“REICH DIED OF OWN POISON”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22201, 11 December 1946, Page 6

“REICH DIED OF OWN POISON”

TRIAL OF DOCTORS SCIENCE JVIURDERS BARBARIC EXPERIMENTS “LITTLE NUREMBERG” CASE NUREMBERG, Dec. 9. When the first “little Nuremberg trial’’ opened, an allAmerican court heard 20 doctors plead not guilty charges of i murdering prisoners in the course of scientific experiments. The accused include one woman, Herta Oberhauser, aged 35, a doctor at the Ravensbruck concentration camp for women. The accused first appeared on November 21 when the court adjourned to enable the defence to prepare briefs. The trial is expected to last until February. The trial of the Ravensbruck camp staff is proceeding at Hamburg.

In ooening tne prosecution's case Brigadier-General Telford Taylor said: “This is no mere murder trial.” The prosecution s task, he said, was to bring home to the German people that what had happened was a fact and not a fable. , , ~ The Third Reich had died of its own poison and the defendants had contributed largely to that. They were trained physicians and were even distinguished scientists. Yet their experiments had failed to contribute a single thing to scientific knowledge.

“Science of Producing Death” Brigadier-General Taylor said he would show that the experiments were made not to rescue or cure but to destroy and kill. Brigadier-General Taylor christened these experiments “thatatology”. meaning the science of producing death. He said the defendants had turned Germany into an infernal combination of lunatic asylum and charnel house. Karl Brandt, formerly Hitler’s physician and Reich Health Commissioner, listened intently. Brigadier-General Taylor called the tests, which were made on women at Ravensbruck Camp as “perhaps the most barbaric of all.” The Doctors there simulated battle wounds by cutting the women and inserting bacteria and wood chips. Dr. Herta Oberhouser played nervously with a pencil when her name was mentioned. Wounds Not Bad Enough Brigadier-General Taylor said that Grawitz. the SS 'medical chief, visited Ravensbruck and protested that the doctors were not making wounds severe enough. Brigadier-General Taylor submitted a doctor’s report on experiments in which the victim, a Jew, was subjected to high atmospheric pressure. The report said: "After four minutes the subject began perspiring and wriggling his head. After five minutes cramps began. After between six and 10 minutes his rate of breathing increased and the subject became unconscious. From 11 to 30 minutes his breathing slowed .to three inhalations a minute. His breathing stopped at 30 minutes and dissection was started.”