“It cannot be mistaken that the defendants Wernicke and Wieczorek are only the last links of a long chain, and that they are preceded by persons whose guilt is still greater.” [Emphasis added.] (NO. 447[97]).
Thus it is established that euthanasia was murder according to German law.
In connection with this question, it is again pointed out that the whole program was kept completely secret. Hitler’s letter of 1 September 1939 (Tr. p. 1516) marked “Top Secret” was never published, and the Minister of Justice received a copy of it only one year after its issuance. (630-PS, Pros. Ex. 330.) Transfers of inmates of insane asylums to euthanasia stations were allegedly carried out by the order of the Reich Defense Commissioner. (NO-1133, Pros. Ex. 335.) The officials active in the program had to sign a written oath of secrecy. (NO-1312, Pros. Ex. 338; NO-1311, Pros. Ex. 339.) The doctors who performed euthanasia were warned that they would be severely punished if they sabotaged the work. (Tr. p. 1894.) The whole program of euthanasia was to be kept secret, as they were told from the beginning that it was a top secret matter. The reason given was to avoid unrest among the population. Breach of secrecy was considered sabotage. (Tr. p. 1923.) Others had to sign a written oath binding them to secrecy. It was known that the result of breach of this oath was confinement in a concentration camp. (Tr. p. 1826.)
F. Personal Responsibility of Karl Brandt
Brandt was put in charge of the program, together with Bouhler, by the above-quoted letter of Hitler of 1 September 1939. His position as highest authority in the Euthanasia Program is outlined in the affidavit of Dr. Boehm, one of the oldest members of the NSDAP. When, in November 1940, Boehm approached Martin Bormann[98] with the request to obtain an audience with Hitler to complain about the execution of the Euthanasia Program, Bormann referred him to Brandt as the responsible authority for the execution of euthanasia. As a result, Boehm had a discussion with Brandt and when he complained, among other things, that the Euthanasia Program was not regulated by law and should not be carried out in a secret manner, Brandt admitted that the Minister of Justice, Guertner, had also urged legislation. From his conversation with Bormann and Brandt, Boehm was sure that Brandt was the leading personality in the program. (NO-3059, Pros. Ex. 558.) Brandt admitted that it was necessary to set up a special organization to carry out euthanasia. (Tr. p. 2407.)
He, together with Bouhler, had authority over the physicians who were participating in this program, and furthermore he had to keep Hitler informed from the medical point of view (English translation is garbled, therefore reference is made to German Tr. p. 2420) and had to maintain contact with Bouhler. (Tr. p. 2408.) He further admitted that authorizations for the killing of children were submitted to him and Bouhler. (Tr. p. 2544.)
He stated that he resigned his job some time in 1942. (Tr. p. 2433.) While this is of no material significance, it is established that he held his position as the leading figure in the program until 1944. Dr. Ludwig Sprauer, in his affidavit, stated:
“I heard the name of Professor Dr. Karl Brandt for the first time at a conference in Berlin in the middle of 1941. At this conference I learned that Karl Brandt and Philipp Bouhler were the leading figures in the Euthanasia Program. The conference was called by Dr. Linden on behalf of the Department of the Interior, and problems of institutions and asylums were submitted. Dr. Linden directed the proceedings.
“To the best of my knowledge and belief, Philipp Bouhler as well as Professor Dr. Karl Brandt were the leading figures in this so-called Euthanasia Program from 1941 to the collapse of Germany.
“The connection between the Department of the Interior and Professor Karl Brandt, in the framework of the Euthanasia Program, was that Karl Brandt gave orders to Conti and Linden, which were passed on by these persons on behalf of the Department of the Interior. Brandt was the dominating figure without doubt.” (NO-818, Pros. Ex. 373.)
The witness Wesse said in his affidavit that Brandt was in charge of the Euthanasia Program at least until March 1944. (NO-1428, Pros. Ex. 432.)
The witness Mennecke testified that he learned in the beginning of 1941 that the defendant Brandt was active in the Euthanasia Program. (Tr. p. 1874.) He further testified:
“When, in 1944, I was treated as a patient in the army hospital at St. Blasien, I found out through conversations with officers that Professor Brandt had an essential part in the collection of insane persons in the area of Lublin, Poland.” (Tr. p. 1903.)
