. NMT02-T0236
Volume II · Page 236
the bone, muscle and nerve regeneration and bone transplantation experiment; hence, it will not be considered further.
The defendant Rudolf Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the SS in 1935. In approximately ten years he rose to the rank of SS colonel. He is one of the three defendants in the case who is not a physician. From the commencement of his career in the Nazi organization until his capture by the Allied Forces in 1945 he was directly subordinate to and closely associated with the leader of the SS, Heinrich Himmler, and he had full knowledge of his chief's personal and official interests and activities.
To Himmler, Rudolf Brandt was first of all an important and trusted clerical assistant. The record shows him to have been an unusually proficient stenographer. That is the road by which he finally arrived at a position of considerable power and authority as personal Referent on Himmler's Personal Staff, Ministerial Counsellor in the Ministry of the Interior, and a member of the Ahnenerbe. Acting for Himmler during his absences, Rudolf Brandt, in these positions, had a tremendous opportunity to and did exercise personal judgment and discretion in many serious and important matters.
HIGH-ALTITUDE EXPERIMENTS
These experiments extended from March to August 1942 Their details are dealt with elsewhere in this judgment. A portion of the evidence in this specification consists of correspondence between the defendant Rudolf Brandt and various others in the German military service who were personally engaged in, or were closely connected with, the physical details of the experiments performed. The correspondence just previously mentioned was admitted in evidence, is well authenticated, and even standing alone, without additional oral testimony — of which there was also plenty — is deemed amply sufficient to disclose beyond reasonable doubt that except for the sanction and diligent cooperation of the defendant Rudolf Brandt, or someone occupying his position, the high-altitude experiments mentioned in the indictment could not have been conducted.
Taken altogether, the evidence on this item discloses that during the period between March and August 1942, certain medical experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp in Germany for the benefit of the German Air Force, to determine the limits of human endurance and existence at extremely high altitudes. Various human beings, unwillingly, and entirely without their consent, were required and compelled to, and did participate in the aforesaid experiments as subjects thereof. The
