He Third Reich It took place between 1933 and 1945 in Germany, with the rise to power of National Socialist German Workers Party Its unquestionable leader, one of the historical figures with the most tragic memory: Adolf Hitler
During that historical period, events occurred that would mark history, such as the Second World War as well as the persecution and extermination of communists, Jews, homosexuals and gypsies
One of the most unknown but equally macabre facets of the historical period of Nazi Germany is, without a doubt, the experiments that the regime’s doctors carried out with human beings as victims Comparing the most immoral psychological experiments in history with the research of Dr. Mengele, one realizes that the Stanford Prison experiment was, practically, child’s play.
Today’s society values doctors as those people who specialize in healing people, avoiding pain, and ensuring their well-being and health. However, during the years of Nazism, doctors performed other functions. Many doctors and researchers were involved in experiments carried out in concentration camps A total of 15 of the 23 doctors accused of carrying out these horrific experiments were found guilty during trials in post-Third Reich Germany.
Hypothermia and frostbite
The study of freezing in humans was carried out with the aim of simulate the conditions suffered by the military on the Eastern Front A large part of the army died due to the very low temperatures, or due to pathologies associated with them, such as flu or pneumonia. The experiment with humans was the scientific basis to better predict the reaction of bodies to the cold and to be able to use some variables to make soldiers more resistant to these conditions.
The investigations were led by Dr. Sigmund Rascher in the fields of Auschwitz, Birkenau and Dachau In 1942, Rascher presented the results at a conference. On the one hand, he showed the time necessary for a human body to freeze until death, and on the other, resuscitation methods were studied for these cases.
The guinea pigs of these inhumane experiments were young Russians and Jews. Each victim was placed in barrels of frozen water or left completely naked outside in freezing temperatures. Their body temperature was measured using a probe placed in the rectum. Most young people died when their body temperature fell below 26 degrees Celsius
Furthermore, when the time came when they lost consciousness and were on the verge of death, the researchers carried out different experiments to try to revive them. These resuscitation attempts They caused great suffering in the subjects, who were kept on the verge of collapse for long and endless minutes. They were placed under ultraviolet lamps that scorched the skin, or boiling water was poured inside their bodies, a practice that caused blisters to appear, or they were placed in tubs of water that became progressively hotter.
Chemical burns
Buchenwald camp It was also the scene of gruesome investigations. Prisoners, mainly gypsies, were burned with matches. to study the consequences of some chemical compounds on the human body
High pressure tests at high altitudes
Probably one of the most brutal experiments was carried out by Sigmund Rascher, the same doctor who was the architect of the hypothermia research explained above. Himmler leader of the H.H encouraged Rascher to investigate human behavior under extreme atmospheric pressure conditions He wanted to investigate the maximum height at which parachute soldiers and military aircraft pilots could jump into the void without suffering damage.
Of the more than two hundred subjects who participated in the Rascher tests, seventy died.
When he was brought to trial by the Allies after the war, one of the most macabre investigations came to light. A report attested to Rascher’s notes, which recounted the case of a 37-year-old Jew who was forced to jump from a height of 12,000 meters After the third jump from that height, he suffered agony and died within a few minutes.
The triumph of the Aryan race was one of the main objectives of the Nazis The Aryan race, however, is a pseudoscientific concept that Nazi propaganda used to establish the foundations of a society in which this false ethnic origin would mark the line between what is human and what is inhuman. Since Nazism, the Aryans, popularly described as blonde, with blue eyes and an athletic build, had to establish themselves as the pure race that would dominate the planet. People who did not meet these traits had to be eliminated. The laws that regulated marriage were aimed at investigating racial origin and determining its purity.
In the concentration camps, multiple researches were carried out in the field of genetics in order to perfect the breed and understand the nature of genetic defects. The most famous experiments were those carried out by Dr. Josef Mengele whose victims were gypsies and twin brothers.
The one nicknamed “Angel of Death” chose the subjects who would be investigated as soon as they got off the train when they arrived at the AusImagenchwitz camp based on certain physical defects or oddities that might interest you.
Mengele received intellectual support from the Institute Kaiser Wilhelm of Anthropology, Eugenics and Genetics in Dahlemand he sent the reports of his research to Dr. Von Verschuer, who from the University of Frankfurt tutored him based on his deep knowledge in the field of twin genetics.
With the twin brothers that he used for his studies, Josef Mengele studied them for a few weeks, and when he had subjected them to the relevant tests, He administered a lethal injection of chloroform directly to the heart
Other grisly evidence
In the gloomy quarters of the concentration camps, other investigations and evidence of unusual violence were carried out: torture during interrogations, administration of injections containing viruses to humans forced sterilization and study for the advancement in surgical techniques.
Without going any further, the Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer was the architect in the administration of tuberculosis-infected injections to prisoners of the Neungamme concentration camp Some of these prisoners were also exposed to phosgene gas in order to conduct research to find an antidote for poisoning, since phosgene gas had been used as a biological weapon during World War II.
The prisoners who were victims of investigations were also mutilated and then tried to transplant the limbs into another prisoner, also mutilated. The objective was to discover if arm or leg transplantation was possible, but the methodology used was terribly cruel, and the few prisoners who did not die were mutilated. The experiment did not achieve any conclusive results.
Another macabre idea came from the doctor Hans Eppinger , who was trying to discover a way to make seawater drinkable. He kept several gypsies deprived of food and water, and forced them to drink only sea water. As a result, a large part of the gypsies developed severe pathologies
In concentration camps, poisoning by injection or by eating food was common. In vitro insemination was also experimented on women, spreading the idea that sperm from different animals had been injected into them to create a monster.
Ethical reflections
These experiments carried out during Nazism subsequently raised decisive reflections on what experimentation with humans should be and its ethical limits The barbarism carried out by doctors like Mengele or Heissmeyer are an unfortunate reminder of the unreason that led tens of thousands of victims to be tortured in the name of a science devoid of any ethics.
