DR. MARX: Mr. President, I have a statement from a number of high German medical officers, officers of the Wehrmacht and the Luftwaffe, who are in a prisoner-of-war camp at the present time but who have all declared themselves willing to subject themselves to such sea-water experiments as were conducted at one time in the Camp Dachau. These gentlemen have declared themselves willing to do this because they have confidence in Professor submit this document today, however, because it is not in the proper form. I have just been informed that it is not translated. I ask to reserve the right to submit this affidavit later, when it has been translated.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel may submit the document to the Tribunal at some later date. When all these documents which are not now in condition to be offered to the Tribunal are ready, if counsel will advice the Tribunal, the Tribunal will fix a time when these documents may be offered, after notice to the Prosecution.
DR. MARX: Thank you. Mr. President, I have concluded the submission of documents and thus I have finished the case for the defense of the Defendant Schroeder.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal notes that the counsel for Defendant Schroeder has closed his case, with the reservation that the documents to which he referred may be offered at some later time.
I will hand to the Secretary General the original document that was submitted to the Tribunal this morning.
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DR. RUDOLF MERKEL: I am counsel for the Defendant Dr. Karl Genzken.
THE PRESIDENT: You may proceed.
DR. MERKEL: With the permission of the Tribunal, I call the Defendant Genzken to the witness stand.
THE PRESIDENT: The Defendant Karl Genzken will take the witnessstand.
KARL GENZKEN, a defendant, took the stand and testified as follows:
JUDGE SEBRING: The defendant will raise his right hand and be sworn, repeating after me: "I swear by God, the Almighty and Omniscient, that I will speak the pure truth and will withhold and add nothing.
(The witness repeated the oath.)
JUDGE SEBRING: You may sit down.
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY DR. MERKEL:
Q Witness, when and were you born?
A On the 8th of June 1885, in Preetz, in Holstein. I attended the gymnasium (high school) in Kiel and then the Gymnasium in Wandsbeck and in 1906 I graduated there. Then I studied medicine, first in Tuebingen, in the first semester I served for 1 year as a volunteer musketeer; then in Marburg in 1908 I took my physical examination and then I studied in Munich and in Kiel. In 1911 I took my State examination and shortly after that the doctor's examination. I was an intern at Plauen at the city hospital under Professor Vogtland as a surgeon and under Professor Wandel as Professor of internal medicine. With the permission of the ministry I interrupted my year as an intern for 3 months and took part in a commercial expedition to Spanish Morocco. Then after my year as an intern in August 1912 I became active in the Navy. Until the war I was Flotilla physician of a torpedo boat flotilla an assistant physician on a ship of the Line. In the spring of 1914 I went to our colony Tsingtau in East Asia and I was there when the first world war broke out. I participated in the campaign at Tsingtau against Japan. In 1915 I returned home by way of Honolulu and America. Then I was a ship physician on a cruiser. I participated in the Battle of Skagerac.
The Commander of the submarines was on board our ship. I was a physician on his staff at the same time. From 1915 until 1917 I helped organize the Medical Service on submarines.
Q. What did you do after the first World War?
A. By the last of the War I was forced to look for a new method of livelihood. I settled down in my home town as a practicing physician, and I practiced for 15 years. Then for health reasons I had to look for a now position as an official doctor, and from inclination and love for my own profession of medical officer, I returned to the Navy. As a reserve officer I entered the Naval Medical Department in the Reich Ministry.
Q. What Ministry was that?
A. It was the Reichswehr Ministry, the Reich Defense Ministry. It was not possible to be reactivated here, therefore in 1936 I reported to the Waffen SS.
Q. When did you join the NSDAP?
A. In 1926.
Q. Did you ever have any function in the Party?
A. No, I have no function in the Party.
Q. Why did you join the NSDAP?
A. There were primarily social reasons which moved me at the time. After the first World War had been lost and the economic crimes of the inflation, I saw German youth on the streets unemployed. The program of the Party provided for alleviation of these conditions by productive umemployment compensation. I had to see the peasants forced out of their farms. The program of the Party provided for alleviation through a law to pay off the debts of the farmers, and the farmers were also to be protected by the law regarding inheriting farms. Another reason which motivated me was as a layman I was influenced by the idea that the achievement is to be the basis of evaluation of the National Economy.
