthanasia programme that started within Nazi Germany but was then spread across Occupied Europe once World War Two had started.

 

Becker-Freysing, Hermann; Captain in Medical Corps: 20 years in prison commuted to 10 years.

 

Beigelböck, Wilhelm; Captain in Medical Corps: 15 years in prison commuted to 10 years. 

 

Blome, Kurt; Deputy Reich Health Leader: Acquitted*.

 

Brack, Victor; Chief Administrative Officer at Reich Chancellery: Death

 

Brandt, Karl; Major-General in Waffen-SS: Death.

 

Brandt, Rudolf; Colonel in SS: Death.

 

Fischer, Fritz; Major in Waffen-SS: Life in prison commuted to 15 years.

 

Gebhardt, Karl; Chief Surgeon to the Reich: Death.

 

Genzken, Karl; Chief of Medical Service in Waffen-SS: Life in prison commuted to 20 years.

 

Handloser, Siegfried; Lieutenant General in Medical Corps: Life in prison commuted to 20 years.

 

Hoven, Waldemar; Camp physician at Buchenwald, Captain in SS: Death

 

Mrugowsky, Joachim; Colonel in SS: Death.

 

Oberheuser, Herta; Assistant surgeon at Hohenlychen: 20 years in prison commuted to 10 years.

 

Pokorny, Adolf; Urologist practicing in Munich: Acquitted.

 

Poppendick, Helmut; Colonel in SS: 10 years in prison – released in 1951.

 

Romberg, Hans Wolfgang; German Experimental Institute for Aviation: Acquitted.

 

Rose, Gerhart; Brigadier General in Medical Corps: Life in prison commuted to 20 years.

 

Rostock, Paul; Brigadier General in Medical Corps: Acquitted.

 

Ruff, Siegfried; Chief of the Institute of Aviation Medicine in Berlin: Acquitted.

 

Schäfer, Konrad; NCO medical officer: Acquitted.

 

Schröder, Oskar; Lieutenant General in Medical Corps: Life in prison commuted to 15 years.

 

Sievers, Wolfram; Colonel in SS: Death.

 

Welz, Georg; Lieutenant General in Medical Corps: Acquitted.

 

*later tried by the French and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

 

July 2012