NAZI GERMANY- THE DOCTORS AND THEIR UNETHICAL AND INHUMANE EXPERIMENTS
There are nine posts in this series on Nazi Germany. Each post touches briefly on the subject given that there are already numerous research papers, articles and books, covering each topic in depth. Many links are included in each post. For the reasoning behind writing these posts, read the Introduction
HERE.
2 EUGENICS, RACIAL PURITY AND PERSECUTION - The US Influenced Nazi Germany's Eugenics Program. A Snapshot of the Diverse Groups Persecuted and Imprisoned in Concentration Camps. The Nuremberg Trial, Which Dealt With Racial Purity - RuSHA (USA vs. Ulrich Greifelt et al).
3 FORCED AND SLAVE LABOUR - Without Forced and Slave Labour the Nazi War Machine would have Collapsed and Brought the War to an Abrupt End. A Brief History of Forced and Slave Labour Before, During and After World War II. Details of The Nuremberg Trials for German Industrialists - Flick, Krupp and IG Farben.
4 FORCED PROSTITUTION, SEXUAL VIOLENCE AND RAPE -
Sexual Crimes Were Not Tried at Nuremberg even though There Were Established Laws Condemning These Crimes. Information About Nazi Military Brothels and Concentration Camp Brothels. Evidence and Testimonies from Witnesses. Both Axis and Allied Forces were Guilty of Sexual Violence and Rape.
5
NAZI DOCTORS EXPERIMENTS AND TRIALS - The Nazi Doctors' Nuremberg Trial and Details of Their Experiments. Names of Nazi Doctors who Escaped Prosecution. Information about Post War Unethical Experiments Without Informed Consent, in the USA, Russia, South Africa and Israel. 6 STERILIZATION AND EUTHANASIA PROGRAMS -
Life “Unworthy of Life” A Brief History of the Sterilization and the Euthanasia Programs and German Public Opposition. Using Cost Benefits Analysis in Nazi Medicine to Educate Children.
7 WORLD WAR II BY DESIGN – THE ECONOMY AND FOREIGN INVESTORS - An Important Component of Nazi Germany's War Infrastructure. Brief History of the German Economy and Hermann Goering's Four Year Plan. Role of Jewish Public Protests and their Boycott of German Goods in 1933 and Germany's Retaliatory Actions. The Real Role of Neutral Countries During the War. Post War Looting of German Patents, Cover Up of German Research on Tobacco and Cancer and the Removal/Kidnap of Nazi Experts to Allied Countries. The Role of Foreign Subsidiaries/Investors before and during World War II in Germany.
8 UNWCC (UNITED NATIONS WAR CRIMES COMMISSION) LAW REPORTS - The UNWCC prepared and published a 15 volume set of law reports covering 89 War Crimes Trials From World War II. This post contains links to all of these law reports and a list of the cases in each volume. Some information on CROWCASS (Central Registry of War Criminals and Security Suspects).
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NAZI GERMANY- THE DOCTORS AND THEIR UNETHICAL AND INHUMANE EXPERIMENTS
This post primarily focuses on the inhumane experiments carried out by Nazi Germany during the war, in the concentration camps. A separate post deals exclusively with the Sterilization and Euthanasia Programs in detail, which was an integral part of securing Racial Purity.
WHICH WORLD WAR II TRIAL DEALT WITH NAZI DOCTORS & THEIR EXPERIMENTS?
Nuremburg Military Tribunal (NMT) - USA V Karl Brandt et al. (Case I – Also Known as The Doctors' Trial/The Medical Case) - From 9 December 1946 to 20 August 1947 in Nuremberg, Germany.
In this trial 23 doctors and administrators were accused of organizing and participating in war crimes and crimes against humanity in the form of medical experiments and medical procedures inflicted on prisoners of war and civilians. Many of the experiments were aimed at benefiting the GERMAN ARMED FORCES.
......acting in concert with each other and with others, unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the commission of War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity.... Count Two (War Crimes) of the Indictment provides information about each experiment.
THE EXPERIMENTS
HIGH ALTITUDE EXPERIMENTS
The indictment states: From about March 1942 to about August 1942 experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp, for the benefit of the GERMAN AIR FORCE, to investigate the limits of human endurance and existence at extremely high altitudes. The experiments were carried out in a low-pressure chamber in which the atmospheric conditions and pressures prevailing at high altitude (up to 68,000 feet) could be duplicated.