He further testified, in connection with this Lublin action, that it must have continued up to 1944 and that it was said that insane persons and Jews were collected in Lublin in large numbers. (Tr. p. 1904.)
The witness Schmidt testified that Professor Brandt had the medical direction of the program, and only in 1944 was he told that Brandt had left the program. (Tr. p. 1825.) He also knew that Brandt played the leading part in the task which had to be accomplished (Euthanasia Program), that he (Brandt) was to accomplish this task. (Tr. p. 1847.)
Both witnesses, Schmidt and Mennecke, also testified that the chart (NO-253, Pros. Ex. 331), which shows Brandt in the center of the program, is correct. (Tr. pp. 1833, 1876.)
The evidence shows further that Brandt gave orders in the Euthanasia Program as late as July 1943. In a letter from the Patients Transport Corporation, dated 20 July 1943, to the Mental Institution Hadamar—which was, as documents and testimony show, an extermination station—the following sentences are found:
“I order transfer of insane persons to your institution also, by order of Professor Brandt, the Commissioner General of the Fuehrer for Medical and Health Service. You will get, on 26 July 1943, 150 insane women from the Mental Institution Warstein if the Reichsbahn will furnish the necessary cars as requested.” (NO-892, Pros. Ex. 442.)
Brandt was the person who had to be approached if one were to save a child from euthanasia. In a letter from the Reich Committee for Research on Hereditary and Constitutional Severe Diseases, dated 16 November 1943, to Dr. Schmidt’s sanatorium, Eichberg (as the evidence shows, a killing station for deficient children), we find the sentence:
“On the basis of a letter directed to Professor Dr. Brandt concerning the above mentioned, I request an elaborated diagnosis about the mentioned Anna Gasse who is reported to be in your institution at present.”
And further:
“If from a medical point of view such a release is warranted, one could take into consideration whether one should not perhaps comply with such a request in the interest of the good reputation of the institution.” (NO-890, Pros. Ex. 443.)
That the defendant Karl Brandt was in a position to issue instructions and assign tasks to insane asylums in Germany is further corroborated by the affidavit of the defendant Rose, who said that in 1943 Brandt put an insane asylum in Thuringia at his disposal and made arrangements that this institution would not be converted into a general hospital; and further, that in 1944 Brandt made arrangements for the better feeding of inmates of this asylum in order to enable Rose to proceed with his malaria therapy. (Tr. p. 1717.) If this statement in itself has nothing to do with euthanasia, it shows the scope of influence and power Brandt still commanded over insane asylums in 1943 and 1944. (NO-872, Pros. Ex. 408.)
According to his own testimony, Brandt was in charge of euthanasia until 1942. (Tr. p. 2433; Tr. p. 2532.) There is no proof, other than his own statement, that he resigned his commission at that time. On the contrary, the proof has shown that he was active in this field until some time in 1944. In any event, the program was criminal in its inception. The murder of concentration camp inmates pursuant to euthanasia began as early as 1940. Non-German nationals were included in substantial numbers. Healthy Jews were exterminated without examination. Trained killers from euthanasia stations were sent to the East as early as 1941 to aid in the mass murder of Jews. Persons whose only crime was physical inability to work were subjected to euthanasia from the very beginning. Indeed, the elimination of “useless eaters” was the principal rationale of the whole program.
Brandt stated that an order existed which exempted non-German nationals, but he was unable to give any explanation as to how this order operated, who received it, and why, if such an order existed, questionnaires for foreign nationals were filled out at all. (Tr. pp. 2499-2503.) The evidence has shown that non-German nationals were never exempted and were killed in large numbers. There is nothing to be said in mitigation for Brandt.
Moral and Humanitarian Justification
In the brief against Karl Brandt the prosecution has summarized the overwhelming proof that euthanasia, far from being “an act of grace”, was a measure to eliminate “useless eaters” and other “undesirable” persons. Brack himself, when questioned by the Tribunal, was unable to explain why war veterans of the First World War (1914-18) were exempted from this “act of grace.” (Tr. pp. 7650, 7664.) Contrariwise, he could not explain why this grace was extended to insane criminals, irrespective of the length of time they had spent in an insane asylum. (NO-825, Pros. Ex. 358.)
