Medical Experiments of the Holocaust

Medical Experiments of the Holocaust

As a society we place those in the medical profession on a pedestal. They are people to be looked up to and admired. In many ways they are Gods, right here with us on earth. People put the hope and faith in doctors hoping they can perform miracles. Throughout history, doctors have indeed preformed many wonders. There were, however, some doctors that betrayed this belief and peoples trust. These doctors could be found in concentration camps such as Auschwitz and Dachau. These doctors committed unspeakable acts against the Jews and other minorities, believing that they were conducting helpful experiments. Following the holocaust, however, they were punished for their actions.

Between 1939 and 1945, more than seventy medical research projects and medical experiments were conducted at Auschwitz and Dachau. (Auschwitz Medical Experimentation). Over two hundred doctors participated in such research projects and experiments, sentencing between 70,000 and 100,000 people, held against their will, to death through experimentation. These were mostly Jews, but also gypsies, homosexuals and other minorities. They were thought to be inferior to the human race. Such practices became widely accepted and embraced by the Germans, due to the Nazis propaganda. The experiments conducted were diverse, but could be categorized in three classes.

The first class of experiments was conducted for the Nazi High Command. These experiments dealt with survival and rescue. They involved freezing and extreme temperatures as well as the ingestion of seawater and altitude changes (Auschwitz Medical Experiments). The freezing experiments were divided into two parts. The first was to see how long it would take to lower body temperature, and the next to decide how to best resuscitate a frozen victim. The doctors would submerge a naked victim in an icy vat of water. They would insert and insulated thermometer into the victim’s rectum in order to monitor his or her body temperature. The icy vat proved to be the fastest way to drop the body’s temperature. Once the body reached 25 degrees Celsius, the victim would usually die. Anther manner to carry out such an experiment was to strap a naked victim to a stretcher and leave him outdoors during extreme winter temperatur...

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...cted many horrifying experiments on innocent people. Doctors are to help and heal patients, not hurt and destroy them. Doctors are expected to save lives, not take them. These doctors used their positions to aid the progress of the Nazi ideals as well as the success of the German military. Despite the terrible crimes the doctors committed, they believed that they were doing good. They were helping to achieve a supreme race as well as a productive, healthy military. They were later punished for their crimes. Unfortunately only a few could be found, and put on trial. Others went on with their life, enjoying what they had deprived so many others of. Some even continued their profession of being family doctors all around Germany, and many still have the same Anti-Semitic views they had before when they were professional killers. (Encyclopedia of the Holocaust)

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