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Kurt Blome | |
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Deputy Reich Health Leader | |
In office 20 April 1939 – 1945 | |
Leader | Leonardo Conti |
Preceded by | Hans Deuschl |
Succeeded by | Office abolished |
Personal details | |
Born | Bielefeld, German Empire | 31 January 1894
Died | 10 October 1969 Dortmund, West Germany | (aged 75)
Political party | Nazi Party |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Virologist |
Institutions | Riems Island, German Reich |
Criminality | |
Criminal status | Acquitted |
Criminal charge | War crimes Crimes against humanity |
Trial | Doctors' Trial |
Kurt Blome (31 January 1894 – 10 October 1969) was a high-ranking Nazi scientist before and during World War II. He was the Deputy Reich Health Leader (Reichsgesundheitsführer) and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Council. In his autobiography Arzt im Kampf (A Physician's Struggle), he equated medical and military power in their battle for life and death.
Blome was tried at the Doctors' Trial in 1947 on charges of practicing euthanasia and conducting experiments on humans. He only admitted that he had been ordered in 1943 to experiment with plague vaccines on concentration camp prisoners. In reality, starting in 1943 he "assumed responsibility for all research into biological warfare sponsored by the Wehrmacht" and the SS.[1] Although he was acquitted of war crimes charges at the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial, this was mainly due to the intervention of the United States as his earlier admissions were well known. It was generally accepted that he had indeed participated in chemical and biological warfare experiments on concentration camp inmates.[2]