Table of contents:
Element:
A. Legal source/authority and evidence:
Trial of Öbersturmbannführer Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess, Case No. 38, Judgement (Supreme National Tribunal of Poland), 11-29 March 1947, reported in United Nations War Crimes Commission, Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Vol 8 (1948), pp.24- 25:
"4. GENOCIDE
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[P]aramount importance should be attached to the political aspect of the crime. [ ] They were obviously devised at finding the most appropriate means with which to lower or destroy the reproductive power of the Jews, Poles, Czechs and other non-German nations which were considered by the Nazi as standing in the way of the fulfilment of German plans of world domination.[ ]
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The defendant Hoess declared that the experiments of wholesale castration and sterilization were carried out in accordance with Himmlers plans and orders. These aimed at the biological destruction of the Slav nations in such a way that outside appearance of natural extinction would have been preserved."
United States of America v. Karl Brandt et al., Case No. 5, Judgement (Military Tribunal No. I), 20 August 1947, reproduced in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Proceedings, Vol. 2 (1949-53), pp. 277-279:
"BRACK
The defendant Brack is charged under counts two and three of the indictment with personal responsibility for, and participation in, Sterilization Experiments [ ] of the German Reich. [ ]
STERILIZATION EXPERIMENTS
The persecution of Jews had become a fixed Nazi policy very soon after the outbreak of World War II. By 1941 that persecution had reached the stage of the extermination of Jews, both in Germany and in the occupied territories. This fact is confirmed by Brack himself, who testified that he had been told by Himmler that he, Himmler, had received a personal order to that effect from Hitler.
The record shows that the agencies organised for the so-called euthanasia of incurables were used for this bloody pogrom. Later, because of the urgent need for laborers in Germany, it was decided not to kill Jews who were able to work, but as an alternative, to sterilize them.
With this end in view Himmler instructed Brack to inquire of physicians who were engaged in the Euthanasia Program about the possibility of a method of sterilizing persons without the victims knowledge. Brack worked on the assignment, with the result that in March 1941, he forwarded to Himmler his signed report on the results of experiments concerning the sterilization of human beings by means of X-rays. In the report a method was suggested by which sterilization with X-ray could be effected on groups of persons without their being aware of the operation.
On 23 June 1942 Brack wrote the following letter to Himmler:
"Dear Reichsfuehrer:
"* * * Among 10 millions of Jews in Europe, there are, I figure, at least 2-3 millions of men and women who are fit enough to work. Considering the extraordinary difficulties the labour problem presents us with I hold the view that those 2-3 millions should be specially selected and preserved. This can however only be done if at the same time they are rendered incapable to propagate. About a year ago I reported to you that agents of mine have completed the experiments necessary for this purpose. I would like to recall these facts once more. Sterilization, as normally performed on persons with hereditary diseases is here out of the question because it takes too long and is too expensive. Castration by X-ray is however not only relatively cheap, but can also be performed in many thousands on the shortest time. I think at this time that it is already irrelevant whether the people in question become aware of having been castrated after some weeks or months, once they feel the effects.
"Should you, Reichsfuehrer, decide to choose this way in the interest of preservation of labor, then Reichsleiter Bouhler would be prepared to place all physicians and other personnel needed for this work at your disposal. Likewise he requested me to inform you that then I would have to order the apparatus so urgently needed with the greatest speed.
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A Polish Jew testified before the Tribunal that while confined in Auschwitz concentration camp he was marched to Birkenau and forcibly subjected to severe X-ray exposure and was castrated later in order that the effects of the X-ray could be studied.
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Bracks part in the organisation of the sterilization program with full knowledge that it would be put into execution is conclusively shown by the record.
4.2. The conduct was not carried out with the genuine consent of the person or persons concerned.
P.4. Evidence of sterilization by the perpetrator against the will of person or persons concerned.
A. Legal source/authority and evidence:
United States of America v. Karl Brandt et al., Case No. 5, Judgement (Military Tribunal No. I), 20 August 1947, reproduced in Trials of War Criminals before the Nuernberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10, Proceedings, Vol. 2 (1949-53), p. 279:
"A Polish Jew testified before the Tribunal that while confined in Auschwitz concentration camp he was marched to Birkenau and forcibly subjected to severe X-ray exposure and was castrated later in order that the effects of the X-ray could be studied."
P.5. Evidence of enforced sterilization programs as part of a larger plan.
A. Legal source/authority and evidence:
Trial of Öbersturmbannführer Rudolf Franz Ferdinand Hoess, Case No. 38, Judgement (Supreme National Tribunal of Poland), 11-29 March 1947, reported in United Nations War Crimes Commission, Law Reports of Trials of War Criminals, Vol 8 (1948),:
"The persecution of Jews had become a fixed Nazi policy very soon after the outbreak of World War II. By 1941 that persecution had reached the stage of the extermination of Jews, both in Germany and in the occupied territories. This fact is confirmed by Brack himself, who testified that he had been told by Himmler that he, Himmler, had received a personal order to that effect from Hitler.
The record shows that the agencies organised for the so-called euthanasia of incurables were used for this bloody pogrom. Later, because of the urgent need for laborers in Germany, it was decided not to kill Jews who were able to work, but as an alternative, to sterilize them."
"From about March 1941 to about January 1945 sterlilization experiments were conducted at the Auschwitz and Ravensbrueck concentration camps, and other places. The purpose of these experiments was to develop a method of sterilization which would be suitable for sterilizing millions of people with a minimum of time and effort. These experiments were conducted by means of X-ray, surgery, and various drugs. Thousands of victims were sterilized and thereby suffered great mental and physical anguish. The defendants Karl Brandt, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Brack, Pokorny and Oberhauser are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes."
B. Evidentiary comment:
One commentator suggests that enforced sterilization can result as a foreseeable consequence of forced prostitution and gross sexual cruelty intentionally inflicted on women. During World War II in Asia, the overwhelming majority of the survivors of the "comfort" system were subsequently unable either to become pregnant or to carry a pregnancy to term (Kelly Dawn Askin, "War Crimes Against Women- Prosecution in International War Crimes Tribunals" Martinu Nijhoff 1997, pp. 91-92). Askin writes, "forcible inability to reproduce is particularly prevalent in instances of exceedingly vicious rapes, multiple rapes, gang rapes, rapes of young children, rapes committed with foreign objects, and rapes perpetrated in unsanitary conditions which promote infections or disease. While the intent may not necessarily be specific, when the consequences of sexual violence deny survivors the ability to reproduce, the result is forcible sterilization" (footnotes omitted).
