Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 06:33:28 +0100 From: jgh Subject: Barbaric 'Experiments' by Nazi Dr. Vaernet *** OutRage! letters to Denmark and Argentina *** Dear Prime Minister Foul Nyrup Rasmussen, We are writing to request the help of your government to discover the fate of the Nazi doctor, Carl Vaernet, who fled to Argentina after the war and was last known to be working in the Buenos Aires public health department in late 1947. Dr. Vaernet was a pro-Nazi Danish citizen who served in the SS, conducting barbaric medical experiments --including castration and forced hormonal implants-- on gay concentration camp prisoners at Buchenwald and Neuengamme. Unlike other Nazi doctors, he was never put on trial at Nuremberg, and was allowed to flee to Argentina soon after the war was over. Dr. Vaernet's role in the medical abuse of gay prisoners is documented in the archives at the International Tracing Service at Arolsen (example: ITS Arolsen, book 36, folder 405). It is also cited in the books "The Pink Triangle" by Richard Plant (Mainstream Publishing, Edinburgh 1987) and "Hidden Holocaust?" by Dr. Gunter Grau (Cassell, London 1995). Dr. Vaernet's gruesome experiments on gay internees are also cited in the German documentary film "Wir hatten ein grosses 'A' am Bein" (We Were Marked With A Big 'A'), directed by Elke Jeonrond and Joseph Weishaupt, and made for NDR in 1991 by Mediengruppe Schwabing Filmproduktion. ================= At the end of the war Dr. Vaernet was interned in the British-run Alsgade Skole prisoner-of-war camp in Copenhagen. On 29th May 1945, the chairman of the Danish Medical Association sent the Ministry of Justice an affidavit signed by a Danish police officer who had been incarcerated in Buchenwald. This affidavit identified Vaernet as having been a serving SS officer. The report from the chairman of the Danish Medical Association was, apparently, ignored by the Justice Ministry in Copenhagen. In the autumn of 1945, the British handed over Dr. Vaernet to the Danish authorities. What these authorities did with him at this stage remains unknown. Was he placed in a Danish prison? Or was he moved to hospital for the treatment of his alleged heart problem? This, too, demands an investigation and an answer. On 2nd January 1946, the Danish Medical Association received a letter from Dr. Vaernet's lawyer, informing them that he had resigned -- apparently in a bid to preempt the Association's plan to have him struck off for his wartime activities, It is known that Dr. Vaernet was eventually transferred to hospital, on the grounds that he was allegedly suffering from a heart complaint, (which may well have been fictional in order to facilitate his release from detention). When did this transfer take place? Who authorised it? What independent medical report, if any, confirmed his heart condition? Dr. Vaernet is said to have told fellow doctors that his heart trouble could be treated only in Sweden. Astonishingly, despite being accused of perpetrating war crimes, Dr. Vaernet was allowed by the Danish authorities to travel to Sweden. In Sweden, he made contact with the Nazi escape network, which spirited him away to Argentina, probably in late 1946 or early 1947. On 19th November 1947, the Copenhagen newspaper, "Berlingske Tidende", carried a letter from a Danish exile living in Argentina which reported that Dr. Vaernet was working in the Buenos Aires health department. ================= It is our formal request that the Danish government explain: 1. Why was Dr. Vaernet never put on trial on charges of war crimes, alongside other Nazi doctors? 2. What explanation is there for the way the Ministry of Justice ignored the serious allegations made by the Danish Medical Association concerning Dr. Vaernet's wartime activities? 3. Who authorised him to leave prison unguarded and attend hospital for treatment without supervision? 4. How did Dr. Vaernet --a former Nazi SS officer accused of war crimes-- get official permission to travel to Sweden for medical treatment? 5. Was there any disciplinary action taken against those who allowed him to leave prison and go to hospital and, later, to leave Denmark for Sweden? 6. What action has been taken by the Danish government over the last 50 years to track down Dr. Vaernet and bring him to trial on charges of crimes against humanity? 7. Is he now dead or alive? If he is still living, what action does the Danish government propose to take to put him on trial? We would greatly appreciate your government's assistance in discovering Dr. Vaernet's fate. Thank you. ================= ================= A similar letter has been sent to President Carlos Menen of Argentina. It concludes with a formal request that the Argentine government conduct an investigation to determine what happened to Dr Vaernet. "Is he dead or alive? Could you please furnish us with this information? A good place to start looking would be the records of his employers, the Buenos Aires health service." ================= ================= Argentina: http://www.OutRage.cygnet.co.uk/vaerArg.htm Denmark: http://www.OutRage.cygnet.co.uk/vaerDenm.htm ================= ================= Archbishop Carey condemned for endorsing discrimination: *** now with pictures *** http://www.OutRage.cygnet.co.uk/carey98.htm ================= ================= U.K. citizens: don't forget to submit your questions on gay rights to Tony Blair: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/public/interact/live/index.html The 'webcast' is on 29th April: but questions need to be in by the 25th. We've submitted ours. -- "Further to Tony Blair's message to (Gay) 'Pride' last summer and to our still unanswered fax of July, (both published at http://www.OutRage.cygnet.co.uk/blair2.htm), we should like to know the degree of Tony Blair's honest commitment to the 'equality and justice for us all' which he promised at Pride in the coming _months_. "How does he reconcile this with: 1) reneging within a week of the General Election on the promise to lift the ban on gays in the military; 2) opposing Lisa Grant at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in her appeal for equal rights at work; 3) the spending of over half a million pounds on prosecuting the 'Bolton 7' for consensual sex in the privacy of their own homes; 4) continued vacillation on the subject of an equal age of consent; 5) amendment of the Human Rights Bill to allow churches to continue to discriminate; 6) yet _not_ permitting the same Bill to be amended to outlaw discrimination on grounds of sexuality?" ================= =================