NMT01-T792
Volume I · Page 792
A. This motive is not correct. The contrary can clearly be seen from my letter. In that connection I may refer to my previous explanation regarding my letter. Furthermore, I refer to the affidavit of Dr. Gundermann. (Blome 1, Blome Ex. 8.) My interest was exactly the contrary to what the prosecution tries to impute to me, for I was planning the very same thing for Germany after the war. If I had been able to carry through such an action, and had been able to show success in that action, it would have been easier for me later on to refer to the plans mentioned during the Tuberculosis Congress of 1937 by pointing out the success I had achieved in the Warthegau. Even today I realize that until we are able to bring about really effective medical treatment, or vaccination against the spread of tuberculosis, the only really practicable and effective solution is the creation of such settlement areas or reservations.
Q. Dr. Blome, from your book, entitled "Physician in Combat", which has been submitted in evidence in its entirety as Blome Exhibit 1, it can be seen that for quite a long time you had waged war against tuberculosis. Can you tell us on the basis of your experiences whether these proposals which you made in your letter of 18 December 1942 — that is, either housing the sick in tuberculosis institutions, or placing the consumptives in a reservation area — whether these suggestions were completely different from the manner of combating tuberculosis as practiced in various foreign countries up to that time, or, if not tuberculosis, other infectious diseases of the same importance as tuberculosis?
A. Naturally the plan to set up a tuberculosis settlement on a large scale does not represent anything absolutely new, because, as can be seen from the documents submitted regarding the Tuberculosis Congress, such tuberculosis settlements had existed in England and Holland in addition to Germany, with good results; but, on the other hand, the realization of this settlement idea would make an enormous difference to fight against tuberculosis generally. The war difficulties that existed in 1942 and 1943 did not permit this plan to be realized as suggested by me for the Warthegau. The fight against tuberculosis continued, however, in the usual way, as far as it was possible during the war, and as it was dealt with throughout the Reich for Germans as well.
In other countries, other experiments were made. For instance in the year 1935 certain well-known people in the city of Detroit, in America, made a large-scale experiment for the combat of tuberculosis. After preparations were made the entire population of Detroit was asked, by means of enormous propaganda by press and radio, to submit to an examination for tuberculosis, in order to find out the source of the infection. The city of Detroit had made the necessary facilities available for carrying out the examination and a certain
