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Ms. G, Age 81

Place of Persecution: Auschwitz
Date: March 1944 – April 1944

“Each day I was submerged in hot water. Whenever I tried to put my head out of the water in order to breathe I was forced back into the water by Dr. Josef Mengele’s stick. He was enjoying himself. This lasted for 10 minutes. I was immediately afterwards put into cold water and the same procedure was repeated. There were five [people] including myself undergoing the same process. After these daily sessions we were taken to barrack No. 8 – Auschwitz, which was destined [for] those who were to die, to see for how long we were going to survive. A [woman] passing by saw me gesturing and crying for help through a hole in a plank of the wooden barrack. She loosened the plank and wrapped me. I was saved. I know nothing about the fate of the other four persons.”

Nazi Human Experimentation

What Kind of Trials Took Place

Military survival 

This category consists of experiments aimed at focusing at the survival of military personnel. Physicians from the German air force and from the German Experimental Institution for Aviation conducted high-altitude experiments, using a low-pressure chamber, to determine the maximum altitude from which crews of damaged aircraft could parachute to safety. Scientists there carried out freezing experiments using prisoners to find an effective treatment for hypothermia. 

Pharmaceuticals

This category of experimentation aimed at developing and testing pharmaceuticals and treatments for injuries and illnesses which German military and occupation personnel encountered in the field. At German concentration camps, scientists tested immunization compounds for the prevention and treatment of contagious diseases, including malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever, and hepatitis. The Ravensbrueck camp was one site of bone-grafting experiments and experiments to test newly developed drugs. At other camps, prisoners were put through mustard gas in order to test possible antidotes.


Experimentation on Twins

The third category of medical experimentation was also the most infamous were the experiments on twins. He also directed other experiments, in order to determine how different "races" withstood various contagious diseases. 


Sterilization

Other gruesome experiments were a series of sterilization experiments, done primarily at Auschwitz. There, scientists tested a number of methods in their effort to develop an inexpensive procedure for the mass sterilization of Jews and other groups Nazi leaders considered to be racially or genetically undesirable.

It seems to be that most of the experiments that were done, took place to make the German military stronger, or to end the populations of races the Germans do not like.

About the Human Trials

In the early 1940s during World War II, a number of German physicians conducted painful and often deadly experiments on thousands of concentration camp prisoners without their consent. The trials were done because doctors wanted to find ways to improve the lives of others. The worst part? Doctors have always been thought of as the saviors of mankind, the healers, and caretakers of our existence. Even ancient civilizations referred to doctors as having aspecial power to protect life. The trust of a physician is sacred. This is why the practice of medicine by the doctors of the holocaust is outrageous and shocking. The Nazi doctors violated the trust of 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 human trials were the worst part of the holocaust

The Impact

My topic was important because...

During World War II, Nazi doctors conducted as many as 30 different types of experiments on concentration-camp inmates. They performed these studies without the consent of the victims, who suffered indescribable pain, mutilation, permanent disability, or in many cases death as a result. Some of these experiments had legitimate scientific purposes, though the methods that were used violated the canons of medical ethics. Others were racial in nature, designed to advance Nazi racial theories. Most were simply bad science. These experiments lead to the future of medical science, but the information can not 

About the holocaust

The Holocaust was the mass murder of six million Jews and millions of other people leading up to, and during, World War II.
The killings took place in Europe between 1933 and 1945. They were organised by the German Nazi party which was led by Adolf Hitler.
The largest group of victims were Jewish people. Nearly 7 out of every 10 Jews living in Europe were killed.

The Human Trials: About
The Human Trials: Quote
The Human Trials: About
The Human Trials: About
The Human Trials: About
The Human Trials: About
The Human Trials: About
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