Brack personally reprimanded Mennecke, who was an expert in the Euthanasia Program, on the ground that his expert opinions were far too soft and did not recommend euthanasia as often as he desired. (Tr. pp. 1881, 1907.) The so-called “observation stations” where the patients, according to Brack’s statement, were examined for several weeks by expert doctors were nothing but collecting points for the victims. (Tr. pp. 1822, 1878, 1879.)
Brack admitted that the work of Binding and Hoche is considered the standard work on euthanasia. (Tr. p. 7633.) This work leaves no doubt that the will to live, of even those who are most seriously ill, suffer most gravely, and are of least use, should be fully respected, and that any authority for the annihilation of life is excluded in cases where the will to live must be broken. (NO-2893, Pros. Ex. 496.) Brack himself admitted that euthanasia is inadmissible in cases where the patient has the will to live. (Tr. p. 7701.) The witness Schmidt testified that the victims, who obviously knew or suspected their fate, had to be forced to enter the busses which took them to the extermination stations. (Tr. pp. 1856, 1861.) This evidence is corroborated by documentary proof. (D-906, Pros. Ex. 376.) While many of those victims may have been insane, they certainly did not lack the will to live. Moreover, Brack himself admitted, when questioned by the Tribunal, that Bouhler ordered that the arrangements for the killing had to be made in such a way that the patients would not realize what was being done to them. (Tr. p. 7660.) The gas chambers where the victims were annihilated resembled shower rooms. (Tr. p. 7659.) The patients were deceived into thinking that they were to take a shower bath and, therefore, had to undress. (Tr. pp. 7644, 7660.) Such precautions would certainly not have been necessary if the victims had desired the “privilege of a mercy death.”
Action 14 f 13[99]
If the testimony of Brack and Brandt as to the number of doctors who were active in the Euthanasia Program is correct, it is clear from the record that all doctors active in this program collaborated in Action 14 f 13. Brandt estimated the number of doctors who were charged with the execution of the Euthanasia Program as 10 to 15 (Tr. p. 2478), Brack, as 12 to 15. (Tr. p. 7573.) Mennecke testified that about 15 doctors from the Euthanasia Program were commissioned to carry out the “examinations” in the concentration camps. (Tr. p. 1891.)
Brack was unable to explain how it came about that concentration camps inmates selected in Action 14 f 13 were killed in euthanasia stations. (Tr. p. 7541.)
Legality
Even Brack’s own documents reveal that he misinformed the legal authorities about the legal situation in respect to the Euthanasia Program. The ministerial director in the Reich Ministry of Justice, Karl Engert, states in his affidavit (which, according to the defense counsel of Brack, is “of great interest because it shows the opinion of the influential jurists on this question”): “Brack’s statements reassured me because, according to them, it was to be definitely assumed that a Reich law would then be enacted in the customary form, i. e., by publication in the Reich Law Gazette. I saw no reason why any difficulties should arise.” (Brack 37, Brack Ex. 37.) Needless to say, Brack did not mention that Hitler had refused to issue such a law until after the war.
That Brack was well aware of the fact that the Euthanasia Program was a criminal one is proved by his attempt to destroy evidence prior to the occupation of Germany by the Allies. The affidavit of Claussen proves that he sent the following teletype to the commandant of the concentration camp at Mauthausen (NO-2429, Pros. Ex. 498):
“To the Concentration Camp Mauthausen, SS Standartenfuehrer Ziereiss.
“Hartheim must be destroyed immediately. Execution must be reported by order of the Fuehrer.
[Signed] Oberfuehrer Brack”
Brack admitted that Hartheim was a euthanasia station where the victims of the Euthanasia Program were killed. (Tr. p. 7714.)
