View source for Doctors' Trial

{{distinguish|Doctors' plot|clinical trial}}
{{for|a list of Nazi doctors|List of Nazi doctors}}
{{more footnotes|date=December 2021}}
{{short description|Post-World War II trial of German doctors for war crimes}}
{{Infobox court case
|name               = {{noitalic|Doctors' Trial}}
|court              = [[Palace of Justice (Nuremberg)|Palace of Justice]], Nuremberg
|image              = File:Courtroom during the Doctors' trial.jpg
|imagesize          = 300px
|imagelink          =
|imagealt           =
|caption            = Courtroom at the trial, 12 December 1946
|full name          = United States of America v. [[Karl Brandt]] et al.
|start_date         = {{start date|1946|12|09|df=y}}
|date decided       = 20 August 1947
|citations          =
|ECLI               =
|transcripts        =
|judges             = {{Plainlist|
* [[Walter B. Beals]] (presiding)
* [[Harold L. Sebring]]
* [[Johnson T. Crawford]]
* Victor C. Swearingen (alternate)
}}
|number of judges   = 3
|decision by        =
|italic title = no
}}

'''''United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.''''', commonly known as the '''Doctors' Trial''', was the first of the twelve "[[Subsequent Nuremberg trials]]" for [[war crimes]] and [[crimes against humanity]] after the end of [[World War II]] between 1946 and 1947. The accused were 20 [[physician]]s and 3 [[SS]] officials charged for their involvement in the [[Aktion T4]] programme and [[Nazi human experimentation]].

The Doctors' Trial was held by [[United States]] authorities at the [[Palace of Justice, Nuremberg|Palace of Justice]] in [[Nuremberg]] in the [[American occupation zone in Germany|American occupation zone]] before US [[military court]]s, not before the [[International Military Tribunal]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/index.php?ModuleId=10007035 |title=The Doctors Trial: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]], Washington, D.C. |encyclopedia=Holocaust Encyclopedia}}</ref> Seven of the accused were sentenced to [[death by hanging]], five were sentenced to [[life imprisonment]], four were given prison sentences from 10 to 20 years, and seven were [[Acquittal|acquitted]].

The judges, heard before Military Tribunal I, were [[Walter B. Beals]] (presiding judge) from [[Washington (state)|Washington]], [[Harold L. Sebring]] from [[Florida]], and [[Johnson T. Crawford]] from [[Oklahoma]], with Victor C. Swearingen, a former special assistant to the [[Attorney General of the United States]], as an alternate judge. The Chief of Counsel for the Prosecution was [[Telford Taylor]] and the chief prosecutor was James M. McHaney.  The [[indictment]] was filed on 25 October 1946; the trial lasted from 9 December that year until 20 August 1947.

{{Eugenics sidebar|expanded=History}}

==Case==
[[File:Witnesses at Doctors' trial.jpg|thumb|Witnesses at the Doctors' Trial.]]

Twenty of the defendants were [[physician]]s and three were [[SS]] officials ([[Viktor Brack]], [[Rudolf Brandt]], and [[Wolfram Sievers]]), all of whom were accused of being involved in [[Nazi human experimentation]] and the [[Aktion T4]] programme of [[involuntary euthanasia]]. The physicians came from a variety of civilian and military backgrounds, and some were members of the SS. Other Nazi physicians such as [[Philipp Bouhler]], [[Ernst-Robert Grawitz]], [[Leonardo Conti]], and [[Enno Lolling]] had died by suicide, while [[Josef Mengele]], one of the leading Nazi doctors, had evaded capture.

