. NMT02-T0249
Volume II · Page 249
From 1 September 1939 until sometime in 1941, Poppendick was on active duty in the army as a surgeon. During the latter year he resumed his duties with the Race and Settlement Office in Berlin. Between 1939 and 1943, he performed some duties as a member of the staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police, Dr. Grawitz, taking care of special assignments.
In the fall of 1943 Poppendick was made Chief of the Personal Office of Grawitz, which position he retained until the end of the war.
FREEZING EXPERIMENTS
The evidence is that Poppendick gained knowledge of the freezing experiments conducted by Rascher at Dachau, as the result of a conference held between Rascher, Grawitz, and Poppendick on 13 January 1943 for the purpose of discussing certain phases of the research. The evidence does not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Poppendick was criminally connected with these experiments.
MALARIA EXPERIMENTS
The prosecution contends that Poppendick is criminally responsible for the malaria experiments conducted by Dr. Schilling at Dachau. Dr. Ploetner was engaged in the malaria experiments as a subordinate of Schilling. Sievers' Diary, which is in evidence, contains a notation that on 23 May 1944 Grawitz, Poppendick, Ploetner, and Sievers held a conference, which had probably been arranged by Poppendick three days previously by telephone. The subject of the conference is not disclosed by the diary entry, but it appears elsewhere in the diary that on 31 May 1944 Grawitz sanctioned Ploetner's collaboration with Schilling.
Poppendick testified as a witness on his own behalf that he had heard that Schilling was carrying on special investigations at Dachau concerning immunity from malaria. He stated further that his knowledge of the nature of the investigations went no further. The record does not contradict his testimony.
The Tribunal finds that the evidence does not disclose beyond a reasonable doubt that Poppendick was criminally connected with the malaria experiments.
SULFANILAMIDE EXPERIMENTS
Poppendick attended the Third Meeting of Consulting Surgeons at the Military Medical Academy, Berlin, and heard lectures by Gebhardt and Fischer concerning the sulfanilamide experiments, which have been discussed elsewhere in this, judgment. Under
