Karl Brandt (8 January 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a German physician and Schutzstaffel (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler’s escort doctor in August 1934. A member of Hitler’s inner circle at the Berghof, he was selected by Philipp Bouhler, the head of Hitler’s Chancellery, to administer the Aktion T4 euthanasia program. Brandt was later appointed the Reich Commissioner of Sanitation and Health (Bevollmächtigter für das Sanitäts- und Gesundheitswesen). Brandt was one of the medical scientists who performed abortions in great numbers on women deemed genetically disordered, mentally or physically disabled or racially deficient, or whose unborn fetuses were expected to develop such genetic “defects”. These abortions had been legalized, as long as no healthy Aryan fetuses were aborted. On 25 July 1939, Brandt authorized the first euthanization of the Nazi eugenics program, that of Gerhard Kretschmar, a 5-month-old disabled German infant. He was accused of involvement in human experimentation and other war crimes. As a war criminal Brandt was indicted in late 1946 and faced trial before a U.S. military tribunal along with 22 others in United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al. He was convicted, sentenced to death, and hanged on 2 June 1948. Judge had stated “Regardless of what inner convictions Dr Brandt may have held, he was directly responsible for much of the suffering and death caused to the unfortunate concentration camp victims chosen to be used as subjects in brutal medical experiments. “

Nazi criminal was part of Hitler’s inner circle –

Brandt was tried along with twenty-two others at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany. The trial was officially titled United States of America v. Karl Brandt et al., but is more commonly referred to as the “Doctors’ Trial”; it began on 9 December 1946.
He was charged with four counts: Conspiracy to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity as described in counts 2 and 3.

War crimes: performing medical experiments, without the subjects’ consent, on prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries, in the course of which experiments the defendants committed murders, brutalities, cruelties, tortures, atrocities, and other inhuman acts. Also planning and performing the mass murder of prisoners of war and civilians of occupied countries, stigmatized as aged, insane, incurably ill, deformed, and so on, by gas, lethal injections, and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums during the Euthanasia Program and participating in the mass murder of concentration camp inmates;

3-Crimes against humanity: committing crimes described under count 2 also on German nationals.

4-Membership in a criminal organization, the SS. The charges against him included special responsibility for, and participation in, Freezing, Malaria, LOST Gas, Sulfanilamide, Bone, Muscle and Nerve Regeneration and Bone Transplantation, Sea-Water, Epidemic Jaundice, Sterilization, and Typhus Experiments.. See full bio here

Death –
Brandt and six other defendants were executed by hanging at Landsberg Prison on 2 June 1948. While on the gallows, he remarked: “It is no shame to stand upon the scaffold. This is nothing but political revenge. I have served my Fatherland as others before me.” As he continued to talk, prison officials told him he’d run out of time and that he needed to stop. However, Brandt refused to end his speech. Eventually, a hood was placed over his head while he continued to talk and he was hanged.

Birth Chart of Karl Brandt –