Dr. Schaefer was bitterly disappointed by this news and he openly expressed his opinion about this. The chances of success of this attempt were discussed again."
I continue after two paragraphs:
"Dr. Schaefer was completely against all militarism in the medical field. While he was called up he hardly ever wore uniform, at least I hardly ever saw him in it. He was strongly against the use of specialist physicians as troop physicians and the use of practical physicians as specialist physicians, respectively, as because of t heir lack of experience they did not meet the requitements of their duties. According to all my observations and experiences, I must say that Dr. Schaefer had an ethical conception of the medical profession, i.e., to be a helper of his fellow men.
"Dr. Schaefer remarked that Germany would never win the war.
"On occasional visits Dr. Schaefer imitated Adolf Hitler perfectly for general amusement. He pulled part of his hair over his face and imitated his method of speech, his voice and gestures and made Hitler incredibly ridiculous."
The document continues under the same Exhibit No. 6, it reads as follows:
17 February, 1947.
"I, Emilia Rahenbrock, "I would like to add the following to my statement of 30 January 1947:
"On the occasion of a conversation referring to an announcement circulated by the then chief physician, Dr. Conti, I asked Dr. Schaefer whether he and his wife would not have to visit this organization too, as the requested stated. Dr. Schafer replied that this 'association of idiots' would not be visited by any decent physician and certainly not by him and his wife."
The next document No. 6, will be Exhibit 7, oh page 16, by Johannes Nowak, Hamburg:
"I have known Dr. Konrad Schaefer for many years. I met him one day in Berlin at the bookshop of Ernst Doenig through a mutual friend, Mrs.
Erika Koenig. Dr. Schaefer at that time was juniorphysician in the Luftwaffe; in the ensuing conversation he expressed his hatred and antipathy for the Nazi regime. After that I frequently met Dr. Schaefer at the bookshop and at other meetings he expressed his great disgust about the regime, especially a bout the treatment of Russian prisoners of war and Jews and the drafting of juveniles and women into the armed services, so that I had to warn him, since h e was wearing uniform, not to be so careless as to endanger both of us.
I must emphasize that neither Dr. Schaefer nor Mrs. Koenig know that I was not of aryan descent so that he could not have talked against the Nazis so adversely just to please me. Our common hatred for the dictatorship Led to a genuine friendship and after I had to flee from Berlin I met Dr. Schaefer here in Hamburg where he expressed his happiness about the end and told me that now at last he could work as a free man and live for his research work. Dr. Schaefer is a great idealist who respects human like above everything and whose views are known to me as definitely antinazi."
English Document No. 7 German #27 will be Exhibit No. 8, pages 17 and 18, page 65-66 of the German "Erwin Schulz, Berlin-Gatow.
"I have known Dr. Schaefer since 1941 and frequently met him as I was in charge of and looked after his sailing boat. Since I frequently spoke with Dr. Schaefer about the Hitler regime and the National Socialist ideology, I can but say Dr. Schaefer could not possibly have thought and acted along Nazi lines. He also knew that I listened together with foreign civil workers to English news broadcasts; he warned me to be careful as it might cost me my head. During his leave we listened together to foreign broadcasts. I was never able to detect Nazi tendencies during the ensuing discussions. I looked up Dr. Schaefer when I was drafted into the Navy at the end of 1944 to ask for his advice. He gave me the following instructions as to how to conduct myself. I should wait until the day of my drafting, then call a doctor and pretend that I was suffering from ischias. Dr. Schaefer explained to me exactly how I should act. With his help I was able to succeed in this deception so that I was released from military duty. If necessary, I can produce witnesses in this matter, Mrs. Dr. Glatzel, Spandau, Jaczowweg, Amtsarzt, Dr. Franzmeier, Spandau, as well as Mr. Franz Pycha, Spandau, Weinmeisterhorn, The latter can also testify to our listening to news broadcasts.
"My political feelings are well known and established facts in the district in which I live, that I thought and acted as a Socialist before and during the Nazi period. Proof: my absolute opposition to military duty, my refusal of war work and my membership in the Legion for Human Rights."
