Timebase Multimedia Chronography(TM)

TIMEBASE 1947

1947 Frederick Hielscher, who was never prosecuted after the war, gives evidence on behalf of SS Colonel Wolfram Sievers at the "Doctors Trial" in Nuremberg. Hielscher confines his testimony to political matters and intentionally absurd statements about race and ancestral tribes (See June 2, 1948). (Pauwels)

1947 Treaties with Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Finland become effective. Italy loses all of its African possessions and its privileges in China and has to cede European territory to France, Greece, and Albania. The other Axis powers, except Bulgaria, also lose territory. All five nations are required to pay reparations.

1947 February 15 Homer L. Loomis is sentenced to serve one year in public works camp for incitement to riot. The revolt which the Columbians had attempted to organize was crushed and the so-called Atlanta Putsch comes to an end.

1947 April 17 Dr. Leo Alexander, an American doctor who had worked with the prosecution during the "Doctors Trial" submits a memorandum to the United States Counsel for War Crimes outlining six points defining legitimate scientific research.

1947 August 19 The judges of the American military tribunal in the case of the USA vs. Karl Brandt et. al. (the "Doctors Trial") confront the difficult question of medical experimentation on human beings. Several of the doctors had argued in their own defense that their experiments had differed little from previous American or German experiments. Furthermore they showed that no international law or informal statement differentiated between legal and illegal human experimentation.

(Note: Before announcing their verdict, the judges reiterated almost all of the points in Dr. Alexander's memorandum of April 17 in a section entitled "Permissible Medical Experiments," which revised his original six points into ten. Subsequently, these ten points became known as the "Nuremberg Code." Although the code addressed the defense arguments in general, remarkably none of the specific findings against Brandt and his codefendants mentioned the code. Thus the legal force of the document was not well established and failed to find a place in either the American or German national law codes. Nevertheless, it remains a landmark document on medical ethics and one of the most lasting products of the "Doctors Trial.")

1947 August 20 After almost 140 days of proceedings, including the testimony of 85 witnesses and the submission of almost 1,500 documents, the American judges in the "Doctor's Trial" in Nuremberg pronounce their verdict. Sixteen of the doctors are found guilty. Seven are sentenced to death. (See June 2, 1948)

(Defendants Paul Rostock, Kurt Blome, Siegfried Ruff, Hans Wolfgang Romberg, Georg August Weltz, Konrad Schaefer, and Adolf Pokorny were judged not guilty of the charges listed in the indictment.)

1947 September 29 Tribunal II of the War Crimes trials begins in Nuremberg. 24 SS defendents including SS Colonel Otto Ohlendorf appear before Justice Michael A. Musmanno, President Judge of the tribunal.

1947 November 29 The United Nations ratifies the partition of Palestine between the Arabs and Jews.

1889 - 1899 | 1900 - 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949 - 1999

HOMEPAGE