Medical Experiments During The Holocaust

Many brutal atrocities were committed during the Holocaust by the Nazi party against anyone they viewed as “unpure”. This included the Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, Afro-Germans, Slavs, communists, the handicapped, and the mentally disabled. These groups were targeted, stripped away of their rights and citizenship, and then sent to concentration camps. Some of these camps were death camps; created for the sole purpose to annihilate these groups of people, mainly the Jews. At these camps, the prisoners were tortured, starved, brutally killed, and experimented on. In this research paper, I am going to discuss some of the medical experiments that were

Freezing/hypothermia were conducted by the Nazi high command to simulate what the armies suffered on the Eastern Front. The experiments were divided into two parts. The first part was to determine how long that it takes to lower the body temperature so the person dies, and

The medical experiments of the Holocaust were horrific acts with possible advancements in medicine, that go unnoticed due to current hospitals using ill-effective techniques, the EPA letting phosgene toxins infect workers, and some newspapers and agencies disregarding the use of the advancements. It is widely known, that the Holocaust was a horrible event during World War II, where Nazis would massacre Jews in a variety of ways, ranging from a firing squad to being buried alive. Horrible atrocities that ended in five million, to as many as six million Jewish deaths, among many more prisoners the Germans convicted. However, what is less known is how many of these deaths were used in medical experiments to advance medicine and medical practices.

Experiments were done on prisoners for many different reasons. They were done to push the Nazis agenda that the Aryan race is the dominant race, and that they should be the only race. This idea is also known as eugenics. Some experiments were done in attempt to find a way to multiply the Aryan race faster by performing experiments on twins. They wanted to make sure that Aryans were the only ones reproducing because they thought they were the dominate race. To enforce this, they did experiments that would insure this idea through sterilization for males and females. They were trying to find new medicines to cure different diseases and conditions for the Aryan race. They wanted to find a way to make the Aryan race stronger and healthier and a way to multiply their race more quickly, because they believed that they were the superior race.

The diabolical experiments executed during the holocaust were some of the most inhumane occurrences in history; nevertheless, these atrocities were conducted without consent of the patient they were performed on. The nefarious experiments of the holocaust often resulted in the demise of the unlucky host of the experiments, and if the patent was lucky enough to survive the longevity of their luck would come to an end, as all who survived these experiments were murdered shortly afterward to keep secret of the hideous crimes.

While Elie Wiesel is surely right in his statement, it is not the job of only holocaust survivors, but of all people, to make sure that the horror of the Holocaust are never forgotten. One part of the Holocaust, however, is often overlooked by the general public; The Nazi Medical experiments conducted on the prisoners of the concentration camps. Acknowledging the atrocity of these experiments,

The Stanford Prison Experiment conducted by Zimbardo in the summer of 1971 to study the behavior and the psychological effects of becoming a guard and a prisoner. This experiment was supposed to be a two-week experiment, but that was not the case it only ended after six days due to the difficulties and the stress that the guards and the prisoners were experiencing. The methodology behind this experiment was to get volunteers for the study by posting it in the local newspaper. People who were interested in taking a part in the study were screened beforehand for any medical issues and criminal background. 24 College students took a part in this study and they were being paid $15 for each day. After that, the students were divided up into two different groups guards and prisoners which were decided by a flip of a coin, they were put in a prison-like environment which was in the basement of the Psychology Department at the Stanford University.

During the Holocaust, the scientists did the experiments because they wanted to see how long the jews could last depending on the experiment. Examples of environmental experiments included hypothermia experiments, where people were exposed to extreme cold, and the sun lamp experiment, in which jews were put under a sunlamp. The results were documented as to how long they could last. The scientists also did genetic experiments. These were

At extermination camps, the Nazis conducted many medical experiments on the prisoners that resulted in many deaths. Between 1939 and 1945 medical research projects involving cruel and often lethal experimentation on human subjects were performed. These projects were supported, well-known organizations in the Third Reich and were categorized into three fields: research intended at cultivating the endurance and rescue of German troops, testing of medical techniques and medications, and experiments that pursued to approve Nazi cultural belief. More than seven thousand victims of these cruel medical experiments have been acknowledged. Targets of the experiments included Jews, Poles, Gypsies, Soviet prisoners of war, homosexuals, and Catholic priests (Medical Experiments ).

The test he did would take rates of blood drops that would be from fresh cut amputation stumps from conscious living prisoners. He would also shoot his Russian prisoners in the spleen when he needed extra blood. At some certain camps they would also amputate people’s shoulders and legs for transplants and would put them on other vict b but they were always failed attempts. They would also make wounds on the prisoners. They would inject the prisoner with bacteria, dirt, and glass slivers, streptococcus, tetanus, and gas gangrene to imitate a battlefield injury. They would rub around the glass slivers in the wound and also wood shavings and they would tie off the blood vessels on either side like you would in an actual war wound. The scientist would then treat the wounds with sulfanilamide drugs to see how it would work in the battlefield.

The doctors would cut off limbs and see if the Jew’s could handle what happened to their body. Josef mengele would do the experiments to twins along with many other doctors they were trying to see how twin were made so they could increase the prefect race faster. Even though these were crude experiments they help german know a whole lot more about the human body and what it can handle and what it can't and the almost found out to make twins but they never did.

Freezing experiments were conducted for the Nazi high command. The experiments were conducted on men. The German forces were ill prepared for the bitter winter. Thousands of Germans died of freezing. The experiments were conducted by Dr. Sigmund Rascherat Birkenau, Dachau and Auschwitz.

There is no words to describe how painful and inhumane these tests and experiments were. A unlucky set of twins had to go through this odious experiment. “The next part of the examination consisted of tubes being forced through their noses and into their lungs. They were then ventilated with a gas which caused them to cough so severely they had to be restrained. The sputum from the lungs was collected for examination” (“Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine 1”).

These Nazi Germans were on the brink of performing certain medical research on Jews that seemed more as torture than experimental. Such experiments entailed procedures such as, “The icy vat method [where a probe was inserted in their rectums and] the victim was then placed in the vat of cold water to freeze,” (Holocaust). Such experiments would help them discover what? Apparently this was indeed necessary for the Nazis were invading Russia and needed this intel on how to survive in the brittle cold they were venturing into. But we all know what will happen when the human body is exposed to these extreme cold temperatures: death. And even after countless deaths with these heating and freezing experiments the doctors would continue conducting them… straying from their original intentions. After all, how many Jews had to freeze to death until they got the concept? Apparently by genocide, the murder of hostages, reprisal raids, forced labor, "euthanasia," starvation, exposure, medical experiments, and terror bombing, and in the concentration and death camps, the Nazis murdered from 15,003,000 to 31,595,000 people (Rummel). This immense casualty of human lives lost for a few curious doctors wondering “What would happen if they ___” emphasizes the amount of unnecessary experimentation taking place. All of these human beings were poked and prodded like lab rats. And

World War 2 was a tragic event the shook the whole world. Countries across the globe joined forced to clash with one another, throwing away the lives of many young men. In that event, the Nazi party rounded up Jews, Gypsies, and anyone that they deemed a disease to Germany and the perfect Aryan race, were taken to concentration camps The question now is, ‘What were the Nazi Medical Experiments that were being conducted during the war? What did they do, and what were the purpose of these experiment?’