Victims, witnesses and the ethical legacy of the Nuremburg Medical Trial

The author stresses that the medical trials need to be examined against the political climate of the Cold War. Allied commitment to human rights was of necessity weighed against political expediency. The medical trials showed how agendas of biological and racial purification resulted in hands-on violence, torture and acts of medically condoned destruction. This article describes the search for victims, selection of witnesses for court, sterilization, as well as the connection between the trials and the aftermath. These trials helped to developed the laws on crimes against humanity but also have significance as an attempt to bring to light the dynamics of Nazi power, the motives of perpetrators and the impact of the atrocities on victims.