Q. If I understood you correctly - to return to the Haagen case - these were all the letter, reports, etc. filed at the referat. I would imagine that all these documents were filed properly in one filed according to date, as it is customary in every army throughout the world?
A. The latter is true, but naturally these files were not kept in the Referat, but as is customary everywhere else these were kept in the Registration office. I, after all, only had one little office, and I hadn't enough room there to keep all my files in that office. Furthermore, I can remember that this list, in the course of the summer or fall of 1944 was sent upon request to various other agencies. I believe I remember that one such copy had been sent to the Reich Research Counsel, and I think it possible that one copy was also sent to the office of Herr Professor Rostock. It may be possible even that one copy was sent to the Office of Generaloberstabsartz Handloser. I am sure there were a number of other offices too; however, I cannot tell you that in detail. When Dr. Ruff was sitting in this witness stand you discussed a number of errors with him contained in that list. In addition the errors were discussed with Ruff there are, in the allegedly true copy which is before us hero, as well as in the photostat copy, a number of other errors.
Q. May I interrupt you briefly, witness. Did I understand. you to say that even here, when compiling the documents for the document book and when mimeographing this document which is before us, a number of mistakes were made, typographical errors, which means that the photostat copy does not quite correspond to the allegedly true copy as it is contained in the document book before us?
A. Yes, that is just what I wanted to say.
Q. Well, in that case would you explain these errors to us?
A. Unfortunately, we only received the photostat copies only after you had discussed this allegedly true copy with Dr. Ruff. After only looking at the photostat for once I found out that all the errors which refer to the research assignments given to Dr. Ruff are not contained in the photostat copy, but that these are errors which resulted from the copying of that photostat copy when this "true copy" was made.
Q. If I understand you correctly, Witness, these are obviously pure mistakes in copying?
A. Yes, furthermore even in the photostat copy there are a number of mistakes caused by negligence, which, however, are all so striking to anyone who knows the subject as well as I, that upon the first reading of the document I guarantee that I would have notices them immediately. For instance, the name of Herr professor Weltz ---
Q Now, let me ask you, witness, to speak slowly here and always Mention where the point can be found in the document which you happen to be discussing.
A For instance, on page 2 of the document under 1-10, there is an assignment given to Professor Weltz. This name was copied as Weltze. This is obviously a very simple matter, but had I looked through this list in the year of 1944 I am sure this would have attracted my attention. Another mistake, which could easily occur in the case of a layman but which I should have noticed, can be found on page 10 of this document. Here, under VIII - 3, there is a research assignment mentioned and I may quote: "The significance of individual factors in measuring distances." The institute which obviously received this assignment is mentioned here as the institute for Physiological Anthropology of the University of Marburg/Lahn. In reality we are here concerned with the Institute for Psychological Anthropology, which is well known to me. In copying, the difference between "physiological" and "psychological" always causes great difficulties, and we have often had that experience when dealing with one another here and compiling our document books. psychiatric clinic has a collection of mutilations of its name, and the word "psychiatric" is very often misspelled.
MR. HARDY: I don't believe it is necessary to take up the time of the Tribunal on a insignificant matter such as this. If there are some errors in the German document books when it was mimeographed the defendant may call them to our attention. These are so insignificant and so minor that the Prosecution deems the documents may speak for themselves. The Prosecution resents some of the remarks of the defense.
THE PRESIDENT: It appears to the Tribunal that this matter may be corrected for the Tribunal by a conference between the defense and the Prosecution without taking up the time and covering the records with such matters.
DR. TIPP: I am naturally prepared to adhere to the wish of the Tribunal, but I believe that counsel for the Prosecution misunderstood the aim I have pursued in this matter.
I am not concerned with proving that the copy in the German document book contains mistakes, which are not in the photostat, but I am concerned in showing that in the photostat copy, in the original, there are already errors. This may sound somewhat like an argument, but I must clarify that it is our intention to prove that there are actual mistakes contained in the list, the list which the Defendant Becker-Freyseng had had compiled, Furthermore we want to prove that this list was not compiled by an expert, but only originated, as was already stated by the witness, from an unskilled and medically untrained typist who just copied something from some documents, and for that reason the inaccuracies are contained in the list. I think this is something that must be discussed with the witness and cannot be clarified by a mere discussion between the defense counsel and Prosecution. But, I think, witness, that we can adhere to the Tribunal's wish, and drop the matter.
