War Crimes Trials: Medical Case - Taylor explains medical experiments in indictment

Identifier
irn1001605
Language of Description
English
Alt. Identifiers
  • 1993.177.1
  • RG-60.2436
Level of Description
Item
Languages
  • English
Source
EHRI Partner

Creator(s)

Scope and Content

(Munich 479) War Crimes Trials - Subsequent Trial Proceedings, Case 1 (Medical Case), Nuremberg, Germany. Brig. General Telford Taylor continues the reading of the indictment and tells of the torture and death of concentration camp inmates during the so-called "scientific experiments." HS, MS defendants in the prisoners' dock. Pan of the courtroom from defendant to Gen. Taylor reading the indictment. 04:11:06 "The victims who did not die in the course of such experiments, surely wished that they had. A long report written in July 1942 by Rascher, and by the defendants Ruff and Romberg, describes an experiment on a former delicatessen clerk, who was given an oxygen mask and raised in the chamber to an atmospheric elevation of over 47,000 feet, at which point the mask was removed and a parachute descent was simulated. The report describes the victim's reactions-"spasmodic convulsions," "agonal convulsive breathing," "clonic convulsions and groans," "yells aloud," "convulses arms and legs," "grimaces, bites his tongue," "does not respond to speech," "gives the impression of someone who is completely out of his mind."" Taylor indicts particular defendants and continues a long sustained descriptive statement about "medical" experiments and procedures. He quotes directly from Nazi documents submitted as evidence. Pan of dock and courtroom as Taylor speaks about high and low pressure experiments, freezing experiments, rewarming experiments of Roma women and children at Ravensbrueck, and "dry" cold experiments.

Note(s)

  • Trial transcripts available in the departmental files. Tape previously considered NURM 4. Duplicate footage on Film ID 876, Story 2286.

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