In his opening statement, Taylor summarized the crimes of the defendants.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Doctors Trial: The Medical Case of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings |url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-doctors-trial-the-medical-case-of-the-subsequent-nuremberg-proceedings |access-date=2023-10-10 |website=encyclopedia.ushmm.org |language=en}}</ref><blockquote>"The defendants in this case are charged with murders, tortures, and other atrocities committed in the name of [[medical science]]. The victims of these crimes are numbered in the hundreds of thousands. A handful only are still alive; a few of the survivors will appear in this courtroom. But most of these miserable victims were slaughtered outright or died in the course of the tortures to which they were subjected. For the most part they are nameless dead. To their murderers, these wretched people were not individuals at all. They came in wholesale lots and were treated worse than animals."</blockquote>

== Indictment ==
The accused faced four charges, including:

# Conspiracy to commit [[war crime]]s and [[crimes against humanity]] as described in counts 2 and 3;
# War crimes: performing medical experiments, without the subjects' consent, on [[prisoners of war]] and [[civilians]] of [[German-occupied Europe|occupied countries]], in the course of which experiments the defendants committed [[murder]]s, brutalities, cruelties, [[tortures]], atrocities, and other inhuman acts. Also planning and performing the [[mass murder]] of prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries, stigmatized as aged, insane, incurably ill, deformed, and so on, by gas, lethal injections, and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums during the [[Euthanasia Program]] and participating in the mass murder of [[concentration camp]] inmates.
# Crimes against humanity: committing crimes described under count 2 also on German nationals.
# Membership in a criminal organization, the [[SS]].<ref name="ushmm/doctors">{{cite web |url=http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/index.html |title=The Doctors Trial |publisher=[[United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]] |access-date=2007-10-11 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011204837/http://www.ushmm.org/research/doctors/index.html |archive-date=2007-10-11 |url-status=dead }} – Excerpts from the official trial record, opening and closing statements, and eyewitness testimony.</ref>

The tribunal largely dropped count 1, stating that the charge was beyond its jurisdiction.

'''I''' — Indicted&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;'''G''' — Indicted and found guilty

