In
the early to mid 1940s, during World War II and the Holocaust, the
Nazi’s experimented on thousands of men, women and children. Their major
target populations included Romani, Sinti, ethnic Poles, Soviet POWs,
disabled Germans, and Jews from across Europe.
At
Auschwitz and other camps, under the direction of Eduard Wirths,
selected inmates were subjected to various hazardous experiments that
were designed to help German military personnel in combat situations,
develop new weapons, aid in the recovery of military personnel who had
been injured, and to advance the Nazi racial ideology.
Experiments on twins
Experiments
on twin children in concentration camps were created to show the
similarities and differences in the genetics of twins, as well as to see
if the human body can be unnaturally manipulated.
The
central leader of the experiments was Josef Mengele, who from 1943 to
1944 performed experiments on nearly 1,500 sets of imprisoned twins at
Auschwitz. About 200 people survived these studies.
The
twins were arranged by age and sex and kept in barracks between
experiments, which ranged from injection of different dyes into the eyes
of twins to see whether it would change their color to sewing twins
together in attempts to create conjoined twins.
Often times, one twin would be forced to undergo experimentation, while the other was kept as a control.
If
the experimentation reached the point of death, the second twin would
be brought in to be killed at the same time. Doctors would then look at
the effects of experimentation and compare both bodies.
Bone, muscle, and nerve transplantation experiments
From
about September 1942 to about December 1943 experiments were conducted
at the Ravensbrück concentration camp, for the benefit of the German
Armed Forces, to study bone, muscle, and nerve regeneration, and bone
transplantation from one person to another.
Sections
of bones, muscles, and nerves were removed from the subjects without
use of anesthesia. As a result of these operations, many victims
suffered intense agony, mutilation, and permanent disability.
On
August 12, 1946 a survivor named Jadwiga Kamińska gave a deposition
about her time at Ravensbrück concentration camp and describes how she
was operated on twice.
Both operations involved one of
her legs and although she never describes having any knowledge as to
what exactly the procedure was, she explains that both times she was in
extreme pain and developed a fever post surgery.
Yet
she was given little to no care. Kamińska describes being told that she
had been operated on simply because she was a "young girl and a Polish
patriot". She describes how her leg oozed pus for months after the
operations.
Prisoners were also experimented
on by having their bone marrow injected with bacteria to study the
effectiveness of new drugs being developed for use in the battle fields.
Many prisoners left the camps with disfigurement that would last the
rest of their lives.
Head injury experiments
In
mid-1942 in Baranowicze, occupied Poland, experiments were conducted in
a small building behind the private home occupied by a known Nazi SD
Security Service officer, in which "a young boy of eleven or twelve
[was] strapped to a chair so he could not move. Above him was a
mechanized hammer that every few seconds came down upon his head." The
boy was driven insane from the torture.
Freezing experiments
In
1941, the Luftwaffe conducted experiments with the intent of
discovering means to prevent and treat hypothermia. There were 360 to
400 experiments and 280 to 300 victims indicating some victims suffered
more than one experiment.
Beginning in
August 1942, at the Dachau camp, prisoners were forced to sit in tanks
of freezing water for up to 3 hours. After subjects were frozen, they
then underwent different methods for rewarming. Many subjects died in
this process.
Malaria experiments
From
about February 1942 to about April 1945, experiments were conducted at
the Dachau concentration camp in order to investigate immunization for
treatment of malaria.
Healthy inmates were
infected by mosquitoes or by injections of extracts of the mucous glands
of female mosquitoes. After contracting the disease, the subjects were
treated with various drugs to test their relative efficiency.
Over
1,200 people were used in these experiments and more than half died as a
result. Other test subjects were left with permanent disabilities.
Sulfonamide experiments
From
about July 1942 to about September 1943, experiments to investigate the
effectiveness of sulfonamide, a synthetic antimicrobial agent, were
conducted at Ravensbrück. Wounds inflicted on the subjects were infected
with bacteria such as Streptococcus, Clostridium perfringens (a major
causative agent in gas gangrene) and Clostridium tetani, the causative
agent in tetanus.
Circulation of blood was
interrupted by tying off blood vessels at both ends of the wound to
create a condition similar to that of a battlefield wound. Infection was
aggravated by forcing wood shavings and ground glass into the wounds.
The infection was treated with sulfonamide and other drugs to determine their effectiveness.
Experiments with poison
Somewhere
between December 1943 and October 1944, experiments were conducted at
Buchenwald to investigate the effect of various poisons. The poisons
were secretly administered to experimental subjects in their food.
The
victims died as a result of the poison or were killed immediately in
order to permit autopsies. In September 1944, experimental subjects were
shot with poisonous bullets, suffered torture and often died.
Incendiary bomb experiments
From
around November 1943 to around January 1944, experiments were conducted
at Buchenwald to test the effect of various pharmaceutical preparations
on phosphorus burns. These burns were inflicted on prisoners using
phosphorus material extracted from incendiary bombs.
High altitude experiments
In
early 1942, prisoners at Dachau concentration camp were used by Sigmund
Rascher in experiments to aid German pilots who had to eject at high
altitudes. A low-pressure chamber containing these prisoners was used to
simulate conditions at altitudes of up to 20,000 m (66,000 ft). It was
rumored that Rascher performed vivi-sections on the brains of victims
who survived the initial experiment.
Of the 200 subjects, 80 died outright, and the others were executed.
In
a letter from April 5, 1942 between Dr. Sigmund Rascher and Heinrich
Himmler, Rascher explains the results of a low-pressure experiment that
was performed on people at Dachau Concentration camp in which the victim
was suffocated while Rascher and another unnamed doctor took note of
his reactions
. The person was described as
37 years old and in good health before being murdered. Rascher described
the victim's actions as he began to lose oxygen and timed the changes
in behavior. The 37-year-old began to wiggle his head at 4 minutes, a
minute later Rascher observed that he was suffering from cramps before
falling unconscious.
He describes how the
victim then lay unconscious, breathing only 3 times per minute, until he
stopped breathing 30 minutes after being deprived of oxygen. The victim
then turned blue and began foaming at the mouth. An autopsy followed an
hour later.
In a letter from Heinrich
Himmler to Dr. Sigmund Rascher on April 13, 1942, Himmler ordered
Rascher to continue the high altitude experiments and to continue
experimenting on prisoners condemned to death and to "determine whether
these men could be recalled to life". If a victim could be successfully
resuscitated, Himmler ordered that he be pardoned to "concentration camp
for life"
Some humans are just so so mean that there is no limit to what they can do for power.
Some images about the Nazi’s Experimenting on humans and children.
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