Buchenwald: Spotted Fever (Fleckfieber) Experiments

At Buchenwald, subjects were infected with spotted fever virus to test the effectiveness of anti-viral vaccines. 75 percent of the subjects were innoculated against the virus, and were infected with spotted fever germs after a three to four weeks. The other 25 percent were infected without inoculation, resulting in a near 90 percent mortality rate.

Experiments with yellow fever, smallpox, typhus, paratyphus A and B, [It was ascertained in the course of the proceedings, by both prosecution and defense, that the correct translation of "Fleckfieber" is typhus. A finding to this effect is contained in the judgment. A similar initial inadequate translation occurred in the case of "typhus" and "paratyphus" which should be rendered as typhoid and paratyphoid] cholera, and diphtheria were also conducted. Similar experiments were conducted at Natzweiler concentration camp.

The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Schroeder, Genzken, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Sievers, Rose, Becker-Freyseng, and Hoven are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.

Source: U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. Nuremberg, October 1946 - April 1949. Washington D.C.: U.S. G.P.O, 1949-1953.