Q. You have already said in 1936 you joined the SS, is that true?
A. Yes, I joined with the rank of Oberstabsarzt. That would be the rank of Major in the American Army. In the SS it was equivalent to a Sturmbannfuehrer.
Q. What was your last rank in the SS?
A. I was SS Gruppenfuehrer.
Q. After you had a good medical practice for 15 years why did you give up this profession and join the Party or rather the SS?
A. I have already said that there were reasons of health which motivated me to look for another profession, and that I had the inclination to the class of a medical officer.
Q. What was your position in the SS?
A. I was a referent in the SS medical Office, under SS Oberfuehrer Grawitz. Later I became Section Chief in this medical office. The supply of personnel and materials also went through my medical office for concentration camps, from 1937 until the beginning of the War in 1939.
Q. And what did you do after the beginning of the War?
A. At the beginning of the War I helped to set up a division. In my capacity as divisional physician I set up a medical section for this armoured division. In 1940, in April, I was called back from the Western Front and then I became the head of the SS Medical Office or the Waffen SS, and information of the SS Hauptaemter SS main Office. This medical office had been set up at the same time. My medical office was added to the SS main office, the SS Hauptamt VII.
Q. And you held this position until the last?
A. I held the position until the end of the War.
Q. The Prosecution alleges from September 1939 until April 1945 you formed a conspiracy with the other defendants to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity. In this connection I ask you to answer the following questions: Do you know all of the other 22 co-defendants personally, and did you meet with them frequently?
A. I know only half of the 22 defendants. The other half I met here in prison.
Q. Then you know eleven.?
A. Yes.
Q. Who are they?
A. Sievers, Rose, Ruff, Brack, Romberg, Becker-Freyseng, Weltz, Schaefer, Bieglbock, Pokorny, and Roven. Those I met here in the prison.
Q. And you knew the name of the defendant Hoven, didn't you? What did you know about him?
A. Well, I had heard that he was a physician at the Concentration Camp Buchenwald and the other eleven I had known them personally before.
Q. With which of them did you have official discussions and in what field?
A. I was at Professor Brandt's office on Ziegelstrasse once. The reason was that I was to discuss with him the appointment of Wehrmacht and civilian sector doctors to the Waffen SS. Then I talked to the defendant Rudolph Brandt once briefly in his office on some matter and correspondence, and Professor Handloser I talked to him personally three times in his office. The subject was the transfer of the doctors from the Wehrmacht of the Army to the Waffen SS, and another time we discussed the decontamination companies and the third discussion with Professor Handloser was in my office. He came to see me in order to inquire about the SS physician who was to be appointed to his section as Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service, but the Reichsfuehrer Himmler did not approve this. Then as Medical Chief of the Waffen SS I was called to two discussions with Professor Handloser as Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service where the other medical inspectors of the various branches of the Wehrmacht were also present. First it was a question of the distribution of medical students. The Luftwaffe had to give us several hundred medical students and the other time it was a question of the spiritual care for hospital patients.
Q And what did you discuss with Professor Schroeder?
A I had no personal or official talks with Professor Schroeder. I merely met him at these discussions with Professor Handloser which I have just mentioned.
Q Then how about Professor Gebhardt, Professor Mrugowsky and Dr. Poppendick?
A I met Gebhardt in peacetime as chief of the Hohenlychen Sanatorium which was a world famous specialized clinic for sport and accident surgery in peacetime. At the beginning of the war Professor Gebhardt came to the Waffen SS and was in a special confidential relationship as physician with Himmler since he had been a friend of the Reich Fuehrer in his youth.
During the whole war he was active as surgical adviser at the main focal points of wounded. Since he was at the front most of the time and worked as a surgeon there, and the rest of the time he was busy at Hohenlychen, he came to my office very rarely and he reported to me about his surgical experiences at the front. At the same time he was surgical adviser to the Organization Todt and in the "Volksdeutsche Mittlesteele", the racial German agency. From August 1943 on, on the occasion of the reorganization of the SS medical service, Professor Gebhardt as chief clinician entered the office of the Reich Physician SS and Police. I did not participate in any conference with him, the subject of which might have been to undertake experiments on living human beings.
Q How about Professor Mrugowsky?
