NAZI MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

Nazi Medical Experiments

Research Paper
Anna McCracken
Cozad High School

NAZI MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

Abstract
This paper explains the horrendous activities of the Nazi human experiments. The sources used
show the characteristics of what happened. The three main issues of the paper are the reasons,
the experiments and the medical advances because of these things. This paper will give an
overall understanding of the situation and give the reader new information on this topic.

NAZI MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

Nazi Medical Experiments

Throughout history there have been many medical advances which benefited future
generations. These advancements were made by famous scientists that fill the history books.
Many people do not know the exact details of these discoveries. Nazi human experiments were
one of many that contributed to these findings. This paper will show about the experiments along
with the scientist known as the "Angel of Death", and finally the impact it has on modern
medical science today.
Nazi scientists performed multiple cruel experiments, which included freezing. This test
was created in 1941 while Adolf Hitlers troops were freezing in Russia. The first part of the
freezing tests were conducted to see how fast someone froze before they were unsaveable. Next
they attempted to find the fastest and most efficient ways to warm someone up while keeping
them alive. There were two ways they froze victims; put them into an Icy Vat of water or outside
naked in subzero weather. They found that the Icy Vat method worked the fastest to cool the
internal body temperature (Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine. 1995.,
para 4). Then, after the victim's core body temperature was below freezing, scientists would try
brutal methods to raise temperatures back to normal. The sun lamp was used, often times it was
set hot enough to burn the victims skin. There was once a case where a boy was repeatedly
cooled then heated back up with the lamps until pouring sweat and then repeated again. He died
one night after several back to back sessions (Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi
medicine. 1995., para 9). One of the other major experiments was the twin studies done by Josef
Mengele. These experiments were conducted in order to see the different reactions in genetics
with the ability to have a control subject. Some german scientists, colleagues of Josef Mengele,

NAZI MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

recalled two 18 year old Hungarian twins that were very athletic and handsome(Medical

Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine, 1995., para 19). The boys underwent many
physical as well as psychological torture. This included being completely photographed from
head to toe. According to Medical Experiments of the holocaust and Nazi Medicine (1995)
They were required to stand with their arms lifted for many hours so the underarm hair could be
photographed(para. 22). During the duration of the study they went through many medical
procedures. Some of these included a lower Gastro Intestinal Examination without anesthesia, it
was said that the boys were in so much pain and cried so hard that Mengele ordered them to be
gagged (Medical Experiments of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine, 1995., para. 25). After 3
weeks of similar treatments they were both taken to the dissection lab and were simultaneously
injected with Chloroform in the heart, killing them. They were dissected and their organs were
sent to the Institute of Biological Racial and Evolutionary Research Berlin(Medical Experiments
of the Holocaust and Nazi Medicine,1995, para 26).
Josef Mengele was born March 16th, 1911 to Karl Mengele, who was a prosperous
manufacturer of farming implements. In 1935 Mengele received a Ph.D. in physical
Anthropology. One year later he joined the nazi party, by the following year he joined the SS. In
1940 Josef joined the army to become the medical services for the Waffen-SS. By 1943 after
becoming the captain of the SS, Mengele was transferred to the infamous concentration camp
Auschwitz (Holocaust Encyclopedia. 2016., para. 4&5.). During his stay in Auschwitz, Josef
Mengele participated in the selections of the prisoners. When the prisoners first arrived into the
camp they would be divided into 3 groups. The first group were the ones sent off to work until
they died, normally between the ages of 6 to 45 years old. The second group was automatically
sent to the gas chambers which consisted of anyone older or younger than the age requirements.

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5
The third and final group were selected to become the Nazi test subjects. These people met very
specific requirements in order to be a part of this group. Mengele was known for his very
thorough examinations for his selections. As The Holocaust Encyclopedia explains (2016), He
was known as the Angel of Death or sometimes as the White Angel, for his cold demeanor on
the ramp(para., 8). On of the most fascinating things to Josef was twins and the relationships
between them. When off duty he would sometimes go to the ramp during selections to
specifically look for twins. He became fascinated with them during his time with his mentor, Von
Verschuer. He would then broadened the range of agonizing and lethal experiments on Jewish
and Gypsy twins. Mengele was increasingly interested in the different eye colorations of these
twins. He was said to have collected the eyes of the twins that had this specific trait, once they
had passed away. After a couple of years working at Auschwitz, the Soviet Army invaded
Western Poland. He then fled and traveled around the world until he was in U.S. custody. At that
time his actions were unknown to the U.S, so he was then set free. In 1979 he died of a stroke in
South America after being on the run for many years. Josef Mengele was one of many who used
his knowledge and abilities to harm others instead of improving the lives of the people all around
him.
Many scientist are faced with the dilemma of using the Nazi medical records. These
finding have been classified as bad science do to the improper way the information was obtained.
The problem inlies many of the discoveries could and have helped many people. The freezing
experiment caused great suffering but would spark the interest of Doctor Robert Pozo. Dr. Pozo
is the director of the Hypothermia Laboratory at the University of Minnesota of Medicine at
Duluth(Cohen, 2016, para 26). Dr. Pozo does similar trial and error experiments but he uses test
volunteers and doesn't let internal body temperatures reach below 36 degrees(Cohen, 2016,para

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28). Temperatures below that he can only guess or look at hospital records, but he can't get a
complete conclusion because of the inconsistency of the situations of each case. With the Nazi
records he would be able to conclude side effects and then be able to find better warming
methods based on the a larger variety versus only 36 degrees and higher.
In conclusion this is a small look into the horrific crimes committed by Nazi scientists.
There have and will be many ethical debates on how to use the information obtained in these
experiments.In the fututre more of this information may be used for further research to better
modern medicine.

NAZI MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS

References
A people's history of the holocaust and genocide. (1995). Medical Experiments of the Holocaust
and Nazi Medicine. Retrieved from http://remember.org/educate/medexp
Holocaust Encyclopedia. (2016). Josef Mengele. Retrieved from https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/
article.php?ModuleId=10007060
Holocaust Encyclopedia. (2016). Nazi Medical Experience. Retrieved from https://
www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005168
Landau, E. (1990). Nazi War Criminals. United States: Franklin Watts.
Cohen, B. C. (2016). Nazi Medical Experimentation.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/naziexp.html