Document 8, page 19, will be Exhibit No. 9. It comes from Erich Lehmann, chemist, Hannover-Herrenhausen. I shall read many excerpts.
"I have known Dr. med. Konrad SCHAEFER for about 10 years. He had been recommended to me in professional circles as being well acquainted with pharmacology and as being an important scientific chemist.
At that time I was working on the Enzyme preparations which had just been introduced, and I was in need of an absolutely reliable medical man with the above-mentioned reputation to assist me with control experiments.
"In the many years during which I was permitted to work together with Dr. SCHAEFER, the specialized knowledge mentioned above was proved to the full. Our scientific work led to a very close friendship, so that I was able to gain a deep insight into his human and political views.
"I personally have been a Socialist for many years. I subscribed to this conviction even before the first World War, and I am a member of the German Social-Democratic Party. Owing to my political views I was violently opposed to the Nazis from the very beginning. During the World War of 1914/18 I served on the Western Front from the start until I was seriously wounded in the fall of 1917, and I was a confirmed pacifist when returning to my civilian occupation. I therefore was delighted to find in Dr. SCHAEFER a man who shared my views and who, in full agreement with me, disapproved of National Socialism and all it stood for. We agreed just as much on the subject of war and its consequences. SCHAEFER was a dyed-in-the wool pacifist. I do not think that until then SCHAEFER had ever known hatred; but he hated National Socialism with an unbelievably strong hatred and used to damn the system to hell.
"We often used to discuss those outrageous terrorist and dictatorial measures. At such times SCHAEFER used to express himself in the most violent terms against the despots. How often did we air the question, whether it would not be possible somehow to eliminate these bandits, in spite of every things.
"Dr. SCHAEFER consistently rejected the Nazi racial theory. When SCHAEFER was called into the army at some later date we were separated for a short time; however, Schaefer often wrote and told me about his life with the "Prussians". I could tell from the thing she wrote how difficult it was for him to adjust himself to the blind Prussian discipline.
When Schaefer then was ordered back to Berlin, it always pleased me to see that he never wore uniform when in my company. He hated the army and the uniform as much as he hated National Socialism."
I skip the next two paragraphs.
"Publications by Jewish authors, even works which contained only brief references to such, were banned by the NSDAP starting from 1939. I had, at that time, to run through our whole archive in Berlin in order to sort out and dispose of all Jewish works on the subjects of medicine, chemistry and pharmacology. There was not a journal or review which would accept such articles, even excerpts of them for publication."
In order to explain this testimony, I offer Document Schaefer 38 as 10.
THE PRESIDENT: Before proceeding with this, the Court will be in recess for a few minutes.
(A recess was taken.)
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel may proceed.
DR. MARX: (Defense Counsel for the defendant Becker-Freyseng): Mr. President, I ask permission to make an explanation. The man called as an expert for professor Schroeder, Becker-Freyseng and Beiglboeck, professor Dr. Volhardt, from Frankfurt, who was approved by the Tribunal, has now arrived, professor Volhardt is a scholar and scientist of international repute. Therefore, what he has to say will be of general interest and perhaps it will be very decisive in deciding the outcome of this trial and the evaluation of these three defendants. Professor Vollhardt has only a little time at his disposal He is the Director of the University Clinic for Internal Medicine of the University of Frankfurt and must return on Wednesday to attend a scientific conference. I therefore ask the Tribunal to permit Professor Vollhardt to testify tomorrow morning at the beginning of the session so that he can testify as an export.
THE PRESIDENT: Has the prosecution any objection?
MR. HARDY: The prosecution has no objection, Your Honor, but the prosecution would like to know substantially what this witness is going to testify to. Whether it will be the sea water experiments or other experiments.
THE PRESIDENT: Will counsel advise the prosecution as to the specific matters of the proposed witness's testimony?
DR. MARX: Mr. President, this expert will testify for us primarily regarding the sea water experiments. Perhaps, in addition, he will make a general statement regarding experiments on human beings, but that is not absolutely necessary and, in the main, he will confine himself to the points regarding sea water experiments.
THE PRESIDENT: Will defense counsel, as soon as possible, furnish a statement of the witness. The usual written statement that the witness will be called?