A I met Professor Mrugowsky before the want in 1937 when he came to us as the first active hygienist, and in peacetime he established a hygiene laboratory in Berlin. In the war he was first a medical company chief. He was in the campaign in the West. Then he returned from there and in 1940 he became chief of the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS which was developed from the hygiene laboratory when the Waffen SS was created. He was at the same time the head of the hygienic service in my office, the office chief in my office, and until August 1943 at the time of the reorganization of the medical service which I have already mentioned, he was under my command.
After this time he entered the office of the Reich Physician SS and Police with his hygiene institute, but for budget purposes he retained the name Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS. During his activity in my office he had the usual tasks of a hygienist for troops at the front and at home. Outside of my office with his institute he had hygienic, scientific duties of the Reich Physician and he was the senior specialist.
I did not participate in any conference with him either, the subject of which was scientific experiments on human beings.
A. And Dr. Poppendick?
A During the war and before that, Dr. Poppendick was directing physician of the Race and Settlement Office and he was also an associate with the Reich Physician SS. In august 1943, at this time which I have mentioned, he was given the title Chief of the Personnel Office in the office of the Reich physician. I met him rather seldom. I talked to him rather seldom on official business since the Reich Physician, Dr. Grawitz, usually received me alone. I did not participate with him in any conference concerning experiments or research on living human beings.
Q You have said that with these three physicians you never planned, ordered or carried out experiments on human beings and never discussed this?
A Yes.
Q Did you ever discuss this with any of the other defendants?
A No.
Q Did you yourself ever plan, order or carry out such experiments?
A No.
Q In what scientific medical meetings or lectures did you participate during the war?
A I attended two congresses of consulting medical officers, once in 1942 in Berlin, and once in 1944 in Hohenlychen. I heard other lectures in the medical society in Berlin, about four to six a year, and then the Reich Physician in his office in 1942 had a few lectures.
I remember the following subjects: a lecture of a corps physician who came from the front and reported on his experiences at the front concerning the transport and treatment of wounded.
Another lecture was given by a member of the SS main office concerning recruiting. The directing physician of the racial German agency held a lecture about the medical service with the German settlers.
Then there was another lecture by a Professor Hauer in Berlin who told of his experiences as a physician in the first world war in Africa. Then another time the physician of the National Political Training Institutions told of his experiences in the medical service with the students of the institution. Then the Reich Physician also organized two lectures in the police state hospital in Berlin, the purpose of which was to have the police and SS doctors both together. The subjects were ballistics and a smashing of bones. And another time it was on hereditary biology and the study of twins, and there were corresponding lectures in the SS hospital in Berlin, once about x-ray science of the stomach and the intestinal tract, and another time about the autopsy findings of the SS hospital in Prague.
Then, in the Ministry of the Interior at the invitation of the Reich Health Leader Conti, I attended two lectures organized by the health leaders of Italy and Finaldn about the health systems in their countries.
Q That is a complete list of the lectures which you attended during the war?
A The ones that I can remember, yes.
Q Did you attend any medical lecture of discussion concerning the ordering or execution of experiments on concentration camp inmates with which you are charged by the prosecution?
A No.
Q Were there direct connections between your office and the office of General or Reich Commissioner Professor Brandt?
A. No.
Q Is it true that in 1942 Grawitz ordered that you were not to contact Brandt, Conti, or SS men, office chiefs, without his approval?
A Yes, that is true.
Q Is it true that you heard in conversation with Grawitz of a statement of Himmler that Professor Brandt should not interfere in the medical service of the SS?
A Yes, I heard that statement from Grawitz.
Q To whom were the Waffen SS divisions at the front, assigned to the Army -- to whom were they subordinated as far as the medical service is concerned?
A. Our divisional doctors at the front were under the corps army or army group physicians of the Army, and they were under the Army Medical Inspectorate or the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service.
Q And the troops at home?
A They were under the medical office of the Waffen SS.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will now be in recess.
(Recess was taken.)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
DR. MERKEL: May it please the Tribunal, before the recess we stopped at the relationship of subordination with regard to the SS troops.
BY DR. MERKEL:
Q. Where did you have mutual points of contact with the chiefs of the three branches of the Wehrmacht?
A. The point of contact was the assignment of medical officers on the part of the branches of the Wehrmacht to the Waffen SS. At that time there existed a big shortage in medical officers. Furthermore, the Waffen SS was lacking all reserve medical officers because these had been conscripted, even before the war, by the branches of the Wehrmacht.