The experimental subjects were placed in the low-pressure chamber and thereafter the simulated altitude therein was raised. Many victims died as a result of these experiments and others suffered grave injury, torture, and ill-treatment. The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Schroeder, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Sievers, Ruff, Romberg, Becker-Freyseng, and Weltz are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
R. Brandt and Sievers were convicted.
High Altitude Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P92)
FREEZING EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: From about August 1942 to about May 1943 experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp, primarily for the benefit of the GERMAN AIR FORCE, to investigate the most effective means of treating persons who had been severely chilled or frozen. In one series of experiments the subjects were forced to remain in a tank of ice water for periods up to 3 hours. Extreme rigor developed in a short time. Numerous victims died in the course of these experiments. After the survivors were severely chilled, rewarming was attempted by various means. In another series of experiments, the subjects were kept naked outdoors for many hours at temperatures below freezing. The victims screamed with pain as parts of their bodies froze.
The defendants Karl Brand, Handloser, Schroeder, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Sievers, Becker-Freyseng, and Weltz are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
R. Brandt, Handloser, Schroeder, and Sievers were convicted.
Freezing Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P198)
MALARIA EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: From about February 1942 to about April 1945 experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp in order to investigate immunization for and treatment of malaria Healthy concentration-camp inmates were infected by mosquitoes or by injections of extracts of the mucous glands of mosquitoes. After having contracted malaria the subjects were treated with various drugs to test their relative efficacy. Over 1,000 involuntary subjects were used in these experiments. Many of the victims died and others suffered severe pain and permanent disability.
The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Gebhardt, Blome, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, and Sievers are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
Sievers was convicted.
Malaria Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P278)
FATHER LEO MIECHALOWSKI - Excerpts from His Testimony
HERE was entered as Evidence in the Medical Case. Father Miechalowski was selected against his will as a subject for medical experiments. He was intentionally infected with Malaria so that various compounds could be tested. Further, he was subjected to hypothermia experiments.
PICTURE:
FRIEDRICH HOFFMAN - A Czech priest, testifies at the trial of former camp personnel and prisoners from Dachau. In his hand he holds a packet of records that show that 324 priests died at the camp after being exposed to malaria during Nazi medical experiments.
MUSTARD "LOST" GAS EXPERIMENTSThe indictment states: At various times between September 1939 and April 1945 experiments were conducted at Sachsenhausen, Natzweiler, and other concentration camps for the benefit of the GERMAN ARMED FORCES to investigate the most effective treatment of wounds caused by Lost gas. Lost is a poison gas which is commonly known as mustard gas. Wounds deliberately inflicted on the subjects were infected with Lost. Some of the subjects died as a result of these experiments and others suffered intense pain and injury.
The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Blome, Rostock, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, and Sievers are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
K. Brandt, R. Brandt, and Sievers were convicted.
Mustard "Lost" Gas Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P314)
RAVENSBRUECK EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING SULFANILAMIDE AND OTHER DRUGS; BONE, MUSCLE AND NERVE REGENERATION AND BONE TRANSPLANTATION:SULFANILAMIDE EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: From about July 1942 to about September 1943 experiments to investigate the effectiveness of sulfanilamide were conducted at the Ravensbrueck concentration camp for the benefit of the GERMAN ARMED FORCES. Wounds deliberately inflicted on the experimental subjects were infected with bacteria such as streptococcus, gas gangrene and tetanus. 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 sulfanilamide and other drugs to determine their effectiveness. Some subjects died as a result of these experiments and others suffered serious injury and intense agony.
The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Schroeder. Genzken, Gebhardt, Blome, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Becker-Freyseng, Oberheuser, and Fischer are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
K. Brandt, Fischer, Gebhardt, Handloser, Mrugowsky, and Oberheuser were convicted.
Sulfanilamide Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P354)
BONE, MUSCLE AND NERVE REGENERATION, AND BONE TRANSPLANT EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: From about September 1942 to about December 1943 experiments were conducted at the Ravensbrueck concentration camp, for the benefit of the GERMAN ARMED FORCES, to study bone, muscle and nerve regeneration, and bone transplantation from one person to another. Sections of bones, muscles, and nerves were removed from the subjects. As a result of these operations, many victims suffered intense agony, mutilation and permanent disability.
The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Oberheuser, and Fischer are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
Fischer, Gebhardt, and Oberheuser were convicted.
Bone, Muscle and Nerve Regeneration, and Bone Transplantation Experiments – More Trial Information
HERE (P391)
Excerpts
HERE from the Testimony of
VLADISLAVA KAROLEWSKA, a victim of medical experiments, who appeared as a prosecution witness at the Doctors Trial. Karolewska was selected against her will as a subject in bone regeneration experiments.
PHOTO: JADWIGA DZIDO
JADWIGA DZIDO was a member of the Polish underground, who was deported to Ravensbrueck in March 1941. The disfiguring scars on her right leg were a result of incisions made by medical personnel that were purposely infected with bacteria, dirt and slivers of glass, in order to simulate the combat wounds of German soldiers fighting in the war. The inflamed area was then treated with sulphonamide drugs. Many of the prisoners subjected to these treatments died from their wounds. On December 17, 1946, Jadwiga Dzido presented evidence at the Nuremberg Medical Case trial of 23 former SS physicians.
