{{Short description|German physician}} {{Infobox criminal | name = Siegfried Ruff | image = File:Siegfr Ruff.jpg | caption = Mugshot of Ruff | birth_date = 19 February 1907 | birth_place = Friemersheim, German Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|1989|04|22|1907|02|19|df=y}} | death_place = Bonn, West Germany | death_cause = | occupation = Physician | organization = | known_for = | party = | criminal_charge = Conspiracy against peace<br />War crimes<br />Crimes against humanity | conviction_status = Acquitted | trial = Doctors' Trial }} '''Siegfried Ruff''' (19 February 1907 – 22 April 1989) was a German physician who served as director of the Aviation Medicine Department at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation,<ref>{{cite web|title=Defendant Dr. Siegfried Ruff on the first day of his testimony in his own defense at the Doctors Trial|url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa12483|website=ushmm.org|publisher=U.S. Holocaust Museum|accessdate=March 5, 2018}}</ref> and was accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity for conducting medical atrocities. He was acquitted of war crimes and recruited by the US after World War II.

== Nazi activities and Doctors' Trial == In the 1947 Doctors' Trial, Ruff was indicted on various war crimes allegedly committed during his time as a researcher at the Institute for Aviation.<ref name="atomic">{{cite journal |last1=Hunt |first1=Linda |date=April 1985 |title=U.S. Coverup of Nazi Scientists |journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists |volume=41 |issue=4 |pages=21–24}}</ref> Specifically, it was alleged he had overseen experiments that had resulted in the deaths of 80 Dachau concentration camp inmates.<ref name="atomic" /> While Ruff acknowledged human experimentation had occurred, he stated it had occurred according to the law and denied it had resulted in any deaths.<ref name="spiegel">{{cite news |date=November 24, 1965 |title=Tadel verpflichtet |language=German |work=Der Spiegel |url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-46275102.html |accessdate=March 5, 2018}}</ref> Ruff was acquitted of all charges against him.<ref name="atomic" />

== Post-War human experimentation == Following World War II, Ruff was hired by the U.S. Army Air Forces to work at a United States military hospital in Heidelberg conducting experiments on human exposure to high altitudes.<ref name="atomic" />

In 1961 the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine chose to relocate its annual conference from West Germany over objections at Ruff's participation.<ref name="spiegel" />

Ruff enjoyed a distinguished medical career in postwar Germany.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Moreno|first1=Jonathan|title=Undue Risk: Secret State Experiments on Humans|date=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=0415928354|pages=56–57|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhMiN64D96cC}}</ref>

==References== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruff, Siegfried}} Category:1907 births Category:1989 deaths Category:20th-century German medical doctors Category:Aviation medicine Category:People acquitted by the United States Nuremberg Military Tribunals