Q. Were these medical officers furnished to the Waffen SS gladly?
A. As a result of this shortage of medical officers, big difficulties prevailed and I had to fight for almost everyone of the medical officers.
Q. Could you perhaps give an example of that to the Tribunal?
A. In the year 1940 - in November of that year - I had to furnish medical officers for a newly established division and I had to request 64 medical officers for that purpose. After long negotiations I received the last pert of the 64 medical officers in June of the following year.
On another occasion, as a result of the wounded catastrophe, which has already been mentioned here and which was mentioned by Professor Brandt in connection with Viasma, by order of the Fuehrer I personally had to turn six SS physicians over to the Army. Out of the six four were not returned to me.
Q. Did you have the impression that the medical chiefs of the Luftwaffe and the Navy gladly subordinated themselves to the agency of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service, which was established in 1942?
A. No, I had the impression that they did not like this measure at all.
Q. And why?
A. The conditions with the branches of the Wehrmacht, in particular in the case of the Luftwaffe and the Navy, were compared to the conditions which prevailed with the Army and they varied too much from these conditions.
I heard from the Navy that the Commander in Chief of the Navy considered the Office of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service as an interference in his field of competence.
Q. Was the Reich physician, Dr. Grawitz, subordinated to the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service, Prof. Dr. Handloser?
A. Grawitz considered himself to be in an equal position with Dr. Conti. Dr. Grawitz felt himself to be in the same position as Dr. Conti. However, this was not specified in the Fuehrer's decree.
Q. What Fuehrer decree are you referring to?
A. I am referring to the Fuehrer decree which established the position of the Chief of the Wehrmacht Medical Service, which was ordered to the Reich Commissioner. And Himmler was not interested in removing this unclear situation that prevailed because he was striving for more power.
Q. I an now coming to your contact with Himmler. What was your relationship with Himmler? Did he establish clear conditions in the supreme medical relation, or not.
A. The first trial in this courthouse has shown that Himmler had two intentions. One he showed to Hitler, and the other to the members of the Waffen SS, and on the other hand he tried to obtain all the power in the State. In order to do this he had to camouflage most of his aims, and in this case he used to play out one person against the other, and in this way he left the supreme medical leadership in complete unclarity, and he played out several physicians against Grawitz.
Q. Now what physician individually did he play out against him?
A. Through medical personalities, to whom Himmler gave his confidence, Grawitz was completely removed from the close proximity of Himmler. As I have already stated. Professor Gebhardt was in a special relationship of confidence to Himmler, since he had been a friend since his youth, and, furthermore, through his closest surroundings, there belonged a Sturmbannfuehrer Stumpfaeger, who also had been a friend of Himmler during his student time. Then Himmler had a certain Dr. Farenkamp, a specialist for internal medicine, and also for heart diseases, and he included that person into his personal staff, and Dr. Farenkamp was a civilian. He was not a member of the Ss and he was not subordinated to Dr. Grawitz, and although Grawitz was a professor of internal medicine, he appointed this Dr. Farenkamp as a family physician. At Dachau he established a research institute for him in order to carry out his heart research, and he also supported him with funds and other financial means. Furthermore, this research station belonged to an agency of the Waffen SS, the so-called "Kreislauf Pruefungsstelle" where he was active as a Konsarnorius. As a fourth medical personality, Himmler treated a certain Mr. Koester, who was a civilian Dutchman, and who allegedly had studied for seven school semesters at Holsinki, and who gave him treatment every day.
Q. Did Himmler also include your person into this game?
A. Yes, he tried to do that. When, in the year 1940 or 1941, the position of the Reich physician was beginning to shake, then I was told that I might take over the position of the Reich physician.
I strictly refused to do this, and Himmler had me informed through my military superior, Obergruppenfuehrer Juettner, that if Genzken and Grawitz cannot get along together, then the whole thing should be called to a halt.
Q. During your five years activity as medical chief of the Waffen SS, how many times did you personally talk to Himmler?
A. During the entire war I have only talked to him on two occasions. One time this was in his headquarters in the field, that was in August 1943, when I had been ordered to see him together with Grawitz and Gebhardt, in order to discuss the reorganization of the medical service of the SS, At that time, without having previously been prepared, all the four office chiefs, and all hygienic institute and pharmaceutical establishments were taken from me all at the same time.
