Nazi human experimentation was a series of controversial medical experiments on large numbers of prisoners by the German Nazi regime in its concentration camps during World War II. Prisoners were coerced into participating: they did not willingly volunteer and there was never informed consent. Typically, the experiments resulted in death, disfigurement or permanent disability

1. The Nazi Human Experimentation
over 1,500 sets of imprisoned
twins, of which fewer than 200
Nazi human experimentation was a series of controversial individuals survived the studies.
medical experiments on large numbers of prisoners by the Whilst attending University of
German Nazi regime in its concentration camps during World Munich (located in the city that
remained one of Adolf Hitler’s
War II. Prisoners were coerced into participating: they did not
focal points during the
willingly volunteer and there was never informed consent.
revolution) studying philosophy
Typically, the experiments resulted in death, disfigurement or and medicine with an emphasis
permanent disability on anthropology and
paleontology, Mengele got
swept up in the Nazi hysteria
and even said that “this simple political
concept finally became the decisive factor
At Auschwitz and other camps, under the in my life”. Mengele’s newfound
direction of Dr. Eduard Wirths, selected admiration for the “simple political
inmates were subjected to various concept” led him to mix his studies of
experiments which were supposedly medicine and politics as his career choice.
designed to help German military
personnel in combat situations, develop Mengele received his PhD for a thesis
new weapons, aid in the recovery of entitled “Racial Morphological Research
military personnel that had been injured, on the Lower Jaw Section of Four Racial
and to advance the racial ideology backed Groups”, which suggested that a person’s
by the Third Reich. After the war, these race could be identified by the shape of the
crimes were tried at what became known jaw. The Nazi organization saw his studies
as the Doctors’ Trial, and revulsion at the as talents, and Mengele was asked to be
abuses perpetrated led to the development the leading physician and researcher at
of the Nuremberg Code of medical ethics. Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland
in May 1943. There, Mengele organized
According to the indictment at the genetic experiments on twins. The twins
Subsequent Nuremberg Trials, these were arranged by age and sex and kept in
experiments included the following: barracks between experiments, which
ranged from injection of different
Experiments on twins chemicals into the eyes of twins to see
whether it would change their colors to
literally sewing twins together to try
creating conjoined twins.
Freezing experiments
Experiments on
twin children in concentration camps were
created to show the similarities and
differences in the genetics and eugenics of A cold water
twins, as well as to see if the human body immersion experiment at Dachau
can be unnaturally manipulated. The concentration camp presided over by
central leader of the experiments was Josef Professor Ernst Holzlohner (left) and Dr.
Mengele, who performed experiments on
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2. Sigmund Rascher (right). The subject is Malaria experiments
wearing a Luftwaffe garment.
In 1941, the Luftwaffe conducted
experiments to learn how to treat
hypothermia. One study forced subjects to
endure a tank of ice water for up to three
hours. Another study placed prisoners
naked in the open for several hours with From about
temperatures below freezing. The February 1942 to about April 1945,
experimenters assessed different ways of experiments were conducted at the Dachau
rewarming survivors. concentration camp in order to investigate
immunization for treatment of malaria.
The freezing/hypothermia experiments Healthy inmates were infected by
were conducted for the Nazi high mosquitoes or by injections of extracts of
command. The experiments were the mucous glands of female mosquitoes.
conducted on men to simulate the After contracting the disease, the subjects
conditions the armies suffered on the were treated with various drugs to test
Eastern Front, as the German forces were their relative efficiency. Over 1,000 people
ill prepared for the bitter cold. were used in these experiments, and of
those, more than half died as a result.
The experiments were conducted under the
supervision of Dachau and Auschwitz. Mustard gas experiments
Rascher reported directly to Heinrich
Himmler, and publicised the results of his
freezing experiments at the 1942 medical
conference entitled “Medical Problems
Arising from Sea and Winter”.
The freezing experiments were in two
parts. First, to establish how long it would
take to lower the body temperature to At various times
death, and second how to best resuscitate between September 1939 and April 1945,
the frozen victim. experiments were conducted at
Sachsenhausen, Natzweiler, and other
The icy vat method proved to be the fastest camps to investigate the most effective
way to drop the body temperature. The treatment of wounds caused by mustard
selections were made of young healthy gas. Test subjects were deliberately
Jews or Russians. They were usually exposed to mustard gas and other
stripped naked and prepared for the vesicants, which inflicted severe chemical
experiment. An insulated probe which burns. The victims’ wounds were then
measured the drop in the body temperature tested to find the most effective treatment
was inserted into the rectum. The probe for the mustard gas burns.
was held in place by an expandable metal
ring which was adjusted to open inside the Sulfonamide experiments
rectum to hold the probe firmly in place.
