Concentration Camps and experiments in them

http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/deathcamps.html#T-4%20Killing%20Centers

Concentration Camps and Other Places Where Experiments Were Performed
Auschwitz
1. Live vivisections on patients
2. Blood experiments
3. Mengele injected methylne blue into patients eyes to try to change the brown eye color into blue (Gutman & Berenbaum, 1994)
4. Removal of womens breasts (Snyder, 1976)
5. Twin studies where Mengele would inject twins with various diseases to see the effects of them on the human body (Gutman & Berenbaum, 1994) Mengele had tied the veins together of some of his patients to see what would happen (Gutman & Berenbaum, 1994)
6. At block ten, around 300 women were injected with various caustic substances such as prolusion and progynon (Fischer, 1995)
7. Most of the time if your treatment lasted more than four weeks, you were killed using phenol hexobarbitone or prussic acid (Sofsky, 1997)
8. Doctors punctured children's livers or removed them (Annas & Grodin, 1992)
9. Doctors tried to brainwash prisoners by giving them high doses of barbiturates and morphine (Lifton, 1986)
10. They had a room full of skulls, body parts and mummies (Fischer, 1995)
11. Sterilization and Castration experiments (Fischer, 1995)
12. Cyanide salts injected into prisoners(Lifton, 1986)
13. They did pharmacological trials for Bayer to see the effects of Ruthenol and 3582 on different conditions such as typhus, typhoid, paratyphoid diseases, dirheria, TB, and scarlet fever (Lifton, 1986)

14. Artificially injected typhus in patients (Lifton, 1986)
15. Hepatitis experiments (Annas & Grodin, 1992)
16. Starved patients and removed their organs after death (Fest, 1970)
17. Phenol injections and dissections (Lifton, 1986)
18. Vivisections by exposing leg muscles and testing various medications on them (Lifton, 1986)
19. Putting lead acetate on various parts of the body (Lifton, 1986)
20. Medical students practiced and operated on people regarding their specialty (Lifton, 1986)
21. Gallbladder operations
22. Electroshock therapy
23. Noma experiments
Belzec
1. Many of the Euthanasia experiments were done at Belzec and it was one of the first extermination camps (Snyder, 1976)
Buchenwald
1. Inmates were skinned for their tattoos (Fischer, 1995)
2. Women were taken to the infirmary or Block 61 and either killed by the "needle" or taken for experiments (Sofsky, 1997)
3. Live vivisections on humans
4. Experiments on the liver
5. Liquidation by injections including by apomorphine(Lifton, 1986)
6. Unnecessary operations and amputations
7. Yellow Fever, smallpox, paratyphoid A&B, cholera and TB was injected into healthy patients (Sofsky, 1997)
8. Tried to cure homosexuality by doing all sorts of horrific experiments
9. Patients injected with Luminal and Pervitin to see the effects (Sofsky, 1997)
10. Patients whom had typhus, doctors injected fresh blood into them(Lifton, 1986)
11. Injected evapium sodium and chloral hydrate in patients in operating rooms (Hackett, 1995)
12. Burned patients had poison injected into their wounds(Hackett, 1995)
Chelmno
1. One of the main extermination camps in Poland that had an efficient "Bone Crushing Machine" (Snyder, 1976)


Dachau
1. Hypothermia experiments - seeing how long people will last in freezing water and finding out what they could do to revive them (Fischer, 1995).
2. High Altitude experiments- studying human reactions to high altitude flight. Prisoners were thrown into a decompression chamber and exposed to extreme pressure or "vacuum conditions"(Fischer, 1995)
3. Malaria experiments- patients were infected with malaria to find a "cure"(Fest, 1970)
4. Experiments with a plant called Polygal that did not work (Fest, 1970)
5. Any prisoner in 1942 who had been in Dachau for longer than three months was killed by injection (Sofsky, 1997)
6. People there were experimented on more than once

Gross-Rosen
1. A smaller concentration camp that was used to select prisoner for special experimentation by a medical commission (Snyder, 1976)


Maidanck
1. An extermination camp in Poland that tested the effects of Zyclon B on patients (Snyder, 1976)


