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Medical Experiments in the Holocaust
Doctors have always been thought of as the saviors of mankind, the healers and caretakers of our utter existence. The trust of a physician is sacred. This is why the practice of medicine by the doctors of the Third Reich is outrageous and shocking. The Nazi doctors violated the trust placed in them by humanity. The most painful truth is for most part; the doctors escaped their crimes against Humanity and lived a life, unlike their victims.
In determination to exterminate all races of non-”Aryan” origin, the Nazis performed over seventy medical research projects on seven thousand Holocaust victims between 1939-1945 (Gutman 957). Over two hundred German doctors were stationed in the concentration camps conducting medical research on Jews against their will (Gutman, 958). The medical experiments fell into two broad categories: (1) experiments whose objectives were compatible with professional medical ethics and the proposes of medical practice, but whose mode of implementation violated moral law; (2) experiments whose very purposes violated medical ethics and which were irreconcilable with the accepted norms of medical research (Gutman 958). The aim of such research was strictly for Nazis to pursue their desire to engineer the perfect Aryan race of blond hair and blue eyes. Nazis justified experimentation on concentration camps inmates, with the rationalization that these individuals were already destined to die (Dodd).
Birkenau housed the bulk of the so-called medical laboratories. There the Nazis conducted dozens of experiments, mostly by people with little or no medical training, under the supervision of German doctors (Berenbaum 390).
As I mentioned before, there were two main purposes the Nazis preformed medical experiments. (1) Experiments whose objectives were compatible with professional medical ethics and propose of medical practice, but whose mode of implementation violated moral law. For example, inmates were injected with diseases, such as tuberculosis, to test the effects of drug treatments. In other experiments, inmates were given typhus injections to preserve the bacteria for use in later experiments, since typhus cannot live in an artificial culture. In order to find ways to help soldiers, half frozen on the battlefield, prisoners were submerged in ice water for hours. To learn how to treat injured soldiers, perfectly healthy people were subjected to “experiments” in which surgery was preformed on flesh, muscles, and bones. All types of substances like poisons, gasoline, air, petroleum and chemicals were injected into healthy people just to see what effects they had (Berenbaum 390-91).
What made these experiments especially horrifying was that no precautions were taken to protect the victim. No anesthetics or antiseptics techniques were used; therefore all these experiments were extremely painful. Some people were so hungry in the camps that they volunteered for experiments in exchange for food, but the rest were forced to participate, and even if they survived the “treatment”, they were gassed when the experiment ended (Berenbaum 391).
The second purpose for experimenting on inmates was even more sinister. (2) Experiments whose very purposes violated medical ethics and which were irreconcilable with the accepted norms of medical research. It’s effects, had Germany won the war, could have been far more long range and destructive. The intention was no less than the complete subjugation of Europe. (Berenbaum 391)
These experiments involved the sterilization of both men and women deemed “unworthy” by the Nazi government. Groups targeted, in addition to Jewish people, were Poles, Gypsies, priests, homosexuals, women and children and other so-called enemies (Facing History and Ourselves 183). The plan was to sterilize people as quickly and as efficiently as possible, with the victim being unaware of what was happening. Some experiments focused on the introduction of a variety of chemicals into the bodies of unsuspecting women. The Bayer Company, (as in aspirin) bought 150 Jewish women and forced them to participate in experiments with hormones (Berenbaum 392).
Survival and rescue experiments related to philosophy, their purpose being to test the human potential for survival under harsh conditions and adaptation to such conditions, and to determine the means required for saving lives. Experiments involving high altitudes, freezing temperature, and the drinking of seawater were conducted by the German air force in cooperation with the SS, on prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp (Gutman 958).
Experiments involving medical treatment took place in far greater nurabers and consisted of three main categories: those relating to the treatment of battle injuries; those relating to the treatment of victims of gas attacks; and those testing immunization compounRAB or medicines, for the prevention or treatment, respectively, of contagious or epidemic diseases.
Another series of experiments relating to war wounRAB involved the treatment of fractures and the transplanting of bones, muscles, and nerves. These were conducted on Polish women prisoners, the purpose being to find solutions to problems in the treatment of severe wounRAB in the upper and lower lirabs. The experiment, which involved breaking the leg bones of physically sound young women and giving them various treatments, later came to involve the extraction of entire bones and other tissues in order to transplant them into patients in the SS hospitals. These amputations were carried out on mentally ill prisoners, who were then put to death. The experiment cost the lives of eleven out of the twenty-four victims; the rest were crippled for life (Gutman 961-62).
Nazis also did other horrifying experiments, such as placing victims under sun lamps, which were so hot, they would burn the skin. One young homosexual victim was repeatedly cooled to unconsciousness then revived with lamps until he was pouring with sweat. He died one evening after several test sessions. They experimented also by freezing victims and forcefully pumped blistering water into the stomach, bladder and intestines. All victims appeared to have died from the treatment (Remeraber.org, 3).
