. NMT02-T0275
Volume II · Page 275
or that he knew that experiments which Rascher might conduct in the future would be illegal and criminal.
There appear to have been two distinct groups of prisoners used in the experimental series. One was a group of 10 to 15 inmates known in the camp as "exhibition patients" or "permanent experimental subjects". Most, if not all, of these were German nationals who were confined in the camp as criminal prisoners. These men were housed together and were well-fed and reasonably contented. None of them suffered death or injury as a result of the experiments. The other group consisted of 150 to 200 subjects picked at random from the camp and used in the experiments without their permission. Some 70 or 80 of these were killed during the course of the experiments.
The defendants Ruff and Romberg maintain that two separate and distinct experimental series were carried on at Dachau; one conducted by them with the use of the "exhibition subjects", relating to the problems of rescue at high altitudes, in which no injuries occurred; the other conducted by Rascher on the large group of nonvolunteers picked from the camp at random, to test the limits of human endurance at extremely high altitudes, in which experimental subjects in large numbers were killed.
The prosecution submits that no such fine distinction may be drawn between the experiments said to have been conducted by Ruff and Romberg, on the one hand, and Rascher on the other, or in the prisoners who were used as the subjects of these experiments; that Romberg — and Ruff as his superior — share equal guilt with Rascher for all experiments in which deaths to the human subjects resulted.
In support of this submission the members of the prosecution cite the fact that Rascher was always present when Romberg was engaged in work at the altitude chamber; that on at least three occasions Romberg was at the chamber when deaths occurred to the so-called Rascher subjects, yet elected to continue the experiments. They point likewise to the fact that, in a secret preliminary report made by Rascher to Himmler which tells of deaths, Rascher mentions the name of Romberg as being a collaborator in the research. Finally they point to the fact that, after the experiments were concluded, Romberg was recommended by Rascher and Sievers for the War Merit Cross, because of the work done by him at Dachau.
The issue on the question of the guilt or innocence of these defendants is close; we would be less than fair were we not to concede this fact. It cannot be denied that there is much in the record to create at least a grave suspicion that the defendants Ruff and Romberg were implicated in criminal experiments at