The victim was put into an air force From about July 1942 to about September
uniform, then placed in the vat of cold 1943, experiments to investigate the
water and started to freeze. effectiveness of sulfonamide, a synthetic
antimicrobial agent, were conducted at
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3. Ravensbrück. Wounds inflicted on the of people with a minimum of time and
subjects were infected with bacteria such effort. These experiments were conducted
as Streptococcus, gas gangrene and by means of X-ray, surgery and various
drugs. Thousands of victims were
sterilized. Aside from its experimentation,
the Nazi government sterilized around
400,000 individuals as part of its
compulsory sterilization program.
Intravenous injections of solutions
speculated to contain iodine and silver
tetanus.
nitrate were successful,
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. but had unwanted
side effects such as vaginal bleeding,
Sea water experiments severe abdominal pain, and cervical
cancer. Therefore, radiation treatment
became the favored choice of sterilization.
Specific amounts of exposure to radiation
destroyed a person’s ability to produce ova
or sperm. The radiation was administered
through deception. Prisoners were brought
From about into a room and asked to complete forms,
July 1944 to about September 1944, which took two to three minutes. In this
experiments were conducted at the Dachau time, the radiation treatment was
concentration camp to study various administered and, unknown to the
methods of making sea water drinkable. At prisoners, they were rendered completely
one point, a group of roughly 90 Roma sterile. Many suffered severe radiation
were deprived of food and given nothing burns.
but sea water to drink by Dr. Hans
Eppinger, leaving them gravely injured. Experiments with poison
They were so dehydrated that others
observed them licking freshly mopped In or around December 1943 and October
floors in an attempt to get drinkable water. 1944, experiments were conducted at
Buchenwald to investigate the effect of
Sterilization experiments various poisons. The poisons were secretly
administered to experimental subjects in
From about March 1941 to about January their food. The victims died as a result of
1945, sterilization experiments were the poison or were killed immediately in
conducted at Auschwitz, Ravensbrück, and order to permit autopsies. In September
other places by Dr. Carl Clauberg. The 1944, experimental subjects were shot with
purpose of these experiments was to poisonous bullets, suffered torture and
develop a method of sterilization which often died.
would be suitable for sterilizing millions
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4. Incendiary bomb experiments the trial, several of the doctors argued in
their defense that there was no
From around November 1943 through to international law regarding medical
circa January 1944, experiments were experimentation.
conducted at Buchenwald to test the effect
of various pharmaceutical preparations on However, informed consent in German
phosphorus burns. These burns were medicine was not original to issues
inflicted on prisoners using phosphorus surrounding WWII. In 1900, Dr. Albert
material extracted from incendiary bombs. Neisser infected patients (mainly
prostitutes) with syphilis without their
High altitude experiments consent. Despite support from most of the
academic community, public opinion was
against Neisser, led by psychiatrist Albert
Moll. While Neisser went on to be fined
by the Royal Disciplinary Court, Moll
developed “a legally based, positivistic
contract theory of the patient-doctor
relationship” that was not adopted into
German law.
Eventually, the minister for religious,
educational, and medical affairs issued a
directive stating that medical interventions
In early 1942, other than for diagnosis, healing, and
prisoners at Dachau concentration camp immunization were excluded under all
were used by Rascher in experiments to circumstances if “the human subject was a
aid German pilots who had to eject at high minor or not competent for other reasons”
altitudes. A low-pressure chamber or if the subject had not given his or her
containing these prisoners was used to “unambiguous consent” after a “proper
simulate conditions at altitudes of up to 20 explanation of the possible negative
km (66,000 ft). It was rumored that consequences” of the intervention.
Rascher performed vivisections on the However, this was not legally binding.
brains of victims who survived the initial
experiment.[20] Of the 200 subjects, 80
In response, Drs. Leo Alexander and
died outright, and the others were
Andrew Conway Ivy drafted a ten point
executed. (See also Hubertus Strughold.)
memorandum entitled Permissible Medical
Experiment that went on to be known as
Aftermath the Nuremberg Code. The code calls for
such standards as voluntary consent of
Many of the subjects died as a result of the patients, avoidance of unnecessary pain
experiments conducted by the Nazis, while and suffering, and that there must be a
many others were murdered after the tests belief that the experimentation will not end
were completed or to study the effect post in death or disability. However, the Code
mortem. Those who survived were often was not cited in any of the findings against
left mutilated, suffering permanent the defendants and never made it into
disability, weakened bodies, and mental either German or American medical law.
duress. On August 19, 1947, the doctors
captured by Allied forces were put on trial
in USA vs. Karl Brandt et al., which is
commonly known as the Doctors’ Trial. At
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5. Modern ethical issues
The modern body of medical knowledge
about how the human body reacts to
freezing to the point of death is based
almost exclusively on these Nazi
experiments. This, together with the recent
use of data from Nazi research into the
effects of phosgene gas, has proved
controversial and presents an ethical
dilemma for modern physicians who do
not agree with the methods used to obtain
these data. Similarly, controversy has
arisen from the use of results of biological
warfare testing done by the Imperial
Japanese Army’s Unit 731. However, the
results from Unit 731 were kept classified
by the United States and the majority of
doctors involved were given pardons.
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Taken from:-
www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_human_experiment
ation
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