General Extermination of the Jews
That the defense of Brack is fabricated is proved by other evidence in the record. SS judge, Dr. Morgen, who investigated the criminal case of Wirth, testified before the International Military Tribunal that when Wirth took over the mass extermination of the Jews, he was already a specialist in the extermination of human beings. He had previously carried out the task of annihilating the insane. He had received this assignment from the Chancellery of the Fuehrer, Bouhler’s office. A system which Wirth had devised in his activities in the Euthanasia Program made it possible to exterminate large numbers of people with the help of only a few assistants. The same system, with a few improvements, was employed for the extermination of the Jews. Wirth’s assignment for the extermination of the Jews came from Bouhler’s office, from the very office where Brack was active. Morgen investigated Wirth’s mail and found out that the courier who brought this mail came from the Fuehrer’s Chancellery, Tiergartenstrasse, the place where the office of the Euthanasia Program was located. Among the people connected with this extermination program, Morgen remembers Blankenburg, Brack’s deputy. (NO-2614, Pros. Ex. 504.) Brack admitted that Wirth was active in the Euthanasia Program. (Tr. p. 7733.) It may well be that Morgen started his investigations in July 1943[100] but by the affidavit of Gorgass, it is proved that Wirth received his assignment from the “Foundation”, one of the camouflaged societies of the Euthanasia Program, as early as the summer of 1941. (NO-3010, Pros. Ex. 503.)
This evidence is fully corroborated by the affidavit of Gerstein. Globocnik was in charge of the extermination camps near Lublin, and Wirth collaborated with him in the extermination of the Jews. The gas chambers were camouflaged as “bath and inhalation” rooms and called “Foundation” Heckenholt. Doctors’ commissions toured the towns and villages of Poland and Czechoslovakia in order to select persons for extermination. (1553-PS, Pros. Ex. 428.) Brack when questioned by the Tribunal, admitted that the gas chambers of the euthanasia stations where the victims of the Euthanasia Program were killed were camouflaged as “shower rooms”. (Tr. p. 7659.) “Foundation” was one of the code names under which the Euthanasia Program operated. (NO-3010, Pros. Ex. 503.) The similarity between the extermination arrangement in the euthanasia stations and that used by Globocnik and Wirth is not coincidental.
The proof has shown that Brack himself advanced plans for the mass extermination of the Jews. In the beginning of October 1941 Brack had a conference with Eichmann from the Reich Security Main Office of the SS and Wetzel of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Territories on the “solution of the Jewish question”. (NO-997, Pros. Ex. 506.) Brack declared himself ready to collaborate in the manufacture of the necessary gas chambers and gassing apparatus for the extermination of all Jews who were unfit to work. Since the manufacture of this apparatus was easier to accomplish in the East, Brack agreed to send some of his collaborators, and especially his chemist, Kallmeyer, there for this purpose. Brack proposed outright extermination of all Jews who were unable to work. Since Eichmann, whom Hitler had charged with the solution of the Jewish question, was in agreement with Brack’s proposals, no objection was voiced against the extermination of those Jews who were unable to work with the “Brack remedy”. (NO-365, Pros. Ex. 507.) Kallmeyer was the technical expert on operation of the gas chambers in the euthanasia station. (Tr. p. 7743.)
Euthanasia
Position taken in the indictment
Position of the defense
The aim of euthanasia was to solve an old medical problem.
Statement of Karl Brandt according to which the subject of “useless eaters” was never mentioned in the presence of Karl Brandt. (Tr. pp. 2397, 2434.)
Statement of Schmidt according to which the ethical points of view were stressed during the conference of the experts in Berlin, 1941. (Tr. p. 1852.)
Statement of Mennecke according to which medical motives were given at the informative conference. (Tr. p. 1906.)
Statement of Brack regarding what was involved was the solution of the old medical problem. (Tr. p. 7544.)
The ethical aims of the euthanasia planned can also be seen from the drafts of a final bill of law.
Statement of Lammers in which the witness compiled a draft according to medical and ethical points of view. (Tr. p. 2683.)
Statement of Brack stating that Bouhler worked out a draft in cooperation with Brack based on scientific contributions. The heading “Law relating to the granting of ultimate medical assistance to incurable persons” shows the characteristic features of the law. (Tr. p. 7581.)
The peculiar individual attitude of Karl Brandt is of an ethical nature.
Affidavit of Schwerin-Krosigk, according to which Pastor Bodelschwingh, chief of the mental institutions of Bethel, declared that Karl Brandt had stated his point of view as regards euthanasia in a respectful way, making every allowance for the contrary opinion of Bodelschwingh. (Karl Brandt 26, Karl Brandt Ex. 83.)
Affidavits of Pastor Woermann. The witness, successor of Pastor Bodelschwingh, said that Bodelschwingh had told him about the idealistic attitude of Karl Brandt and said that Karl Brandt had supported euthanasia for the fully extinct spirit. (Karl Brandt 23, Karl Brandt Ex. 19.)
