HITLER’S DOCTOR DEFIANT AT HIS EXECUTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22654, 3 June 1948, Page 5

HITLER’S DOCTOR DEFIANT AT HIS EXECUTION

(10 a.m.) BERLIN, June 2. Seven of the 25 German doctors and S.S. officers who Were sentenced to death by the United States war crimes courts were hanged today at Lansberg.

They were found guilty of killing and maiming thousands of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps in medical experiments.

Those executed included S.S. General Karl Brandt, Hitler's personal physician who once boasted “here is one German the Americans will never hang.” Brandt, in his final speech, called his conviction mere political revenge. He asked: "How can a nation which itself experiments with humans dare to judge others who do the same?”

He ignored a warning to cut his speech short and a black hood was thrown over his head smothering his last words. ■

Brandt attempted to beat the gallows by offering his living body for medical experiments like those he had conducted but the Americans declined. The charges arose from the Nazi genocide programme and high-altitude experiments, freezing, typhus and other experiments.