Nazi Medical Experiments

During the holocaust the Nazis conducted medical experiments on what they thought were inferior individuals. The experiments were cruel and had no regard for the quality of life of the subjects. Regardless of the cruelty the medical community gained knowledge that they would not have been able to gain within the strict ethical guidelines of the profession.

The experiments are divided into three categories: racial, war related, and pharmaceutical. The race experiments were the worst of all of the categories. They had no medically needed reason to sterilize a race but their goal was to find a way of sterilization that could affect millions of people with little time and effort. In the experiments they used different types of sterilization: xray, surgical, chemical and injection. The x-ray experiment was done by shooting xrays at an individual's reproductive organs two to three times a week and then the subjects were sent back to work regardless of the radiation burns and pain. Another way was for a woman to have chemicals inserted into her reproductive organs. The chemical was an irritant that would cause severe inflammation and eventually cause the fallopian tubes to grow shut. During all the experiments it was proven that surgical castrations were the most dependable and time effective.

Dr. Josef Mengele was chief physician at Auschwitz-Birkenau. He carried out experiments on children and people with physical and/or mental abnormalities to prove the Nordic race superior. He transitioned to using twins in his experiments. Mengele wanted to understand how identical twins were made and what was so different about them. His experiments consisted of using one twin as a control and the other as a variable. He would expe...

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...ed in Russia and was given 25 years. The verdict of the trial was seven were sentenced to death, nine to long prison term, and seven were acquitted. The judges also found that basic principles must be observed during any kind of medical experiment.

The experimentation that went on in the concentration camps was horrific and without care or value for human life. Over 70 different medical research experiments were held involving over 7,000 prisoners and 200 doctors. Of the experiments that were conducted some relevant data has survived and proved to be helpful in treating and forming other experiments that have gone on to save lives. Perhaps the greatest lasting memory of the Holocaust is that now people are more aware of segregation happening and are more likely an advocate for any race, nationality, or geographical location that is being treated with no regard.