For those born after the Cold War era, it's hard to imagine a time when the entire world wasn't aware of the medical experiments conducted in World War II-era Germany. When looking back on the medical experiments of WWII, it may be easy to feel like we're reading science fiction. However, the actions committed by military scientists in WWII Germany were very real.
Decades later, researchers still debate whether or not there's a moral quandary in using the findings of Third Reich scientists in modern medicine. From seemingly innocuous experiments on eye pigmentation to procedures involving the creation of conjoined twins and the examination of internal organs, all of the worst experiments the Nazis conducted on people are on this list.
Artificial Insemination
Heinrich Himmler, a leading SS member, ordered Dr. Carl Clauberg to artificially inseminate concentration camp prisoners through various experimental methods. Clauberg artificially inseminated about 300 women at Auschwitz, who were restrained and made to endure verbal abuse throughout the process. Reportedly, Clauberg told his victims that he had used semen from animals - not humans - to create monsters. However, Clauberg's true aim was to attain information on treating sterility.
The women selected for the experimentation were between the ages of 20 and 40 and still experiencing menses. These tests were conducted in conjunction with sterilization experiments.
Head Injury Experiment
In the autobiography Remember Us, survivor Martin Small recounted an experiment conducted in 1942. Small witnessed an SS security officer named Dr. Wichtmann perform an experiment on a boy who was approximately 11 or 12 years old.
The incident took place inside a building behind the officer's residence in occupied Poland. According to Small:
A boy was kept prisoner inside a room, tied to a chair. This boy was repeatedly struck on the head with a mechanical hammer every few seconds which reportedly caused the boy to become insane.
Freezing Experiments
Called the Dachau hypothermia experiments, the tests were conducted on men in order to simulate the conditions the armies suffered on the Eastern Front. The experiments were divided into two parts: first, to establish how long it would take to lower the body temperature before death, and second, how to best resuscitate a frozen victim.
The test subjects were either placed in an ice bath, or their clothes were removed and they were forced to lay on a stretcher before being left outside in the Auschwitz winter. Approximately 200 prisoners were used throughout the experimentation process.
Mass Malaria Experiments
During WWII, over 1,000 prisoners were either bitten by malaria-infected mosquitoes or had extracts from the mucous glands of malaria-infected mosquitoes injected directly into their bloodstream.
Father Leo Miechalowski, who was subjected to the malaria experiments, wrote of the traumatic event, "All of a sudden my heart felt like it was going to be torn out."
Seawater Desalinization Experiments
Of massive interest was how to make seawater safe to drink. If the Third Reich could leave soldiers away at sea for long periods of time without having to provide food and water, it would be one less thing to worry about.
At Dachau, a group of approximately 90 Romani subjects were forced to drink seawater and were deprived of food, causing great amounts of suffering and bodily harm.
High-Altitude Experiments
In 1942, victims at the Dachau concentration camp were subjected to experiments designed to test the absolute limits of human endurance in order to benefit the German Air Force. Special low-pressure chambers were built to simulate altitudes as high as 68,000 feet.
Eightly test subjects perished as a result of the experiments; another 120 were executed after the tests had concluded.
The Jewish Skeleton Collection
In an attempt to create an anthropological display to showcase the alleged inferiority of the "Jewish race," Nazi scientist Ausgust Hirt sanctioned the torture and mutilation of nearly a hundred people. After the victims were exposed to toxic gases, each body was sent to the University of Strasbourg. He would have all organic material removed, leaving only the bones for the skeleton collection.
French soldiers later discovered the collection, which contained unprocessed remains that had their faces obscured to avoid identification.
The Hungarian Twins
Nightmare scientist Dr. Josef Mengele had a strange fascination with twins. When a pair of Hungarian brothers arrived at Auschwitz in 1943, they were exposed to extremely hot water conditions until they were ready to pass out. They then had all of their body hair removed. Each twin was given a 2-liter enema before receiving an intestinal examination with no anesthesia.
They endured further suffering until they were sent to a specialized laboratory and given a lethal injection. Their organs were sent to a research institute in Berlin.
Phosgene Gas Experiments
In an attempt to find an antidote to phosgene, a toxic gas used in battle during WWI, doctors exposed more than 50 prisoners to the gas at Fort Ney near Strasbourg, France. Phosgene gas causes irritation to the lungs.
Many of the prisoners, who were already weak and malnourished, suffered pulmonary edema due to the exposure, and four perished as a result of the experiments.
Sulfonamide Experiments
In the early 1940s at the Ravensbrück female concentration camp, subjects were wounded and then infected with gangrene and tetanus. Their blood circulation was then interrupted by tying off blood vessels at both ends of the wound to create a condition similar to that of a battlefield wound. Infections were further aggravated by forcing various foreign materials like sawdust into the wounds.
The infection was then treated with sulfonamide and other drugs to determine their effectiveness
Tuberculosis Injections
Experiments were also conducted at the Neuengamme concentration camp. To see if there was the possibility of developing an immunity to tuberculosis, Dr. Kurt Heissmeyer injected tuberculosis bacteria directly into patients' lungs, ending the lives of at least 200 people.
He even conducted this experiment on children, and had 20 children hung to cover up evidence of the experiments from the approaching Allied forces.
Experiments With Poison
To investigate the effects of various poisons upon human beings, chemicals were added to subjects' meals and either the subject would perish as a result of the poison or they would be killed immediately in order to perform autopsies.
Prisoners were also shot with poison bullets to hasten the effects.
Sterilization Experiments
SS doctors conducted thousands of sterilization experiments on concentration camp prisoners in the 1940s.
These experiments involved the use of surgery, pharmaceuticals, and radiation to discover an inexpensive method to sterilize hundreds of thousands of people.
Noma Experiments
One of Dr. Mengele's pet projects was documenting the progression of Noma (a rapidly progressive, gangrenous infection of the mouth or face) in his inmates.
Rather than treat the patients with antibiotics, he took notes as he observed the spread of the disease until the victims passed.
Conjoined Twins Experiment
Mengele's desire to understand twins was in part intended to prove the supremacy of heredity over environment. One such experiment involved surgically attaching two Romani twins together back-to-back in an attempt to create conjoined twins.
The children succumbed to gangrene after enduring days of suffering.
Combat Wound Simulations
Dr. Herta Oberheuser was a physician at Ravensbrück, where she experimented with simulated combat wounds.
In her tests, Oberheuser rubbed foreign materials including wood, rusty nails, glass, dirt, and sawdust into her test subjects' cuts.
Typhus Experiments
To investigate the effectiveness of vaccines on spotted fever (typhus), numerous victims were deliberately infected with the spotted fever virus in order to keep it alive in their bodies.
Many of the victims perished as a result.
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