Medical Experiments During The Holocaust

Death; a sweet release, but a painful ending. Ask yourself this, what would it be like to have a life controlled by others, not knowing if [you] will ever wake up to see [your] mother’s face again, and for [you] to be able to breathe fresh air? This is what people during the Holocaust felt, especially the ones who were tortured and killed. The medical experiments of the holocaust were shaped into a terrible ordeal to survivors because of the doctors, deaths, and the types of experiments conducted.

During the Holocaust, many sets of twins were killed in doctors’ laboratories for many medical experiments. "The twins were examined from head to toe...Care was taken to insure the twins died at the same time"(Responsive). Every inch of their body

Of course, most of these experiments happened in concentration camps. Most of the experiments ended with the victims either developing tuberculosis or dying after the experiments were done. This means most of the experiments had to deal with the lungs and a temperature change in the body. In addition, they were most likely put in ice cold water and held there until the doctors got what they needed. "...victims of tuberculosis medical experiments...immersed in icy water..."(Memorial Museum). Equally important, some experiments even consisted of putting dirt and bacteria into a person's body! This was to figure out how they can help the soldiers who were getting infections heal, so using people they didn't care about for the research was the best thing they could do in their eyes. Sadly, most of these victims died before any of the camps were

There were three main categories. The first one consisted of the experiments used to find research to help soldiers survive on the battlefield. High altitude experiments were used in Dachau by physicians part of the German air force and had help from the German Experimental Institution of Aviation(GEIA). "...using a low-pressure chamber to determine the maximum altitude from which crews of damaged aircraft could parachute to safety"(Memorial Museum). The second category dealt with aiming the experiments for "developing and testing pharmaceuticals" to again help German soldiers (who are injured or diseased) on the battle field, so maybe at least 2 percent of their work was for good use. They also did their research for this at concentration camps to treat diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, yellow fever, or any infectious hepatitis. The third category was to find research in trying to get people to see the way Nazis did in their "racial and ideology tenants". Josef Mengele and Werner Fischer were two of the most infamous doctors during the Holocaust that conducted the research and experiments. Mengele did research on twins and had Roma(Gypsies) be the lab rats to his "serological" experiments. Fischer conducted experiments to see how different people of different heritages, or races, reacted ,or fought back, to certain diseases. August Hirt, a researcher at Strasbourg University,