MARIA KUSMIERCZUK PICTURED HERE - Her leg was disfigured by injections of tetanus bacteria as part of medical experiments carried out in the camp.
SEA-WATER EXPERIMENTS The Indictment States: From about July 1944 to about September 1944 experiments were conducted at the Dachau concentration camp, for the benefit of the GERMAN AIR FORCE AND NAVY, to study various methods of making sea water drinkable. The subjects were deprived of all food and given only chemically processed sea water, Such experiments caused great pain and suffering and resulted in serious bodily injury to the victims.
The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Schroeder, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Sievers, Becker-Freyseng, Schaefer, and Beiglboeck are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these.
Becker-Freyseng, Beiglboeck, Gebhardt, Schroeder, and Sievers were convicted.
Sea-Water Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P418)
EPIDEMIC JAUNDICE EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: From about June 1943 to about January 1945 experiments were conducted at the Sachsenhausen and Natzweiler concentration camps, for the benefit of the GERMAN ARMED FORCES, to investigate the causes of, and inoculations against, epidemic jaundice. Experimental subjects were deliberately infected with epidemic jaundice, some of whom died as a result, and others were caused great pain and suffering.
The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Schroeder, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Sievers, Rose, and Becker-Freyseng are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
Brandt was convicted.
Epidemic Jaundice Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P494)
MASS STERILIZATION EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: From about March 1941 to about January 1945 sterilization experiments were conducted at the Auschwitz and Ravensbrueck concentration camps, and other places. The purpose of these experiments was to develop a method of sterilization which would be suitable for sterilizing millions of people with a minimum of time and effort. These experiments were conducted by means of X-ray, surgery, and various drugs. Thousands of victims were sterilized and thereby suffered great mental and physical anguish.
The defendants Karl Brandt, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Brack, Pokorny, and Oberheuser are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
Brack, R. Brandt, and Gebhardt were convicted.
Mass Sterilization Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P694)
TYPHUS (FLECKFIEBER) "SPOTTED FEVER" AND OTHER VACCINE EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: From about December 1941 to about February 1945 experiments were conducted at the Buchenwald and Natzweiler concentration camps, for the benefit of the GERMAN ARMED FORCES, to investigate the effectiveness of spotted fever and other vaccines. At Buchenwald numerous healthy inmates were deliberately infected with spotted fever virus in order to keep the virus alive; over 90 percent of the victims died as a result. Other healthy inmates were used to determine tile effectiveness of different spotted fever vaccines and of various chemical substances. In the course of these experiments 75 percent of the selected number of inmates were vaccinated with one, of the vaccines or nourished with one of the chemical substances and, after a period of 3 to 4 weeks, were infected with spotted fever germs. The remaining 25 percent were infected without any previous protection in order to compare the effectiveness of the vaccines and the chemical substances. As a result, hundreds of the persons experimented upon died. Experiments with yellow fever, smallpox, typhus, paratyphus A and B, cholera. and diphtheria were also conducted. Similar experiments with like results were conducted at Natzweiler concentration camp.
The defendants Karl Brandt, Handloser, Rostock, Schroeder, Genzken, Gebhardt, Rudolf Brandt, Mrugowsky, Poppendick, Sievers, Rose, Becker-Freyseng, and Hoven are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
R. Brandt, Genzken, Handloser, Hoven, Mrugowsky, Rose, Schroeder, and Sievers were convicted.
Typhus "Spotted Fever" & Other Vaccine Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P508)
POISON EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: In or about December 1943, and in or about October 1944, experiments were conducted at the Buchenwald concentration camp to investigate the effect of various poisons upon human beings. The poisons were secretly administered to experimental subjects in their food. The victims died as a result of the poison or were killed immediately in order to permit autopsies. In or about September 1944 experimental subjects were shot with poison bullets and suffered torture and death.
The defendants Genzken, Gebhardt, Mrugowsky, and Poppendick are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
Mrugowsky was convicted.
Poison Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P631)
INCENDIARY BOMB EXPERIMENTSThe Indictment States: From about November 1943 to about January 1944 experiments were conducted at the Buchenwald concentration camp to test the effect of various pharmaceutical preparations on
phosphorous burns. These burns were inflicted on experimental subjects with phosphorous matter taken from incendiary bombs, and caused severe pain, suffering, and serious bodily injury.
The defendants Genzken, Gebhardt, Mrugowsky, and Poppendick are charged with special responsibility for and participation in these crimes.
All were acquitted.