Mauthausen
1. Between 1939-1945, twenty weaked prisoners were weeded out about once or twice a month and killed by an injection to the heart (Sofsky, 1997)
2. Pharmacological experiments for Bayer was done at Mauthausen, as well as Auschwitz. They studied the effects of various drugs on many diseases such as typhus, typhoid, paratyphoid, diaherrea, TB, Scarlet Fever and other diseases (Lifton, 1986)


Neuengamme
1. Inmates were infected with TB and other diseases in medical experiments.
2. Jewish children were injected with virulent TB serum and then murdered(Snyder,1976)
Ravensbruck
1. Patients wounds were inflicted with gang grene(Lifton)
2. Transplantation of human bones (Sofsky,1997)
3. Patients were injected with sulfonamide for a conference held at Ravenbruck (Annas & Grodin, )
4. Experiments were done on the menstrual cycle and irregular bleeding in women after they were told they were going to die ( Annas & Grodin, 1992)
5. Sterilization of women
Sachsenhausen
1. Gypsies were pumped full of poison bullets to see the effects (Lifton, 1986)
2. Patients were injected with contagious jaundice and other diseases (Snyder, 1976)



Treblinka
1. Subjects for experiments were selected from the trainloads that arrived there
T-4 Killing Centers
1. Bradenberg, Grafene, Hartheim, Sonnenstien, Bernberg and Hadamar

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Nazi Doctors list:

http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/nazidocsandothers.html

 

Kai, wasn't there a thread on the forums some time ago discussing the German's use of barbituates for "their" men to make them more proficient killers?

 

Any graphic reports on how the Japanese used POW's for food...leaving them alive after amputating a limb without anesthesia???
Also, and I know it must sound a little sick, but are there any reports available as to the conclusions of any of these experiments that the Germans did?

 

Wilconqr,

I think this is the thread:

http://www.ww2forums.com/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=2;t=000192#000000

 

Most experiments commited by the Nazis within the camps ended in agonising and tormented deaths to many innocents. However, the doctors, at the cost of thousands, managed to glee alot of insights into the human biologic system and genetic pattern. Although this had little effect on the war, it is rumoured, yet never confirmed that many design notes and plans were taken from by camps and used by allied doctors in there experiments. One of these is beginning to bare fruit now, genetic engineering.

Although it is proven that we took alot from the German's design desks, rockets, automatic rifles, jet fighters, tanks, its uncertain whether biologly research was taken aswell.

Pretty sick I know, and what I said are just rumours, don't mean to offend anyone.

 

It certainly is confirmed. My old housemate did genetics at university and the lecturers stated that modern geneology is based directly upon the evil experiments conducted in the war. Indeed a great deal of medical research is based upon what was found after the war. My mates lecturer stated that without the Germans experiments, then bioscience would be many years behind where it is today as would medical science in general.

But was it worth six million dead.

No, but at least it led to some good.

 

As well I think the Space programs would not have been completed without the nazi tests for human beings in certain temperatures and altitudes....

 

I've read about the Japanese 731:st Unit that performed medical experiments on POWs.

Example:
They put sick prisoners with healthy ones to see how fast a sertain disease spread.

Other prisoners was placed in preassure chambers to see how much preassure a body could take before the eyes popped out.

To study injury from frost, they put a prisoner outside in the cold with bare arms and water was poured on them until the arms sounded like wood when you gave it a punch.

Nobuo Kamada, who worked for Unit 731 told US News that his main task was to to spread plague bacteries.
Once he was a part of the obduction of a chinese prisoner who was infected with plague by the japanese.
"The guy knew that he was finished so he didn't fight. But when i took the scalpell, he began to scream. I cutted him from the chest to the stomach and he was screaming terrible screams and he's face was distorted by pain. He made unthinkable sounds, he was screaming so terrible, but later he stopped." -Painkillers was not used during the obduction because they could affect the plagued organs.

 

I've read about the Japanese 731:st Unit that performed medical experiments on POWs.

Example:
They put sick prisoners with healthy ones to see how fast a sertain disease spread.

Other prisoners was placed in preassure chambers to see how much preassure a body could take before the eyes popped out.

To study injury from frost, they put a prisoner outside in the cold with bare arms and water was poured on them until the arms sounded like wood when you gave it a punch.

