. NMT02-T0295
Volume II · Page 295
Regarding her connection with both the sulfanilamide and the bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration and bone transplantation experiments, the same facts are applicable as were presented in the cases of the defendants Fischer and Gebhardt. Fischer and Oberheuser were Gebhardt's active agents in carrying out these experiments. They did a great deal of the actual work. They personally committed atrocities involved in the experiments.
A few facts produced in evidence regarding the special work of defendant Oberheuser in these experiments are entitled to comment.
Oberheuser was thoroughly aware of the nature and purpose of the experiments. She aided in the selection of the subjects, gave them physical examinations, and otherwise prepared them for the operation table. She was present in the operating room at the time of the operations and assisted in the operational procedures. She faithfully cooperated with Gebhardt and Fischer at the conclusion of each operation by deliberately neglecting the patients so that the wounds which had been given the subjects would reach the maximum degree of infection.
Testimony of the witness Sofia Maczka, an X-ray technician in the camp at Ravensbrueck, is that deaths occurred among the experimental subjects. Most of these deaths could have been averted by proper post-operative care, proper treatment, or by the amputation of badly infected members.
In one instance — the case of a Krystina Dabska — small pieces of bone were cut from both legs of the subject. Witness Maczka testified that she read on the cast of the patient that on one leg periosteum had been left and on the other leg periosteum had been removed together with bone. Because she was of the opinion that the purpose of the experiment had been to check regeneration, the witness asked the defendant Oberheuser, "How do you expect to get regeneration of bone if the bones are removed with periosteum?" To this the defendant replied, "That is just what we want to check."
Nonconsenting non-German nationals were used in at least some of the experiments. Many of them died as a result of the experiments. To the extent that the crimes committed were not war crimes, they were crimes against humanity.
CONCLUSION
Military Tribunal I finds and adjudges that the defendant Herta Oberheuser is guilty under counts two and three of the indictment.