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Defendants, functions, verdicts, and fates
!rowspan="2"|Name
!rowspan="2"|Photograph
!rowspan="2"|Function
!colspan="4"|Charges
!rowspan="2"|Sentence
|-
!1||2||3||4
|-
|{{Hs|Brandt, Karl}} [[Karl Brandt]]
| [[File:Karl Brandt SS-Arzt.jpg|75px|center]]
| Personal physician to Adolf Hitler; ''[[Gruppenführer]]'' in the SS and ''[[Generalleutnant]]'' (Lieutenant General) in the Waffen SS; ''Reich'' Commissioner for Health and Sanitation (''Reichskommissar für Sanitäts und Gesundheitswesen''); and member of the ''Reich'' Research Council (''[[Reichsforschungsrat]]'')
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
|-
|{{Hs|Handloser}} [[Siegfried Handloser]]
| [[File:Siegfried Handloser NS-Arzt.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Generaloberstabsarzt'' (Lieutenant General, Medical Service); Medical Inspector of the Army (''Heeressanitätsinspekteur''); and Chief of the Medical Services of the Armed Forces (''Chef des Wehrmachtsanitätswesens'')
| I|| G|| G|| &nbsp;
| Life imprisonment; commuted to 20 years; released/died 1954
|-
|{{Hs|Rostock}} [[Paul Rostock]]
| [[File:Paul Rostock (NS-Mediziner).jpg|75px|center]]
| Chief Surgeon of the Surgical Clinic in Berlin; Surgical Adviser to the Army; and Chief of the Office for Medical Science and Research (''Amtschef der Dienststelle Medizinische Wissenschaft und Forschung'') under the defendant Karl Brandt, ''Reich'' Commissioner for Health and Sanitation
| I|| I|| I|| &nbsp;
| [[Acquittal|Acquitted]]; died 1956
|-
|{{Hs|Schröder}} {{Interlanguage link multi|Oskar Schröder|de}}
| [[File:Oskar Schroeder.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Generaloberstabsarzt'' (Colonel General Medical Service); Chief of Staff of the Inspectorate of the Medical Service of the ''Luftwaffe'' (''Chef des Stabes, Inspekteur des Luftwaffe-Sanitätswesens''); and Chief of the Medical Service of the ''Luftwaffe'' (''Chef des Sanitätswesens der Luftwaffe'')
| I|| G|| G|| &nbsp;
| Life imprisonment; commuted to 15 years; released 1954; died 1959
|-
|{{Hs|Genzken}} [[Karl Genzken]]
| [[File:Karl August Genzken KZ-Arzt.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Gruppenführer'' in the SS and ''Generalleutnant'' (Lieutenant General) in the ''Waffen'' SS; and Chief of the Medical Department of the ''Waffen'' SS (''Chef des Sanitätsamts der Waffen'' SS)
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Life imprisonment; commuted to 20 years; released April 1954; died 1957
|-
|{{Hs|Gebhardt}} [[Karl Gebhardt]]
| [[File:Karl Gebhardt, SS-Arzt.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Gruppenführer'' in the SS and ''Generalleutnant'' (Lieutenant General) in the ''Waffen'' SS; personal physician to ''Reichsfuehrer''-SS Himmler; Chief Surgeon of the Staff of the ''Reich'' Physician SS and Police (''Oberster Kliniker, Reichsarzt SS und Polizei''); and President of the German Red Cross
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
|-
|{{Hs|Blome}} [[Kurt Blome]]
| [[File:Kurt Blome KZ-Arzt.jpg|75px|center]]
| Deputy [of the] ''Reich'' Health Leader (''Reichsgesundheitsführer''); and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the ''Reich'' Research Council
| I|| I|| I|| &nbsp;
| [[Acquittal|Acquitted]]; died 1969
|-
|{{Hs|Brandt, Rudolf}} [[Rudolf Brandt]]
| [[File:Rudolf Brandt (SS-Mitglied).jpg|75px|center]]
| ''[[Standartenführer]]'' (Colonel); in the [[Allgemeine SS|''Allgemeine'' SS]]; Personal Administrative Officer to [[Reichsführer-SS|''Reichsführer''-SS]] [[Heinrich Himmler|Himmler]] (''Persönlicher Referent von Himmler''); and Ministerial Counselor and Chief of the Ministerial Office in the ''Reich'' Ministry of the Interior
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
|-
|{{Hs|Mrugowsky}} [[Joachim Mrugowsky]]
| [[File:Joachim Mrugoswsky SS-Arzt.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Oberführer'' (Senior Colonel) in the ''Waffen'' SS; Chief Hygienist of the ''Reich'' Physician SS and Police (''Oberster Hygieniker, Reichsarzt SS und Polizei''); and Chief of the Hygienic Institute of the ''Waffen'' SS (''Chef des Hygienischen Institutes der Waffen SS'')
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
|-
|{{Hs|Poppendick}} [[Helmut Poppendick]]
| [[File:Helmut Poppendick.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Oberführer'' (Senior Colonel) in the SS; and Chief of the Personal Staff of the ''Reich'' Physician SS and Police (''Chef des Persönlichen Stabes des Reichsarztes SS und Polizei'')
| I|| I|| I|| G
| 10 years; released 1951; died 1994
|-
|{{Hs|Sievers}} [[Wolfram Sievers]]