Affidavit of Rueggeberg. The witness reported on a radio interview of the London radio commentator Robert Graham with Pastor Bodelschwingh in the summer of 1945. Bodelschwingh himself declared there that one should not consider Karl Brandt as a criminal but as an idealist. (Karl Brandt 19, Karl Brandt Ex. 16.)
Affidavit of Rach. According to the statement of this witness, Bodelschwingh visited Karl Brandt at his house in Berlin as late as the summer of 1943 and spent an afternoon there in a friendly discussion. (Karl Brandt 6, Karl Brandt Ex. 7.)
Suspension of euthanasia in August 1941.
Affidavit of Kirchert. According to this statement euthanasia was stopped in the summer of 1941 although at that time economic reasons had become rather more important than before. The statement of the prosecution admits with certain limitations that euthanasia had been stopped in August 1941. (Karl Brandt 18, Karl Brandt Ex. 15; Tr. p. 1752.)
Special responsibility and participation of Karl Brandt.
The authorization of 1 September 1939 was founded on a purely medical point of view, namely euthanasia for incurable persons “under most careful scrutiny of their state of illness.” An economic or political motive as the basis is therewith rejected. The drafts for a law for further implementation of the euthanasia idea also show medical and ethical motives.
The report sheets and memorandum slips were sent to mental institutions only, which proves that euthanasia was practically restricted to insane persons. Had the elimination of “useless eaters” been the aim, this restriction would have been meaningless for there were “useless eaters” in other places too (nursery homes for cripples, hospitals, etc.). Undesirable foreigners were rarely to be found in mental institutions at the start of the Euthanasia Program since aliens entered the area of the Reich only with the beginning of the allocation of foreign labor.
The suspension of euthanasia in August 1941 argues against the intention to eliminate “useless eaters”, for only from that time on economic reasons of that kind acquired a certain importance.
The transfer of sick persons by order of the Reich Defense Commissioner did not point to a special war interest but was an administrative and local measure in order to evade difficulties as regards competence. The Reich Defense Commissioner was a new regional administrative office which made it possible to combine the various offices without regard to their competencies for the different tasks. It seems possible that it was only a camouflage. The blank draft contains contradictions, for according to that draft the director of a mental institution gives directives to the general public prosecutor and refers to a decree of the Reich Defense Commissioner. (NO-841, Pros. Ex. 360.)
The motive of elimination of “useless eaters” appears only in the subsequent statements of the ideological opponents as a propaganda measure of the resistance movement where a symptom is passed off as a motive. At the conferences, no economic reason was given for the euthanasia measures; but this was mentioned only as a secondary phenomenon.
The attitude of Karl Brandt himself was proved by the statements of Bodelschwingh as the authoritative leader in matters of medical and nursery treatment among convinced Christians. Bodelschwingh’s attitude towards Karl Brandt would be inconceivable if he had enforced the liquidation of all undesirable sick persons. (Karl Brandt 115, Karl Brandt Ex. 91.)
The statement in the judgment of the International Military Tribunal is subject to revision on the grounds of the evidence material of this trial.
Legal Foundation of Medical Euthanasia
Position taken in the indictment
Position of the defense
The authorization of 1 September 1939 was a sufficient legal basis. (630-PS, Pros. Ex. 330.) The form of the authorization was sufficient.
The sheet with the golden eagle chosen for that purpose shows the special importance of the authorization.
No recipient was mentioned to whom the authorization in the form of a letter may have been addressed. (Tr. p. 2396.)
Karl Brandt took part in working out the text by inserting the words “under the most careful scrutiny of their state of illness.”
Statement of Lammers, expert in constitutional law. (Tr. p. 2678-9.) According to that document the form chosen was not usual, but such violation did occur and flaws were adjusted. Hitler did not care about the form.
Statement of Lammers, stating that Hitler as the Fuehrer was authorized to alter the form: “I thought him authorized to do such things.” Apart from the form of the authorization which is on hand here, there existed still another version. (Tr. p. 2686.)
Statement of Pfannmueller. According to this document, the authorization contained the passage: “To the Reich Minister of the Interior.” The document was of a different form from the authorization in question. (Tr. p. 7362.)