Q. What was one discussion, and when was the second?
A. The second one took place in spring 1942, on the occasion of a discussion with the Italian Ambassador Alfieri, in his private home. Before the beginning of the meeting Himmler took me aside, and he reproached me very excitedly, that the wounded were given far too little to eat. I told him that a short time previously, the bread and potato ration had been cut by the authorities. On that occasion I also mentioned the subject about the dismissal of a chief of a hospital of one of the hospitals subordinated to me which had been ordered by Himmler. He alleged the matter to me for a reason which was lying about eight years back, and I gave him to understand at that time that I was unable to understand that, and that I could not understand his logic.
Q. Did you also cause the ill will of Himmler in other cases?
A. Yes; on one occasion I had to straighten out the previously mentioned Dr. Farenkam, because he intervened in my field of competence, because he stayed at his close contact with Himmler. On the other occasion, a letter which contained reproaches by the Referent of Himmler, I was forced to write a certain letter, and as Obergruppenfuehrer Berger informed me later on, Himmler had also been very excited when he read this particular letter.
Q. Was there any other serious incident between you and Himmler later on?
A. In the spring of 1942 there was a regular break. From the Racial and Settlement Office, Himmler had received a report from one of his Roferents about a garrison in Poland which suffered a venereal disease rate of 70 percent. This report was not based on any facts, and immediately afterwards, I had this matter investigated by an SS medical officer, and completely normal conditions prevailed at that post. Himmler sent this letter together with an endorsement to all main offices of the SS and the army, with an endorsement which was to be read everywhere. In this letter he described the SS medical officers as having forgotten their duties and their honor, and when this letter was read in the Referent meeting of the SS leadership main office, I took up excitedly and I stated, in front of approximately 40 officers: "Even Heinrich Himmler cannot take my honor away from me."
Q. Did Himmler find out about this statement which you made then?
A. The later Obergruppenfuehrer Fegelein, who participated in this meeting, informed Himmler of it and he report that to me later.
Q. And what did you do then?
A. I told Obergruppenfuehrer Jeuttner, my military superior, that he could take over my office, and I told the Reich physician SS Dr. Grawitz that disciplinary measures should be taken against me. However this suggestion was not approved.
Q. Now what results did your relationship to Himmler have in the following time?
A. I had the feeling that personally I had become a "persona ingrata et incerta" with him and that I had lost all his confidence.
Q. Will you please tell us that in German now, witness?
A. Well, I think the expression "persona ingrata et incerta" means that he did not include me in his confidence anymore.
Q. Did you want to have a small theological article printed during the war?
A. In the Spring of 1944 I wrote a small theological work which I wanted to have printed privately in order to be able to distribute it in a circle of friends in England. However, the regulation was that all publications had to be submitted to him and this is exactly what I did. He wrote a personal letter to me and again its contents were very insulting to me and he refused to have this religious article printed.
Q. And one final question in this complex. What distinctions and awards did you receive during the war?
A. I considered distinction that I was not well-liked by Himmler and that in August of 1941 I was given the War Meritorius Cross as my last distinction. However, since August 1941, I was not given any further awards.
Q Now, Dr. Genzken, I am coming to your relationship to Reich Physician SS Dr. Grawitz. How long did you know the Reich Physician, and can you give us a judgment about his personality?
A I knew Grawitz since my entry into the Waffen-SS. That was in 1936. With regard to his person, I can say that Grawitz was a very regular human being. He was very smooth in his speech. He was scheming, a matter of fact person and he was an outstanding organizer. In any case he knew how to show off his organization, and he was very ambitious. His ambition was connected with his care for his position and which, of course resulted suspicion and a certain amount of inner insecurity, and in spite of his appearance in uniform, his behavior and his speech -
Q And what were the effects of this on your relationship to Grawitz?
A Grawitz was fifteen years younger than I, and we were two human beings with completely different temperaments. As a result of this, certain frictions existed.
Q At the outbreak of the War did you have an arguement with him?
A Before the War and from 1936 to 1939, we were able to work together extremely well, and at the beginning of the War I was given a command at the Front which I have previously mentioned, and he tried -together with the Chief of Staff who was then Sturmbannfuehrer Dr. Dermitzel-to keep the command at the Front which had been given to me. They wanted to go to the Front, and I was to remain at home. However, I was able to keep my position, and Grawitz told me on a later occasion that I had stepped very much on his feet.
