Karl Brandt

Brandt was born in Mulhouse in the then German Alsace-Lorraine territory (now in Haut-Rhin, France) into the family of a Prussian Army officer.[3] He became a medical doctor and surgeon in 1928, specializing in head and spinal injuries.[4] He joined the Nazi Party in January 1932, and first met Hitler in the summer of 1932.[5] He became a member of the SA in 1933 and a member of the SS on 29 July 1934; appointed the officer rank of Untersturmführer.[5] From the summer of 1934 forward, he was Hitler's "escort physician". Karl Brandt married Anni Rehborn, a champion swimmer, on 17 March 1934. They had one son, Karl Adolf Brandt (born 4 October 1935). Brandt was of the Protestant faith.[6]

In the context of the 1933 Nazi Germany law Gesetz zur Verhütung erbkranken Nachwuchses (Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring), Brandt was one of the medical scientists who performed abortions in great numbers on women deemed genetically disordered, mentally or physically disabled or racially deficient, or whose unborn fetuses were expected to develop such genetic "defects". These abortions had been legalized, as long as no healthy Aryan fetuses were aborted.[7] On 25 July 1939, Brandt authorized the first euthanization of the Nazi eugenics program, that of Gerhard Kretschmar, a 5-month-old disabled German infant.[8]

On 1 September 1939, Brandt was appointed by Hitler as co-head of the Aktion T4 euthanasia program, with Philipp Bouhler.[9] Additional power was afforded Brandt when on 28 July 1942, he was appointed Commissioner of Sanitation and Health (Bevollmächtigter für das Sanitäts- und Gesundheitswesen) by Hitler and was thereafter only bound by the Führer's instructions.[10] He received regular promotions in the SS; by April 1944, Brandt was a SS-Gruppenführer in the Allgemeine SS and a SS-Brigadeführer in the Waffen-SS.[2] On 16 April 1945, he was arrested by the Gestapo for moving his family out of Berlin so they could surrender to American forces. Brandt was condemned to death by a military court and then sent to Kiel.[5] He was released from arrest by order of Karl Dönitz on 2 May. He was placed under arrest by the British on 23 May.

Brandt's medical ethics, particularly regarding euthanasia, were influenced by Alfred Hoche, whose courses he attended. Like many other German doctors of the period, Brandt came to believe that the health of society as a whole should take precedence over that of its individual members. Because society was viewed as an organism that had to be cured, its weakest, most invalid and incurable members were only parts that should be removed. Such hapless creatures should therefore be granted a "merciful death" (Gnadentod).[11] In addition to these considerations, Brandt's explanation at his trial for his criminal actions – particularly ordering experimentation on human beings – was that "... Any personal code of ethics must give way to the total character of the war".[2] Historian Horst Freyhofer asserts that, in the absence of at least Brandt's tacit approval, it is highly unlikely that the grotesque and cruel medical experiments for which the Nazi doctors are infamous, could have been performed.[12] Brandt and Hitler discussed multiple killing techniques during the initial planning of the euthanasia program, during which Hitler asked Brandt, "which is the most humane way?" Brandt suggested the use of carbon monoxide gas, to which Hitler gave his approval. Hitler instructed Brandt to contact other physicians and begin to coordinate the mass killings.[13]

Brandt at right, following Hitler and Martin Bormann and walking behind Field Marshall Milch

Karl Brandt and his wife Anni were members of Hitler's inner circle at Berchtesgaden where Hitler maintained his private residence known as the Berghof.[2] This very exclusive group functioned as Hitler's de facto family circle. It included Eva Braun, Albert Speer, his wife Margarete, Theodor Morell, Martin Bormann, Hitler's photographer Heinrich Hoffmann, Hitler's adjutants and his secretaries. Brandt and Hitler's chief architect Albert Speer were good friends as the two shared technocratic dispositions about their work. Brandt looked at killing "useless eaters" and the disabled as a means to an end, namely in the interest of public health. Similarly, Speer viewed the use of concentration camp slave labor for his defense and building projects in much the same way.[14] As members of this inner circle, the Brandts had a residence near the Berghof and spent considerable time there when Hitler was present. Despite Brandt's closeness to Hitler, the dictator was furious when he learned shortly before the end of the war that the doctor had sent Anni and their son toward the American lines in hopes of evading capture by the Russians.[2] Only the intervention of Heinrich Himmler, Speer, and the direct order of Admiral Doenitz after Brandt had been captured by the Gestapo and sent to Kiel in the war's closing days, saved him from execution, at that time.[2]

Brandt on trial, 20 August 1947

Brandt was tried along with twenty-two others at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. The trial was officially titled United States of America v. Karl Brandt et al., but is more commonly referred to as the "Doctors' Trial"; it began on 9 December 1946. He was charged with four counts:

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, in the course of which experiments the defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts. Also planning and performing the mass murder of prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries, stigmatized as aged, insane, incurably ill, deformed, and so on, by gas, lethal injections, and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums during the Euthanasia Program and participating 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 charges against him included special responsibility for, and participation in, Freezing, Malaria, LOST Gas, Sulfanilamide, Bone, Muscle and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation, Sea-Water, Epidemic Jaundice, Sterilization, and Typhus Experiments.[15]

As chief of counsel for the prosecution Telford Taylor put it:

"The defendants in this case are charged with murders, tortures, and other atrocities committed in the name of medical science. The victims of these crimes are numbered in the hundreds of thousands. A handful only are still alive; a few of the survivors will appear in this courtroom. But most of these miserable victims were slaughtered outright or died in the course of the tortures to which they were subjected. For the most part they are nameless dead. To their murderers, these wretched people were not individuals at all. They came in wholesale lots and were treated worse than animals."

After a defence led by Robert Servatius, on 19 August 1947, Brandt was found guilty on counts 2-4 of the indictment. With six others, he was sentenced to death. Numerous pleas for clemency on Brandt's behalf were made by dozens of people, including representatives of the churches, such as Eugen Gerstenmaier, the chairman of the relief organization of the Evangelical Church in Germany. Amongst Brandt's advocates were numerous medical health professionals, such as surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch renowned pathologist Robert Roesle, the pharmacologist Wolfgang Hübner, the gynaecologist Walter Stoeckel, and the historian of medicine Paul Diepgen. Other noted petitioners included various other physiologists, pathologists and surgeons.

Ultimately, Lucius D. Clay, the governor of the American occupation zone in Germany, rejected all pleas for mercy. He confirmed the death sentence for Brandt, as well as those for his codefendants.[16]

Clay stated:

"Regardless of what inner convictions Dr Brandt may have held, he was directly responsible for much of the suffering and death caused to the unfortunate concentration camp victims chosen to be used as subjects in brutal medical experiments. In justice to these persons who underwent torture and death, I am unable to grant clemency in this case."

Brandt and six other defendants were executed by hanging at Landsberg Prison on 2 June 1948.[2][17] While on the gallows, he remarked: "It is no shame to stand upon the scaffold. This is nothing but political revenge. I have served my Fatherland as others before me." As he continued to talk, prison officials told him he'd run out of time and that he needed to stop. However, Brandt refused to end his speech. Eventually, a hood was placed over his head while he continued to talk and he was hanged.[18][19]

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• List SS-Gruppenführer
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• Nazi human experimentation