dtufail/nuremberg-trials-corpus huggingface dataset:
BALACHOWSKY: We got up at 4 o'clock in the morning and had to be ready within 5 minutes in the underground dormitories where we were crammed, without ventilation in foul air, in blocks about as large as this room, into which 3,000 to 3,500 internees were crowded. There were five tiers of bunks with rotting straw mattresses. Fresh ones were never issued. We were given 5 minutes in which to get up, for we went to bed completely dressed. We were hardly able to get any sleep, for there was a continuous coming and going, and all sorts of thefts took place among the prisoners. Furthermore, it was impossible to sleep because we were covered with lice; the whole Dora Camp swarmed with vermin. It was virtually impossible to get rid of the lice. In 5 minutes we had to be in line in the tunnel and march to a given place.
THE PRESIDENT: [To the witness] Just a minute, please. M. Dubost, you said you were going to call this witness upon experiments. He is now giving us all the details of camp life which we have already heard on several occasions.
M. DUBOST: So far nobody has spoken about the Dora Camp, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, but every camp we have heard of has got the same sort of brutalities, hasn't it, according to the witnesses who have been called? You were going to call this witness because he was going to deal with experiments.
M. DUBOST: If the Tribunal is convinced that all the camps had the same regime, then my point has been proved and the witness will now testify to the experiments at the Buchenwald Camp. However, I wanted to show that all German camps were the same. I think this has now been proved.
THE PRESIDENT: If you were going to prove that, you would have to call a witness from every camp, and there are hundreds of them.
M. DUBOST: This question has to be proved because it is the uniformity of the system which establishes the culpability of these defendants. In every camp there was one responsible person who was the camp commander. But we are not trying the camp commander, but the defendants here in the dock and we are trying them for having conceived ...
THE PRESIDENT: I have already pointed out to you that there has been practically no cross-examination, and I have asked you to confine this witness, as far as possible, to the question of experiments.
M. DUBOST: The witness will then confine himself to experiments at Buchenwald as this is the Tribunal's wish. The Tribunal will consider the uniformity of treatment in all German internment camps as proved. [Turning to the witness] Will you now testify to the criminal practices of the SS Medical Corps in the camps, criminal practices in the form of scientific experiments?
BALACHOWSKY: I was recalled to Buchenwald the 1st of May 1944, and assigned to Block 50, which was actually a factory for the manufacture of vaccines against exanthematous typhus. I was recalled from Dora to Buchenwald, because, in the meantime, the management of the camp had learned that I was a specialist in this sort of research, and consequently they wished to utilize my services in Block 50 for the manufacture of vaccines. However, I was unaware of it until the very last moment. I came to Block 50 on the 1st of May 1944, and I stayed there until the liberation of the camp on the 11th of April 1945. Block 50, which was the block where vaccines were manufactured, was under SturmbannFuehrer Schuler, who was a doctor was with the rank of a SturmbannFuehrer, equal to SS major. He in charge of the block and was responsible for the manufacture of the vaccines. This same SturmbannFuehrer Schuler was also in charge of another block in the Buchenwald Camp. This other block was Block 46, the infamous block for experiments, where the internees were utilized as guinea pigs.' Blocks 46 and 50 were both run by one office; it was the "Geschaftszimmer." All archives, index cards pertaining *to the experiments-as well as Block 50, were sent to the Geschaftszimmer, that is, to the office of Block 50. The secretary of Block 50 was an Austrian political prisoner, my friend, Eugene Kogon. He and a few other comrades had, consequently, opportunities of looking through all the archives of which they had charge. Therefore they were able to know, day by day, exactly what went on either in Block 50, our block, or in Block 46. 1 myself was able to get hold of most of the archives of Block 46, and even the book in which the experiments were recorded has been saved. It is in our possession, and has been forwarded to the Psychological Service of the American Forces. In this book all experiments are entered which were made in Block 46.