Q. As you have just stated, Grawitz was already in the first years of war completely removed from his authority by Himmler, and what results did this have?
A Then Grawitz had his field of tasks. He interfered in my military field of assignment constantly.
Q And what interference did he carry out?
A without my knowledge, he interfered with my military authority which had been generally given to me by my superior, Obergruppenfuehrer Juettner.
Furthermore, he tried without my knowledge to obtain information from some of my referents, and he gave them the order that they were not to inform me of that fact. Furthermore, he also interfered in my correspondence, and he even did not hesitate in violating the secrecy of the mails.
Q What measures did you take then?
A Since I considered this interference as a disturbance of my work, I reported this to my military superior. The latter approached Grawitz on that subject, and at that time a line was made distinctly between our fields of tasks, and he also told the Reich Physician of his right to issue directives and instructions and also to the field of scientific planning and research, and he gave me the authority in the Medical Service of the units.
Q That is the Medical Service of the Waffen-SS?
A Yes.
Q Was it emphasized in that respect that the institutes and pharmaceutical establishments of the Waffen-SS were further to be available to the Reich Physician for his research assignments?
A. Yes.
Q. You have just mentioned the right of the Reich Physician to issue instructions and to carry *ut inspections. Can you give more details about that subject to the Tribunal, what you understand by that?
A. The Reich Physician had the authority to inspect and to issue instructions to all institutes and to all units and all hospitals of the Waffen-SS and to give technical orders there without first going through the regular Army channels.
Q. Does it also apply in particular to secret orders?
A. Yes. He was able to determine how many people were to obtain information about these orders.
Q. Did Grawitz ever tell you about his secret research assignments?
A. No. He never gave me any insight into this field or work.
Q. Why not?
A. According to the knowledge which I have obtained now, I think it was for the following reasons: first of all, there was the well-known Fuehrer's Decree for Secrecy, the so-called Fuehrer Decree No. I, and, secondly, Grawitz knew that I had become a persona ingrata et incerta with Himmler, and I had the feeling that he had been instructed by Himmler not to tell me about his secret matters. I further had the feeling that after he had been removed from his position of authority, he saw in this field of scientific research a possibility to become indispensable with Himmler.
Q. Did you know anything about his secret research assignments from any other source?
A. No. I am surprised to discover from the trial here that he was actually participating in most of these experiments, but at that time, of course, I did not know anything about it.
Q. Did you know, for example, anything about the Department for Special Military Research in the Ahnenerbe?
A. No, I did not know anything about it.
Q. Now, a final question to this whole complex: did you at any other time conspire with Grawitz and Himmler to commit crimes and war crimes against humanity?
A. No, never.
Q. Witness, I am now coming to another complex of questions. You were chief of the medical service of the Waffen SS and in order to give the Tribunal a clear picture of your position and your activity I am now asking you to answer the following question: When was the Waffen SS established and what had been its predecessor?
A. The Waffen SS was established in the summer of 1940 from the SS Verfuegungstruppe and the SS death head units.
Q. And how much personnel did the Waffen SS have at the outbread and at the end of the war?
A. The Waffen SS had approximately thirty-six thousand men at the outbreak of the war. It was composed of the Verfuegungstruppe and the death head units, and when the Waffen SS was established it altogether had fifty-six thousand men. That is a number which I obtained from the files of the first trial. At that time prior to the campaign in the west four divisions were activated; however, the fourth division was composed of police, SS, and also army units. At the end of the war there were thirty-six divisions in the field and together with the replacements, troops at home, the Waffen SS consisted of 580,000 men. I have obtained this figure also from the first trial. Together with losses, tic following went through the files of the Waffen SS; there were altogether 900,000 men and the losses of the Waffen SS can be estimated as approximately 320,000. At that time fifteen divisions were still being prepared for action. That was before the end of the war.
Q. And what medical units were included in the SS division?
A. In the case of the first twelve divisions the medical unite of a division consisted of two medical companies, one field hospital, and two medical trains - two hospital trains. They consisted of thirty train cars. Later on the field hospital or medical company was withdrawn. This was caused by the lack of personnel and material.
Q. At the beginning of the war had medical units of the Waffen SS already been established?
A. No. Such medical units did not yet exist at the outbreak of the war.