NMT01-T492
Volume I · Page 492
experiments could by no means be called inhumane or brutal and consequently we didn't approach the experiments in too tragic a manner. All we wanted to know was how unpleasant such an experiment was.
EXAMINATION BY THE TRIBUNAL
PRESIDING JUDGE BEALS: Professor, these subjects upon whom you conducted an experiment in your institute were very excellent subjects for such an experiment, were they not?
WITNESS VOLLHARDT: They were characterized by the fact that they were medical men who understood the meaning of the experiment and that I could rely on them. Physically, they certainly were no better-conditioned, according to the photographs at least, than those rather well nourished experimental subjects.
Q. I was not thinking so much of their physical condition, but they were men who were interested in this work, were they not?
A. Yes.
Q. The results of the experiment — each upon himself and upon each of his associates — would be interesting to each one, would it not? Is that not true?
A. I would assume so, yes,
Q. Each one was entirely controlling his own participation in the experiment, was he not?
A. Yes.
Q. If, at any time, any one of the subjects felt that the conditions which he was undergoing in the experiment were becoming too heavy for him, he would have been released from further participation upon his request, would he not?
A. No doubt he would have reported and he would have said, "I want to step out. This is too much for me."
Q. That's what I meant. He would have asked to be released and he would have been immediately released? Well, is it or is it not a fact that a human being will voluntarily undergo hunger, thirst, pain, discomfort, and stand it better when he knows that he is doing it under his own volition with a scientific objective, than a person of equal physical condition will stand such an experiment when, insofar as he is concerned, he has no personal interest whatsoever?
A. No doubt that is correct, and I am perfectly convinced that Professor Eppinger tried everything he could in order to obtain such volunteers. He was most uncomfortable about the fact that these experiments were carried out in Dachau. He would much rather have seen them carried out in Vienna on his own students but, at that time, there weren't any students any more. They had all been called up, and medical officers were very scarce so that there was no question
