The Experiments
Military Experiments
Military experiments were carried out to benefit the Axis military personnel. Nazi scientists conducted tests using pressurization, hypothermia and more. Sigmund Rascher and other doctors performed high altitude experiments, where they observed prisoners in low-pressure chambers simulating high altitude conditions. To find a treatment for hypothermia, they submerged prisoners into icy water and then warmed them up in different ways, some of which were very painful and torturous. The Nazi doctors also tested agonizing methods to make sea water potable.
“Each day I was determined to live one more day, and survive one more experiment.”
- Eva Kor, a twin experiment survivor, describing her experiences of the experiments, December 6, 2012
- Eva Kor, a twin experiment survivor, describing her experiences of the experiments, December 6, 2012
Pharmaceutical Experiments
The Nazis tested treatment methods and pharmaceuticals for diseases such as malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever, infectious hepatitis, scarlet fever and others. The Nazi doctors injected prisoners with a disease to observe how the disease spread. They also exposed prisoners to Mustard, Phosgene and Zyklon-B gases, to find antidotes. Drugs and chemicals (such as Sulfonamide) were tested on prisoners to study the effects. Those experiments resulted in death, severe discomfort, or debilitation.
“But there was no choice for me. I knew the moment I refused I would be sent to the gas chambers. And when you are in a situation like that, survival is your only engine”
- Ima Spanjaard, survivor of experimentation, describing her experience, 1942
- Ima Spanjaard, survivor of experimentation, describing her experience, 1942
Racial/Genetic Experiments
To create a 'master race' and to aid in the Final Solution, the Nazis performed many racial experiments. Dr. Mengele conducted painful tests on twins and disabled people at Auschwitz. He tried to find ways of preventing disfiguring genetic disorders and techniques to produce more twins. Professor Claudberg, Dr. Schumann and other doctors researched methods of mass sterilization. They performed sterilization using X-rays, surgery and various drugs. Thousands of prisoners were sterilized, without the using painkillers or sedation.
"The non-surgical method of sterilizing women that I have invented is now almost perfected . . . if the research that I am carrying out continues to yield the sort of results that it has produced so far, then one experienced physician... will be able to carry out in the course of a single day the sterilization of hundreds, or even 1,000 women."
- Carl Clauberg, writing to Dr. Himmler about the sterilization research, June 1943
- Carl Clauberg, writing to Dr. Himmler about the sterilization research, June 1943