DR. MARX: Mr. President, I don't believe that that is expedient since the expert will testify here before the Tribunal. Questions are to be asked of this expert...
THE PRESIDENT: (Interrupting); I referred simply to the usual typewritten statement that such-and-such a witness will be called for certain defendants.
DR. MARX: We applied through the Secretary-General and the witness has been approved for Schroeder, BeckerFreyseng and, so far as I know, for Dr. Steinbauer for Dr. Beiglboeck.
THE PRESIDENT: That will be satisfactory. The witness will be heard tomorrow morning at the opening of the Tribunal, but this usual form that the witness will be called at such a time should be filed for the records of the Tribunal. Counsel will have no difficulty in procuring that form.
DR. MARX: Very well, Your Honor.
MR. McHANEY: May it please the Tribunal, I am advised and believe that the expert witness to be called tomorrow will testify from original German documents or, at least, alleged original documents, concerning the sea water experiments. That is to say the defendant Beiglboeck has, in his possession, original charts and records concerning the experiments which he carried out in Dachau. If the witness is to testify concerning those original records and is to base his testimony upon them, I think that they will have to be introduced into evidence tomorrow so that ho will testify concerning those documents.
The prosecution has not received any copies of those original documents. I think we're entitled to them in order to be able to formulate our own questions to put to the witness and to permit our experts to study the originals. We're also entitled to twenty-four hours' notice on any documents which are to be submitted. I therefore request that, if it is true that this expert is to base his testimony upon alleged clinical reports prepared by Beiglboeck at Dachau, that they be produced today in their original form and presented to the prosecution.
THE PRESIDENT: Any original documents concerning which the witness will testify should be filed in the office of the Secretary General where they may be examined by counsel of the prosecution. If copies are available, copies should be furnished the prosecution today, but if copies are not available, the original documents should be filed in the office of the Secretary General.
DR. STEINBAUER: (Defense counsel for the defendant Beiglboeck): Mr. President, at great trouble to myself, I have found the originals of the records of these experiments and on the 20th of January I showed them to the expert of the prosecution, Dr. Alexander, in the presence of an American professor who was a specialist in this field, Professor Ivy, and both these men have returned the documents to me. There upon, I made them available to Professor Volhardt and I hope he will return them to mo at noon and, at that time, I shall turn them over to the Secretary General. Thus, it will be possible to show them to the prosecution. However, it is impossible for me to make copies of these because a groat many of them are just notes, partly charts and graphs and such things which it is technically impossible to reproduce.
However, as I said the experts for the prosecution have already seen those documents.
MR. McHANEY: Well, of course, if the documents are in the possession of the expert they can't be made available today and we will not interpose any objection to calling the witness tomorrow. But, at the same time, we will require that we be furnished copies, which can be photostated very simply, for future Study. I do not think it is true that we have seen all the originals of these documents. I am advised that Dr. Steinbauer even has the names of the people who were subjected to these experiments, yet I find no reflection of those documents in the document books so far submitted for the defendant Beiglboeck and, of course, it is quite important for the prosecution to have that information.
THE PRESIDENT: Counsel for the defendant Beiglboeck stated that these documents might be available to him at noon today and if they are, he will file them with the office for the Secretary General whore they may be examined by the prosecution.
Counsel for the defendant Schaefer may proceed.
Just a moment.
THE PRESIDENT: I would like to address counsel for defendant Beigelbock. It was the intention of the Tribunal to instruct counsel that all of these documents, whatever they are, as soon as they arrive should be filed with the office of the Secretary General to be available to the Prosecution. That refers to all the available documents. Does counsel understand that?
DR. STEINBAUER: A part of these documents are already included in my document books Nos. 2 and 2, which will be put in evidence when the Beigelbock case comes up.
THE PRESIDENT: Of course. these documents that are available in Beigelbock's document book need not be filed in the Office of the Secretary General. They are already there.
DR. STEINBAUER: However, it is not necessary, for instance, in order to understand this whole matter for me to put in the names of the experimental subjects. It is quite enough for me to put in the numbers, However, we have nothing to conceal and nothing to hide. It is not necessary that the names of these unfortunate persons, who perhaps are still alive, should be made public here so that they are available to the press. I was a decent human being, feel myself obligated in the way in which the sterilized Polish subjects were protected from unpleasant publicity, I feel that the names of these people also should be kept from being made public. But if the Tribunal wishes I'll submit the list.
