Nazi Doctor’s Trial

The Nazi Doctor’s Trial started on 9 December, 1946 and lasted until 20 August, 1947 (United States vs Karl Brandt et al). 23 high ranking Nazi death camp officials, 20 of them doctors, were charged with crimes of genocide and human experimentation. 7 of them received death sentences, 7 were acquitted and the remaining 9 were given prison sentences of 10 years to life. The trial was conducted by a US military tribunal rather than by the International Courts. It was held in Nuremburg.

The 7 doctors sentenced to death were executed by hanging on 2 June, 1948. They were;

  • Viktor Brack
  • Karl Brandt
  • Rudolph Brandt
  • Karl Gebhardt
  • Waldemar Hoven
  • Joachim Mrugowsky
  • Wolfram Sievers

The one woman defendant of the trial, Herta Oberheuser was sentenced to 20 years of which she served 5. She died in 1978.

The remaining doctors died between 1954 and 2003 including Karl Genzken who died in 1957.

During the war only rumors had existed about the Nazi extermination camps. No allied government, including the United States, levied accusations at the Germans. Witold Pilecki, a Polish military officer and resistance fighter, got himself arrested and sent to Auschwitz to gather intelligence. He escaped with witnesses and attempted to convince the US and allied governments but was not successful.

So complete was the mass subconscious controlled by the Nazi sorcerers, that people living nearby who could smell the burning flesh didn’t believe the camps were for exterminating of Jews, gays and dissidents. Because they felt the world would not believe their description of the horrors, members of the US Army Signal Corps created a film you can view at Internet Archive.

The Nazis infiltrated European establishments and created a political revolution against governments they already controlled. Slowly they squeezed freedom and democracy from the nations of Europe and turned it into one empire. The eradication of “undesirables” began in 1933 and no one officially recognized it until 1945.

Related