Adolf Pokorny (born 25 July 1895 in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Austria, d. unknown) was a dermatologist. who primarily is known as having been a defendant in the

Doctors' Trial The Doctors' Trial (officially ''United States of America v. Karl Brandt, et al.'') was the first of 12 trials for war crimes of high-ranking German officials and industrialists that the United States authorities held in their occupation zone ...

at Nuremberg.

Early Years

His father was a lieutenant colonel in the Austro-Hungarian army, and was frequently transferred to different countries in Eastern Europe; the family moved with him.

First World War

Pokorny was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army and served from March 1915 to September 1918 in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. He completed his medical doctorate on 22 March 1922 and received his medical license. After two years of clinical training, he opened a practice in

Komotau Chomutov (; german: Komotau) is a city in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 46,000 inhabitants. There are almost 80,000 inhabitants in the city's wider metropolitan area. The city centre is well preserved and is protec ...

. His application to join the

Nazi party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

was declined in 1939, because he had been married to a Jewish physician, Dr. Lilly Weil, with whom he had two children and from whom he had been divorced in April 1935. While the children survived the war in the UK, Lilly Pokorná as an internee in Ghetto Terezin led the first radiology station in the camp. After the war, she emigrated with the children to Brazil.

World War II and Doctors' Trial

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Pokorny worked as a medical officer of the German Armed Forces. Pokorny wrote to Heinrich Himmler to suggest sterilization of Russian prisoners of war utilizing the sap of the caladium plant, which, according to an article in a medical journal, was thought to cause sterilization in mice. The method was not implemented due to technical obstacles. Pokorny was tried by the American Military Tribunal No. I (also known as the

) in August 1947. Despite the letter, he was found to have had no direct involvement in

compulsory sterilization Compulsory sterilization, also known as forced or coerced sterilization, is a government-mandated program to involuntarily sterilize a specific group of people. Sterilization removes a person's capacity to reproduce, and is usually done throug ...

experiments, and was acquitted.

References

1895 births Austrian dermatologists Year of death missing Physicians in the Nazi Party Austrian people of World War I German military personnel of World War II People indicted for war crimes People acquitted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals 20th-century deaths {{austria-med-bio-stub