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Ernst Mettbach testifies as a witness for defendant Wilhelm Beiglboeck at the Doctors Trial. Mettbach stated he and thirty-nine other Roma volunteered for sea-water experiments.

Photograph | Photograph Number: 43039
Ernst Mettbach testifies as a witness for defendant Wilhelm Beiglboeck at the Doctors Trial. Mettbach stated he and thirty-nine other Roma volunteered for sea-water experiments.

Ernst Mettbach testifies as a witness for defendant Wilhelm Beiglboeck at the Doctors Trial. Mettbach stated he and thirty-nine other Roma volunteered for sea-water experiments.

Date
1947 June 21
Locale
Nuremberg, [Bavaria] Germany
Variant Locale
Nurnberg
Photo Designation
PURSUIT OF JUSTICE -- Subsequent Nuremberg Trials -- #1 Medical Case -- Trial
Photo Credit
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration, College Park

About This Photograph

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.

Keywords and Subjects

Rights and Restrictions

Photo Source
National Archives and Records Administration, College Park
Copyright: Public Domain
Source Record ID: 111-SC-286313 (Album 5580)
 
Record last modified: 2021-03-11 00:00:00
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1040815