Claus Schilling

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Claus Karl Schilling
War crimes
TrialDachau camp trial
Criminal penaltyDeath
Details
Victims~300–400+
Span of crimes
1938–1945
CountryGermany and Italy
LocationsItalian psychiatric hospitals
Dachau concentration camp

Claus Karl Schilling (5 July 1871 – 28 May 1946), also recorded as Klaus Schilling, was a German tropical medicine specialist who participated in the Nazi human experiments at the Dachau concentration camp during World War II.

Though never a member of the

human experimentation
on over a thousand camp prisoners at Dachau, of whom hundreds died.

Sentenced to death by hanging at the

Hitler
's Germany, he was executed for his crimes against the Dachau prisoners in 1946.

Biography

Born in

German colonial possessions in Africa. Recognized for his contributions in the field of tropical medicine, he was appointed the first-ever director of the tropical medicine division of the Robert Koch Institute
in 1905, where he would remain for the subsequent three decades.

Italian research

Upon retirement from the Robert Koch Institute in 1936, Schilling moved to

Nazi government of Germany also supported him with a financial grant for his Italian experimentation.[2]

Dachau experiments

Nazi medical experiments
.

Schilling returned to Germany after a meeting with

leader of the SS. Despite negative assessments from colleagues, Schilling would remain in charge of the malaria station for the duration of the war.[2]

Although Schilling stressed that the research could be done in a harmless manner, test subjects in Dachau were subject to sadistic treatment. They included confining their hands and arms in cages filled with

Nazis were killed during the experiments.[2]

In the course of the

Dachau Trials following the liberation of the camp at the close of the war, Schilling was tried by a U.S. General Military Court, appointed at 2 November 1945, in the case of The United States versus Martin Gottfried Weiss, Wilhelm Rupert, et al. The defendants, 40 doctors and staff, were charged and convicted of offenses of the violations of laws and usages of war in that they acted in pursuance of a common design, did encourage, aid, abet, and participate in the subjection of Allied nationals and prisoners of war to cruelties and mistreatments at Dachau Concentration Camp and its subcamps.[4] According to the testimony of August H. Vieweg, the patients used in the malaria experiments were Poles, Russians, and Yugoslavs.[4] At that time, there was no formal code of ethics in medical research to which the judges could hold the accused Nazi doctors accountable. The "scientific experiments" exposed during the trials led to the Nuremberg Code, developed in 1949 as a ten-point code of human experimentation ethics.[5]

During his trial, Schilling made a plea in English. Breaking down in tears at the end, he pleaded with the court to let him finish his research, albeit in a less destructive manner:

"I have worked out this great labor. It would be really a terrible loss if I could not finish this work. I don't ask you as a court, I ask you personally to do what you can; to do what you can to help me that I may finish this report. I need only a table and a chair and a typewriter. It would be an enormous help for science, for my colleagues, and a good part to rehabilitate myself."[6]

The tribunal sentenced Schilling to death by hanging on 13 December 1945. After his conviction, Schilling asked his lawyer not to appeal on his behalf, saying he would rather die than stay in prison.[7] However, many in the German medical community protested on his behalf, calling him an honest and humane scientist.[8] Nevertheless, Schilling's sentence was confirmed, and his execution took place at Landsberg Prison in Landsberg am Lech on 28 May 1946. The execution was filmed by military personnel, who recorded Schilling's ascending the gallows and his hanging,[9] along with a coffin marked "Dr Schilling, Claus."[10]

When asked if he wanted to make a final statement, Schilling said "I am not guilty. Please get it over with."[11]

References

  1. ISBN 9781438420325
    p. 178
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-3-515-08794-0
    , pp. 221–236.
  3. doi:10.1093/hgs/dcaa025
    .
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-1-59181-032-2
    , p. 104–112.
  5. ISBN 9780253112729
    .
  6. ^ "Dr. Klaus Karl Schilling testifies at the trial of former camp personnel and prisoners from Dachau. – Collections Search – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". collections.ushmm.org. Retrieved 2023-02-22.
  7. ^ "Handwritten letter from defendent [sic] Claus Schilling to Dalwin J. Niles, his appointed defense attorney in the Dachau Trials, – Collections Search – United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". collections.ushmm.org. Retrieved 2022-06-29.
  8. ISBN 978-0-230-50605-3
    .
  9. ^ MUNICH. [No.] 191, HANGINGS AT LANSBERG, GERMANY. Series: Moving Images Relating to Military Activities, 1860–1985. National Archives Video Collection. 28 May 1946. Retrieved 15 September 2019. (Approx. minutes 2:20 to 3:15)
  10. ^ MUNICH. [No. 191, HANGINGS AT LANSBERG, GERMANY. Series: Moving Images Relating to Military Activities, 1860–1985. National Archives Video Collection. 28 May 1946. Retrieved 15 September 2019. (Approx. minutes 5:30 to 5:45)
  11. ^ "Chapter 29" (PDF). hrlibrary.umn.edu.

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