BALACHOWSKY: B lock 46 was established in October 1941 by a high commission subordinate to the medical service of the Waffen SS; and we see as members of its administrative council, a certain number of names, for this Block 46 came under the Research Section Number 5 (Versuchsabteilung Number 5 of Leipzig) of the Supreme Command of the Waffen SS. Inspector Mrugowski, ObergruppenFuehrer of the Waffen SS, was in charge of this section. The administrative council which set up Block 46 was composed of the following members: Dr. Genzken, ObergruppenFuehrer (the highest rank in the Waffen SS); Dr. Poppendiek, GruppenFuehrer of the Waffen SS; and finally we see among these names also that of Dr. Handloser of the Wehrmacht and of the Military Academy of Berlin, who was also associated with the initiation of experiments on human beings. Thus, in this administrative council there were members of the SS, and also Dr. Handloser. The experiments proper were carried out by SturmbannFuehrer Schuler, but all the orders and directives concerning the different types of experiments, which I shall speak about to you, were issued by Leipzig, that is, by the Research Section (Versuchsabteilung) of the Waffen SS. So there was no personal initiative on the part of Schuler or the management of the camp. As to the experiments, all orders came directly from the Supreme Command in Berlin. Among these experiments, which we could follow step by step (at least some of them) through the cards, the results, the registration number of people admitted to and discharged from Block 46, were, first of all, numerous exanthematous typhus experiments; second, experiments on phosphorus burns; third, experiments on sexual hormones; fourth, experiments on starvation edema or avitaminosis; finally, fifth, I can tell you of experiments in the field of forensic medicine. So we have five different types of experiments.
M. DUBOST: Were the men who were subjected to these experiments volunteers or not?
BALACHOWSKY: The human beings subjected to experiments were recruited, not only in the Buchenwald Camp, but also outside the camp. They were not volunteers; in most cases they did not know that they would be used for experiments until they entered Block 46. The recruitment took place among criminals, perhaps in order to reduce their large numbers in that way. But the recruitment was also carried out among political prisoners and I have to point out that recruits for Block 46 came also from Russian prisoners of war. Among the political prisoners and prisoners of war who were used for experimental purposes at Block 46, the Russians were always in the majority, for the following reasons: Of all the prisoners who could exist in concentration camps it was the Russians who had the greatest physical resistance, which was obviously superior to that of the French or other people of western Europe. They could withstand hunger and ill-treatment, and, generally speaking, showed physical resistance in every respect. For this particular reason, Russian political prisoners were recruited for experiments in greater numbers than others. However, there were people of other nationalities among them, particularly French. I should now like to deal with details of the experiments themselves.
M. DUBOST: Do not go too much into details, because we are not specialists. It will suffice us to know that these experiments were carried out without any regard to humanity and on nonvoluntary subjects. Will you please describe to us the atrocious character of these experiments and their results.
BALACHOWSKY: The experiments carried out in Block 46 did without doubt serve a medical purpose, but for the greater part they were of no service to science. Therefore, they can hardly be called experiments. The men were used for observing the effects of drugs, poisons, bacterial cultures, et cetera. I take, as an example, the use of vaccine against exanthematous typhus. To manufacture this vaccine, it is necessary to have bacterial cultures of typhus. For experiments such as are carried out at the Pasteur Institute and the other similar institutes of the world, cultures are not necessary as typhus patients can always be found for samples of infected blood. Here it was quite different. From the records and the chart you have in hand, we could ascertain in Block 46 12 different cultures of typhus germs, designated by the letter BU, (meaning Buchenwald) and numbered Buchenwald I to Buchenwald 12. A constant supply of these cultures was kept in Block 46 by means of the contamination of healthy individuals through sick ones; this was achieved by artificial inoculation of typhus germs by means of intravenous injections of 0.5 to I cubic centimeter of infected blood drawn from a patient at the height of the crisis. Now, it is well-known that artificial inoculation of typhus by intravenous injection is invariably fatal. Therefore all these men who were used for bacterial culture during the whole time such cultures were required (from October 1942 to the liberation of the camp) died, and we counted 600 victims sacrificed for the sole purpose of supplying typhus germs.
M. DUBOST: They were literally murdered to keep typhus germs alive?
BALACHOWSKY: They were literally murdered to keep typhus germs alive. Apart from these, other experiments were made as to the efficacy of vaccines.