MR. HARDY: I must point out that it is of no interest here what the capabilities of the secretary of Becker-Freyseng were. If she made the mistakes in the original list, it seems to me that is the negligence of the defendant in not checking the secretary's work.
THE PRESIDENT: The defendant, however, could show that the secretary did incorrectly transcribe what he had given her to copy or what he had dictated to her.
DR. TIPP: Mr. President, I am in a fortunate position to give you this proof in a minute, Witness, you heard the Tribunal's decision and you heard what I said, but I think that we are in full agreement. If you have something to say, would you please express yourself briefly.
THE WITNESS: In connection with the reprimand by the Prosecution, I must say I always was very careful in reading over what my secretary had written and I am sure that such silly and noticeable typing mistakes would have drawn my attention. There are a number of other mistakes contained in that list, for instance at one time Haagen's name was spelled with one "A" and once with two "A's." I am sure I would have noticed that.
I do not believe that this list is the same list which was typed by my secretary, which I sun sure that I read through very carefully. I assume that we are here concerned with a copy.
BY DR. TIPP:
Q Do you mean that this document, which is before you now, is a copy of the original list, which you ordered to be compiled?
A Yes, this must be a copy made by one of the offices which received the original list from us. Furthermore, I may say that our secretaries were well versed on the difference between physiology and psychology after they had been with us for some time. This error may have occurred with new secretaries during their first few weeks, but not later. However, enough of that.
Q Let us finish then. Mr. President, in this connection let me offer a document from Document Book Becker-Freyseng 3. This is Document Becker-Freyseng 38 and can be found on page 139 to 161 of the document book. This will receive exhibit No. 24. It is an affidavit.
MR. HARDY: May it please, Your Honor, this document contains the same subject which the defendant has been discussing here for nearly fifteen minutes. The prosecution deems it irrelevant and I object to any further introduction of documents along these lines.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal has not read the document. What is the probitive value of the material offered in this document, counsel?
DR. TIPP: This can be settled briefly, Mr. President. This is the secretary who had typed and compiled the list by order of BeckerFreyseng, and she states how she compiled the list. She says that Becker-Freyseng gave her all the material for that list and that she could not see anything about experiments on human beings from this list. She further more says, it is quite possible that in her haste she overlooked some errors contained in the list. It is not my intention to quote anything from that document and I think Mr. Hardy is correct in saying that this point has been sufficiently clarified. Witness -
THE PRESIDENT: Just a moment, counsel.
DR. TIPP: Mr. President, I did not quite understand you. Mr. President, did you ask a question of me?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I just requested you to wait a few moments until we examine the document.
MR. HARDY: The whole list of this seems to me to be as follows. This document NO-934 contains a list of the assignments which come from the office of Becker-Freyseng. Now, Becker-Freysent is maintaining that this list is just a copy of the list which originated from his office and that his secretary made typographical errors and he points out that such errors are made like spelling the name of Weltz with two "E's" instead of one "E", etc. Now this document is introduced to show that the entry concerning the work of Haagen with typhus and after that entry is the number designating the word "secret". The prosecution has made an issue of the word "secret" and he is now attempting to introduce that she erroneously put down the word "secret." Thai is the list of this entire affidavit and the context of this argument.
THE PRESIDENT: Is there available there in the original photostat of the Exhibit which came from the defendant's office?
DR. TIPP: Yes, Your Honor, I have the original photostat of that list.
MR. HARDY: The section in issue, your Honor, is quite obviously in the photostat as checked in pencil marks.
THE PRESIDENT: If this No. 934 which is now in evidence?