Incendiary Bomb Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P639)
Phosphorous Burns - In the experiment, a mixture of phosphorus and rubber was applied to the skin and ignited. After twenty seconds, the fire was extinguished with water and then wiped with R17. After three days, the burn was treated with Echinacin in liquid form. After two weeks the wound had healed.
PHLEGMON EXPERIMENTS The prosecution introduced evidence calculated to show that inhumane acts and atrocities, as generally alleged in paragraph 6 of the indictment, were committed in the course of phlegmon experiments.
Those experiments were not specifically described in the subparagraphs of paragraph 6 of the indictment which particularized 12 specific types of experimentation.
On this charge the defendants Poppendick, Oberheuser, and Fischer were acquitted.
Phlegmon Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P653)
POLYGAL EXPERIMENTS The prosecution introduced evidence calculated to show that inhumane acts and atrocities, as generally alleged in paragraph 6 of the indictment, were committed in the course of polygal experiments.
These experiments were not specifically described in the subparagraphs of paragraph 6 of the indictment which particularized 12 specific types of experimentation. On this charge the defendants Handloser, Blome, and Poppendick were acquitted and only the defendant
Sievers was convicted.Polygal Experiments – More Trial Information
HERE (P669)
GAS OEDEMA (PHENOL) EXPERIMENTS The prosecution introduced evidence calculated to show that inhuman acts and atrocities (as generally alleged in paragraph 6 of the indictment) were committed in the course of gas oedema experiments.
These experiments were not specifically described in the subparagraphs of paragraph 6 of the indictment, which particularized 12 specific types of experimentation. On this charge the defendants Mrugowsky and Hoven were convicted and the defendant Handloser was acquitted. Gas Oedema (Phenol) Experiments - More Trial Information
HERE (P684)
JEWISH SKELETON COLLECTIONThe Indictment States: Between June 1943 and September 1944 the defendants Rudolf Brandt and Sievers unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by Article 11 of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the murder of civilians and members of the armed forces of nations then at war with the German Reich and who were in the custody of the German Reich in exercise of belligerent control. One hundred twelve Jews were selected for the purpose of completing a skeleton collection for the Reich University of Strasbourg. Their photographs and anthropological measurements were taken. Then they were killed. Thereafter, comparison tests, anatomical research, studies regarding race, pathological features of the body, form and size of the brain, and other tests, were made. The bodies were sent to Strasbourg and defleshed.
R. Brandt and Sievers convicted.
Jewish Skeleton Collection - More Trial Information
HERE (P738)
TUBERCULOSIS – INFECTION OF POLISH NATIONALSThe Indictment States: Between May 1942 and January 1941 * the defendants Blome and Rudolf Brandt unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by Article 11 of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the murder und mistreatment of tens of thousands of Polish nationals who were civilians and members of the armed forces of a nation then at war with the German Reich and who were in the custody of the German Reich in exercise of belligerent control. These people were alleged to be infected with incurable tuberculosis. On the ground of insuring the health and welfare of Germans in Poland, many tubercular Poles were ruthlessly exterminated while others were isolated in death camps with inadequate medical facilities.
The defendants Blome and Rudolf Brandt were charged with participation in and responsibility for the murder and mistreatment of tens of thousands of Polish Nationals allegedly infected with incurable tuberculosis. On this charge both defendants were acquitted.
Tuberculosis Infection of Polish Nationals - More Trial Information
HERE (P759)
EUTHANASIA PROGRAMThe Indictment States: Between September 1939 and April 1945 the defendants Karl Brandt, Blome, Brack, and Hoven unlawfully, willfully, and knowingly committed war crimes, as defined by Article 11 of Control Council Law No. 10, in that they were principals in, accessories to, ordered, abetted, took a consenting part in, and were connected with plans and enterprises involving the execution of the so-called "euthanasia" program of the German Reich in the course of which the defendants, herein murdered hundreds of thousands of human beings, including nationals of German-occupied countries. This program involved the systematic and secret execution of the aged, insane, incurably ill, of deformed children, and other persons, by gas, lethal injections, and diverse other means in nursing homes, hospitals, and asylums. Such persons were regarded as "useless eaters" and a burden to the German war machine. The relatives of these victims were informed that they died from natural causes, such as heart failure. German doctors involved in the "euthanasia" program were also sent to Eastern occupied countries to assist in the mass extermination of Jews.
Brack, K. Brandt, and Hoven were convicted.
Euthanasia Program - More Trial Information
HERE (P794)
Go to My Post
6Nazi Germany - Sterilization and Euthanasia Programs for Detailed Information
Further information about the Doctors' Trial can be found in the
MAZAL LIBRARY -
Volume I and
Volume II.