M. DUBOST: What is this document?
BALACHOWSKY: This document contains a record of the typhus cultures.
M. DUBOST: This document was taken by you from the camp?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes, I took this document from the camp, and its contents were summarized by me in the experiment book of Block 46.
M. DUBOST: Is this the document you handed to us?
BALACHOWSKY: We have actually made a more complete document-which is in the possession of the American Psychological Service-as we have the entire record, and this represents only one page of it.
M. DUBOST: I ask the Tribunal to take note that the French Prosecution submits this document, Document Number RF-334, as appendix to the testimony of Dr. Balachowsky.
BALACHOWSKY: [Continuing] In 1944, experiments were also made on the effects of vaccines. One hundred and fifty men lost their lives in these experiments. The vaccines used by the German Army were not only those manufactured in our Block 46, but also ones which came from Italy, Denmark, Poland, and the Germans wanted to ascertain the value of these different vaccines. Consequently, in August 1944 they began experiments on 150 men who were locked up in Block 46. Here, I should like to tell you how this Block 46 was run. It was entirely isolated and surrounded by barbed wire. The internees had no roll call and no permission to go out. All the windows were kept closed, the panes were of frosted glass. No unauthorized person could enter the block. A German political prisoner was in charge of the Block. This German political prisoner was Kapo Dietzsch, an asocial individual who had been in prisons and in camps for 20 years and who worked for the SS. It was he who gave the injections and the inoculations and who executed people upon order. Strangely enough, there were weapons in the block, automatic pistols, and hand grenades, to quell any possible revolt, either outside or inside the block. I can also tell you that an order slip for Block 46, sent to the office (Geschaftszimmer) at Block 50 in January 1945, mentioned three strait jackets to be used for those who refused to be inoculated. Now I come back to the typhus and vaccine experiments. You will see how they were carried out. The 150 prisoners were divided into 2 groups: those who were to be used as tests and those who were to- be the subjects. The latter only received (ordinary) injections of the different type; of vaccines to be tested. Those used for testing were not given any injections. Then, after the vaccination of the subjects, inoculations were given (always by means of intravenous injections) to everybody selected for this experiment, those for testing as well as the subjects.
BALACHOWSKY: Those used for tests died about two weeks after the inoculation-as such is approximately the period required before the disease develops to its fatal issue. As for the others, who received different kinds of vaccines, their deaths were in proportion to the efficacy of the vaccines administered to them. Some vaccines had excellent results, with a very low death rate-such was the case with the Polish vaccines. Others, on the contrary, had a much higher death rate. After the conclusion of the experiments, no survivors were allowed to live, according to the custom prevailing in Block 46. All the survivors of the experiments were "liquidated" and murdered in Block 46, by the customary methods which some of my comrades have already described to you, that is by means of intracardiac injections of phenol. Intracardiac injections of 10 cubic centimeters of pure phenol was the usual method of extermination in Buchenwald.
THE PRESIDENT: We are not really concerned here with the proportion of the particular injections.
BALACHOWSKY: Will you repeat that please?
THE PRESIDENT: As I have said, we are not really concerned here with the proportions in which these injections were given, and will you kindly not deal with these details?
M. DUBOST: You might try and confine the witness.
BALACHOWSKY: [Continuing] Then I will speak of other details which may interest you. They are experiments of a psychotherapeutic nature, utilization of chemical products to cure typhus, in Block 46, under the same conditions as before. German industries co-operated in these experiments, notably the I. G. Farben Industrie which supplied a certain number of drugs to be used for experiments in Block 46. Among the professors who supplied the drugs, knowing that they would be used in Block 46 for experimental purposes, was Professor Lautenschlager of Frankfurt. So much for the question of typhus. I now come to experiments with phosphorus, particularly made on prisoners of Russian origin. Phosphorus bums were inflicted in Block 46 on Russian prisoners for the following reason. Certain bombs dropped in Germany by the Allied aviators caused bums on the civilians and soldiers which were difficult to heal. Consequently, the Germans tried to find a whole series of drugs which would hasten the healing of the wounds caused by these burns. Thus, experiments were carried out in Block 46 on Russian prisoners who were artificially burned with phosphorus products and then treated with different drugs supplied by the German chemical industry. Now as to experiments on sexual hormones ...