The most absurd experiment by the Nazis was the detailed study on young male twins. The twins were examined from head to toe; the most precise measurements and data of their bodies were taken and documented. They were completely x-rayed. They were made to sit in hot water until several seconRAB prior to them fainting. They were then photographed for several days. The purpose of all the photographs were to show hair patterns. They were each forced to stand, sit, bend and kneel in many positions for the photos. They were also required to stand with their arms lifted for many hours so the under arm hair could be photographed. After enough hair data was collected, they were completely shaven of every hair on their body. They were than extensively photographed without hair. After the three weeks of torturous medical experiments, the twins were taken to the dissection laboratory. Using two doctors, each twin was simultaneously given an injection of chloroform in the heart taken their lives. They were dissected and their organs were sent to the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research in Berlin (Nyiszli).
From all the horrifying experiments I described above the Nazis preformed on concentration camp prisoners, none were justifiable, and non were made to advance the knowledge of medical studies of the human body. How could these people perform such torture to any other human regarRAB to their religion, appearance or ethnicity? I think about all the research I gathered and read, and feel nothing but sorrow for the many that were brutally killed during the holocaust. Whether they died of malnutrition, medical experiments or diseases, too many innocent people’s lives were ended for a terrible reason. I repeatedly think to myself: “What if some of the people killed in the Holocaust could have benefited human kind. What if some of the people killed in the Holocaust could have found the cure for aiRAB or cancer. What if…” My point being that Nazis destroyed it for everyone, humanity. How could they call them selves’ doctors? Doctors are to be trusted with one’s medical neeRAB, not curiously performing outrageous experiments on innocent captured prisoners. The most painful truth is for the must part, the doctors escaped their crimes against Humanity and lived a life, unlike their victims.
The End.
Works Cited
Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Boston: Little Brown, 1993.
Dodd, Thomas J. “Issues of the Holocaust.” http://www.lib.uconn.edu/DoddCenter/ASC/Mureraberg/Nazi_research.htm (May 12, 1999)
Facing History and Ourselves, ed. “Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior.” Brookline, Massachusetts: Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. 1994
Gutman, Israiel. ”Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.” New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1990.
Nyiszli, Miklos. “Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine.” http://remeraber.org/educate/medexp.html (April 20, 1999)
Doctors have always been thought of as the saviors of mankind, the healers and caretakers of our utter existence. The trust of a physician is sacred. This is why the practice of medicine by the doctors of the Third Reich is outrageous and shocking. The Nazi doctors violated the trust placed in them by humanity. The most painful truth is for most part; the doctors escaped their crimes against Humanity and lived a life, unlike their victims.
In determination to exterminate all races of non-”Aryan” origin, the Nazis performed over seventy medical research projects on seven thousand Holocaust victims between 1939-1945 (Gutman 957). Over two hundred German doctors were stationed in the concentration camps conducting medical research on Jews against their will (Gutman, 958). The medical experiments fell into two broad categories: (1) experiments whose objectives were compatible with professional medical ethics and the proposes of medical practice, but whose mode of implementation violated moral law; (2) experiments whose very purposes violated medical ethics and which were irreconcilable with the accepted norms of medical research (Gutman 958). The aim of such research was strictly for Nazis to pursue their desire to engineer the perfect Aryan race of blond hair and blue eyes. Nazis justified experimentation on concentration camps inmates, with the rationalization that these individuals were already destined to die (Dodd).
Birkenau housed the bulk of the so-called medical laboratories. There the Nazis conducted dozens of experiments, mostly by people with little or no medical training, under the supervision of German doctors (Berenbaum 390).
As I mentioned before, there were two main purposes the Nazis preformed medical experiments. (1) Experiments whose objectives were compatible with professional medical ethics and propose of medical practice, but whose mode of implementation violated moral law. For example, inmates were injected with diseases, such as tuberculosis, to test the effects of drug treatments. In other experiments, inmates were given typhus injections to preserve the bacteria for use in later experiments, since typhus cannot live in an artificial culture. In order to find ways to help soldiers, half frozen on the battlefield, prisoners were submerged in ice water for hours. To learn how to treat injured soldiers, perfectly healthy people were subjected to “experiments” in which surgery was preformed on flesh, muscles, and bones. All types of substances like poisons, gasoline, air, petroleum and chemicals were injected into healthy people just to see what effects they had (Berenbaum 390-91).
What made these experiments especially horrifying was that no precautions were taken to protect the victim. No anesthetics or antiseptics techniques were used; therefore all these experiments were extremely painful. Some people were so hungry in the camps that they volunteered for experiments in exchange for food, but the rest were forced to participate, and even if they survived the “treatment”, they were gassed when the experiment ended (Berenbaum 391).
