. NMT02-T0285
Volume II · Page 285
[fur-] ...nished by Himmler, were to be volunteers. The entire language of the letter, which was written to Himmler asking for experimental subjects, entirely refutes such implication.
The evidence shows conclusively that gypsies of various nationalities were used as experimental subjects. They were former inmates of Auschwitz who had been tricked into coming to Dachau under the promise that they were to be used in a special labor battalion. When they arrived at Dachau they were detailed to the sea-water experiments without their voluntary consent being asked or given.
During the course of the experiment many of the experimental subjects were treated brutally and endured much pain and suffering.
It is apparent from the evidence that Becker-Freyseng was criminally connected with the experiments, and that the experiments were essentially criminal in their nature. To the extent that the crimes committed by him or under his authority were not war crimes, they were crimes against humanity.
CONCLUSION
Military Tribunal I finds and adjudges the defendant Hermann Becker-Freyseng guilty under counts two and three of the indictment.
The defendant Schaefer is charged under counts two and three of the indictment with personal responsibility for and participation in Sea-Water Experiments.
Konrad Schaefer was a scientist whose special field of research was chemical therapy. In November 1941 he was drafted into the Luftwaffe. In spring of the following year he was transferred to the Luftwaffe Replacement Depot in Salow, and from there to the Luftwaffe base at Frankfurt on the Oder. In summer of 1942 he was transferred to Berlin and assigned to the staff of the Research Institute for Aviation Medicine. His chief assignment at the Institute was to do research on the problem of sea emergency for the Luftwaffe. This included research work on various methods to render sea water potable. Schaefer remained in his position at the Institute without ever having attained officer rank.
In May of 1944 the defendant was ordered to be present at a meeting to be held at the German Air Ministry in Berlin, called to consider further research on making sea water potable. Some months previous to the meeting Schaefer had developed a process