DR. TIPP: Yes, Your Honor, Perhaps I may say in that connection that the defendant has not been asserting that the remark "secret" was erroneously transcribed but he says that he does not think that this photostat copy is a carbon copy of the original list but thinks that it is just a transcribed copy of the original. He thinks that there are two possibilities, one that his secretary, Miss Wagner, by mistake inserted the remark, or it crept into the original in some way; or it is further possible that the person who is unknown to as and who has transcribed the original list has made that error. It is in no way contested that the photostatic copy submitted here contains the remark "secret."
DR. SEBRING: You are attempting to show that a list was made by this defendant's secretary and under his direction but that the list that was directed to be made by him on the one hand or that may actually have been made under his direction, did not list these projects us secret. Is that the thing you are trying to establish, that as a matter of fact they were open subjects?
DR. TIPP: Yes, according to our knowledge, Your Honor, the Haagen assignment was open. We have a wealth of letters by Haagen and directed to Haagen which was material submitted to us by the Prosecution, which so far as they concern the Luftwaffe are always open, and now suddenly we nave tne remark "secret" from the year 1944, and we don't think that Haagen's assignment was suddenly converted into a secret one.
I personally have another explanation, which, of course, cannot be proved, but may interest the Tribunal if I may mention it briefly. At one time we discussed the fact that all reports of cases of typhus had to be kept secret throughout the entire Wehrmacht. In other words, any typhus case which occurred anywhere in Germany had for military reasons to be reported as "secret". It is quite possible that Miss Wagner knew about t is regulation and it is also possible that somebody else knew about this regulation and told her that since this concerns typhus the assignment must be secret. Since I myself was a soldier and had to deal with German military correspondence, I know it happens very often that something can become secret simply because somebody just at random put "secret" on a document. In my opinion that proves nothing at all. I think that too much significance is attached to this point and I only refer to it because the Prosecution seemed to have attached so much value to it. Otherwise, I certainly wouldn't have put that to BeckerFreyseng and asked him for half an hour about the significance of this little word "secret."
THE PRESIDENT: Exhibit No. 24 offered by defendant Becker-Freyseng will be admitted in evidence and the objection is overruled. Counsel may proceed.
DR. TIPP:
Q. Witness, we have now concluded the question of typhus. I have no further questions to you in that connection In conclusion, as the last document in the connection I may offer Becker-Freyseng No. 36, which is the last document in Becker-Freyseng document book No. 2. This will be Exhibit No. 25 and can be found on page 153 of the document book No. 2. This is an affidavit by a certain Dr. Halbach, which was made at the Chiemsee on the 27 January, 1947, and was certified in the proper way.
I consider this document to be of considerable importance since it discusses a number of points with which the defendant is concerned. I may draw your attention to the fact that Dr. Halbach is a doctor of engineering and a doctor of medicine which means he is versed both in medical and technical matters. Under Paragraph 2 of Dr. Halbach described his career and says that he studied chemistry and medicine at the University of Munich and also states he was never a member of the NSDAP. I may quote from Paragraph 3:
"3) During the war I served from 1 September 1939 to 12 May 1940 as a service doctor with ground crew units of the Luftwaffe, from 13 May 1940 to 30 November 1942 with a Bomber Squadron; from 1 December 1942 to 31 August 1943, I was a specialist at the Institute of aviation Medicine, and from 1 September 1943 to 3 October 1944 a specialist in the Medical Section of the Testing Station of the Luftwaffe, Rechlin.
"4) On 4 October 1944 I was transferred to the Instruction Group Science and Research of the Luftwaffe Medical Academy, the commander of which was Oberstarzt Prof. Dr. Hans Luxenburger.
"5) Dr. Becker Freyseng was at that time the only specialist in aviation medicine. Since this field of work could not possibly be dealt with by one man alone, part of the work was to be taken over by the Instruction Group Science and Research. About the end of October 1944, Dr. Becker Freyseng therefore handed over to me all the orders for research which had, up to then, been distributed by the Chief of the Medical Services of the Luftwaffe, together with the files, reports, etc. connected therewith. The Instruction Group Science and Research was, from this time on by order of the Chief of the Medical Services of the Luftwaffe, to supervise the carrying out of those orders, since the consultant, Dr. Becker-Freyseng could not possibly accomplish this task of supervision, in view of the multitude of his other duties and of the increasing transportation difficulties.
