Gebhardt, Karl.

Born 23.11.1897 in The Hague, died 2.6. 1948. Surgeon. Prof. Dr. med. Medical Superintendent of the SS Hohenlychen Sanatorium, Consulting Surgeon of the Waffen-SS, Chief Surgeon in the Staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police. Defendant in the Medical Trial. Gebhardt studied medicine in Munich starting in 1919. After two years as an unpaid assistant physician he received a post as an intern at the Surgical Clinic of the University of Munich, under Sauerbruch in 1924 and later under Lexer. There he gained his habilitation in 1932. In 1935, he switched to Berlin, where he was appointed associate professor. In 1936 he distinguished himself in his post as a head of the Medical Department of the Reich Academy for Physical Exercises as senior physician of the Olympic Games. In 1937 he became chair holder for orthopedic surgery at the University of Berlin. In his student days Gebhardt had been a supporter of the national-counter-rcvolutionary movement and was active among other things in the Volunteer Corps "the Upland Alliance." He joined the NSDAP on 1.5.1933 (No. 1,723,317). He began his SS career in 1935 as a medical superintendent of the Hohenlychen Sanatorium. In 1938 Himmler appointed him as his personal physician. In 1940 he became Consulting Surgeon of the Waffen-SS and President of the German Red Cross. Starting in 1943 Gebhardt was active in the Reich Physician SS and Police, Ernst Grawitz's Staff as a Chief Surgeon. He rose to the rank of SS Major General and Major General of the Waffen-SS. Due to his top position in the SS, Gebhardt was involved in a series of experiments on humans which were carried out on concentration camp prisoners. He could pursue his personal research interests as a specialist in reconstructive surgery as the main coordinator of the surgical experiments carried out on prisoners of the Ravensbrück Women's Concentration Camp, in which he attempted to defend the principles of invasive war surgery against the controversial innovations of the sulfanilamide treatment of war injuries. Gebhardt was condemned to death by the American Military Tribunal No. I in August 1947 and executed on 2.6.1948.