Biomedical Experimentation in the Holocaust

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There were many ways that the Nazi tortured the Jews during the Holocaust. They harmed them both mentally and physically, but the most horrific kind of torture was the physical abuse. The Nazis tortured, killed, and experimented on the Jews in an inhuman way. The experimentations that were conducted by the doctors were very horrendous and shocking. They had three categories for the experiments: military, biomedical, and racial/ideological. Though all the types of experimentations were terrible, the biomedical category was the most appalling. In the biomedical experimentations, the doctors did some cruel studies on the prisoners that included injecting diseases, inflicting wounds, and killing them to observe body functions. They were conducted to test immunizations and medicines for the prevention or treatment of contagious and epidemic diseases (Medical Experiments). The biomedical experimentations were carried out in concentration camps all over Germany including the camps of Sachsenhausen, Dachau, Natzweiler, Buchenwald, and Neuengamme. “Scientists tested immunization compounds and sera for the prevention and treatment of contagious diseases, including malaria, typhus, tuberculosis, typhoid fever, yellow fever, and infectious hepatitis”(Nazi Medical Experiments). The prisoners were chosen based on how healthy they were. If they were strong and in good physical shape, they got chosen to participate in the experiments, and if they were ill, they were either left alone or killed. The doctors and scientists were given the opportunity to do these experimentations with the government’s full support. Hitler even sent a command to them to “intensify medical research on the effects of chemical warfare” (Medical Experiments). There were... ... middle of paper ... ...murder. Though many have died in these experiments, very few have lived on to tell what occurred to them during these horrific experiments. Works Cited Annas, George J., and Michael A. Grodin, eds. The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation. N.p.: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print. "Medical Experiments." Learning About the Holocaust: A Student's Guide. Ed. Ronald M. Smelser. Vol. 3. New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 2001. 52-61. Gale Power Search. Web. 21 Apr. 2014. "Nazi Medical Experiments." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum . United States Holocaust Memorial Museum , 10 June 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. Spitz, Vivien. Doctors from Hell. N.p.: Sentient Publications, 2005. Print. Woolf, Linda. "Medical Experimentation: World War II." World at War: Understanding Conflict and Society. ABC-CLIO, 2014. Web. 21 Apr. 2014.

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