On the other hand, control had been rendered necessary by the strict regulations concerning the use of manpower and material.
"6) Among the files handed over to me were the order for research given to the Strassbourg hygienist Prof. Dr. Eugen Haagen. As far as I remember, they were concerned with the production of typhus, yellow fever and influence vaccines. As far as I remember they were dated some years back (about 1940 or 1941), and, at Hagen's request, were extended annually. The order for the production of yellow fever vaccine was cancelled at the end of 1911 since there was no further demand for it.
"At the written request of Attorney Dr. Hans Marx I expressly declare that neither from the orders from research given to Prof. Hagen, which had been handed to me, nor from Hagen's reports on his activities in connection with those orders, nor from any information given to me either when those files were handed to me or on any other occasion have I been led, directly, or indirectly, to conclude that Hagen carried out human experiments in a concentration camp, which were concerned with artificial infection with typhus or with any other disease.
"7) The orders for research or production given to Prof. Hagen were of a purely bacteriological nature and were therefore actually dealt with by the appropriate consulting hygienist. The Referat of Aviation Medicine of which Dr. Becker-Freyseng was a member, was not charged with the actual execution of the work in accordance with those research orders which did not come within the scope of "aviation medicine", but was only concerned with the formal, administrative, financial and supply questions connected with research assignment.
All research orders bore the file number "55" which was a number allotted purely for filing purposes to the Referat of Aviation Medicine. This Referat had the reference number "2-II-A."
There follows the signature and the certification.
Witness, in conclusion of this question of typhus I may summarize that you have said that from a factual point of view you never had anything to do with dealing with typhus questions. Secondly, you said that up to the time you took over the Referat in the year of 1944 you had nothing at all to do with these research assignments in bacteriological fields, even formally. Thirdly that from no documents, from no converstations, and from no reports you received, did you know whether and to what extent experiments on human beings were carried out in connection with typhus and yellow fever, or anything else. Did I understand you correctly?
A. Yes, that is correct.
Q. Mr. President, there are only a few short questions in,connection with yellow fever, of which the prosecution has made an issue. I think that I can finish that by 11:00 o'clock. I should be grateful to the Tribunal if they permitted me to conclude that question.
THE PRESIDENT: I think the Tribunal should follow its custom of taking a recess at this time. Counsel may proceed with the matter at 11:00 o'clock.
The Tribunal will now be in recess for a few minutes.
(A recess was taken)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
THE PRESIDENT: The clerk will return this photostat to the counsel. Counsel nay proceed.
Q. Dr. Becker, now we come to a few more points with which you arc charged. You were accused orally with experiments in influenza. It was only mentioned. I have not been able to find any documents referring to influenza, therefore, I only ask you did you know of any experiments in the field of influenza at any time anywhere?
A. No.
Q. Witness, you are also charged with participation in experiments in cholera, typhoid, para-typhoid and similar things. The only document which the Prosecution has submitted on this subject --
MR.HARDY: May it please the Tribunal, to simplify the issue the Prosecution will at this time withdraw charges against BeckerFreyseng concerning yellow fever, smallpox, para-typhus A and B, cholera, and diptheria, - not typhus.
THE PRESIDENT: The Secretary General will note for the record the withdrawal of those changes, and counsel for the Prosecution will file with the Secretary General and serve upon opposing counsel a written statement of the charges which are withdrawn.
DR. TIPP: May I ask, Hr. Hardy, do you also withdraw yellow fever?
MR. HARDY: Yellow fever, smallpox, para-typhus A & B, cholera, diptheria.
DR. TIPP: Yellow fever is also withdrawn?
MR. HARDY: In other words, all the other charges to the defendant Becker-Freyseng, yellow fever, small pox, para-typhus A & B, cholera, diptheria, and sulphanilamide which we withdrew before will be withdrawn by the Prosecution.