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal sees no comparison between these experiments and such experiments as those that were conducted by way of sterilization. If the proposed witness is to testify from documents containing the names of witnesses, then those documents should be filed in the office of the Secretary General with the others. If the subjects were not harmed by these experiments then there can he no harm to them if their names ere mentioned from the witness stand and nothing will be lost with a few hours delay in making these names available.
DR. STEINBAUER. Very well. Counsel for defendant Schaefer may proceed.
DR. PELCKMANN: Your Honor. I had read Exhibit 9 in part. In this exhibit Mr. Lehmann certified that the publications of Jewish authors were strictly forbidden b the National Socialist Party, and that it was also forbidden to quote them. In this connection I put in Exhibit No. 10. That is Document 38, from which the following can be seen.
This is a scientific paper by the defendant Schaefer regarding the blood picture of white mice in experimental infections and chemical therapy. This is Document 38, and appears in the supplementary volume. The Prosecution and the Court have the document, but the interpreters do not. However, I shall not quote from it, so perhaps the interpreters can dispense with it. The work is entitled "The Blood Picture of the White Mouse in Experimental Infections and Chemotherapy," and on page 261 is a bibliography, and it is this bibliography which Dr. Schaefer appends to his work. This bibliography contains the names Levy and Loewenstein. At the conclusion of this paper there is mention of the fact that it was not possibly to print colored reproductions because of the war situation. This proves that the paper was published during the war, that is after 1939, and the witness Lehmann in his affidavit has stated that at least since 1939 it was forbidden to quote Jewish scientific papers. Document 38 will be exhibit 10. I continue now in my reading of exhibit 9, Document 8, Exhibit 9, on page 21, the third paragraph from the last:
"In my opinion Dr. Schaefer is a research scientist with unusual intellectual gifts and ideas, of whom one may still expect great things."
I shall now skip the next paragraph and read the concluding paragraph:
"In my profession as a chemist and scientific worker I may say wit out flattering myself that I have become acquainted with almost all branches of medicine; I knew clinical physicians and private practitioners almost all over Germany, and therefore I am able to form an accurate opinion on a doctor.
A doctor must, above all be an understanding human being who is able to comprehend and appreciate the needs of sick people. Only then his medical knowledge come sin. In a Hippocratic sense, Dr. Schaefer conforms to both of these conceptions. Extensive physiological learning and inexhaustible knowledge as a physician - that is Dr. Schaefer."
The next document is Document No. 9. Page 23 of the English Document Book. This will be Exhibit 11. This is a photo-copy, and on the second page of this photo-copy there is Dr. Ilse Kuntze's affidavit of 2 January 1947, part of which I shall read:
"Since the Spring of 1943 I had been working on my Doctor thesis under Doctor Conrad SCHAIFER. I have known Dr. SCHAEFER since 1936 and through his conversations with me and with others I learned to know him as a determined enemy of National Socialism. Of that period, I know too, that his refusal to join the Party or any National Socialist association compelled him to resign his appointment as assistant at the Hydro-therapeutical Institute in Berlin. He frequently voiced his anti-Nazi opinion so openly even in the presence of strangers, that we, his friends and acquaintances feared the consequences which this attitude might have for him and sometimes restrained him.
Neither by conviction nor in his bearing was he a militarist. After his draft into the Luftwaffe he accepted a position in aviationmedical research, as he himself told me at that time, only in order to be able to continue his private work at Scharing A.G. and to escape the military restrictions to which a Truppenarzt has to submit. He detested wearing uniform. He therefore usually appeared in civilian clothes and wore uniform on official occasions only. He went into the Research Institute for Aviation Medicine only in order to deliver his reports, -- I estimate that that happened every month, since he worked in the laboratories outside the Institute.