M. DUBOST: What were the results of these experiments?
BALACHOWSKY: All these experiments resulted in death.
M. DUBOST: Always in death? So each experiment is equivalent to a murder for which the SS are collectively responsible?
BALACHOWSKY: For which those who established this institution are responsible.
M. DUBOST: That is the SS as a whole, and the German medical corps in particular?
BALACHOWSKY: Definitely so, as the orders came from the Versuchsabteilung 5 (Research Section 5). The SS were responsible as the orders were issued by that section at Leipzig and, therefore, came from the Supreme Command of the Waffen SS.
M. DUBOST: Thank you. What were the results of the experiments made on sexual hormones?
BALACHOWSKY: They were less serious. Besides, these were ridiculous experiments from the scientific point of view. There were, at Buchenwald, a number of homosexuals, that is to say, men who had been convicted by German tribunals for this vice. These homosexuals were sent to concentration camps, especially to Buchenwald, and were mixed -with the other prisoners.
M. DUBOST: Especially with the so-called political prisoners, who in reality were patriots?
BALACHOWSKY: With all kinds of prisoners.
M. DUBOST: All were in the company of these German inverts?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes. They wore a pink triangle to distinguish them.
M. DUBOST: Was the wearing of this triangle a well-established custom, or on the contrary, was there much confusion in classification?
BALACHOWSKY: At the very first, before my arrival, from what I heard, order was kept with respect to triangular badges; but when I arrived at Buchenwald, in January of 1944, there was the greatest confusion in the badges, and many prisoners wore no badge at all.
M. DUBOST: Or did they wear badges of a category different from their own?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes, this was the case with many Frenchmen, who were sent to Buchenwald because they were ordinary criminals and who finally wore the red triangle of political prisoners.
M. DUBOST: What was the color of the triangle -worn by the ordinary German criminals?
BALACHOWSKY: They had a green triangle.
M. DUBOST: Did they not wear eventually a red triangle?
BALACHOWSKY: No, because they had more privileges than the others and they wore the green triangle distinctly.
M. DUBOST: And in the working groups?
THE PRESIDENT: We have heard that they were all mixed up.
M. DUBOST: The fact will not have escaped the Tribunal that these questions are put to counter other questions which were asked this morning by the Counsel for the Defense with the intent to confuse not the Tribunal, but the witnesses.
BALACHOWSKY: I repeat that we had a complete conglomeration of nationalities and categories of prisoners.
THE PRESIDENT: That is exactly what he said, that these triangles were completely mixed up.
M. DUBOST: I think, that the statement by this second witness will definitively enlighten the Tribunal on this point, whatever the efforts of the Defense might be to mislead us. [Turning to the witness] Do you know anything about the fate of tattooed men?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes, indeed.
M. DUBOST: Will you please tell us what you know about them?
BALACHOWSKY: Tattooed human skins were stored in Block 2, which was called at Buchenwald the Pathological Block.
M. DUBOST: Were there many tattooed human skins in Block 2?
BALACHOWSKY: There were always tattooed human skins in Block 2.1 1 cannot say whether there were many, as they were continuously being received and passed on, but there were not only tattooed human skins, but also I tanned human skins-simply tanned, not tattooed.
M. DUBOST: Did they skin people?
BALACHOWSKY: They removed the skin and then tanned it.
M. DUBOST: Will you continue your testimony on that point?
BALACHOWSKY: I saw SS men come out of Block 2, the Pathological Block, carrying tanned skins under their arms. I know, from my comrades who worked in Pathological Block 2, that there were orders for skins; and these tanned skins were given as gifts to certain guards and to certain visitors, who used them to bind books.
M. DUBOST: We were told that Koch, who was the head at that time, was sentenced for this practice.
BALACHOWSKY: I was not a witness of the Koch affair, which happened before I came to the camp.