DR. TIPP: Mr. President, in view of this statement I have no further questions. The only point remaining for discussion is the change of sea water, and this will be dealt with by Dr. Marx, the defendant counsel for Dr. Becker-Freyseng.
I should like to give a brief technical explanation. The witness Haagen is here. I have been only able to talk to him briefly. I can say that he will be called as a defense witness for Dr. Schroeder and Becker-Freyseng, after the examination of this defendant. I shall submit this in writing to the Secretary General.
THE PRESIDENT: Very well, counsel. Counsel for the defendant Becker-Freyseng, Dr. Marx, may proceed.
BY DR. MARX:
Q With the permission of the Tribunal I shall now begin the examination of the defendant, Dr. Becker-Freyseng, on the question of seawater. Witness, we now come to the final charge against you. You are charged with special responsibility for and participation in the seawater experiments carried out in the concentration camp Dachau, the experiments to test two procedures for making sea water drinkable. Witness, you were actually involved in planning experiments as a Referent; will you please tell the Tribunal how these experiments came about?
A The problem of combatting thirst in cases of distress at sea up until 1942 was not settled either in Germany or in any other country, at least not with much success. Just as in other countries, there was a small supply of water in the German emergency equipment, but it was inadequate in most cases. The office responsible for equipping airplanes with emergency equipment was that of the Technical Office of the Luftwaffe. When German planes were used in the Mediterranean area, and over the Atlantic, the cases of distress at sea increased and also the cases of severe thirst and complaints from the crews.
In my previous testimony, I have already said that one of my main duties as Assistant Referent in the Referat for Aviation Medicine was that I had to work on from between three hundred to four hundred reports. In the reports from the Luftwaffe doctors in the flying formations in 1941 and 1942 I found an increasing number of reports of cases of distress at sea from the Mediterranean area from units which flew over the Atlantic. When severe thirst had come about the danger for the fliers in these sub-tropical and sometimes tropical areas was that they were not exposed to the cold, like their comrades in the North Sea area and the area around England, but they were exposed for days at a time to the heat of the sun and consequently to thirst.
I had personal scientific connections with this field. From 1935 to 1938 I had worked on questions of water and salt myself, although not with this definite aim of combatting thirst.
Of course, I wondered how this problem could be solved. I discussed with the Referent Professor Anthony and at my suggestion, or rather our suggestion, in the spring, perhaps in April of 1942, Dr. Konrad Schaefer was given the assignment to see to it that the thirst problem was dealt with scientifically. For this purpose, he was sent to the Aviation Medical Research Institute in Berlin.
Q Witness, do you know that Dr. Schaefer in October of 1942 at the Nurnberg conference "Sea and Winter Distress" made a lecture on combatting thirst in distress at sea?
A Yes, I heard this lecture. Of course, it was simply a lecture based on his reading, because Dr. Schaefer had not performed any experiments himself at that time.
Q Then, to your knowledge, up to the fall of 1942, Dr. Schaefer had not performed any experiments on human beings himself?
A Neither on human beings or on animals, as far as I know. This lecture was simply a lecture based on his reading on the subject.
Q Now, what happened after this meeting; how did the matter develop?
A In the winter of 1942-43 and in 1943? Dr. Schaefer worked on this problem Intensively. First of all, he made physiological tests on how thirst was caused. It is remarkable that a thing which seems so simple and primitive to a layman, thirst, from the scientific and theoretical point of view was not settled at that time and is not completely settled even today. Dr. Schaefer performed many annual experiments and also self experiments on four or five of his technical assist ants, who volunteered for this purpose. I should like to point out that these technical assistants went without water and food completely for four days, at the same time being able to carry on their full laboratory work.
The second way that Dr. Schaefer took was a purely chemical test or development.
