Victor Brack on the first day of his testimony in his own defense during the Doctors Trial.
Overview
- Caption
- Victor Brack on the first day of his testimony in his own defense during the Doctors Trial.
Brack served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Chancellery during the war. - Date
-
1947 May 12
- Locale
- Nuremberg, [Bavaria] Germany
- Variant Locale
- Nurnberg
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
- Event History
- On October 25, 1946, the U.S. Military Government for Germany created the Military Tribunal I, which conducted the first of the Subsequent Nuremberg Proceedings, the Medical Case trial. On November 5, indictments were served to 23 SS physicians, scientists, and officials. The defendants were indicted on four counts: participation in the common design or conspiracy, war crimes, crimes against humanity and membership in criminal organizations. The defendants were accused of committing "murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities and other inhuman acts" on German civilians and nationals of other countries through a series of specific medical experiments dealing with the effects of high altitude, low temperature, seawater, typhus, infectious jaundice, sulfa drugs, bone grafting, and mustard gas, as well as through the Euthanasia and forced sterilization programs. The defendants were arraigned on November 21 and the trial ran from December 9, 1946 to July 19, 1947. The Tribunal rendered its judgment on August 20, finding fifteen of the defendants guilty, seven not guilty and one guilty only of membership in a criminal organization. The sentences were announced on August 21. Seven were sentenced to death, five to life terms, and four to terms of between 10 to 20 years. Those sentenced to death were hanged on June 2, 1948 at the Landsberg prison.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-doctors-trial-the-medical-case-of-the-subsequent-nuremberg-proceedings.
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Copyright: Public DomainSource Record ID: 111-SC-284805 (Album 5578)
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Viktor Hermann Brack (1904-1948), SS-Oberfuehrer and a top official in the Reich Chancellery, who took an active role in the construction of the death camps in German-occupied Poland. After working as Heinrich Himmler's personal chauffeur, Brack was tapped by Philipp Bouhler of the Reich Chancellery to become head liaison officer with the Department of Health in 1936. Subsequently, he became Bouhler's deputy. Between December 1939 and August 1941 Brack was chief of the section that ran the T-4 Euthanasia program. Brack himself interviewed and selected personnel for the euthanasia facilities and offered the use of these facilities to Himmler for the sterilization of thousands of Jews. After the T-4 program was shut down, Brack helped in the preparation of mobile gassing vans to be used in Riga and Minsk, and later, in the construction of the death camps and the installation of gas chambers which were operated by some of his personnel from the euthanasia program. Though not a physician, Brack was a defendant at the Doctors' Trial in Nuremberg and was convicted for his participation in the euthanasia and forced sterilization programs. He was sentenced to death on August 20, 1947 and hanged in Landsberg prison on June 2, 1948.
[Source: Wistrich, Robert. "Who's Who in Nazi Germany." MacMillan, 1982.]
- Record last modified:
- 2007-04-06 00:00:00
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1040811