Affidavit of Kirchert. Grawitz told the witness that there existed an authorization with the additional signature of Goering as the Chairman of the Reich Defense Council. (Karl Brandt 18, Karl Brandt Ex. 15.)
Statement of Mennecke. At the conference in 1940 the law was read word by word. (Tr. p. 1921.)
File note of the Gauleitung of Franconia dated 1 April 1940, “The Fuehrer gave the order, the law is made.” (D-906, Pros. Ex. 376.)
Publication of the authorization was not necessary for its coming into force.
Statement of Lammers says that there existed legal provisions which had not been published. (Tr. p. 2689.)
Affidavit of the Regional Bishop Wurm. Conti told the witness that there existed a law that had not been published for political reasons. (Karl Brandt 25, Karl Brandt Ex. 82.)
The obligation of secrecy does not prove the illegality of euthanasia.
Statement of Brack. The offices were informed. The decree of 1 September 1939 was transmitted to the Reich Minister of Justice on 27 August 1940, according to his special wish, but he had been informed of it earlier. (Tr. p. 7689.)
Statement of Pfannmueller. The witness states that the obligation of secrecy was usual. “I was bound to keep Reich matters secret. I was bound with regard to the Reich Penal Code.” (Tr. pp. 7343, 7397.)
Statement of Schmidt. The witness says that an ordinary obligation of secrecy form was signed without a special threat of punishment.
Camouflage.
Files of the Gauleitung of Franconia concerning correspondence with Marie Kehr. According to this, instructions were given after they were convinced of her good sense. (D-906, Pros. Ex. 376.)
Book of Meltzer: “The Problem of Abbreviation of Worthless Lives.” According to a statistical summary, on the whole, relatives of the mentally diseased do not wish to be informed. (Karl Brandt 85, Karl Brandt Ex. 94.)
Recognition of the Decree. The point of view of German literature and the administration of justice does not consider the present state of constitutional law. After taking cognizance of the decree, all authorities acknowledged it as the legal basis.
Testimony of Lammers. “The Reich Minister of Justice Guertner considered this regulation legal and stopped the pending actions.” (Tr. p. 2686.)
Testimony of Brack. Guertner, the Reich Minister of Justice, declared that the decree was not to be doubted. (Tr. p. 7590.)
Extract from the periodical “German Law” [Deutsche Justiz] 1941. Transfer of the supreme officials of the Justice Department in Berlin on 23 and 24 April 1941. According to this, photostatic copies of the decree of 1 September 1939 were delivered to all participators and its legality acknowledged by them. (Brack 36, Brack Ex. 36.)
Affidavit of Suchomel. This witness erroneously places the date of the conference in the 2d half of the year 1942. That means some time after the stoppage. (NO-2253, Pros. Ex. 557.)
Letter of 15 July 1940 of the General Prosecutor of Stuttgart to the Reich Ministry of Justice containing a report concerning illegal euthanasia. The following remark is made on the letter by the department chief of the Reich Ministry of Justice: “There is nothing to be ordered.” (NO-156, Karl Brandt Ex. 4.)
Schlaich to the Reich Ministry of Justice on 6 September 1940—Nothing has been attempted. (NO-520, Pros. Ex. 374.)
Testimony of Schmidt. The witness states that during a conference of jurists in Berlin 1941 the action was declared legal. This refers to the conference mentioned above, as it was mentioned in Document Brack 36, Brack Exhibit 36. (Tr. p. 1852.)
Preliminary Conference. Karl Brandt did not take part in the preliminary conference.
Testimony of Karl Brandt. According to this, Karl Brandt was invited unexpectedly, because he was available as an attendant-physician, when the conference with Bouhler took place. He was uninformed before this. Preliminary conferences concerning euthanasia took place between Hitler and Bouhler, Hitler and Conti.
Testimony of Lammers. According to this, during a conference in the autumn of 1939 in the presence of Lammers, a commission was given to Conti to start euthanasia. (Tr. p. 2668.)
Testimony of Lammers. According to this, Bouhler declared that Hitler wanted to give him the commission to carry out euthanasia. (Tr. p. 2669.)
Testimony of Brack. According to this a rivalry existed between Bouhler and Frick, Conti and Bormann, concerning the commission. Bouhler went to Hitler and said he would consent to accept the commission. Bouhler received the commission. (Tr. p. 7556.)