Nobuo Kamada, who worked for Unit 731 told US News that his main task was to to spread plague bacteries.
Once he was a part of the obduction of a chinese prisoner who was infected with plague by the japanese.
"The guy knew that he was finished so he didn't fight. But when i took the scalpell, he began to scream. I cutted him from the chest to the stomach and he was screaming terrible screams and he's face was distorted by pain. He made unthinkable sounds, he was screaming so terrible, but later he stopped." -Painkillers was not used during the obduction because they could affect the plagued organs.

 

I tried to do some research on this a while ago, I was reading about Reserve Police Batallion 101, began to wonder how one man could do such things to another. I started to research into the 'experiments' conducted on camp inmates in an effort to explain why or how it could happen. After only a couple of days research it reached a point where I could not go any further, the stuff I was reading, it was just so, erm, harrowing, that I could not bear to read any more. I think my father summed it up when he said 'any man who can read about the holocaust and come away feeling nothing, not feeling like has had something torn out of him, is not a man.'

For the benefit of anyone who is interested, here is a good starting point, it has a lot of interesting links and is well worth a look:
http://www.scarsdaleschools.k12.ny.us/hslib/naziscience.htm

For more specific information, have a read of this: http://remember.org/educate/medexp.html

Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine

Foreword

People must remember the Holocaust as a insult to humanity. The lives lost were not only great in number, but offered so much to mankind. How the world would have been different if the millions of souls destroyed could have lived.

Doctors have always been thought of as the saviors of mankind, the healers, and caretakers of our utter existence. Even ancient civilizations revered the medicine men as having special power to protect life. The trust of a physician is sacred. This is why the practice of medicine by the doctors of the Third Reich is egregious, outrageous, and shocking. The Nazi doctors violated the trust placed in them by humanity. The most painful truth is for the most part the doctors escaped their crimes against Humanity and lived a life, unlike their victims.

The Experiments


INDEX


Freezing / Hypothermia
Genetics
Infectious Diseases
Interrogation and Torture
Killing / Genocide
High Altitude
Pharmacological
Sterilization
Surgery
Traumatic Injuries

Freezing / Hypothermia

The freezing / hypothermia experiments were conducted for the Nazi high command. The experiments were conducted on men to simulate the conditions the armies suffered on the Eastern Front. The German forces were ill prepared for the bitter cold. Thousands of German soldiers died of freezing or were debilitated by cold injuries.

The experiments were conducted under the supervision of Dr. Sigmund Rascher at Birkenau, Dachau and Auschwitz . Dr. Rascher reported directly to Himmler. Dr. Rascher publicized the results of his freezing experiments at the 1942 medical conference entitled "Medical Problems Arising from Sea and Winter".

The freezing experiments were divided into two parts. First, to establish how long it would take to lower the body temperature to death and second how to best resuscitate the frozen victim.

The two main methods used to freeze the victim were to put the person in a icy vat of water or to put the victim outside naked in sub-zero temperatures.

The icy vat method proved to be the fastest way to drop the body temperature. The selections were made of young healthly Jews or Russians. They were usually stripped naked and prepared for the experiment. A insulated probe which measured the drop in the body temperature was inserted into the rectum. The probe was held in place by a expandable metal ring which was adjusted to open inside the rectum to hold the probe firmly in place. The victim was then placed in the vat of cold water and started to freeze. It was learned that most victims lost consciousness and died when the body temperature dropped to 25 C.

Two Russian men were seen by a prisoner doctor in the cold vat. They were very strong men and had said a comment to the SS doctor performing the experiment. The prisoner doctor was shocked at how long the Russian men could take the cold without loosing consciousness. He asked the directing doctor to take them out of the tank. He did not allow this and increased the temperature slightly to prolong their pain. They died after a long painful stay in the tank.

The second way to freeze a victim was to strap them to a stretcher and place them outside naked. The extreme winters of Auschwitz made a natural place for this experiment.

The resuscitation or warming experiments were just as cruel and painful as the freezing experiments.

Sun Lamp

The victims were placed 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 sweat. He died one evening after several test sessions.

Internal Irrigation

The frozen victim would have water heated to a near blistering temperature forcefully irrigated into the stomach, bladder, and intestines. All victims appeared to have died from the treatment.