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THE DOCTORS AT THE NUREMBERG TRIAL AND THEIR PUNISHMENT
HERMANN BECKER-FREYSENG — Captain, Medical Service of the Air Force; and Chief of the Department for Aviation Medicine and Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe -
20 YEARS IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO 10 YEARS.
WILHELM BEIGLBOECK — Consulting Physician to the Luftwaffe -
15 YEARS' IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO 10 YEARS. KURT BLOME — Deputy of the Reich Health Leader and Plenipotentiary for Cancer Research in the Reich Research Council -
ACQUITTED.
In return for his acquittal, Blome agreed to provide information to the Americans about his experiments in the Dachau concentration camp and advice in the development of their own germ warfare program. Two months after his Nuremberg acquittal, Blome was transferred to the U.S. in the frame of Operation Paperclip and interviewed at Camp David, Maryland by the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency about biological warfare. In 1951, he was hired by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps to work on chemical warfare. More Information
HEREVIKTOR BRACK — Senior Colonel in the SS and Major in the Waffen SS; and Chief Administrative Officer in the Chancellery of the Fuehrer of the NSDAP –
DEATH. More Information
HEREKARL BRANDT — Personal Physician to Adolf Hitler; Gruppenfuehrer in the SS and Major General in the Waffen SS; Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation and Member of the Reich Research Council -
DEATH. More Information
HERERUDOLF BRANDT — Colonel in the Allgemeine SS; Personal Administrative Officer to Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler and Ministerial Counselor and Chief of the Ministerial Office in the Reich Ministry of the Interior -
DEATH.
FRITZ FISCHER - Major in the Waffen SS and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the Hospital at Hohenlychen -
LIFETIME IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO 15 YEARS.
KARL GEBHARDT - Gruppenfuehrer in the SS and Major General in the Waffen SS; Personal Physician to Reichsfuehrer SS Himmler; Chief Surgeon of the Staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police, and President of the German Red Cross -
DEATH. KARL GENZKEN - Gruppenfuehrer in the SS and Major General in the Waffen SS, and Chief of the Medical Department of the Waffen SS –
LIFETIME IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO 20 YEARS.
SIEGFRIED HANDLOSER — Lieutenant General, Medical Service; Medical Inspector of the Army and Chief of the Medical Services of the Armed Forces -
LIFETIME IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO 20 YEARS. WALDEMAR HOVEN — Captain in the Waffen SS and Chief Doctor of the Buchenwald Concentration Camp -
DEATH. More Information
HERE.
JOACHIM MROGOWSKY — Senior Colonel in the Waffen SS; Chief Hygienist of the Reich Physician SS and Police and Chief of the Hygiene Institute of the Waffen SS –
DEATH.
HERTA OBERHEUSER — Physician at the Ravensbrueck Concentration Camp; and Assistant Physician to the defendant Gebhardt at the Hospital at Hohenlychen - 20 YEARS' IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO 10 YEARS.
ADOLF POKORNY — Physician, Specialist in Skin and Venereal Diseases -
ACQUITTED.
HELMUT POPPENDICK — Senior Colonel in the SS and Chief of the Personal Staff of the Reich Physician SS and Police -
10 YEARS IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO NONE.
HANS WOLFGANG ROMBERG — Doctor on the Staff of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation -
ACQUITTED.
GERHARD ROSE — Brigadier General, Medical Service of the Air Force; Vice President, Chief of the Department for Tropical Medicine, and Professor of the Robert Koch Institute; and Hygiene Adviser for Tropical Medicine to the Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe -
LIFETIME IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO 20 YEARS.PAUL ROSTOCK — Chief Surgeon of the Surgical Clinic in Berlin; Surgical Adviser to the Army, and Chief of the Office for Medical Science and Research under the defendant Karl Brandt, Reich Commissioner for Health and Sanitation -
ACQUITTED.
SIEGFRIED RUFF — Director of the Department for Aviation Medicine at the German Experimental Institute for Aviation –
ACQUITTED, STILL RESEARCHING AND PUBLISHING IN THE FIELD OF AVIATION AS LATE AS 1989.
KONRAD SCHAEFER — Doctor on the Staff of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Berlin -
ACQUITTED.
OSKAR SCHROEDER — Lieutenant General Medical Service; Chief of Staff of the Inspectorate of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe and Chief of the Medical Service of the Luftwaffe -
LIFETIME IMPRISONMENT, COMMUTED TO 15 YEARS.
WOLFRAM SIEVERS — Colonel in the SS; Reich Manager of the "Ahnenerbe" Society and Director of its Institute for Military Scientific Research and Deputy Chairman of the Managing Board of Directors of the Reich Research Council -
DEATH.
GEORG AUGUST WELTS — Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Service of the Air Force and Chief of the Institute for Aviation Medicine in Munich -
ACQUITTED.
