Holocaust Unit Project By: Katrina Raskie, Becca Wittek, and Jeff Schlichte

Why did Nazis Perform Experiments?

Who Performed the Experiments? SS Officers that were trained medical practitioners Dr. Mengele was a well-known physician at Auschwitz

About Dr. Mengele Born on March 16th, 1911 in Ginsburg, Germany Studied Philosophy and Medicine at the University of Frankfurt 1938- Enlisted in the S.S. 1943- Heinrich Himmler appoints Mengele as the head doctor at Auschwitz-Birkenau

Dr. Josef Mengele Known as the “Angel of Death” Supervised selection of who was to be killed and who would be kept alive for experimentation Most people died because of experiments or later infections At times he killed people just to be able to dissect them afterwards

Dr. Mengele Cont. Common Experiments: Injecting victims eyes with chemicals in attempt to change the color Injecting chloroform into their hearts Tests on diseases (Tuberculosis, Typhoid) to find out how humans of different races withstood them

More Experiments Investigated ways to increase human fertility Tried to find a genetic cause for the disease “noma” Experimented with infected wounds

Twin Experimentation 1,500 sets of twins collected at Birkenau to develop a theory of heredity and relation between disease, racial types, and racial inter-breeding He wanted to discover the genetic key to creating an “Aryan” One twin was a control and the other one was experimented on

Twins Cont. They were called “Mengele’s Children” Wanted to find a way so that all Aryan women could assuredly give birth to twins who were sure to be blonde and blue-eyed

Life of the Twins Mengele would often bring candy and talk with them They would get to keep their hair and clothes Called him “Uncle Mengele” Spared hard jobs and labor so they would stay healthy for experimentation

Life of Twins Cont. Twins had blood drawn everyday Blood transfusions of blood from 1 twin to another Tried to fabricate blue eyes with chemicals Injected Typhus and Tuberculosis After one twin dies, the other was killed to examine and compare

Life of Twins Cont. Performed surgeries without anesthesia including organ removal, castration, and amputations Autopsies were considered the final experiment

Sterilization Conducted at Auschwitz and Ravensbruck by Dr. Carl Clamber. Tried to develop a method of sterilization for mass amounts of people with little time or effort. Some were injected with solutions of iodine and silver nitrate. (Caused side effects including various types of cancers.) Other methods included castration, injections, or invasive surgeries with no anesthesia.

Sterilization (cont.) Radiation became the fastest, most effective way to sterilize. People were brought into rooms and asked to fill out forms which only took a few minutes. In this time, the people were sterilized. Severe radiation burns occurred. They did this to develop and efficient way to keep the non-Aryan race from reproducing.

High Altitudes/Air Pressure At Dachau in 1942, doctors from the German Air Force and the German Experimental Institution tested patients responses to high altitudes to gain knowledge of the effects the German pilots could have because of ejecting themselves from planes at high altitudes. Air pressure chambers simulated altitudes of 66,000 feet.

Treatment of Disease At Dachau and Buchenwald, physicians injected subjects with a series of diseases such as malaria, typhus, TB, typhoid, and hepatitis and then tried to cure them. They were all diseases that German military personnel could have encountered in their work or on the battlefield. Almost all of the subjects tested died from the contagious diseases injected into their bodies.

Freezing Experiments Tried to simulate the conditions the military was facing on the eastern front Dr. Sigmund Rasher conducted the experiments at Birkenau, Dachau, and Auschwitz Put the victims in ice baths, or put them outside naked in sub zero temperatures

Freezing Cont. First, they measured how long it took to freeze the victims to death Second, they tested ways of resuscitating the victims These included extremely hot sun lamps, injecting boiling water into their organs, and giving them warm baths

Testing of Drugs Infected victims with malaria, then tested multiple drugs to find an immunization or treatment Most patients died either from the disease or from complications from the drugs Sulfonamide was tested as a cure for tetanus Tested at Dachau Concentration Camp

Transplantation Tested at Ravensbruck concentration camp Experiments done of the transplantation of nerves, bones, and muscle No anesthesia was used Also experimented with nerve, bone, and muscle regeneration