Hot Bath

The victim was placed in warm water and the temperature was slowly increased. This method proved to be the best. Many victims died do to shock if they were warmed up to quickly.

Warming by Body Heat

Heinrich Himmler sugested to Dr. Rascher that he try to use women to warm the frozen men. He suggested that the victim and a women copulate. This perverted experiment occured with some success. However it was not as successful as the Warm Bath.

Genetic Experiments

The Nordic or Aryan Race was the most important goal of the Nazis. It was the largest part of the over all plan. The blonde hair, blue eye, super men were to be the only race. The Blacks, Hispanics, Jews, Gypsies, Homosexuals and anyone else that did not meet the race requirements were to by cleansed from society through genocide. Hitler and the German High command made a list rules for the fellow Nazis to follow. The new rules required all SS before marriage must submit to general testing to insure racial purity. The rules for marriage were unbelievably complex. Thousands of marriages were denied. If the laws for marriage were broken it could mean the death penalty.

Dr. Sigmund Rascher and his wife learned what not following the marriage laws would hold for their lives. Mrs. Rascher was sterile. They were not illegally married; they adopted two children. They were later investigated by the Gestapo and executed for the crime. In this case, after his medical experimentation, it seems fitting that this killer was caught up by his own party.

Early in power the National Science groups were pushed into research of the race and experiments commenced. First the party needed propaganda to prove all other races were inferior. Measurements of heads, eyes, nose, blood were required. The vast majority of the early experiments were a propaganda sham. It was determined Gypsies had different blood and were inclined to criminal behavior. The same type of findings were made of all races other than the Nazis.

After the camps were started, vast genetic experiments were undertaken. The range of the testing was broad and specialized. The two major groups of experiments were first to refine the master race and second to determine the cause of defects.

Dr. Josef Mengele research on twins and Gypsies exemplifies the quest for the genetic studies. Dr. Mengele was known as the "Angel of Death". He would be at every selection when the new trains would arrive at Auschwitz. After the victims were unloaded off the trains and stripped naked and divided into men, women, and children, he would sort through the thousands of people. Most went straight to the gas chambers and others to hard labor in the camps. The twins, dwarfs, and unique physical specimens were selected to be assigned to the experimental blocks. In many ways the majority who where killed in the gas chambers were much better off than the survivors that had no idea what horrors awaited them.

Experiments on Twins

The twins were examined from head to toe. Measurements of every inch were taken. Dr. Mengele demanded specific and careful exams. If any detail was missed the staff, usually a prisoner doctor, would be punished. The twins were allowed to keep their hair for the first several days of the examination. After all the living data was taken the twins would be killed by a single injection of chloroform in the heart. Care was taken to insure the twins died at the same time. The twins were then dissected with the organs being sent to research centers.

Prisoner doctors tell of the fate of two Hungarian twins who arrived at Auschwitz late in 1943. Dr. Mengele was at the camp selection. The train arrived in the very early morning. Three sets of twins were found. They were taken to the experimental block. Dr. Mengele ordered the two Hungarian twins be placed in the examination room. The two Hungarian twins young men age 18 were described as "extremely athletic and handsome." They had much body hair and were allowed to keep it for the first few weeks. The twins were showered and returned nude to the examination room. The examination started at the head . All parts of their heads were examined. The head examination took almost days. They were then completely X-rayed . 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.

The twins were then photographed for several days . The purpose of the photographs were to show hair patterns. They were each forced to stand, bend, and kneel in many positions to accomplish the photographs. For example, they were required to stand with their arms lifted for many hours so the under arm hair could be photographed.

After the photographs were finished they were awoken very early in the morning. They were taken into a room with tables and a hot water vat. The water in the vat was very hot. They were made to sit in the water until they were ready to pass out from the heat. They were then strapped to a table where their hair was plucked out trying to save the hair root. They were put back into the hot vat several times. After enough hair was collected, they were totally shaven of every hair on their body. The twins were then again extensively photographed without hair.

The twins then received several two liter enemas which caused them much pain and discomfort. The boys on different days were strapped over a bench table and their rectums were hyper descended after which they received an extensive lower gastric intestinal examination. This extensive procedure was performed without any anesthesia. The young men were crying so loud that Doctor Mengele ordered they be gagged. The next day they received a painful and humiliating urological examination. In this examination tissue samples were taken from the kidneys, prostate, and testicles. Several semen samples were forcefully taken over two days.

