Scientific Experimentation During the Holocaust - Assignment Example

Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau and many other Nazi concentration camps conjure visions of emancipated Jewish stick figures, living and dead, in liberation photos. However, these photos are only the end of a journey that lasted years for the prisoners and the captors. During the incarceration of prisoners, the majority Jews, scientific experimentation was performed. The main two camps that held scientific experimentation were Auschwitz and Dachau, although experimentation was also done elsewhere. The Nazis had made the experimentation on concentration camp prisoners legitimate by having institutes and college exam the findings. This part of history is repugnant, but must be studied in order to never forget. Temporary prisons that later became concentration camps under German control originated around 1933.1 Concentration camps were used at first to hold political prisoners. German citizens were arrested and defined as political prisoners after being caught in riots initiated by Nazi supporters.2 This allowed the Nazis came into power by creating a dictatorship. With this shift of power, more and more perceived enemies of the Nazis were sent to the concentration camps. Nazi Camp Routine Germans were very efficient. The routine could vary slightly, but concentration camp life as ordered by the Germans followed a faithful path. Survivor after survivor retold several key elements of arriving and surviving in a concentration camp. Jewish arrivals came from prisons, whereas criminals and other inmates came from local jails. Whether packed into overcrowded trains or trucks, the transportation to the camps were treacherous, many died along the way. Upon arriving in a concentration camp, men and women were separated; children went with the women. A selection took place, depending on what workers the Nazis needed, all of the healthy men and women were selected for hard labor. The ones not selected went straight to the gas chambers. The inmates chosen to live were stripped of all their worldly possessions. They were then shaved and forced into a blue disinfectant that burned.3 Then the inmates were given bullet ridden, ill fitting clothing with stripes.4 While going through the initial induction inmates learned of the true nature of the concentration camp by the inmates processing them. Some inmates, like the ones at Auschwitz, received tattooed numbers at this time. Auschwitz Auschwitz was no different than the camps described above. The prisoners got off cattle cars at the rail station inside Auschwitz, or off trucks. Dr. Mengele attended the life and death selections at Auschwitz.5 He was a doctor that specialized in racial profiling. Mengele also wanted to improve the birth rate of the Nazi race by studying Jewish twins.6 If he could unlock the secret of twins, then Germans could have more babies. In Auschwitz Dr. Mengele found an unlimited supply of human prisoners to experiment on. Racial superiority was one of Mengele’s interests in Auschwitz. Mengele would measure Jewish, Gypsies, Poles, and other prisoner’s heads, foreheads, chests, nose, and so forth to compare against German ideals.7 The ideal person would have been German, blonde, blue-eyed, tall, and athletic. Mengele went as far as to remove eyes from prisoners. Eyes of all colors were on a board in his office.8 His goal was to prove Germans were superior to other races. Dr. Mengele also had a passion for twins. He and his henchmen shouted for twins up and down the ramp at Auschwitz. Twins or triplets were taken by Mengele to a special section of the camp. The twins were given candy, better rations, and less chance of being killed by random violence.9 The down side to Mengele’s twins’ lifestyle was the experimentation. Gerald L. Posner explains “Children, strapped to slabs of marble, had their spines, eyes, and other inner organs probed, injected and cut, often with unknown chemicals and without anesthetic.”10 Every type of experiment imaginable was conducted. Dissection, injections with typhus, conjoining two twins together, and other tests were carried out on the twins. Most of Mengele’s experiments ended in death. Twins that did live were medically damaged after World War II.11 Mengele protected his twins from the harsh reality of Auschwitz, but abused them far worse than any other Nazi. Sterilization was another scientific experimentation conducted at Auschwitz. The goal of the doctors at German concentration camps were to eliminate unwanted elements like Jews, Gypsies, Poles, homosexuals, and other inferior sub-humans. Sterilization was one way of accomplishing that goal. Injections and removal of reproductive organs were conducted. However, the most efficient means determined by the Nazis were radiation though x-ray to reproductive organs.12 The x-ray was concentrated on high levels of radiation. The goal was to not allow any race, but the German reproduce. Dachau Dr. Rascher was one of the main doctors at Dachau.13 His mission was to help the German army. Rascher wanted to use his experiments to help German soldiers on the front line. One of his famous scientific experiments was the high pressure experiments. Rascher would lock prisoners in a compression chamber, and then simulate high altitude pressure.14 A prisoner kept at pressures or 10.5 kilometers or higher for thirty minutes or longer would die.15 After the prisoner’s death, the doctor would perform an autopsy in order to understand the reasons for their death. The goal was to investigate how high German pilots could fly without dying or passing out. Another experiment conducted at Dachau was extreme cold experiments. Rascher was joined by Professor Doctor Holzloehner and Doctor Finke for these experiments.16 They conducted “cold water freezing and dry freezing”.17 These experiments were conducted to help German soldiers that ejected into the cold ocean, or in order to warm them up from extreme cold on the Eastern front. Like Mengele’s experiments, all of the Dachau scientific experimentation results and reports were rendered useless after WWII due to unethical conducts by the doctors. Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Genetics and Eugenics, Dahlem, Berlin The results of the experiments done in the camps would be sent to the military, institutes, or colleges. Mengele, for example, would send specimens from Auschwitz to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Genetics and Eugenics in Dahlem, Berlin.18 His former professor, Dr. Verschuer, was the head of the Institute. The racial scientific experimentation was to prove the superiority of Germans over all other races. Most of this research was destroyed during the Allies advance from the East and West, but some remained. None of the research was validated as true or as a breakthrough. Since the research had been obtained through unethical means, all of the results were discarded by reputable doctors and scientists. Conclusion The most important factor is the Nazi scientific experiments were human. Every prisoner that underwent an experiment had a family, dreams, and feelings. These humans were very frightened. They also suffered greatly for little or no gain in science. Historians, books, or Nazis might have labeled the participants of these experiments prisoners, camp internees, or a mere number, but they were people with names. The scientific experimentation done by the Nazis were not ethical. Doctors carried out experiments that hurt, maimed, and killed their subjects. Humans can be used in scientific experiments, but only when consent is given. The concentration camp prisoners did not have a choice. They were forced into these experiments. That their lives were used in vain makes the Nazis’ actions even viler. None of the results of these experiments can or will be used today. The scientific experiments were rendered useless due to the means which data was obtained. These types of scientific experiments should never be repeated or forgotten. Bibliography Ailsby, Christopher. The Third Reich Day by Day. London: MBI Publishing, 2001. Lifton, Robert Jay. The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide. New York: Basic Books, 2000. Posner, Gerald L. Mengele: The Complete Story. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000. Spitz, Vivien. Doctors from Hell: The Horrific Account of Nazi Experiments on Humans. New York: First Sentient Publication, 2005. Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York: Hill and Wang, 2006. Read More