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NAZI DOCTORS WHO ESCAPED PROSECUTION AND THE COUNTRIES WHICH GAVE THEM REFUGE
Philipp BOUHLER and Leonardo CONTI killed themselves in captivity in May 1945, while Dr Ernst-Robert GRAWITZ killed himself shortly before the fall of Berlin. More Information here about
BOUHLER -
CONTI -
GRAWITZDr Friedrich MENNEKE died in 1947 while awaiting trial. Paul NITSCHE was tried and executed by an East German court in 1948. Werner HEYDE, after having escaped detection for 18 years, killed himself in 1964 before being brought to trial. Dr Heinrich GROSS and Werner BLANKENBURG also escaped justice. More Information Here About
NITSCHE -
HEYDE -
GROSS -
BLANKENBURG
*
DR. CARL CLAUBERG (28 September 1898- 9 August 1957)
A Leading German endocrinologist who identified female hormone progesterone and worked to restore fertility of sterile women. Enthusiastic Nazi. Moved to Auschwitz in 1942 to develop method of non-surgical sterilization for use on huge scale. He worked with Horst Schumann in X-ray sterilization experiments at Auschwitz concentration camp. He was Sentenced to 25 years’ jail in the Soviet Union but freed in 1955. He was rearrested on his return to Germany but died of a Heart Attack on 9 August 1957 before he could be tried.
In
UK National Archives Files - War Crime Trials, Various Papers 1947 - 1967 Link
HERE to Carl Clauberg, an eminent professor of medicine at Kiel University, is indicted here on numerous counts of grievous bodily harm; intent to injure; manslaughter as a result, principally, of his experiments on sterilization of women patients at Auschwitz and Ravensbrück.
Clauberg was captured by the Russians on 8 June 1945. He was imprisoned for 3 years in the Soviet Union before being tried, when he was convicted of war crimes. Following Stalin's death in 1953, and various diplomatic agreements, Clauberg was repatriated with other Germans in October 1955. After which date he is described as being not only unrepentant but grandiose and bizarre, listing on his professional card various Nazi medical organizations. After pressure from various groups, Clauberg was arrested in November 1955. But for a considerable time the German Chamber of Medicine resisted action against him that would divest him of his title Doctor of Medicine. They did eventually remove his license. However, when he died mysteriously in his prison cell on 9 August 1957, the general belief was that he was in the process of naming names at the top of the Nazi medical hierarchy, and that consequently, medical colleagues helped bring about his death.
Interesting Link
HERE (PDF) to Dr. Carl Clauberg -
Experimental Obstetrics & National Socialism: The Conceptual Basis of Reproductive Technology Today - Heidrun Kaupen-Haas - Reproductive and Genetic Engineering, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 127–132, 1988
Population control in Nazi Germany – to promote those “worthy of reproduction” and to eliminate those “unworthy of reproduction” – influenced international research in genetic and reproductive technology.
*
DR. HERMANN STIEVE (22 May 1886 – 5 September 1952)
Professor of Anatomy at Berlin University who researched function of the ovary. Studied link between menstruation and stress at Plötzensee prison in Berlin from 1942-1944. Stieve was granted access to women for his research on ovarian function and the menstrual cycle. In one particularly grim study, he charted the effect on menstruation of what he termed "highly agitating news" -- the passing of a death sentence on these inmates -- and dissected their bodies after they had been executed. After WWII, Dr. Stieve continued to teach anatomy at the University of Berlin and no charges were ever brought against him. The Berlin Charite Hospital honored Dr. Stieve on behalf of his research on women's reproductive systems. They awarded him with a bust/statue of him on the university and an entire lecture hall was named after him at the University of Berlin. More Information
HERE (In German)
DR. HORST SCHUMANN (1 May 1906 - 5 May 1983)
Conducted many female sterilization and male castration experiments at Auschwitz and invented gruesome machines with which to do the job. He deliberately infected prisoners with typhus by injecting them with infected blood to test prospective cures. On 28 July 1941, Schumann arrived in Auschwitz. He worked at Block 30 in the women's hospital, where he set up an x-ray station in 1942. Here men and women were forcibly sterilized by being positioned repeatedly for several minutes between two x-ray machines, the rays aiming at their sexual organs. Most subjects died after great suffering, or were gassed immediately because the radiation burns from which they suffered rendered them unfit for work. Men's testicles were removed and sent to Breslau for histopathological examination.
He was captured by the Americans in January 1945 while serving as a military doctor. He was released from captivity in October 1945. In April 1946 he began to work as a sports doctor for the city of Gladbeck. An application for a license for a hunting gun led to him being identified in 1951 and the GDR issued an arrest warrant.
Schumann then fled, first to
Egypt and eventually settled in
Khartoum in the Sudan as head of a hospital. He was forced to flee from Sudan in 1962 after being recognised by an Auschwitz survivor. Then he went to
Ghana, where he received the protection of the head of state, Kwame Nkrumah.