At that time I was busy preparing my doctor's thesison the molar concentration of the blood during thirst. My collaboration with SCHAEFER enabled me to see that his scientific methods were exceedingly exact and reliable. His long activity in the realm of pharmacology had accustomed him the the practice of trying out medicaments and other remedieson human beings only after they had been tested chemically, pharmacologically and in experiments on animals.
I distinctly remember the following incident in the Fall of 1943. While we were inspecting the laboratories which were put at the disposal of Dr. SCHAEFER and m. self in the Physiological Institute of the University of Berlin and discussed the preliminary results of our thirst experiments on voluntary experimental subjects, a Stabsarzt of the Wehrmacht was present, who, during a private discussion on the difficulty of procuring voluntary experimental subjects said, why not use inmates of concentration camps. Outraged, SCHAEFER rejected the idea with such emphasis that I secretly made signs to him to restrain himself since I thought SCHAEFER's remarks very hazardous, considering the rank of the Stabsarzt."
I shall read the last paragraphone another occasion.
I came now to the affidavit of Miss Ina von Boetticher. Document No. 10, page 36, of the English Document Book. This will be Exhibit 12. From this document I shall read first of ell only the last two paragraphs; page 37 and page 38 of the English Document Book, because the last of the affidavit I shall read in a different context.
"As I lived for almost two years with the Schaefer family, I was well acquainted with the political opinion of Dr. Schaefer. Right at the outset he told me that he was obliged to work in industry because he had refused to join the party and was not allowed therefore, to hold an official position. It was for this reason that he lost his last position with a University clinic and therefore could not fulfill his greatest desire of establishing himself as University lecturer.
Time and again he expressed his regret about his. Dr. Schaefer frequently had arguments and violent political discussions with Dr. Feldt who had national socialist tendencies. He was not afraid to (confess his anti Nazi views to all the other members of the department and to justify these. He actually propagated these. Mr. Kaulisch and I were much impressed by it and we have only to thank him for net joining any organization."
Document No. 11, page 39 of the English Document Book, I simply draw the attention of the Tribunal to it. It is cf the same purport as the other affidavits and it will receive Exhibit No. 13.
Finally, from Document No. 12, page 41, I should like to read one paragraph. This will be exhibit 14. In this connection, I shall read into the record only the lest paracraph. Let me say that this is an affidavit by Mrs Ursula Egloff and I quote .
"From the beginning of cur acquaintance I gathered from his remarks that Dr. Schaefer was an opponent of National Socialism. This continued through the war. Dr. Schaefer passed remarks which, as far as the ideas of that time wore concerned, were absolutely 'opposed to the state.' And it was through this attitude that ho occasionally came into conflict with our chief, Dr. Feldt, who was a convinced supporter of National Socialism."
This concludes my presentation of those documents, which I consider to be important in clarifying the defendant's political attitude and his scientific achievements. These two matters have been considered by the Prosecution important for ail the defendants, including the defendant Schaefer.
The charge that the defendant Schaefer conspired with all the other defendants is supported by the Prosecution in the charge that Schaefer occupied a high position in the Hierarchy of the Health Services in Germany ant that all the defendants know of the crimes connected because of their official contact with one another and their common medical interests. This was said on December 12th by the Prosecution at great length. In interrogating Schaefer, I shall refute this on the basis of documents in which I in delineating his official position shall prove that he was in the Institute only on rare occasions, that he took no part in the Nurnberg conference, etc.
I can dispense with discussing the defendant Schaefer's career, that is set forth in its essential points in the affidavits.
Dr. Schaefer, after you loft the Hydro-Therapeutic Institute in Berlin ...........
JUDGE SEBRING: By request of the counsel, the swearing of the witness was deferred, do you want him sworn now?
DR. PELCKMAN: Yes, Your Honor.
BY JUDGE SEBRING:
Q.- What is your name?
A.- Konrad Schaefer.
A.- Will you repeat this oath 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. PELCKMANN:Q.- Dr. Schaefer, after you left the Hydro-Therapeutic Institute in Berlin because, you refused to join the Nazi Party, what position did you take ?A.- I went to Schering Aktiangesellschaft to the Chemotherapeutical laboratory there and was under Dr. Feldt, who was chief of the laboratory at that time.
Q.- In what field did you work there during the course of the years ?
