Genetics

Genetics

Mengele promoted medical experimentation on inmates, especially dwarfs and twins. He is said

to

have supervised an operation by which two Gypsy children were sewn together to create

Siamses

twins; the hands of the children became badly infected where the veins had been resected.

(Snyder)

Cohen tells us:

"The only firsthand evidence on these experiments comes from a handful of survivors

and from a Jewish doctor, Miklos Nyiszli, who worked under Mengele as a

pathologist. Mengele subjected his victims - twins and dwarfs aged two and above - to

clinical examinations, blood tests, X rays, and anthropological measurements. In the

case of the twins, he drew sketches of each twin, for comparison. He also injected his

victims with various substances, dripping chemicals into their eyes (apparently in an

attempt to change their color).

He then killed them himself by injecting chloroform into their hearts, so as to carry out

comparative pathological examinations of their internal organs. Mengele's purpose,

according to Dr. Nyiszli, was to establish the genetic cause for the birth of twins, in

order to facilitate the formulation of a program for doubling the birthrate of the 'Aryan'

race. The experiments on twins affected 180 persons, adults and children.

Mengele also carried out a large number of experiments in the field of contageous

diseases, (typhoid and tuberculosis) to find out how human beings of different races

withstood these diseases. He used Gypsy twins for this purpose. Mengele's

experiments combined scientific (perhaps even important) research with the racist and

ideological aims of the Nazi regime. which made use of government offices, scientific

institutions, and concentration camps.

From the scanty information available, it appears that his research differed from the

other medical experiments in that the victims' death was programmed into his

experiments and formed a central element in it." (Encyclopedia, Vol. 3, 964)

MENGELE, JOSEF (1911- ?). Camp doctor at Auschwitz extermination camp. ..appointed chief

doctor in 1943 by Himmler ... joined other doctors (Koenig, Thilon, Klein) in the task of choosing