In 1966, he was
extradited from Ghana to West Germany where the trial against him was opened in Frankfurt on 23 September 1970. However, Schumann was released from prison on 29 July 1972 due to his heart condition and generally deteriorating health. However, he did not die until 1983, eleven years after he had been released. More Information
HEREDR. EDUARD WIRTHS (4 September 1909 – 20 September 1945)
He was the Chief SS doctor at the Auschwitz concentration camp from September 1942 to January 1945. Wirths had formal responsibility for everything undertaken by the nearly 20 SS doctors (including Josef Mengele, Horst Schumann and Carl Clauberg) who worked in the medical sections of Auschwitz between 1942-1945. Dr. Wirths was promoted to SS Hauptsturmführer (captain) and appointed as chief doctor at Auschwitz in September 1942. He was appointed on the basis of his reputation as a competent doctor and committed Nazi who would be capable of stopping the typhus epidemics that had increasingly affected SS personnel at Auschwitz (an effort in which he was somewhat successful). Eduard Wirths was promoted to SS Sturmbannführer (major) in September 1944.
Wirths committed suicide by hanging on 20 September 1945, in British Custody. More Information
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DR JOSEF MENGELE (16 March 1911 – 7 February 1979)
Mengele was a German SS officer and a physician in the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. In 1942, he was wounded at the Russian front and was pronounced medically unfit for combat, and was then promoted to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer (Captain). On May 24, 1943, he became medical officer of Auschwitz-Birkenau's "Gypsy camp".
In August 1944, this camp was liquidated and all its inmates gassed. Subsequently Mengele became Chief Medical Officer of the main infirmary camp at Birkenau. During his 21-month stay at Auschwitz, Mengele took turns with the other SS physicians at Auschwitz in meeting incoming prisoners at the ramp, where it was determined who would be retained for work and who would be sent to the gas chambers immediately. When it was reported that one block was infested with Typhus, Mengele gassed every single one of the 750 women assigned to it.
Mengele used Auschwitz as an opportunity to continue his research on heredity, using inmates for human experimentation. He was particularly interested in identical twins; they would be selected and placed in special barracks. Mengele took an interest in physical abnormalities discovered among the arrivals at the concentration camp. These included dwarfs, notably the Ovitz family.
Mengele's experiments also included attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations of limbs and other brutal surgeries. Rena Gelissen's account of her time in Auschwitz details certain experiments performed on female prisoners around October 1943. Mengele would experiment on the chosen girls, performing sterilization and shock treatments. At Auschwitz, Mengele did a number of twin studies. After the experiment was over, these twins were usually murdered and their bodies dissected. Mengele was almost fanatical about drawing blood from twins, mostly identical twins. He is reported to have bled some to death this way.
When the SS abandoned the Auschwitz Camp on January 17, 1945, Mengele transferred to Groß Rosen camp in lower Silesia, again working as camp physician. Mengele worked in other camps for a short time and on May 2, joined a Wehrmacht medical unit. The unit was taken as POWs by the Americans however Mengele was then released in June 1945.
From July 1945 until May 1949, he worked as a farmhand in a small village near Rosenheim, Bavaria after which he escaped to
Argentina. Although he was doing well in South America, Mengele feared being captured so he left Argentina in 1962 and moved to
Paraguay. Using the identity of "Peter Hochbichler," he crossed the border to
Brazil in 1960 and lived in São Paulo with the Austrian-born neo-Nazi Wolfgang Gerhard. The same year, Mengele moved to Nova Europa, about 300 kilometers (186 miles) outside São Paulo, where he lived with the Hungarian refugees Geza and Gitta Stammer, working as a manager of their farm.
Mengele, whose health had been deteriorating for years, died on February 7, 1979, in Bertioga, Brazil. Mengele was listed on the Allies' list of war criminals as early as 1944. His name was mentioned in the Nuremberg trials several times, but Allied forces were convinced that Mengele was dead, which was also claimed by Irene and the family in Günzburg.
What Made This Man? Mengele – New York Times Article – 21 July 1985
The Twins from Brazil: Did Nazi Doctor Mengele - The Angel of Death - Cause Twin Surge in South American town? - Daily Mail Article - 22 January 2009
List of Twins which survived or have been identified as being in Auschwitz – Candles Holocaust Museum
History of
Twin Studies Globally (PDF) - International Encyclopedia Of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition
Book:
Children of the Flames: Dr. Josef Mengele and the Untold Story of the Twins of Auschwitz By Lucette Matalon Lagnado, Sheila Cohn Dekel
This book chronicles Mengele's medical experimental activities on approximately 3,000 twins who passed through the Auschwitz death camp during World War II until its liberation at the end of the war. Only a few of the twins survived; 60 years later, they came forward about the special privileges they were given in Auschwitz owing to Mengele's interest in twins, and how as a result they have suffered, as the children who survived his medical experiments and injections.