Particular responsibility and participation of Karl Brandt. According to the existing conditions of constitutional law, the decree of 1 September 1939 was to be looked upon as a legal order, and Karl Brandt, in his capacity as a physician, could rely on the organizations of the state and the opinions of the jurists.
The belated objection to the decree today is not made because of its external form, but in reality because of its contents. The circumstance that no publication of the decree took place was explained with politically intelligible reasons, corresponding to similar regulations issued for other measures.
The obligation of secrecy corresponds with the general regulations of the administration; a warning with reference to the regulations of penal law was usual. The so-called “death threat” is an exaggeration without any sense; according to practice, a reference to penal regulations concerning the revelation of secret matters had to be made where capital punishment was provided as the severest punishment in the Reich Penal Code. The opposition of all the persons interested in the procedure was directed against the camouflage of measures, with its inevitable consequences, the establishment of sham offices, the drawing-up of false death certificates, false information for the relations.
Karl Brandt accepted these regulations because they were the necessary consequence of the consideration not to disturb the part of the population involved. Neither the patient nor his relatives were to be alarmed, and the relatives had to be released from their feeling of responsibility. This motive is expressed in the correspondence concerning Marie Kehr, where the proper information was given and served as reassurance and warranted an expectation of understanding.
Karl Brandt did not partake in the organization of the Euthanasia Program. His connection with it, as an expert adviser for Hitler, is due only to the accident that he was in the headquarters of the Fuehrer. He received only a limited commission compared with Reichsleiter Bouhler, who, according to his own offer, was charged with the execution of this task.
Organization
Position taken in the indictment
Position of the defense
Karl Brandt was not the leading person, Bouhler was the head of the organization. In the decree of 1 September 1939 Karl Brandt is listed in second place, after Bouhler who had the rank of a Reich Minister.
The indictment denotes Bouhler as the chief of Karl Brandt. (Tr. p. 1531.)
Bouhler’s letter to the Reich Minister of Justice of 5 September 1940. “On the authority of the Fuehrer and as the only responsible person for all measures to be carried into effect, I have given the orders which seemed necessary to me to my collaborators.” (NO-156, Karl Brandt Ex. 4a and 4b.)
Affidavit of Lammers (supplement). The witness certifies as Bouhler’s the signature on the documents mentioned above. (Karl Brandt 92, Karl Brandt Ex. 86.)
Letter from Bormann sent to the Gauleitung of Franconia. Here, too, Bouhler is quoted as the Chief of the Committee of Physicians. (D-906, Pros. Ex. 376.)
Testimony of Lammers, according to which Karl Brandt never appeared before Lammers; in the Reich Ministry of Justice also; Bouhler was the only person who made an appearance. (Tr. p. 2672-3.)
Affidavit of Kirchert. The witness had a conference with Grawitz, who wanted to interest him in the use of euthanasia. Grawitz declared to the witness that Bouhler was charged with euthanasia. To him Karl Brandt had never been mentioned. (Karl Brandt 18, Karl Brandt Ex. 15.)
Affidavit of Prince of Hesse (supplement). The witness declares that he protested to Hitler and Bouhler because of the euthanasia project. Karl Brandt had not been called in at that time, though he could have been reached at once in the Fuehrer Headquarters. The witness is convinced that Karl Brandt was not connected with the matter in a decisive way. (Karl Brandt 115, Karl Brandt Ex. 91.)
Statement of Mennecke. The witness has never seen Karl Brandt, nor did he receive any order from him; he only knows the position of Karl Brandt within the framework of the euthanasia project from hearsay. (Tr. pp. 1903-5.)
Statement of Schmidt. The witness did not know Karl Brandt and did not see any order signed by him. He only knows by hearsay from Hegener that Karl Brandt “was supposed to be the medical chief” in 1941. In 1944 the witness learned that Karl Brandt was no longer involved, but could not state if he had still any influence in 1942 and 1943. (Tr. pp. 1857-8.)
Karl Brandt had no administrative organization of his own.
General items
New plan of organization by Brack. (Karl Brandt 8, Karl Brandt Ex. 3; Karl Brandt 15, Karl Brandt Ex. 3.) Testimony of Karl Brandt. (Tr. p. 2403.)