He tried to discover a sea-distress food as good as possible. Without going into detail, I shall state briefly that most foods which we eat are burned in the body and become carbonic acid and water. In normal food about 300 cc of water are created daily in the body. It is possible to compose the food in such a way as to change and prepare foods chemically in such a way that this amount of water in the body is even increased. That was one purpose of Schaefer's tests and on his suggestion two research assignments were issued to two research workers in Prague. That you cannot find these two men on the list, which has been discussed at length, is because this assignment was given in the fall of 1944 after this list was drawn up. Also Dr. Schaefer developed a method to make sea water drinkable. Sea water has about 3% salts, about 2.7% table salt and about 0.2% magnesium sulphate, also small amounts of other salts, which are not important.
The table salt is important especially because it is the salt which causes or can cause thirst, and the magnesium sulphate is important because it can cause diarrhea. This diarrhetic effect of magnesium sulphate has a certain significance in this trial. This is causedonly after a certain amount has been take. For example, if sea water is taken, diarrhea is caused only if the individual dose, that is, the amount taken at one time, is at least 300 or 400 cc. In purely scientific collaboration with a research laboratory of the I.G. Farben Industry Dr. Schaefer worked out a procedure, and for the first time in the history of humanity it was possible that sea water could be made drinkable even under the conditions prevailing in a lifeboat. In the meantime I have become acquainted with a procedure developed by an American scientist, but I can still uphold this statement which I have just made because through my knowledge the procedure developed by Dr. Schaefer is the Only one which at the same time removes the table salt and the magnesium sulphate. Dr. Schaefer had finished developing the procedure in about November 1943 and in the first days of December 1943 he demonstrated it in my presence to a small group of people, including the Medical Inspector, Professor Hippke, and Oberstingenieur Christensen of the Technical Office, the man responsible for introducing such a piece of equipment into the emergency equipment.
Schaefer's procedure gained general recognition at the time and Oberstingenieur Christensen promised the Medical Inspector, Professor Hippke, that this procedure would be introduced. In December 1943 he issued a so-called development assignment to the I.G. Farben Industry in order to have the last technical details worked out more quickly and preparations made for large-scale production before the beginning of the summer of 1944, if possible. This settled the whole matter for me. As this trial shows, it was unfortunately not settled.
Q. Now, witness, how did it happen that the matter was taken up again?
A. In January, February, up to the middle of April, 1944 I had a leave to do some scientific work, to carry out some experimental work of my own, and I hardly had any contact during this time with Professor Anthony.
When on the 16th of April 1944 I reported back to the office and took up my work, I heard to my great astonishment that in the meantime in Vienna a second procedure had been developed to make sea water drinkable by an engineer named Berka, and that a former Oberstarzt in the Luftwaffe, Dr. Von Serany, had tested this method in experiments on soldiers of the Luftwaffe in a Luftwaffe hospital in Vienna. Professor Anthony had heard about this story and had Dr. Schaefer go to Vienna and work with this procedure and with Serany's experiments, but unfortunately he had simply told the Technical Office that there was a second procedure and had not taken any further interest in the matter. Since between the 15th of April and the 15th of May I had taken over the affairs of the Referat - Anthony was to leave on the 15th of May - I immediately suggested that the original records from Mr. Von Serany should be sent for. I saw these records about the end of April. I looked through these records myself and suggested to my department chief that they should be shown to Dr. Schaefer and his opinion on them asked for, and on the basis of Schaefer's opinion and my own opinion we came to the conclusion that the Berka method was to be rejected under all conditions; and so in the first days of May 1944 a very definite rejection was given to the Technical Office. I shall go into the reasons for our rejection later. On the basis of our rejection almost exactly three years ago, on the 19th or 20th of May 1944, the Technical Office called a conference on the subject, and my department chief ordered me to go to it, and also ordered that Dr. Schaefer was to participate in the discussion as an expert in the field.
Q. Witness, I now come to the first document on the subject. I show to you from Document Book 5, page 10 of the German, page 9 of the English, Document NO-184, Prosecution Exhibit 132. This is a letter from the Technical Office to the Reichsfuehrer SS, dated 15 May 1944. I ask you, witness, did you know that in the question of making sea water drinkable there had been close contact between the Technical Office of the Reich Air Ministry and the Reichsfuehrer SS from the end of 1943 at the latest?