[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 112 (Wednesday, July 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9728-S9729]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            SEEKING JUSTICE

  Mr. SANTORUM. Madam President, I rise today to talk about two men; 
one is a Nazi doctor, the other is his pursuer. Before I get into that, 
I want to thank my father-in-law and my mother-in-law, Dr. Ken Garber 
and Betty Lee Garber, for bringing this matter to my attention.
  This is a painful subject to talk about for many, particularly as we 
look at what is going on in Bosnia and some of the ethnic cleansing 
that is happening there. We talk about Vietnam and our missing in 
action. Looking at history and digging up the past is not always a 
pleasant experience but one which I believe is absolutely necessary in 
this case and one that I come to the floor to talk about and will be on 
notice to come back to if it is necessary to talk about it again.
  The Nazi doctor I am going to talk about this morning is Dr. Hans 
Sewering. He is just not a normal doctor in Germany. This is a doctor 
who was the head of the German Medical Society for 17 years--17 years. 
He was a State senator in the State of Bavaria for 20 years, a very 
well-known person in Germany.
  How this came to the attention of his pursuer 2 years ago, Dr. 
Michael Franzblau from Marin County in California, was that Dr. 
Sewering was nominated, in fact elected, to become the president of the 
World Medical Association,
 the affiliate of the American Medical Association in the United 
States.

  It came to the attention of Dr. Franzblau that Dr. Sewering was 
accused of crimes during the Nazi reign.
  And who is Dr. Sewering? Dr. Sewering joined the SS in 1933. Nine 
months later, he joined the Nazi Party. When he graduated from medical 
school, he went to work in Munich at the tubercular clinic of 
Schoenbrunn near Dachau in 1932.
  During that time, under his administration, Dr. Franzblau, and other 
medical historians, are suggesting that he sent over 900 disabled 
children to a ``healing center''--a healing center--6 to 10 kilometers 
away, not far down the road, from the tubercular clinic that he ran. 
Over 900 children were sent to a healing center.
  What was this healing center? It was a euphemism for a ``killing 
center,'' where disabled children were deliberately starved and given 
barbiturates to kill them ``efficiently,'' with little cost to the 
state.
  The center was run by a Dr. Helmut Pramueller. Dr. Pramueller in 1949 
was convicted by a German court. They found him guilty of murdering 
6,000 children who were ``unfit'' because of their disabilities, which 
ranged from epilepsy to mild mental illnesses to physical disabilities. 
By the way, Dr. Pramueller, for killing 6,000 children in this 
``healing center,'' was sentenced to 6 years in prison. He got 1 year 
off for good behavior.
  But Dr. Sewering was never prosecuted. The reason for that is that 
the evidence was not made available. In fact, the only evidence we have 
been able to ascertain through the work of Dr. Franzblau, and others, 
is one documented case of which Dr. Sewering sent a 12-year-old girl, 
Babette Frowiss, to the ``healing center'' from his tubercular clinic 
at the Schoenbrunn. We have the document, with his signature on it. It 
says:

       She is no longer suitable for Schoenbrunn. She will be sent 
     to Egfling-Haar--

  The name of this killing center--

       the healing center.

  It was well known in Dachau, the vicinity of where these centers 
were, that this ``healing center'' was, in fact, a place where children 
were starved and killed ``efficiently.''
  But nevertheless, we have that document, the origins of which we do 
not know. It has been authenticated as a real document, but we cannot 
find any other documents. In fact, the German Government will not make 
available any of these documents. Some even insist that they are not 
available or that they do not exist or, if they do, they just cannot 
find them. But in any case, they are not around, and the prosecutors in 
Munich that Dr. Franzblau is trying to get to prosecute this case 
refuse to look into it.
  Another curious angle to this question is four nuns. The tubercular 
clinic at Schoenbrunn where Dr. Sewering worked was run by Franciscan 
nuns, the Franciscan order. There were four nuns as of 2 years ago, 
when Dr. Sewering was nominated to presidency of the World Medical 
Association, who were there at the time. When Dr. Sewering was elected, 
and then withdrew his nomination in election, these four nuns issued a 
statement basically indicting Dr. Sewering and what went on at the 
clinic and at Egfling-Haar, at the healing center, the killing center.
  You might think that if you were the prosecutor in Munich who was 
concerned about sending children to their death by such a horrendous 
means that you would take the time to interview these nuns who released 
this statement. Well, the prosecutor has not done so. Despite 
protestations from Dr. Franzblau, and others, he has refused to 
interview them. He has refused to pursue the documents that can 
ultimately convict Dr. Sewering of his crimes. And Dr. Franzblau 
persists in his trips over there to get them to pay attention to this, 
but this is an uncomfortable thing to talk about, and this is a very 
powerful man in Germany. Seventeen years the head of the medical 
society and they have refused to go after him.
  Dr. Franzblau is taking matters into his own hands. On Friday, this 
will be published in the New York Times. The Friday morning New York 
Times will have this full-page advertisement. It says:

       We accuse the German State of Bavaria of harboring and 
     protecting a war criminal.
       The German State of Bavaria has protected Dr. Hans Joachim 
     Sewering for 50 years.
       Dr. Hans Joachim Sewering is accused of participating in 
     the transfer of 900 German Catholic children from Schoenbrunn 
     Sanitarium to a ``Healing Center'' at Egfling-Haar, where 
     they died.
       Four nuns made this allegation in January 1993.
       They were eyewitnesses to these crimes and broke their vow 
     of silence 50 years after the fact at the suggestion of the 
     Bishop of Munich.


[[Page S 9729]]

  Yes, they remained silent for 50 years, but after this man was 
elected to the World Medical Association presidency, they spoke up at 
the urging of the Bishop of Munich.

       Dr. Sewering, age 78, still practices medicine in Dachau.
       Dr. Sewering must be brought to the bar of justice now.
       The relatives of the murdered children ask for justice.
       The German people will be cleansed of this stain on their 
     honor by the successful prosecution and conviction of Dr. 
     Hans Joachim Sewering for murder and crimes against humanity.

  And they ask:

       If you believe, as we do, that Dr. Sewering should be 
     brought to justice, please act now by faxing or writing to 
     the German Consulate. . .

  At their number.
  I hope that Senators listening to this, if they believe as I believe 
that the German Government owes more diligence in pursuing this, that 
they sign on to a letter that I will be sending to the German 
Government asking them to find these documents and to interview these 
nuns so we can pursue this case. It is the least they can do. It is the 
least they can do for 900 children starved to death because of their 
disabilities.
  I come here to the U.S. Senate not casually. I know this is a very 
important place to make these kinds of statements, but this is an 
abomination. The children who were murdered deserve justice, their 
families deserve a full accounting, and Dr. Franzblau, 25 of whose 
relatives were incinerated in a synagogue in Poland, deserves the 
satisfaction of knowing that his efforts were not in vain.
  Madam President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Alaska [Mr. Murkowski] is recognized to speak for up to 10 minutes.


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