After this three weeks of tortuous medical examinations they were taken two the dissection laboratory. Using two doctors, each twin was simultaneously given an injection in the heart, taking their lives. They were dissected and their organs were sent to the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research Berlin.

 

God. It's terrible. But you have done a good job finding all these facts Stefan.
Man, jow can a man just come up with an idea like that jews and gipsies etc, was minor worthy. Insane.

 

I'm newbie here and it may be off topic but i heve a question.
Have you ever visited the concentration camp?

 

I definetly agree Munken. It blows my mind to think that man can be capable to perform such unimaginable things on other human beings. I don't understand how people can do such things. I grieve for all those tortured and killed in the concentration camps, it's horrible

 

" A decree issued by Hitler in March 1944 ordered the defendant Karl Brandt to push medical research in connection with gas warfare. The defendant Rudolf Brandt sent copies of this decree to the defendant Sievers, to Grawitz, and others, and transmitted Hitler's request that they confer soon with the defendant Karl Brandt "on account of the urgency of the order given him by the Fuehrer."

The alleged purpose of these experiments was to discover an effective treatment for the burns caused by mustard gas. In 1944 the experiments were coordinated with a general program for research into gas warfare.

Medical Case Opening Statement of the Prosecution Part 2. Nuremberg, December 1946

Well, seems that Adolf had some ugly tricks on his mind after all...

 

It would be worthwhile to point out that medical experiments have to be performed with the consent of duly prepared volunteers, not on prisioners with life forfeit.

 

Could any person who read the list of heinous acts ever question the validity of every effort being made to eradicate those who ordered and performed them? It astounds me that man can be so inhuman to man and that there are those who claim it didn't happen and those who can't be bothered to learn why we have to remember so we ensure it doesn't happen again. I was just reading about Westerbork in Holland and the conditions of the HungerWinter - Stefan's comment regarding what his father said rang true - when I read about it and see photos it makes my heart hurt. One of the 3 times I saw my father cry was after we finished watching Schindler's List together, and I first heard he had been at a concentration camp just after it was liberated. So far, I've put 2 & 2 together and believe it was Westerbork. Liberated by the Canadian 2nd Division only a short time after Anne Frank was transported to Birkenau.

Michelle

 

I remember as a teenager I read a book about Nazi medical experiments. For a few subsequent nights I couldn't sleep at all (I mean litterally) after that so horrified I was.

 

have u already read this?
hey, don't miss the slide show! simply STUNNING!

In the shadow of horror, SS guardians frolic - International Herald Tribune

or if u heve problems try this

In the Shadow of Horror, Auschwitz SS Guardians Frolic

look at those people: they feel SAFE, despite red army was just a few km away.

how is it possibile? those days many germans (ordinary people) were scared to death by the russians advancing in the fear of russian's revange. and in the meantime allied bombing made germany a burning hell.

But this was not the case for nazi people involved in the holocoust. they felt SAFE. away from front line, with no enemies alive going back for revange.

the key point is that the death camps were never bombed! this made the nazis sure that the allies did not know the truth (or if they knew they didn't concern at all).
"if they knew, they would bomb!" that's what many nazis thought in auschwitz.
(i know, there was a thread on this issue)

take himmler surrender in '45 for example... it's incredible that he tried to negotiate with the allies!! just saying that nothing really serious happend in the camps... just some "occasional abuses" that he promptly had punished.

ok, i know himmler was totally mad, but i believe that he thought nobody really knew the truth. the idea that the secrecy of holocoust had succeded (including accurate dismantling of the camps) was widespread among nazis.

had the allies at least tried to bomb the camp things would have been very different... just my opinion.

 

The nazis knew they´d get the punishment unless they could cover it up...

http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/10516-aktion-1005-a.html

 

thank u kai. very interesting. i heard something before but this is very accurate.

anyway, this confirm what i say: the nazi were very accurate trying to cover up everything because they realized that this might be a problem in the future.

But the fact that no military action by the allies was never taken against death camps made many nazis confident that their efforts to clean up everything had been successful.