The second purpose for experimenting on inmates was even more sinister. (2) Experiments whose very purposes violated medical ethics and which were irreconcilable with the accepted norms of medical research. It’s effects, had Germany won the war, could have been far more long range and destructive. The intention was no less than the complete subjugation of Europe. (Berenbaum 391)
These experiments involved the sterilization of both men and women deemed “unworthy” by the Nazi government. Groups targeted, in addition to Jewish people, were Poles, Gypsies, priests, homosexuals, women and children and other so-called enemies (Facing History and Ourselves 183). The plan was to sterilize people as quickly and as efficiently as possible, with the victim being unaware of what was happening. Some experiments focused on the introduction of a variety of chemicals into the bodies of unsuspecting women. The Bayer Company, (as in aspirin) bought 150 Jewish women and forced them to participate in experiments with hormones (Berenbaum 392).
Survival and rescue experiments related to philosophy, their purpose being to test the human potential for survival under harsh conditions and adaptation to such conditions, and to determine the means required for saving lives. Experiments involving high altitudes, freezing temperature, and the drinking of seawater were conducted by the German air force in cooperation with the SS, on prisoners in the Dachau concentration camp (Gutman 958).
Experiments involving medical treatment took place in far greater nurabers and consisted of three main categories: those relating to the treatment of battle injuries; those relating to the treatment of victims of gas attacks; and those testing immunization compounRAB or medicines, for the prevention or treatment, respectively, of contagious or epidemic diseases.
Another series of experiments relating to war wounRAB involved the treatment of fractures and the transplanting of bones, muscles, and nerves. These were conducted on Polish women prisoners, the purpose being to find solutions to problems in the treatment of severe wounRAB in the upper and lower lirabs. The experiment, which involved breaking the leg bones of physically sound young women and giving them various treatments, later came to involve the extraction of entire bones and other tissues in order to transplant them into patients in the SS hospitals. These amputations were carried out on mentally ill prisoners, who were then put to death. The experiment cost the lives of eleven out of the twenty-four victims; the rest were crippled for life (Gutman 961-62).
Nazis also did other horrifying experiments, such as placing victims under sun lamps, which were so hot, they would burn the skin. One young homosexual victim was repeatedly cooled to unconsciousness then revived with lamps until he was pouring with sweat. He died one evening after several test sessions. They experimented also by freezing victims and forcefully pumped blistering water into the stomach, bladder and intestines. All victims appeared to have died from the treatment (Remeraber.org, 3).
The most absurd experiment by the Nazis was the detailed study on young male twins. The twins were examined from head to toe; the most precise measurements and data of their bodies were taken and documented. They were completely x-rayed. They were made to sit in hot water until several seconRAB prior to them fainting. They were then photographed for several days. The purpose of all the photographs were to show hair patterns. They were each forced to stand, sit, bend and kneel in many positions for the photos. They were also required to stand with their arms lifted for many hours so the under arm hair could be photographed. After enough hair data was collected, they were completely shaven of every hair on their body. They were than extensively photographed without hair. After the three weeks of torturous medical experiments, the twins were taken to the dissection laboratory. Using two doctors, each twin was simultaneously given an injection of chloroform in the heart taken their lives. They were dissected and their organs were sent to the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research in Berlin (Nyiszli).
From all the horrifying experiments I described above the Nazis preformed on concentration camp prisoners, none were justifiable, and non were made to advance the knowledge of medical studies of the human body. How could these people perform such torture to any other human regarRAB to their religion, appearance or ethnicity? I think about all the research I gathered and read, and feel nothing but sorrow for the many that were brutally killed during the holocaust. Whether they died of malnutrition, medical experiments or diseases, too many innocent people’s lives were ended for a terrible reason. I repeatedly think to myself: “What if some of the people killed in the Holocaust could have benefited human kind. What if some of the people killed in the Holocaust could have found the cure for aiRAB or cancer. What if…” My point being that Nazis destroyed it for everyone, humanity. How could they call them selves’ doctors? Doctors are to be trusted with one’s medical neeRAB, not curiously performing outrageous experiments on innocent captured prisoners. The most painful truth is for the must part, the doctors escaped their crimes against Humanity and lived a life, unlike their victims.
The End.
Works Cited
Berenbaum, Michael. The World Must Know: The History of the Holocaust as Told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Boston: Little Brown, 1993.
Dodd, Thomas J. “Issues of the Holocaust.” http://www.lib.uconn.edu/DoddCenter/ASC/Mureraberg/Nazi_research.htm (May 12, 1999)
Facing History and Ourselves, ed. “Facing History and Ourselves: Holocaust and Human Behavior.” Brookline, Massachusetts: Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Inc. 1994
Gutman, Israiel. ”Encyclopedia of the Holocaust.” New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1990.
Nyiszli, Miklos. “Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine.” http://remeraber.org/educate/medexp.html (April 20, 1999)