Affidavit of Brack. (Tr. p. 7550.)
Judgment of the International Military Tribunal[101] according to which Frick, as Reich Minister of the Interior, is made responsible for the carrying out of the euthanasia project.
Direct correspondence of the Bouhler office with the competent authorities prove that Karl Brandt was not involved: Letter from Brack to Schlegelberger. (NO-842, Pros. Ex. 405.) Letter from Brack to Freisler. (NO-843, Pros. Ex. 406.) Letter from Himmler to Brack. (NO-018, Pros. Ex. 404.)
Complaints of the national and ecclesiastical authorities and of civilians did not reach Karl Brandt.
Complaint by Schlaich, Chief of the Mental Institution of Stetten. This director who worked in this specialized field does not know anything of Karl Brandt. (NO-520, Pros. Ex. 374.)
Affidavit of Sprauer of 23 April 1946. The witness does not mention Karl Brandt in this affidavit. (3896-PS, Pros. Ex. 372.) (Only in a later affidavit of 19 November 1946, does he add a pertinent, general statement.)
Actual complaints are transferred by the ministries to the Bouhler office, not to Karl Brandt. (616-PS, Pros, Ex. 403.)
Specific examples.
Statement of Pfannmueller, according to which the invitation for the experts’ conference was made by Bouhler. (Tr. p. 7316.)
Statement of Pfannmueller. Bouhler took the chair in the second conference in Berlin; Karl Brandt was not present. (Tr. p. 7359.)
Statement of Brack, according to which Karl Brandt made no speeches on problems of euthanasia, and he was not expected to do so. (Tr. p. 7588.) This is confirmed by the testimony of Blome.
Statement of Mennecke, according to which Brack was chairman of the conference in February 1940. (Tr. p. 1869.)
Statement of Schmidt. Karl Brandt also was not present at the conference in February 1941, but there were present representatives of the Reich Ministry of the Interior and of the Reich Ministry of Justice. (Tr. p. 1819.)
Statement of Pfannmueller, according to which the experts were appointed by the Reich Ministry of the Interior. (Tr. p. 7377.)
Statement of Brack, according to which the physicians were chosen by Linden and Grawitz. (Tr. pp. 7703, 7705.)
Affidavit of Kneissler, according to which the persons in charge of euthanasia were instructed by Blankenburg of the Bouhler office. (NO-470, Pros. Ex. 332.) Karl Brandt was not mentioned.
Affidavit of Sprauer, according to which the mental institutions were under the control of the Reich Ministry of the Interior. (3896-PS, Pros. Ex. 372.) Answering a complaint of Sprauer, Conti stated: “That is the business of the Reich Ministry of the Interior.”
Affidavit of Jordans. (3882-PS, Pros. Ex. 371.) Also confirms that the mental institutions were under the control of the Reich Ministry of the Interior.
The order for evacuation from Warstein to Hadamar was not given at the suggestion of the Reich Defense Commissioner or for “systematic registration”, but with regard to the air raid danger. (NO-892, Pros. Ex. 442.) Karl Brandt was a member of the committee for air raid damage, and it was his special task within this committee to allot the space available in hospitals fairly. The order was given in 1942, after the great air raids in the area of Cologne and the industrial areas. It refers to an institution in the interior of Westphalia which was considered as a reception district at that time; the euthanasia facilities at Hadamar were removed and the institution was returned to the former owner. (See indictment in the Hadamar Trial.[102])
Affidavit of Steinbrecher. (Karl Brandt 84, Karl Brandt Ex. 87.) The activity of Karl Brandt on occasion of the removal of the mental institution from Dueren shows that Karl Brandt was not engaged as chief of the mental institutions, but in advisory capacity beside the competent authority, because he had influence and was charged with a special task in the field of air raid protection, in view of his general allocation tasks. Here Karl Brandt was able to help directly on account of his special tasks connected with the Committee for Air Raid Damage.
Statement of Rose. (Tr. p. 6362.) Opinion of the witness as to affidavit, NO-872, Prosecution Exhibit 408. From this it is seen that Karl Brandt here did not have charge of the patients, but was to endeavor with the other authorities to have the institution placed at his disposal.
Real Position of Karl Brandt. The position of Karl Brandt within the framework of the Euthanasia Program was limited.