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DR ARIBERT FERDINAND HEIM
He was a former Austrian doctor, also known as Dr. Death. As an SS doctor in a Nazi concentration camp in Mauthausen, he is accused of killing and torturing many inmates through various methods, such as direct injections of toxic compounds into the hearts of his victims. He is alleged to have escaped to
Cairo, Egypt and used the alias Tarek Hussein Farid for many years. He reportedly died there on August 10, 1992 of rectal cancer. As no grave or body has been found, some doubt the truth about this story.
Uncovering Lost Path of the Most Wanted Nazi - New York Times Article - 4 February 2009
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WHICH COUNTRIES ENGAGED IN INHUMANE AND UNETHICAL EXPERIMENTS BEFORE AND AFTER WORLD WAR II?
Human Medical Experimentation in the United States: PART 1 The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1833-1965) - Natural News Network
Human Medical Experimentation in the United States: PART 2 The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1965-2005) - Natural News Network
Vaccines and Medical Experiments on Children, Minorities, Woman and Inmates (in USA) (1845 - 2007) - Natural News Network
Four Top Doctors Arrested for Illegal Medical Experiments - Israel (12 October 2006) - Alliance for Human Research Protection
Russian Medicine and the Nuremberg Trials - Vasiliy Vlassov - European Journal of Public Health 2006
Ten years ago, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Nuremberg trial of Nazi physicians, many international journals devoted special issues to the history of this trial, and to the subsequent rise of biomedical ethics and regulation of human participation in biomedical research. Surprisingly, not one article was published in Russian professional journals.
Treatment of Homosexuality During (South African) Apartheid - Robert M Kaplan, Forensic Psychiatrist - Recurrent allegations have been made that between 1969 and 1987 approximately 900 men and women had gender reassignment surgery, the only known example of such operations being performed in military hospitals. Details of the programme first came to light at hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission with submission of The Aversion Project, a detailed investigation of treatment of homosexuals in the South African Defence Force by a coalition of groups, including the Medical Research Council.
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Why INFORMED CONSENT Is So Important - Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics - 2 May 2003
To understand why researchers today must obtain informed consent from their patients before they subject them to experiments, you need to understand some of the previous abuses of medical research.
Informed Consent in Human Experimentation before the Nuremberg Code (1947) (PDF) - Jochen Vollmann and Rolf Winau – British Medical Journal (BMJ) 7 December 1996 - VOLUME 313
The issue of ethics with respect to medical experimentation in Germany during the 1930s and 1940s was crucial at the Nuremberg trials and related trials of doctors and public health officials. Those involved in horrible crimes attempted to excuse themselves by arguing that there were no explicit rules governing medical research on human beings in Germany during the period and that research practices in Germany were not different from those in allied countries. In this context the Nuremberg code of 1947 is generally regarded as the first document to set out ethical regulations in human experimentation based on informed consent. New research, however, indicates that ethical issues of informed consent in guidelines for human experimentation were recognized as early as the nineteenth century.
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OTHER LINKS TO THE DOCTORS' TRIAL AND THEIR EXPERIMENTS
US Government Archives - Records Of The US
Nuernberg War Crimes Trials - USA V. Karl Brandt et Al. (Case 1) (PDF) (21 November 1946 - 20 August 1947)
The
Doctors Trial War Crimes - US Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM)
Book Online:
The Nazi Doctors : Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide By Robert J. Lifton
"The Medical Case" - Genocide, War Crimes and Mass Killings - University of the West of England
Nuremberg Trials Project - Harvard Law School Library
The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments - Jewish Law Articles
The Nazi Medical Experiments (PDF) – Dr Andrew Korda - Australian Department of Defence - Australian Defence Force Health Journal (ADFHJ). Some research by the Nazis was solely conducted for the benefit of the armed forces.
The Names of Nazi Doctors and the Medical Experiments They Conducted at the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp.
Photographs of Victims of Medical Experiments in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
List of Names of 74 Victims Subjected to Medical Experiments in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp
Psychiatry in the Nazi Era (PDF) – Canadian Journal of Psychiatry - Vol 50, No 4, March 2005
The values of care and compassion can be eroded; this knowledge demands constant vigilance. This Link provides recent information from newly discovered Berlin archives about the actions of physicians, especially psychiatrists, during the era of National Socialism in Germany.
Google Book Preview:
The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation By George J. Annas, Michael A. Grodin
Go To This Post For Numerous UDHR Translations:UDHR (Universal Declaration Of Human Rights) in Arabic, Czech, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian & Spanish - Also Includes links to 359 translations of the UDHR.
