After his membership in the Danish Nazi Party and collaboration with German occupants became known, his patients abandoned him and his professional and financial situation worsened.

[1] In October 1943, three months after his clinic had been bombed by the resistance group Holger Danske, Værnet and his family moved to Berlin on invitation.

[1] In Berlin, Værnet was introduced to deputy Reich SS Physician Ernst-Robert Grawitz, who was personal assistant to Heinrich Himmler.

[3] According to notes written by the senior doctor at Buchenwald dated 3 January 1945, at least one man died during the experiment on 21 December 1944 ‘‘of heart failure associated with infectious enteritis and general bodily weakness".

Eugen Kogon reported that a second man died as a result of the operations due to festering inflammation of cell tissue, presumably after 3 January 1945.

[6] Værnet claimed that "successes" with the implants occurred,[5] presumably due to positive reports from prisoners hoping to receive a release from the camp,[4] or knowing it would increase their odds of survival.

He was detained at Alsgade Skole prisoner-of-war camp, run by the British major Ronald F Hemingway, who said that Værnet “undoubtedly will be sentenced as a war criminal”.

[8] However, he was released with the help of his son Kjeld Værnet who claimed he had a "life threatening" heart condition, and argued of the importance his artificial endocrine gland that promised "tremendous export revenues" for Denmark.

[1] A medical colleague of Værnet’s informed the Danish public prosecutor that his declining health required a vitamin E treatment that was available in Sweden.