| [[File:Wolfram Sievers.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Standartenführer'' (Colonel) in the SS; ''Reich'' Manager of the ''[[Ahnenerbe]]'' Society and Director of its [[Institute for Military Scientific Research]] (''Institut für Wehrwissenschaftliche Zweckforschung''); and Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board of Directors of the [[Reich Research Council|''Reich'' Research Council]]
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
|-
|{{Hs|Rose}} [[Gerhard Rose]]
| [[File:Gerhard Rose.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Generalarzt'' of the ''Luftwaffe'' (Major General<!--See [[Generalarzt#Comparative military ranks]]-->, Medical Service of the Air Force); Vice President, Chief of the Department for Tropical Medicine, and Professor of the Robert Koch Institute; and Hygienic Adviser for Tropical Medicine to the Chief of the Medical Service of the ''Luftwaffe''
| I|| G|| G|| &nbsp;
| Life imprisonment; commuted to 20 years; released 1955; died 1992
|-
|{{Hs|Ruff}} [[Siegfried Ruff]]
| [[File:Siegfr Ruff.jpg|75px|center]]
| Director of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation (''Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt'') and First Lieutenant in the Medical Service of the Air Force; still researching and publishing in the field of aviation as late as 1989<ref>Ruff, Siegfried, et al. ''Sicherheit und Rettung in der Luftfahrt''. Koblenz : Bernard & Graefe, c1989.</ref>
| I|| I|| I|| &nbsp;
| [[Acquittal|Acquitted]]; died 1989
|-
|{{Hs|Romberg}} {{Interlanguage link multi|Hans-Wolfgang Romberg|de}}
| [[File:Wolfgang Romberg.jpg|75px|center]]
| Doctor on the Staff of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation
| I|| I|| I|| &nbsp;
| [[Acquittal|Acquitted]]; died 1981
|-
|{{Hs|Weltz}} {{Interlanguage link multi|Georg August Weltz|de}}
| [[File:Georg Weltz.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Oberfeldarzt'' in the ''Luftwaffe'' (Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Service, of the Air Force); and Chief of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Munich
| I|| I|| I|| &nbsp;
| [[Acquittal|Acquitted]]; died 1963
|-
|{{Hs|Brack}} [[Viktor Brack]]
| [[File:Viktor Brack Nürnberg 2.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''[[Oberführer]]'' (Senior Colonel) in the [[SS]] and ''Sturmbannführer'' (Major) in the [[Waffen SS|''Waffen'' SS]]; and Chief Administrative Officer in the Chancellery of the ''Führer'' of the [[NSDAP]] (''Oberdienstleiter, Kanzlei des Führers der NSDAP'')
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
|-
| style="white-space:nowrap;"|[[Hermann Becker-Freyseng|Hermann&nbsp;Becker-Freyseng]]
| [[File:Hermann Becker-Freyseng.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''Stabsarzt'' in the ''[[Luftwaffe]]'' (Captain, Medical Service of the Air Force); and Chief of the Department for Aviation Medicine of the Chief of the Medical Service of the ''Luftwaffe''
| I|| G|| G|| &nbsp;
| 20 years; commuted to 10 years; released 1952; died 1961
|-
|{{Hs|Schäfer}} [[Konrad Schäfer]]
| [[File:Konrad Schaefer.jpg|75px|center]]
| Doctor on the Staff of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Berlin
| I|| I|| I|| &nbsp;
| [[Acquittal|Acquitted]]; died after 1951
|-
|{{Hs|Hoven}} [[Waldemar Hoven]]
| [[File:Waldem Hoven.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''[[Hauptsturmführer]]'' (Captain) in the ''Waffen'' SS; and Chief Doctor of the [[Buchenwald concentration camp]]
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Death by hanging, executed 2 June 1948
|-
|{{Hs|Beiglböck}} [[Wilhelm Beiglböck]]
| [[File:Wilhelm Beiglboeck KZ-Arzt.jpg|75px|center]]
| Consulting Physician to the ''Luftwaffe''
| I|| G|| G|| &nbsp;
| 15 years; commuted to 10 years; released 15 December 1951; died 1963
|-
|{{Hs|Pokorny}} [[Adolf Pokorny]]
| [[File:Adolf Pokorny.jpg|75px|center]]
| Physician, Specialist in Skin and Venereal Diseases
| I|| I|| I|| &nbsp;
| [[Acquittal|Acquitted]]
|-
|{{Hs|Oberheuser}} [[Herta Oberheuser]]
| [[File:Herta Oberheuser.jpg|75px|center]]
| Physician at the [[Ravensbrück concentration camp]]; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen
| I|| G|| G|| &nbsp;
| 20 years; commuted to 10 years; released 1952; died 1978
|-
|{{Hs|Fischer}} [[Fritz Fischer (medical doctor)|Fritz Fischer]]
| [[File:Fritz Fischer KZ-Arzt.jpg|75px|center]]
| ''[[Sturmbannführer]]'' (Major) in the ''Waffen'' SS; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the hospital at Hohenlychen
| I|| G|| G|| G
| Life imprisonment; commuted to 15 years; released March 1954; died 2003
|}

