types of experiments

In these concentration camps, German physicians conducted horrible experiments on the inmates of the camps. It seems, that despite how horrible these experiments were, they seemed to serve a purpose, that purpose being aiding the German army and ironically attempting to cure diseases, poisons, and other medical conditions.

There were several types of experiments performed on concentration camp inmates. These experiments were not done just for the sake of cruelty and animosity. They had legitimate scientific concerns related to Germans soldiers in mind.

One of these experiments concerned high altitude. The purpose was to find out the best way to help save pilots who eject at high altitudes. They put inmates through conditions simulating up to 68,000 feet high altitude.  The following autopsies reported the existence of tiny pockets of air within the blood vessels of the brain.

Another of these experiments was freezing.  Here, physicians were trying to aid German soldiers in extremely cold circumstances such as landing in the freezing ocean or fighting on Russia’s frigid front. German physicians would submerge inmates in freezing temperatures, while others were taken outside into the freezing outdoors and were restrained. Those who survived were them thawed out be either warm sleeping bags, really hot bathes.  People who underwent this suffered extreme pain, foamed at the mouth, and loss of consciousness. These extreme temperatures also caused victims’ internal body temperature to drop to as low as 79.7 degrees farenheight. 

German physicians even thought that they could reattach limbs from one person to another. They also wanted to if possible, study how human limbs, joints and muscles regenerate. Scientists also conducted bone and nerve grafting. Grafting is the process of replacing missing bone. Physicians removed victims’ bones, muscles and nerves from healthy patients. The leg bones were broken apart with a hammer. Then parts of muscles were cut out, bone fragments were then inserted into the muscle. (Testimony of Dr. Zofia Maczka). 

Inmates at the concentration camps were also forced to endure sterilization. Physicians sterilized both men and women. Their primary goal was to do this with minimum effort. The process included radiating, then castrating a man’s genitalia. The women had it no easier; they had toxic chemicals inserted into their uteruses. 

The Germans also sought a way to make seawater drinkable. Victims were restricted to only drinking seawater while being deprived of food.   

Among with coming up with ways to help German soldiers at the expense of inmate lives, they also conducted experiments to what else, kill people, novel concept. They tried to develop a method of singular execution. To accomplish this noble task, they injected cyanide (a poison that basically kills cells by depriving them of the ability to produce energy), and phenol (a poison that can affect the heart and nervous system). Physicians would inject these among other poisons into victim via a menagerie of methods including: poisoning food and shooting victims with poison bullets. This particular experiment took no prisoners. Even those who survived the torture were finished off. This was done primarily so autopsies could be performed upon the corpses. Inmates were also injected with tuberculosis in an attempt to create a vaccination for the disease. Tuberculosis is an infectious disease that primarily affects the lungs and is spread via droplets from coughs and sneezes. Its primary symptoms include: cough, fever, chills and fatigue. This disease can also affect other organs and its symptoms then vary depending on the organs affected. Continuing in their quest for curing various diseases and poisons, the Germans attempted to find a cure for phosgene, a WW1 poisonous gas. Phosgene gas would cause irritation on skin, eyes, or lungs if inhaled. (Facts about Phosgene)

In conclusion, despite how bad these experiments seemed, the physicians seemed to have their reasons for conducting such experiments. To put this in perspective these people were literally guinea pigs, dehumanized to nothing more than mere objects, test subjects to better the lives of the human species (or at least the Germans) as a whole. It is by this dehumanization that some of these physicians were able to do the things that they did.