“Witness,” said General Alexandrov, “will you kindly tell us what you know about the preparations by the German High Command for bacteriological warfare?”
“In July 1943, the High Command of the Wehrmacht called a secret conference, in which I took part as representative of the Army Medical Inspectorate,” said Schreiber. “A bacteriological warfare group was formed at this meeting. As a result of the war situation the High Command authorities now had to take a different view of the question of the use of bacteria as a weapon in warfare from the one held up till now by the Army Medical Inspectorate,” Schreiber testified. “Consequently, the Führer, Adolf Hitler, had charged Reich Marshal Hermann Goering to direct the carrying out of all preparations for bacteriological warfare, and had given him the necessary powers,” Schreiber said. In this statement, Schreiber was contradicting the generally accepted notion that Hitler had never authorized his generals to use chemical or biological weapons against Allied troops. In fact, no chemical or biological weapons were ever used in World War II, which made it strange that Schreiber had been brought all the way to Nuremberg to testify to something that was ultimately irrelevant to the war crimes trial. Why, then, was Schreiber really there?
“At [this] secret conference it was decided that an institute should be created for the production of bacterial cultures on a large scale,” Schreiber said, “and the carrying out of scientific experiments to examine the possibilities of using bacteria [in warfare]. The institute was also to be used for experimenting with pests which could be used against domestic animals and crops, and which were to be made available if they were found practicable.”
“And what was done after that?” Major General Alexandrov asked rather pointedly.
“A few days later, I learned… that Reich Marshal Goering had appointed the Deputy Chief of the Reich Physicians’ League, [Dr. Kurt] Blome, to carry out the work, and had told him to found the institute as quickly as possible in or near Posen.”
“And what do you know about the experiments which were being carried out for the purpose of bacteriological warfare?” General Alexandrov asked.
“Experiments were carried out at the institute in Posen,” Schreiber said ominously, referring to Blome’s institute for plague research. “I do not know any details about them. I only know that aircraft were used for spraying tests with bacteria emulsion, and that insects harmful to plants, such as beetles, were experimented with, but I cannot give any details. I did not make experiments myself.”
Alexandrov asked if the army high command knew about these experiments; Schreiber replied, “I assume so.”
“Will you kindly tell us precisely what the reason was for the decision of the OKW to prepare for bacteriological warfare?” Alexandrov asked.
“The defeat at Stalingrad,” Schreiber said, “led to a reassessment of the situation, and consequently to new decisions. It was no doubt considered whether new weapons could be used which might still turn the tide of war in our favor.”
“So why didn’t the Reich use biological weapons?” Alexandrov asked.
Instead of answering the question, General Schreiber went into minute detail regarding a meeting in March 1945 with Dr. Blome. “In March 1945, Professor Blome visited me at my office at the Military Medical Academy,” Schreiber recalled. “He had come from Posen and was very excited. He asked me whether I could accommodate him and his men in the laboratories at Sachsenburg so that they could continue their work there; he had been forced out of his institute at Posen by the advance of the Red Army. He had had to flee from the institute and he had not even been able to blow it up. He was very worried at the fact that the installations for experiments on human beings at this institute, the purpose of which was obvious, might be easily recognized by the Russians for what they were. He had tried to have the institute destroyed by a Stuka bomb but that, too, was not possible. Therefore, he asked me to see to it that he be permitted to continue work at Sachsenburg on his plague cultures, which he had saved,” Schreiber said.