. NMT02-T0208
Volume II · Page 208
The defendant Rostock is charged under counts two and three of the indictment with special responsibility for, and participation in, Malaria, Lost (Mustard) Gas, Sulfanilamide, Bone, Muscle and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation, Sea-Water, Epidemic Jaundice, and Spotted Fever Experiments.
Rostock was a physician of recognized ability. From 1933 to 1941 he occupied successively the positions of senior surgeon of the Surgical Clinic in Berlin, Professor of Surgery of the University of Berlin, and Deputy Director of the University Clinic. In 1941 he was appointed Director of the Surgical Clinic, and in 1942 he became Dean of the Medical Faculty of the University of Berlin. Prior to the war he had joined the NSDAP, and in 1939 he was assigned to military duty as a consulting surgeon. In 1942 he was appointed consulting surgeon to the Army Medical Inspectorate and was subordinate to the Military Medical Academy in Berlin. He attained the rank of brigadier general, medical department (reserve). In 1943 he was appointed Chief of the Office for Medical Science and Research, a department under the supervision of defendant Karl Brandt, in which position Rostock remained until the end of the war. From the time he received the last-mentioned appointment, Rostock acted as Brandt's deputy on the Reich Research Council.
As Karl Brandt's deputy Rostock was his agent in the field of medical science and research — Rostock being charged with the duty of coordinating and directing problems and activities concerning the medical health service insofar as science and research were concerned. Rostock was informed concerning medical research conducted by the several branches of the Wehrmacht. As head of the Office for Science and Research, he assigned research problems and designated some as "urgent". It was his duty to avoid duplication of work in scientific research and to decide whether or not a suggested problem was worthy of a research assignment. It is clear that Rostock and Karl Brandt were intimate friends of years standing.
The prosecution does not contend that Rostock personally participated in criminal experiments. It vigorously argues, however, that — with full knowledge that concentration camp inmates were being experimented upon — he continued to function upon research assignments concerning scientific investigations, the result of which would probably further experiments upon human beings. The prosecution then argues that his knowledge concerning these matters, considered together with the position of authority which he occupied in connection with scientific research and the