A.- In the field of chemical therapy, that is to say the examination of chemical substance to ascertain their effects on various diseases.
Q.- Did you carry out animal experiments in this connection ?
A.- Yes.
Q.- Many or few ?
A.- Many.
Q.- Did you also carry out experiments on human beings?
A.- No.
Q.- Until what year did you function in this capacity at Schering ?
A.- Until the end of the war, until the beginning of 1944 as Dr. Feldt's assistant and from then on as director of the department because during the spring of 1944 Dr. Feldt was killed in an air attack.
Q.- From March of 1944 ?
A.- Yes.
Q.- But in 1941 you entered the Luftwaffe ; is that so?
A.- Yes.
Q.- How was it possible then for you from 1941 to 1945 to hold a position at Schering ?
A.- After my period of basic training, which lasted a few tenths, I returned to Schering A.G. and I remained a soldier.
Q.- And when did you become an Unterarzt of the Luftwaffe ?
A.- In the summer of 1942.
Q.- What is an Unterarzt of the Luftwaffe ?
A.- That is one grade below a lieutenant ; in other words a sergeant.
Q.- In this context, I may point out to the court that in Document Book No. 5, Document No. 177, Exhibit No. 133, there is the minutes of the conference of 23 May 1944 and Dr. Schaefer is mentioned as a participant in this confe rence and under No. 14, Dr. Schaefer is designated in the English translation as a non-commissioned officer, which of course is not an officer.
How did you come to take up your activities in the aerial medical research institute ?
A.- In 1942, I was transferred to Jueterbog and assigned to the Research Institute for Aviation Medicine in Berlin at the same time.
Q.- You singly mention the name of Jueterbog ; what was your position there ?
A.- I was in the medical training and experimental department.
Q.- In this medical training and research department in Jueterbog what position did you occupy ?
A.- None.
Q.- How is that ?
A.- That was simply a formality at the Research Institute for Aviation Medicine, there were no military ranks or offices, only civilian offices and since I had to be officially accommodated in one way or another I was put into this or was transferred to this training and experimental department in Jueterbog, which paid my salary by money order to Berlin.
Q.- The Prosecutor, however, has assumed that there was some official connection between everybody who belonged under this table of organization to Jueterbog ; is this assump tion so and Professor Holzloehner also officially belonged to this department, does that mean you had official contact with Professor Holzloehner ?
A.- No, that assumption is entirely incorrect. I heard here that Professor Holzloehner did not work in Jueterbog either, tut mainly in Kiel. I do not know Professor Holz loehner at all nor can I even remember his person.
Q.- But, perhaps you sent reports to the Medical Training and Experimental Department ?
A.- No, that never happened.
Q.- Was there any actual connection between you and this department which could be charged against you really by the Prosecution ?
A.- None at all.
Q.- You said that you simply drew your salary from there by money order ; is that so ?
A.- Yes.
Q.- Now, to clarify this position of dr. Schaefer, I should like to put in from Document Book No. 1, Document 13, this will be Exhibit No. 15, page 42 of the English Document book. This is an affidavit from Dr. Warner Knothe of Goslar. When Becker-Freyseng was on the stand and also through an affidavit, it was ascertained that Dr. Knothe was the director of the Medical Training and Experimental Department that I must state here, because unfortunately that statement is not included in the affidavit. I shall read the document, it is very brief :
"Dr. med Konrad Schaefer, whom I hardly remember personally, was not a member of the personnel of the Medical Experimental and Training Department of the Luftwaffe and never worked in Jueterbog either. It is possible that he was assigned to the department's payroll, this I cannot remember. The Medical Inspectorate sometimes put people on the budget appropriation of the department even if actually they had nothing to do with the department. The files of those people were kept in the office of the department or in the administrative offices of the Jueterbog aerodrome for purposes of administration and pay."
Let me again draw your attention to Document 177, Exhibit No. 133. This document you will certainly remember it, Dr. Schaefer was in the list of distribution that would subsequently be sent to the experimental department in Jueterbog, if that is so, can you state whether you ever saw this document ?
A.- No, I never saw this document. That is to say that I saw it for the first time when it was shown to me during my interrogations.