M. DUBOST: So that even after he left there were still tanned and tattooed skins?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes, there were constantly tanned and tattooed skins, and when the camp was liberated by the Americans, they found in the camp, in Block 2, tattooed and tanned skins on 11 April 1945.
M. DUBOST: Where were these skins tanned?
BALACHOWSKY: These skins were tanned in Block 2, and perhaps also in the crematorium buildings, which were not far from Block 2.
M. DUBOST: Then, according to your testimony, it was a customary practice which continued even after Koch's execution?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes, this practice continued, but I do not know to what extent.
M. DUBOST: Did you witness any inspections made at the camp by German officials, and if so, who were these officials?
BALACHOWSKY: I can tell you something about Dora, concerning such visits,
M. DUBOST: Excuse me, I have one more thing to ask you about the skins. Do you know anything about Koch's conviction?
BALACHOWSKY: I heard rumors and remarks about Koch's conviction from my old comrades, who were in the camp at that time. But I personally was not a witness of the affair.
M. DUBOST: Never mind. It is enough for me to know that after his conviction skins were still tanned and tattooed.
BALACHOWSKY: Exactly.
M. DUBOST: You expressly state it?
BALACHOWSKY: Absolutely. Even after his conviction, tanned and tattooed skins were still seen.
M. DUBOST: Will you tell us now what visits were made to the camp by German officials, and who these officials were?
BALACHOWSKY: Contacts between the outside-that is German civilians and even German soldiers-and the interior of the camp were made possible by departures and furloughs that some political prisoners were able to obtain from the SS in order to spend some time with their families; and, vice versa, there were visits to the camp by members of the Wehrmacht. In Block 50 we had a visit of Luftwaffe cadets. These Luftwaffe cadets, members of the regular German armed forces, passed through the camp and were able to see practically everything that went on there.
M. DUBOST: What did they do in Block 50?
BALACHOWSKY: They just came to see the equipment at the invitation of SturmbannFuehrer Schuler. We received several visits.
M. DUBOST: What was the equipment?
BALACHOWSKY: Equipment for the manufacture of vaccines, laboratory equipment.
M. DUBOST: Thank you.
BALACHOWSKY: There were other visits also, and some German Red Cross nurses visited that block in October 1944.
M. DUBOST: Do you know the names of German personalities who visited the camp?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes, such personalities as the Crown Prince of Waldeck and Pyrmont, who was an ObergruppenFuehrer of the Waffen SS and the Chief of Police of Hesse and Thuringia, who visited the camp on several occasions, including Block 46 as well as Block 50. He was greatly interested in the experiments.
M. DUBOST: Do you know what the attitude of mind of the prisoners was shortly before their liberation by -the American forces?
BALACHOWSKY: The prisoners of the camp expected the liberation to come at any moment. On the 11th of April, in the morning, there was perfect order In the camp and exemplary discipline. We hid, with extreme difficulty and in the greatest secrecy, some weapons: cases of hand grenades, and about two hundred and fifty guns which were divided in 2 lots, 1 lot of 100 guns in the hospital, and another lot of about one hundred and fifty guns in my Block 50. As soon as the Americans began to appear below the camp of Buchenwald, about 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th of April 1945, the political -prisoners assembled in line, seized the weapons and made prisoners of most of the SS guards of the camp or shot all those who resisted. These guards had great difficulty in escaping as they carried rucksacks filled with booty- objects they had stolen from the prisoners during the time they guarded the camp.
M. DUBOST: Thank you. I have no further questions to put to the witness.
THE PRESIDENT: We will adjourn now for ten minutes. [A recess was taken.]
THE PRESIDENT: Do any of-the defendants' counsel want to ask any questions of this witness?
DR. KAUFFMANN: Are you a specialist in research concerning the manufacture of vaccines?
BALACHOWSKY: Yes, I am a specialist in matters of research.
DR. KAUFFMANN: According to your opinion, was there any sense in the treatment to which these *people were subjected?
BALACHOWSKY: It had no scientific significance; it only had a practical purpose. I permitted the verification of the efficacy of certain products.