The Doctors' Trial (or, officially, The United States of America vs. Karl Brandt, et. al.) was the first of the twelve trials for war crimes the U.S. authorities held in their occupation zone in Germany in Nuremberg after the end of World War II. These twelve trials were all held before U.S. military courts, not before the International Military Tribunal, but took place in the same rooms. The twelve U.S. trials are collectively known as the "Subsequent Nuremberg Trials" or, more formally, as the "Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals" (NMT).

The 23 defendants were all medical doctors and were accused of having been involved in the horrors of Nazi human experimentation.

The judges in this case, heard before Military Tribunal I, were Walter B. Beals (presiding judge) from Washington, Harold L. Sebring from Florida, and Johnson T. Crawford from Oklahoma, and Victor T. 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, the chief prosecutor in this case was James M. McHaney . The indictment was filed on October 25, 1946; the trial lasted form December 9 that year until August 20, 1947. Of the 23 defendants, five were acquitted, and seven received death sentences, the remaining received prison sentences ranging from 10 years to lifetime imprisonment.

Indictment

The accused faced four charges:

1. Conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity as described in counts 2 and 3;
2. War crimes: performing medical experiments without the subjects' consent on prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries, as well as participation in the mass-murder of concentration camp inmates.
3. Crimes against humanity: committing crimes described under count 2 also on German nationals.
4. Membership in a criminal organization, the SS.

The SS had been declared a criminal organization previously by the IMT.

All defendants pleaded "not guilty".

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

Defendants

Name	Function	Charges				Sentence
		1	2	3	4
Hermann Becker-Freyseng	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		20 years' imprisonment, commuted to 10 years
Wilhelm Beiglböck	Consulting Physician to the Luftwaffe	I	G	G		15 years' imprisonment, commuted to 10 years
Kurt Blome	Deputy [of the] Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsfuehrer); and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Council	I	I	I		acquitted
Viktor Brack	Oberführer (Senior Colonel) in the SS and Sturmbannführer (Major) in the Waffen SS; and Chief Administrative Officer in the Chancellery of the Fuehrer of the NSDAP (Oberdienstleiter, Kanzlei des Fuehrers der NSDAP)	I	G	G	G	death
Karl Brandt	Personal physician to Adolf Hitler; Gruppenfuehrer in the SS and Generalleutnant (Major General) in the Waffen SS; Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation (Reichskommissar fuer Sanitaets- und Gesundheitswesen); and member of the Reich Research Council (Reichsforschungsrat)	I	G	G	G	death
Rudolf Brandt	Standartenfuehrer (Colonel); in the Allgemeine SS; Personal Administrative Officer to Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler (Persoenlicher Referent von Himmler); and Ministerial Counsellor and Chief of the Ministerial Office in the Reich Ministry of the Interior	I	G	G	G	death
Dr. med. Fritz Fischer	Sturmbannfuehrer (Major) in the Waffen SS; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the Hospital at Hohenlychen	I	G	G	G	lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 15 years
Karl Gebhardt	Gruppenfuehrer in the SS and Generalleutnant (Major 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
Karl Genzken	Gruppenfuehrer in the SS and Generalleutnant (Major General) in the Waffen SS; and Chief of the Medical Department of the Waffen SS (Chef des Sanitaetsamts der Waffen SS)	I	G	G	G	lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years
Siegfried Handloser	Generaloberstabsarzt (Lieutenant General, Medical Service); Medical Inspector of the Army (Heeressanitaetsinspekteur); and Chief of the Medical Services of the Armed Forces (Chef des Wehrmachtsanitaetswesens)	I	G	G		lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years
Waldemar Hoven	Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain) in the Waffen SS; and Chief Doctor of the Buchenwald concentration camp	I	G	G	G	death
Joachim Mrugowsky	Oberfuehrer (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 Hygenic Institute of the Waffen SS (Chef des Hygienischen Institutes der Waffen SS)	I	G	G	G	death
Herta Oberheuser	Physician at the Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the Hospital at Hohenlychen	I	G	G		20 years' imprisonment, commuted to 10 years
Adolf Pokorny	Physician, Specialist in Skin and Venereal Diseases	I	I	I		acquitted
Helmut Poppendick	Oberfuehrer (Senior Colonel) in the SS; and Chief of the Personal Staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police (Chef des Persoenlichen Stabes des Reichsarztes SS und Polizei)	I	I	I	G	10 years imprisonment, commuted to none
Hans Wolfgang Romberg	Doctor on the Staff of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation	I	I	I		acquitted
Gerhard Rose	Generalarzt of the Luftwaffe (Brigadier General, 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		lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 20 years
Paul Rostock	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		acquitted
Siegfried Ruff	Director of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation (Deutsche Versuchsanstalt fuer Luftfahrt)	I	I	I		acquitted
Konrad Schäfer	Doctor on the Staff of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Berlin	I	I	I		acquitted
Oskar Schröder	Generaloberstabsarzt (Lieutenant General Medical Service); Chief of Staff of the Inspectorate of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe (Chef des Stabes, Inspekteur des Luftwaffe-Sanitaetswesens); and Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe (Chef des Sanitaetswesens der Luftwaffe)	I	G	G		lifetime imprisonment, commuted to 15 years
Wolfram Sievers	Standartenfuehrer (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	I	G	G	G	death
Georg August Weltz	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		acquitted

I — Indicted   G — Indicted and found guilty

Those sentenced to death were hanged on June 2, 1948 in Landsberg prison, Bavaria.

Generally, the difference between a prison term and the death sentence was membership in "an organization declared criminal by the judgement of the International Military Tribunal" — namely the SS.

See also

• Declaration of Geneva
• Declaration of Helsinki
• Medical ethics
• Medical torture
• Hippocratic Oath
• Nuremberg Principles
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights

References

• Trial proceedings (first part) and Trial proceedings (second part) from the Mazal library.
• Description from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.