All of the criminals sentenced to death were [[hanged]] on 2 June 1948 at [[Landsberg Prison]].

For some, the difference between receiving a prison term and the death sentence was membership in the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]], "an organization declared criminal by the judgement of the International Military Tribunal". However, some SS medical personnel received prison sentences. The degree of personal involvement and/or presiding over groups involved was a factor in others.{{cn|date=May 2021}}

==See also==
* [[Command responsibility]]
* [[Declaration of Geneva]]
* [[Declaration of Helsinki]]
* [[Euthanasia trials]]
* [[Medical ethics]]
* [[Medical torture]]
* [[Nazi eugenics]]
* [[Nuremberg Code]]
* [[Nuremberg principles]]
* [[Nuremberg trials]]
* [[Bruno Beger]]
* [[Hans Conrad Julius Reiter]]
* [[Claus Schilling]]
* [[Hermann Stieve]]
* [[List of medical ethics cases]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |last=Hanauske-Abel |first=H. |year=1996 |title=Not a slippery slope or sudden subversion: German medicine and National Socialism in 1933 |journal=[[British Medical Journal]] |volume=313 |issue=7070 |pages=1453–1463 |pmid=8973235 |issn=0959-8138 |pmc=2352969 |doi=10.1136/bmj.313.7070.1453}}{{subscription required |date=September 2012}}
* {{cite book|last=Heller |first= Kevin Jon |year=2011 |title=The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the Origins of International Criminal Law |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-955431-7}}
* {{cite book |last=Lifton-Robert |first=Robert J. |year=2000 |title=The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide |isbn=978-0-465-04905-9 |publisher=Basic Books |orig-year=1st. Pub. 1986 London:Macmillan |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/nazidoctorsmedic0000lift }}
* {{cite journal |last=Pellegrino |first=E. |s2cid=30547329 |title=The Nazi Doctors and Nuremberg: Some Moral Lessons Revisited |journal= Annals of Internal Medicine|date=15 August 1997 |volume=127 |issue=4 |pages=307–308 |pmid=9265432 |doi=10.7326/0003-4819-127-4-199708150-00010 |citeseerx=10.1.1.694.9894 }}{{subscription required |date=September 2012}}
* {{cite journal |last=Seidelman |first=W. |year=1996 |title=Nuremberg lamentation: for the forgotten victims of medical science |journal=[[British Medical Journal]] |volume=313 |pages=1463–1467 |pmid=8973236 |issn=0959-8138 |issue=7070 |pmc=2352986 |doi=10.1136/bmj.313.7070.1463}}{{subscription required |date=September 2012}}
* {{cite book |last=Spitz |first=Vivien |title=Doctors from Hell |year=2005 |publisher=Sentient Publications |isbn=978-1-59181-032-2 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/doctorsfromhellh00spit }}
* {{cite book |last=Weindling |first=P.J. |year=2005 |title=Nazi Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials: From Medical War Crimes to Informed Consent |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-1-4039-3911-1}}

==External links==
{{Commonscatinline}}
* {{cite web |url=http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/NurTranscript/TranscriptSearches/tran_about.php |publisher=Harvard Law School Library |work=The Nuremberg Trials Project |title=Transcripts |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110415082417/http://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/NurTranscript/TranscriptSearches/tran_about.php |archive-date=2011-04-15 }} – Partial transcript from the trial
* {{cite web |url=http://www.jlaw.com/Articles/NaziMedEx.html |title=The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments |first=Baruch C. |last=Cohen |publisher=Jewish Law}}
* {{cite journal |last=Biddiss |first=M |date=June 1997 |title=Disease and dictatorship: the case of Hitler's Reich |format=pdf |url=http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1296317&blobtype=pdf |pmc=1296317 |journal= Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine|volume=90 |issue=6 |pages=342–346 |pmid=9227388|doi=10.1177/014107689709000616 }}

{{Nuremberg Trials}}
{{Nazism}}
{{EthicsCases}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1947 in case law]]
[[Category:1947 in Germany]]
[[Category:1940s trials]]
[[Category:Nazi human subject research]]
[[Category:Physicians in the Nazi Party|*]]
[[Category:Nazi eugenics]]
[[Category:Holocaust trials]]
[[Category:United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals]]