Introduction
Nazi experimentations involved numerous medical experiments carried on prisoners without their consents. The experiments were carried out to all individuals including Jews, Roma, disabled non-Jews, and Soviet POWs. World War II prisoners in concentration camps were used as the in the experiments in order to enhance and advance science. Most of the experiments were aimed at improving military personnel’s efficiency during the war. After the World War II, leading experiment doctors faced justice when they were tried in the Military Tribunal at Nuremberg. An approximate twenty leading doctors were charged with various crimes against humanity. It was during this trial that doctors revealed the story behind experiments carried out at Auschwitz, Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Buchenwald concentration camps. The Nuremberg Code was formed during the Nuremberg trials against war and humanity. This was a set of predetermined standards used for determining the doctors’ fate in their judgments against crimes (Altman 35).
The Nazis’ experiments during the World War II and the Holocaust were subjected to prisoners in concentration camps. The experiments were divided into three objectives and were important in the following perspectives. Firstly, the aim of the experiments was to facilitate Germany military in survival techniques during the war. Some of these experiments involved high-altitude experiments, seawater potable, and freezing experiments among others. German air force physicians conducted experiments to determine the safety of damaged aircraft crews. On this front, high altitude experiments were meant to figure out the maximum altitude to expose military crew. The freezing experiments, on the other hand, were carried out to establish hypothermia treatment for soldiers. Among other methods, the Nazi physicians used experiments in the determination of various techniques for making seawater potable (Moreland and Rae 24).
The second type of experiment entailed finding ways in which soldiers involved in war injuries could be treated. This comprised of treatment techniques, and pharmaceuticals testing in determining possible solutions for illness experienced by German military personnel. Some of these experiments, in this category, included typhus, typhoid fever, malaria, and yellow fever among many others. Experiments involving bone grafting and testing of sulfonamide drugs were done at the Ravensbrueck concentration camp. Prisoners at Sachsenhausen and Natzweiler concentration camp were tested for the antidotes possibility through exposure to phosgene and mustard gas. The aforementioned practices and experiments left many victims disabled while others lost their lives during experiments (Spitz 42).
The third type of human experiments carried out by the Nazi’s physician was meant to seek advancement in ideological and racial framework of the Nazi community. These kinds of experiments were mainly carried out by Josef Mengele at the Auschwitz concentration camp. Among the experiments conducted by Josef Mengele included twins medical experiments, and serological experiments in the determination of how different races resisted contagious diseases. August Hirt is also stated to have conducted a research at the Strasbourg University with the intentions of establishing inferiority of Jewish race. There are other experiments and medical procedures carried out for the purpose of advancing Nazi’s racial goals. These included the sterilization experiments aimed for the Nazi, Jews, among others who were found to be genetically undesirable (Moreland and Rae 74).
The Nazi’s experiments were dangerous studies subjected to helpless inmates in the concentration camps and characterized by unethical practices. For instance, individuals were subjected to peril medical experiments without their consent. Victims of the Nazi experiments suffered from pain, mutilations, and mental torture. All the experiments resulted in a fatal outcome for victims. As a result, intervention against the Nazi’s physician was of crucial importance in bringing to justice the inhuman and cruel acts against mankind. Some of the victims of the experiments survived from the medical torture and testified against the medical physicians in the Doctors’ Trial. Susan Vigorito, a Holocaust survivor, was almost 4 years when she was presented at Auschwitz with her twin sister, Hannah. The two were kept, without anesthetic, in a wooden cage where Mengele undertook private lab tests. Her sister is stated to have passed on as a result of frequent spinal column injections (Spitz 35).
Some of the experiments used under the medical-military research included freezing experiments. On this perspective, inmates were immersed into ice water tanks in the determination of how long the military pilots would take when drowned in the North Sea waters before they died. Most inmates under this experiment died in the process as they were subjected to serve cold temperatures. Doctor Rascher was behind the freezing experiments where he used around 300 inmates in the experiments. It is postulated that an estimated 90 prisoners died as a result of the experiment. The sea water experiment was used at Dachau by Doctor Hans in a test to determine the portability of sea water. The Gypsies were subjects for the experiment where Han Eppinger gave victims sea water as the only fluid for around 8 to 12 days. This experiment had a dehydration effect on gypsies as they dehydrated to death. Doctor Han, later, committed suicide as he was anticipated to testify during the Nuremberg Trial (Hamblin 34).
Other miscellaneous and ad hoc medical experiments included poison and wound experiments. The poison experiments involved the execution of inmates through various poisonous substances. For instance, at Buchenwald, a group of researchers injected cyanide and phenol gasoline in execution of Russian prisoners. The poison experiments were meant to investigate span of time victims took before dying. Wound experiment was a test carried out to prevent hemorrhage of soldiers during the war. As a result, Doctor Rascher came up with a blood coagulant meant to be administered to German soldiers before they went to war. The procedure involved investigating the amount of blood and its rate of amputated inmates. Experiments were amputated in order to transplant body organs to other inmates. The process did not involve the use of anesthetic nor a pain reliever substance (Baumslag 64).
Racially motivated experiments like artificial insemination were carried out by Doctor Carl Clauberg at Auschwitz concentration center. After a successful treatment of a wife of high-ranking SS officer, Himmler called Doctor Carl to inseminate a group of women said to be infertile. Women prisoners could be inseminated and ordered to have sexual intercourse with the male inmates. Some Jewish female inmates could poison themselves to avoid being used as prostitutes. It is postulated that women were inseminated with animal sperms and thus felt a lot of disturbances as they grew in their womb. Jewish skeleton collection by Doctor August Hirt caused the loss of 155 inmates in 1943. August claimed that he would dedicate the skulls to a Jewish race in the form of a museum. As a result, approximately, 115 prison inmates were gassed and their skulls collected to the Strasburg University Hospital. The death toll increased rapidly as Nazi’s physicians claimed to be carrying out medical experiments (Baumslag 23).
Most of the victims subjected to the Nazi’s experiments died while others were murdered after tests in order to provide a post mortem study. Survivors were left injured, disabled, mutilated, and suffered from mental stress. In 1947, allied forces captured leading doctors of the Nazi’s experiment and were put on trial, the Doctors’ Trial. Some doctors argued that there were no international laws and regulations in conducting medical experiments. In German, the issue of consent among patients had created a lot of controversies. Dr. Albert is renowned for inflicting patients with syphilis without their knowledge. Minister for religious, medical affairs, and education ordered a directive calling for intervention on medical practices (Altman 53).
Works Cited
Altman, Lawrence K. Who Goes First?: The Story of Self-experimentation in Medicine. California: University of California Press, 2000.
Baumslag, Naomi . Murderous Medicine: Nazi Doctors, Human Experimentation, and Typhus. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005.
Hamblin, Jacob Darwin . Science in the Early Twentieth Century: An Encyclopedia. London: ABC-CLIO, 2005.
Moreland, James Porter and Scott B Rae. Body & Soul: Human Nature & the Crisis in Ethics. New York: InterVarsity Press, 2000.
Spitz, Vivien . Doctors From Hell. New York: Jaico Publishing House, 2008.
